Looking for medieval folklore and fairy tales?

Question

I am looking for medieval folklore and fairy tales, names of books containing them would be good however if you know where I can find them it would also helps.

P.S. I am looking for stories from the time period and not just the place (i.e. europe), any country or land is good. Thanks.

Thanks.

Answer 1

check out this website:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/index.htm

look in the column on the left hand side of the page for your subject area. unfortunately it is not organized according to specific time periods, but a lot of the stories here date back to the medieval period and you can probably figure it out.

you probably want to spend the most time looking under the celtic, england, and legends/sagas headings.

Answer 2

Check out Andrew Lang's "Coloured" Fairy Books. They are part of a twelve-book series of fairy tale collections. Although Andrew Lang did not collect the stories himself from the oral tradition, the extent of his sources (who had collected them originally), made them an immensely influential collection, especially as he used foreign-language sources, giving many of these tales their first appearance in English. As acknowledged in the prefaces, although Lang himself made most of the selections, his wife and other translators did a large portion of the translating and telling of the actual stories.

Many of them were illustrated by Henry J. Ford. Lancelot Speed also did some illustrations.

Blue Fairy Book (1889)
Red Fairy Book (1890)
Green Fairy Book (1892)
Yellow Fairy Book (1894)
Pink Fairy Book (1897)
Grey Fairy Book (1900)
Violet Fairy Book(1901)
Crimson Fairy Book (1903)
Brown Fairy Book (1904)
Orange Fairy Book (1906)
Olive Fairy Book (1907)
Lilac Fairy Book (1910)

Answer 3

My first recommendation is actually a faery tale but it's set in the Victorian Era. It is, however, a truly excellent faery tale. It's by Neil Gaiman: Stardust.

For your first concern, I think "Medieval Folklore: A Guide to Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs, and Customs" would be a good choice. It's quite concise and and has good content variety.

And here may be a useful link for the faery tales. I know a book is deliciously romantic but consider the convenience of visiting a website such as this:
http://childrensbooks.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=childrensbooks&cdn=parenting&tm=42&f=10&su=p284.7.420.ip_p284.5.420.ip_&tt=2&bt=1&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www-2.cs.cmu.edu/%7Espok/grimmtmp/

And just so you have other options, please do visit this link as it has the kinds of books you're looking for:
site:http://faerymists.tripod.com/fybooks/books3.htm

happy hunting!

Answer 4

King Cole of Colechester,(sp) England.
was a merry ole soul......
i didn't realize until researching our family genealogy that he was a real king..not just a nursery rhythm.
my great grandmother was direct descendant of .
There is a great historical story regarding his daughter Helena, and who she married and their child..