Fairy Tales and Folklore

[Tuckles]

Hey guys.

I've recently taken an interest in Slavic folk tales (Baba Yaga, Price Ivan, Old Man Winter and the like) thanks to the book "Enchantment" by Orson Scott Card, but I can't find a good (cheap) book about them (akin to "Mythology" by Edith Hamilton for Greek and Norse myth).

Anyway, anybody else interested in folk tales? How about sharing some from your country?

 

[Familyguy1]

Id still have to say The Grimm fairytales are my favs. Especially fairy tales that arent all disneyesque nowadays

 

[Dryvus]

(Chorus)
Heave, hi, heave hi ho, the best man in Ottawa was Mufferaw Joe!
Mufferaw Joe.
Big Joe Mufferaw paddled into Matawa, all the way from Ottawa in just one day
Hey, hey
On the river Ottawa, the best man we ever saw was Big Joe Mufferaw, the old folks say
Well, a-listen and I'll tell you what the old folks say.

They say Old Joe had a pet bullfrog, bigger than a horse and barked like a dog
And the only thing faster than a train on a track was Big Joe riding on the bullfrog's back
(Chorus)
They say Big Joe used to get real wet, from cutting down timber and workin' up a sweat
And everyone'll tell you 'round Carleton Place that the Mississippi dripped of of Big Joe's face.
(Chorus)
Now Joe had to portage from Gatineau down to see a little girl he had in Kemptville town.
He was back and forth so many times to see that gal that the path he wore became the Rideau Canal.
(Chorus)
They say Big Joe put out a forest fire, halfway between Renfrew (my hometown) and old Arnprior
He was fifty miles away, down around Smith's Falls, but he drownded out the fire with five spitballs.
(Chorus)
Well he jumped in the Calabogie Lake real fast, and swam both ways to catch a cross-eyed bass.
But he threw it on the ground, and said "I can't eat that," so he covered it over with Mount St. Pat.
(Chorus)
They say Big Joe drank a bucket of gin, and beat the livin' tar out of twenty-nine men
And high on the ceiling of a Pembroke club, there's twenty-nine bootmarks, and they're signed "With Love"
(Chorus)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqnqutswKLU

You have to do the whooping and yipping at the end of "Joe" and "say" or you're not doing it right.

 

[Radalan]

I've always been interested of Fairytales and folklore.

Besides Nixes, gnomes, trolls and witches that's about the only folklore I'm familiar with in my own country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiisi

Edit:

Not the english gnomes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haltija

 

[hairfree]

Here's something for you, Tuckles.

Not strictly from my country, but most of these are told as native folktales here as well, for some reason. It's just the Balkanians' way of doing things, I guess.

 

[Archonsod]

The Lambton Worm

Fairly fascinating theory as to where it springs from. There's a lot of similar myths around the North East and borders area which all tend to involve something devouring livestock, so it's thought to arise from some form of rebellion by the local nobility against an agricultural tithe.

Other interesting note is the worm wrapping it's tail around Penshaw hill - the hill was an old iron age fortification, so it's probably an allusion to the distinctive concentric depressions which wind their way up the hill.

 

[Jock]

In Estonia, old folk tales often tell about the "kratt". A magical "thing/creature" that did all the work for the poor farmer.

You had to tie two brooms together to create the body, then add the head and legs. Then one had to go to the crossing point of four (3?) roads and call the "Old Devil" out. Then give the Devil three drops of your blood and that should've made the kratt alive. Some tales tell about people giving the Devil chicken or rooster's blood instead of their own.
Anyway, the kratt then started bringing huge fortune together, till the person either somehow manages to give it an impossible mission (e.g - make a sand rope), the Devil claims the person's soul or the person just dies in his own wealth or by the hand of some jealous person.

 

[Merlkir]

Here's something for you, Tuckles.

Not strictly from my country, but most of these are told as native folktales here as well, for some reason. It's just the Balkanians' way of doing things, I guess.

hm! Interesting collection. Not sure how the translation is, but I'm glad to see some Bohemian tales there too.