Tales of Folk and Fairies

Fourteen folk and fairy stories, gathered from around the world and retold for young readers, make up this 1919 collection. Katharine Pyle opens with Ashipattle, the ash-sitting youngest son who sails out to kill the monstrous Stoorworm off the Scottish coast, then ranges to a Serbian girl who answers every riddle her king sets her, the Russian frog princess, two Persian tales of magic carpets and silver citrons, a Norse magic pipe, and stories carried from Louisiana, Bengal, and the Cossack lands. Ali Cogia arrives straight from the Arabian Nights. Pyle keeps the plain spoken cadence of a storyteller working aloud, and she drew the six plates herself. The result shows how American editors of the period handed children the shared stock of world folklore.