Free summaries
Mythology, Legends & Folklore — page 9
413 public-domain mythology, legends & folklore books, summarised. Page 9 of 9.
Folk-Lore and Legends: Oriental
Charles John Tibbitts
The East offers a boundless treasury of folklore, where ancient legends and moral fables reveal the universal spirit of humanity through a lens of gorgeous, imaginative extravagance.
Legends of Vancouver
E. Pauline Johnson
The mountains and waters of the Pacific Coast hold echoes of an ancient world, preserved in the stories of those who walked these shores long before the city rose to meet them.
Told on the Pagoda: Tales of Burmah
Mimosa
This collection of traditional Burmese narratives offers a glimpse into a world where spirits dwell in trees, kings demand the impossible, and wit is the ultimate survival tool. It is a mosaic of folklore and courtly morality, capturing the intersection of human frailty and supernatural whimsy.
A Treasury of Eskimo Tales
Clara Kern Bayliss
This collection of folklore offers a rare, immersive window into the mythology and daily struggles of the Arctic, capturing the tension between harsh survival and the supernatural. It serves as a bridge to a world where the boundaries between human, animal, and spirit are perpetually porous.
Flemish Legends
Charles de Coster
These tales breathe the spirit of old Flanders, where the boundary between the earthly tavern and the supernatural realm is as thin as a tavern wall. They capture the boisterous resilience of a people forged in the crucible of history and folklore.
Artemis to Actaeon, and Other Verses
Edith Wharton
The human heart is a fragile vessel, forever balancing the pull of immortal longing against the relentless, common demands of a mortal life.
Pan-Worship, and Other Poems
Eleanor Farjeon
The ancient pulse of nature beats beneath the surface of the modern world, waiting for those who can still hear the echoes of a pagan past.
Aus meinem Königreich: Tales from the Carpathian Mountains
Carmen Sylva
In these lyrical tales, the rugged peaks of the Carpathians serve as a theater where ancient folklore and the harsh realities of history collide. They capture a vanishing world of mountain spirits, lost kingdoms, and the quiet resilience of the human spirit.
Strange Stories from the Lodge of Leisures
Songling Pu
These tales explore a world where the boundary between the living and the dead is as permeable as a garden gate, revealing the profound influence of the supernatural on the Chinese imagination.
Literary Fables of Yriarte
Tomás de Iriarte
<Image alt="Vintage book cover or illustration of Tomás de Iriarte's Literary Fables" caption="Literary Fables of Yriarte" src="imageagenttag1"/ Every fable carries a lesson, but these verses trade moral sermons for sharp literary critique, aiming their wit at the vanity, pedantry, and pretensions of the writing craft.
The Gold Horns
Adam Oehlenschläger
A pair of ancient golden relics re-emerges from the earth to test a nation's soul, only to vanish forever when met with idle greed.
The Nightingale, the Valkyrie and Raven, and Other Ballads
George Borrow
A captive bird sings in midnight shadow to reveal its true human form, while across Northern shores a raven tells a battle-maid of a young king’s bloody victories.
The Story of Yvashka with the Bear's Ear
George Borrow
A monstrously strong youth, cast out for his unintentional violence, bands together with fantastical companions to outsmart a subterranean demon and claim his rightful fortune.
The Kiltartan Poetry Book
Lady Gregory
A quiet revolution slumbers in these pages, where ancient Irish sagas, local laments, and country folk-songs find a shared, luminous voice.
Danish ballads
E. M. (Eleanor Mary) Smith-Dampier
The ghosts of ancient Denmark walk through these pages, preserved in the rhythmic, haunting cadence of a long-forgotten oral tradition. Here, the boundary between the living and the dead is as thin as a winter mist.
Indian Legends Retold
Elaine Goodale Eastman
A collection of ancestral stories passed down through generations, these tales bridge the divide between the seen world of human experience and the hidden, mysterious realm of the spirit.
From the Heart of Israel: Jewish Tales and Types
Bernard Drachman
These narratives preserve the vanished rhythms of Jewish life across Europe and the early American immigrant experience, blending sincere piety with the sharp ironies of human behavior. They offer a window into a world defined by tradition and the quiet dignity of the everyday.
In the Time That Was
James Frederic Thorne
This collection of Chilkat tribal legends preserves the oral history of an Alaskan people, capturing the voice of a traditional storyteller through the eyes of a traveler who finds kinship in the North. It is a bridge between two worlds, offering a window into the cosmology of a culture that defines its reality…
Historical Tales and Legends of the Highlands
Unknown
These collected narratives preserve the haunting echoes of the Scottish Highlands, where ancient superstitions and fierce clan rivalries define the boundaries between tragedy and enduring legend.
Legends of the North: The Guidman O' Inglismill and The Fairy Bride
Patrick Buchan
The perils of the pub are rarely as supernatural as they are for the Guidman o' Inglismill, whose tavern habits invite a visit from the fairy host.
My Dark Companions and Their Strange Stories
Henry M. (Henry Morton) Stanley
Gathered around flickering campfires during long, arduous expeditions across Central Africa, a group of travelers shares the folklore and legends of their homelands. These stories serve as a timeless archive of the human imagination, bridging the gap between the wild unknown and the familiar hearth.
Tales of Ind, and Other Poems
T. (Thottakadu) Ramakrishna Pillai
These verses bridge the gap between two worlds, weaving the rich tapestry of Indian folklore and history into the measured, rhythmic language of late Victorian English poetry. They offer a rare, intimate perspective on the enduring strength of the human spirit amidst famine, war, and the silent passage of time.
The Fairy Changeling and Other Poems
Dora Sigerson Shorter
The sorrow of the sea and the weight of unseen worlds haunt these pages, where the living and the dead reach for one another across the thinnest of veils.
'Round the yule-log: Christmas in Norway
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen
A young officer, confined to a gloomy city lodging by illness during his first Christmas away from home, finds his solitude transformed by the shared folklore of his landladies and their young guests.
The Trail of the Elk
Mikkjel Fønhus
An obsession born in the Norwegian wilderness binds a lonely hunter to a legendary beast, driving both through decades of pursuit toward a final, fateful reckoning.
Heroic Romances of Ireland, Translated into English Prose and Verse
Arthur Herbert Leahy
Through verse and prose, these early Irish tales capture a heroic world where chivalry, tragic love, and supernatural shadow collide.
The Piper: A Play in Four Acts
Josephine Preston Peabody
When a wandering player rids a medieval town of its plague of rats, the greedy burgesses refuse to pay him his thousand guilders—so he pipes their children away to a mountain hideout.
Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 3
James Athearn Jones
These gathered legends preserve the vanishing echoes of indigenous belief, weaving supernatural encounters and historical memory into a solemn tapestry of the American wilderness. They offer a window into an era where myth and landscape were inseparable.
The Story of the Other Wise Man
Henry Van Dyke
A devoted Parthian priest sacrifices his life's dream of presenting three precious jewels to the newborn Messiah, repeatedly delaying his quest to rescue the suffering and forgotten.