World Tales, subtitled "The Extraordinary Coincidence of Stories Told in All Times, in All Places" is a book of 65 folk tales

Fairy tale

A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...

 collected by Idries Shah

Idries Shah

Idries Shah , also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el-Hashimi , was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition who wrote over three dozen critically acclaimed books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies.Born in India, the descendant of a...

 from around the world, mostly from literary sources. Some of the tales are very current, others are less well known.

Content

Each story is preceded by a short introduction by the author, giving a brief history of the tale's literary mutations, or remarking on the strange similarities that versions exhibit across great geographical or historical distances. The collection has had a broad appeal and has become a widely used sourcebook of tales. Whilst Shah mentions many of the ancient and modern interpretations that have been placed on the tales, along with some of the theories of cross-cultural transmission, he himself interprets them little, writing in the introduction:

The value that Shah put on folklore of this kind is clear, not only from the many volumes of tales that he published but also from books published by his children. The title alone of one of his daughter Saira Shah

Saira Shah

Saira Shah is an author, reporter and documentary filmmaker. She produces, writes and narrates current affairs films.- Life and work :...

's books, The Storyteller's Daughter, gives some indication, while his son Tahir Shah

Tahir Shah

Tahir Shah , né Sayyid Tahir al-Hashimi is an Anglo-Afghan Indian author, journalist and documentary maker. He lives in Casablanca, Morocco.-Family origins and life:...

's book In Arabian Nights

In Arabian Nights

In Arabian Nights is a travel book by Anglo-Afghan author Tahir Shah illustrated by Laetitia Bermejo...

, itself an exploration of the power of the folktale, recalls:

Original illustrated edition

The book was first published in large format by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich with each tale illustrated. Thirty seven artists contributed. This edition is no longer in print; the Octagon Press edition is text only.

Agnes Perkins, writing in the Children's Literature Association Quarterly

Children's Literature Association Quarterly

Children’s Literature Association Quarterly is a quarterly academic journal established in 1975 and an official publication of the Children's Literature Association. It is published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. The journal promotes a scholarly approach to the study of children’s...

 cited this "lavish" edition of World Tales as an example of books that bridge the gap between illustrated books of folktales published for the juvenile market which pay little attention to sources or to authenticity of tone and language and which supply none of the working tools developed for folklore scholarship which might lead readers to further study of tales from the oral tradition, and collections by folklorists concerned primarily with local variants and the unusual persistance of motifs which ignore questions of the value of the stories from a literary standpoint.

Examples of stories

Title	Origin	The tale	Illustrator in large format edition
Tales of a Parrot	India	From Parrot Tales (the Persian Tutinama Tutinama Tutinama, literal meaning "Tales of a Parrot", is a 14th-century Persian series of 52 stories. An illustrated version containing 250 miniature paintings was commissioned by the Mughal Emperor, Akbar in the later part of the 16th century... by Nakhshabi Nakhshabi Ziya' al-Din Nakhshabi was an 14th-century Persian physician and Sufi living in India. He died in 1350.According to a statement in a manuscript now at The National Library of Medicine, Nakhshabi himself transcribed and illustrated a Persian translation made of a Hindi version of a Sanskrit treatise... ), split into three linked tales. Shah's version is taken from an oral narrative collected by the great Italian folklorist Giuseppe Pitrè Giuseppe Pitrè Giuseppe Pitrè , the great Italian folklorist was also a medical doctor, professor, and senator in Sicily. As a folklorist he is credited with extending the realm of folklore to include all the manifestations of popular life. He was also a forerunner in the field of medical historyPitrè was born in... , though the telling seems to link to a Sanskrit Sanskrit Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...  source, the Śukasaptati.	Sue Porter
Dick Whittington	England	The familiar pantomime story of Richard Whittington Richard Whittington Sir Richard Whittington was a medieval merchant and politician, and the real-life inspiration for the pantomime character Dick Whittington. Sir Richard Whittington was four times Lord Mayor of London, a Member of Parliament and a sheriff of London...	Ken Laidlaw
Don’t Count Your Chickens	Spain	The fable behind the proverb	James Marsh James Marsh (artist) James Marsh is an English visual artist, illustrator, Designer & Author with a 'National Diploma in Design' amongst other qualifications. He has worked in all areas of the media, from Advertising, Publishing to Editorial commissions...
The Hawk and the Nightingale The Hawk and the Nightingale The fable of The Hawk and the Nightingale is one of the earliest recorded in Greek and there have been many variations on the story since Classical times. The original version is numbered 4 in the Perry Index and the later Aesop version, sometimes going under the title "The Hawk, the Nightingale...	Greece	Recorded by Hesiod Hesiod Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...  in his Works and Days Works and Days Works and Days is a didactic poem of some 800 verses written by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod around 700 BC. At its center, the Works and Days is a farmer's almanac in which Hesiod instructs his brother Perses in the agricultural arts... . Regarded by many as the earliest fable attributable to a literary work; number 4 in the Perry Index Perry Index The Perry Index is a widely-used index of "Aesop's Fables" or "Aesopica", the fables credited to Aesop, the story-teller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC... .	Ray Winder
Cecino the Tiny	Tuscany	A variant of Tom Thumb Tom Thumb Tom Thumb is a character of English folklore. The History of Tom Thumb was published in 1621, and has the distinction of being the first fairy tale printed in English. Tom is no bigger than his father's thumb, and his adventures include being swallowed by a cow, tangling with giants, and becoming a...	Chris McEwen
Her Lover's Heart	India	The ancient story of Raja Rasulu.	David O'Connor
The New Hand	USA	Similar to the Brothers Grimm's The Old Man Made Young Again and to unofficial legends of Jesus Jesus Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...  current in Palestine Palestine Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.... , this one takes place in Alabama.	Mai Watts
The Mastermaid The Master Maid The Master Maid is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in their Norske Folkeeventyr. "Master" indicates "superior, skilled." Jørgen Moe wrote the tale down from the storyteller Anne Godlid in Seljord on a short visit in the autumn of 1842.It is...	Norway	From Norwegian Folktales collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen Peter Christen Asbjørnsen Peter Christen Asbjørnsen was a Norwegian writer and scholar. He and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe were collectors of Norwegian folklore...  and Jørgen Moe Jørgen Moe right|thumb|Norske Folkeeventyr Asbjørnsen and Moe Jørgen Engebretsen Moe was a Norwegian bishop and author... , translated by George Webbe Dasent George Webbe Dasent Sir 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... .	Peter Richardson

List of Stories

• Tales of a Parrot
• Dick Whittington
• Don't Count Your chickens
• The Hawk and the Nightingale
• Cenino the Tiny
• Her Lover's Heart
• The New Hand
• The Mastermaid
  The Master Maid
  The Master Maid is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in their Norske Folkeeventyr. "Master" indicates "superior, skilled." Jørgen Moe wrote the tale down from the storyteller Anne Godlid in Seljord on a short visit in the autumn of 1842.It is...
  
  
• The Hermit
• The Maiden Wiser than the Tsar
• The Travelling Companion
• The Riddles
• The Grateful Animals and the Ungrateful Man
• The Value of a Treasure Hoard
• Patient Griselda
• How Evil Produces Evil
• The Ghoul and the Youth of Ispahan
• The Pilgrim from Paradise
• The Blind Ones & the Mater of the Elephant
  Blind Men and an Elephant
  The story of the blind men and an elephant originated in India from where it is widely diffused. It has been used to illustrate a range of truths and fallacies...
  
  
• Anpu and Bata
  Tale of Two Brothers
  The Tale of Two Brothers is an ancient Egyptian story that dates from the reign of Seti II, who ruled from 1200 to 1194 BC during the 19th Dynasty of the New Kingdom. The story is preserved on the Papyrus D'Orbiney, which is currently preserved in the British Museum. The British Museum dates the...
  
  
• God Is Stronger
• The Happiest Man in the World
• The Gorgon's Head
  Perseus
  Perseus ,Perseos and Perseas are not used in English. the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty of Danaans there, was the first of the mythic heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits in defeating various archaic monsters provided the founding myths of the Twelve Olympians...
  
  
• The Brahmin's Wife and the Mongoose
• The Magic Bag
• Catherine's Fate
• The Desolate Island
• Gazelle Horn
• Tom Tit Tot
• The Silent Couple
• Childe Rowland
  Childe Rowland
  "Childe Rowland" is a fairy tale, the most popular version being by Joseph Jacobs in his English Folk and Fairy Tales, published in 1892, and written partly in verse and part in prose.-Synopsis:...
  
  
• The Tale of Mushkil Gusha
• The Food of Paradise
• The Lamb with the Golden Fleece
• The Man with the Wen
• The Skilful Brothers
• The Algonquin Cinderella
• The Kindly Ghost
• The Ass in Panther Skin
  The Ass in the Lion's Skin
  The Ass in the Lion's Skin is one of Aesop's Fables . There are also several Eastern variants and the story's interpretation varies accordingly.-The Fable:...
  
  
• The Water of Life
  The Water of Life (German fairy tale)
  The Water of Life is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 97.It is Aarne-Thompson type 551.John Francis Campbell noted it as a parallel of the Scottish fairy tale, The Brown Bear of the Green Glen.-Synopsis:...
  
  
• The Serpent
• The Wonderful Lamp
  Aladdin
  Aladdin is a Middle Eastern folk tale. It is one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights , and one of the most famous, although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine Galland ....
  
  
• Who Was the Most Generous?
• Cupid and Psyche
  Cupid and Psyche
  Cupid and Psyche , is a legend that first appeared as a digressionary story told by an old woman in Lucius Apuleius' novel, The Golden Ass, written in the 2nd century CE. Apuleius likely used an earlier tale as the basis for his story, modifying it to suit the thematic needs of his novel.It has...
  
  
• The Royal Detectives
• Conflict of the Magicians
• False Witnesses
• The Cobbler who Became an Astrologer
• The Two Travellers
• The Fisherman and His Wife
  The Fisherman and His Wife
  The Fisherman and His Wife is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale no. 19. It is Aarne-Thompson type 555, the fisherman and his wife. Its theme was used in The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish, a 1835 poem by Aleksandr Pushkin. Mrs Ramsey reads the story to James, her son in...
  
  
• Impossible Judgement
• Hudden and Dudden and Donald O'Neary
• Riquet with the Tuft
• The Lost Camel
• The Beggar and the Gazelle
• The Apple on the Boy's Head
• The Boots of Hunain
• The Three Caskets
• The Land Where Time Stood Still
• The Man Turned into a Mule
• The Fox and the Hedgehog
• The Bird Maiden
• The Slowest May Win the Race
• The Three Imposters
• Occasion

External links

• Octagon Press "look inside" showing author's introduction, contents page and first story, Parrot Tales
• Page at www.idriesshah.org on World Tales