A Book of Magical Beasts
Encyclopedia
A Book of Magical Beasts is a 1970 anthology of 37 fairy tales and fantasy poems
from around the world that have been collected and presented, in other authors' versions, by Ruth Manning-Sanders
. Manning-Sanders thus serves as the editor of this volume, whereas in many other anthologies she is retelling the tales that she has collected.
This book was first published as The Hamish Hamilton Book of Magical Beasts in the Great Britain
in 1965, by Hamish Hamilton
.
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
from around the world that have been collected and presented, in other authors' versions, by Ruth Manning-Sanders
Ruth Manning-Sanders
Ruth Manning-Sanders was a prolific British poet and author who was perhaps best known for her series of children's books in which she collected and retold fairy tales from all over the world. All told, she published more than 90 books during her lifetime. The dust jacket for A Book of Giants...
. Manning-Sanders thus serves as the editor of this volume, whereas in many other anthologies she is retelling the tales that she has collected.
This book was first published as The Hamish Hamilton Book of Magical Beasts in the Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
in 1965, by Hamish Hamilton
Hamish Hamilton
Hamish Hamilton Limited was a British book publishing house, founded in 1931 eponymously by the half-Scot half-American Jamie Hamilton . Confusingly, Jamie Hamilton was often referred to as Hamish Hamilton...
.
Contents
- Introduction
- The Hedley KowThe Hedley Kow"The Hedley Kow" is an English fairy tale. It was collected by Joseph Jacobs in More English Fairy Tales in 1894.-Synopsis:A poor woman finds a pot on the road. She thinks it must have a hole for it to be discarded, but optimistically decides she might find a use for it as a flowerpot. Looking...
(Joseph JacobsJoseph JacobsJoseph Jacobs was a folklorist, literary critic and historian. His works included contributions to the Jewish Encyclopaedia, translations of European works, and critical editions of early English literature...
) - The Straw Ox (R.N. Bain)
- The Last of the Dragons (E. NesbitE. NesbitEdith Nesbit was an English author and poet whose children's works were published under the name of E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television...
) - The Audacious Kitten (Oliver HerfordOliver HerfordOliver Herford was a British-born American writer, artist and illustrator who has been called "The American Oscar Wilde". As a frequent contributor to The Mentor, Life, and Ladies' Home Journal, he sometimes signed his artwork as "O Herford". In 1906 he wrote and illustrated the "Little Book of...
) - Lord PeterLord Peter (fairy tale)Lord Peter or Squire Per is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Asbjørnsen and Moe.It is Aarne-Thompson type 545B.-Synopsis:A couple died, leaving their three sons a porridge-pot, a griddle, and a cat...
(G. W. DasentGeorge Webbe DasentSir George Webbe Dasent was a translator of folk tales and contributor to The Times.Dasent was born 22 May 1817 at St. Vincent, West Indies, the son of the attorney general, John Roche Dasent...
) - EuropaEuropa (mythology)In Greek mythology Europa was a Phoenician woman of high lineage, from whom the name of the continent Europe has ultimately been taken. The name Europa occurs in Hesiod's long list of daughters of primordial Oceanus and Tethys...
and the Bull (Anon) - The Fisherman's Son (Adolf Dirr)
- The Stone Monkey (H. A. GilesHerbert GilesHerbert Allen Giles was a British diplomat and sinologist, educated at Charterhouse. He modified a Mandarin Chinese Romanization system earlier established by Thomas Wade, resulting in the widely known Wade-Giles Chinese transliteration system...
) - The Tinder BoxThe Tinder Box"The Tinderbox" is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a soldier who acquires a magic tinderbox capable of summoning three powerful dogs to do his bidding. When the soldier has one of the dogs transport a sleeping princess to his room, he is sentenced to death but cunningly...
(Hans AndersenHans Christian AndersenHans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
) - Alison GrossAllison Gross"Allison Gross" is a traditional ballad, catalogued as Child Ballad #35. It tells the story of "the ugliest witch in the north country" who tries to persuade a man to become her lover and then punishes him by a transformation.-Synopsis:Allison Gross, a hideous witch, tries to bribe the narrator to...
(Anon) - The Serpent and the Peasant (Margery Wardrop)
- The Horny-goloch (Anon)
- DapplegrimDapplegrimDapplegrim is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in their Norske Folkeeventyr. Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book.-Synopsis:The youngest of twelve sons goes off to serve the king for a year...
(G. W. DasentGeorge Webbe DasentSir George Webbe Dasent was a translator of folk tales and contributor to The Times.Dasent was born 22 May 1817 at St. Vincent, West Indies, the son of the attorney general, John Roche Dasent...
) - The Derbyshire Ram (Anon)
- The Grateful Goat (W. H. D. RouseW. H. D. RouseWilliam Henry Denham Rouse was a pioneering British teacher who advocated the use of the Direct Method of teaching Latin and Greek.-Life:Born in Calcutta India on 31 May 1863...
) - Prince PrigioPrince PrigioPrince Prigio is a literary and comic, fairy tale written by Andrew Lang in 1889, and illustrated by Gordon Browne. It draws in Lang's folklorist background for many tropes. This story was republished by Little, Brown and Company in 1942, with illustrations by Robert Lawson, and by David R...
and the Firedrake (Andrew LangAndrew LangAndrew Lang was a Scots poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him.- Biography :Lang was born in Selkirk...
) - JabberwockyJabberwocky"Jabberwocky" is a nonsense verse poem written by Lewis Carroll in his 1872 novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, a sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...
(Lewis CarrollLewis CarrollCharles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
) - The Golden CrabThe Golden CrabThe Golden Crab is a Greek fairy tale collected as "Prinz Krebs" by Bernhard Schmidt in his Griechische Märchen, Sagen and Volkslieder. Andrew Lang included it in The Yellow Fairy Book.Georgios A...
(Bernhard Schmidt) - The Magic SwanThe Magic SwanThe Magic Swan is a European fairy tale collected by Hermann Kletke. Andrew Lang included it in The Green Fairy Book..-Synopsis:Two older brothers abused the youngest son. An old woman advised him to run away...
(H. Kletke) - The Lion and the Unicorn (Anon)
- The Story of the Stone Lion (Capt. W.F. O'Connor)
- The Tea-Kettle (Grace James)
- A Frog He Would A Wooing Go (Anon)
- The Frog (Leonora Alleyne)
- The Seven FoalsThe Seven FoalsThe Seven Foals is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe.The hero of the story is sometimes called, in an analogue to Cinderella, Cinder-lad.-Synopsis:...
(G. W. DasentGeorge Webbe DasentSir George Webbe Dasent was a translator of folk tales and contributor to The Times.Dasent was born 22 May 1817 at St. Vincent, West Indies, the son of the attorney general, John Roche Dasent...
) - The Strange White Beast (J.B.)
- The Husband of the Rat's DaughterThe Husband of the Rat's DaughterThe Husband of the Rat's Daughter is a Japanese fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Brown Fairy Book. It is Aarne-Thompson type 2031C, a chain tale or cumulative tale. Another story of this type is The Mouse Turned into a Maid.-Synopsis:...
(Leonora Alleyne) - The Friendly Animals (W. M. Petrovitch)
- Earl Mar's Daughter (Anon)
- The White BearWhite-Bear-King-ValemonWhite-Bear-King-Valemon is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by the artist August Schneider in 1870, after a peasant woman, Thore Aslaksdotter , in Setesdal. The tale was for the first time retold and published in Peter Christen Asbjørnsen's Norske Folke-Eventyr. Ny Samling...
(G. W. DasentGeorge Webbe DasentSir George Webbe Dasent was a translator of folk tales and contributor to The Times.Dasent was born 22 May 1817 at St. Vincent, West Indies, the son of the attorney general, John Roche Dasent...
) - Kempe OwyneKemp Owyne-Synopsis:The heroine is turned into a worm , usually by her stepmother, who curses her to remain so until the king's son comes to kiss her three times. When he arrives, she offers him a belt, a ring, and a sword to kiss her, promising the things would magically protect him; the third time, she...
(Anon) - Jack and his ComradesJack and his ComradesJack and his Comrades is an Irish fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs, listing as his source Patrick Kennedy's Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts.In the Aarne-Thompson categorisation system, it is "type 130", i.e. "outcast animals find a new home"....
(Joseph JacobsJoseph JacobsJoseph Jacobs was a folklorist, literary critic and historian. His works included contributions to the Jewish Encyclopaedia, translations of European works, and critical editions of early English literature...
) - The Lame Vixen (A. H. Wratislaw)
- The Kraken (Lord TennysonAlfred Tennyson, 1st Baron TennysonAlfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language....
) - DrakestailDrakestailDrakestail also known as Quackling is a French folk tale about a duck, where repetition forms most of the logic behind the plot. The story is also similar to other folk tales where the hero picks up several allies and uses them in the exact order found.The original version of Draksetail was told...
(Charles Morelles) - The Well of the World's EndThe Well of the World's EndThe Well of the World's End is an Anglo-Scottish Border fairy tale, recorded in the Scottish Lowlands, collected by Joseph Jacobs in English Fairy Tales. His source was The Complaynt of Scotland,and he notes the tale's similarity to the German Frog Prince...
(Joseph JacobsJoseph JacobsJoseph Jacobs was a folklorist, literary critic and historian. His works included contributions to the Jewish Encyclopaedia, translations of European works, and critical editions of early English literature...
) - Little Red Bird (Mona Douglas)
- Acknowledgments