An excursion in Philosophy, History, Economics, Mythology, and other Subjects

Origins and setting “The Fisherman and His Wife” is a German wonder tale from the north coast, told in the rolling cadences of Low German and preserved in English as a parable of insatiable wishing. Its dramatis personae are few and sharp: a poor fisherman, his ambitious wife Ilsebill, and a talking flounder—an enchanted prince—who…

Origins “The Boy Who Went to Learn Fear” (German: Märchen von einem, der auszog, das Fürchten zu lernen) is one of the Brothers Grimm’s best-known wonder tales, catalogued as ATU 326 (“The Youth Who Wanted to Learn What Fear Is”). It likely draws on older Germanic and Central-European motifs about haunted inns, gallows hills, and…

Origins and setting “The Town Musicians of Bremen” (Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten) is a German wonder tale best known from the Brothers Grimm (early nineteenth century). It is brisk and comic, yet edged with truth: four farm animals, each cast off in old age—a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a cock—refuse to be disposed of…

Origins and setting “East of the Sun and West of the Moon” is one of the best-loved Norwegian wonder tales recorded by Asbjørnsen and Moe in the nineteenth century. It bears the bone-structure of “Beauty and the Beast,” but with northern light and iron in it: a White Bear who is a prince by night;…

Origins and setting “The Master Maid” (Mestermøya) is a Norwegian wonder tale gathered in the nineteenth century. It belongs to the “clever bride” cycle: a prince enters the service of a man-eating giant who sets impossible tasks; a captive maiden—so skilful that even trolls mutter her name with respect—secretly helps him; together they flee, throwing…

Origins and setting This Norwegian wonder tale—told in the valleys and fjords and written down in the nineteenth century—belongs to the ancient motif of the external soul: a monster who hides his life outside his flesh so that no sword can kill him. Its cast is brisk: a king with seven sons; six elder princes…

Origins and setting “Three Billy Goats Gruff” (Norwegian: De tre bukkene Bruse) is a classic Scandinavian wonder tale most widely known from nineteenth-century Norway, where it was told about goats driven up from valley pastures to the summer meadows. Its dramatis personae are elemental: three goat brothers—Little, Middle, and Big Billy Goat Gruff—and a troll…

Origins and setting “The Princess and the Pea” is a brief, gleaming literary wonder tale by the Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen (1835). Though tiny in compass, it distils an entire courtly romance into a single night’s test: a pea, a stack of mattresses and featherbeds, and a claimant whose sensibility is proof of royal…

Origins and setting Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” (Snedronningen) first appeared in 1844. Unusually for a wonder tale, it unfolds in seven stories, a chambered journey from hearth to ice and back again, following the children Gerda and Kay (often “Kai”) as love and loyalty contend with the glittering chill of cleverness without warmth.…

Origins and setting Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” (1837) is a Danish wonder tale that swims between romance and theology. Beneath the sea in a crystal palace lives a Sea-King, his wise mother, and six mer-princesses; above is a mortal world with the promise (and peril) of an immortal soul. The tale’s stations are…

Origins and setting “The Red Shoes” (De røde Skoe) is a nineteenth-century Danish wonder tale by Hans Christian Andersen that travelled swiftly into English nursery rooms. It is a moral romance about vanity and grace: a poor girl named Karen, a rich old lady who adopts her, a pair of bright red shoes that are…

Origins and setting This is one of the best-loved Russian wonder tales, recorded in the nineteenth century and told across the Slavic world. It sets the gentle steadfastness of Vasilisa against the fearsome wisdom of Baba Yaga, the witch who rides in a mortar, fences her yard with bones, and lives in a hut that…

Origins and setting “The Firebird and the Grey Wolf” is a celebrated East Slavic wonder tale, most familiar in Russian collections and often grouped with ATU 550: The Quest for the Golden Bird. Its imagery is unmistakable: a glowing Firebird that steals golden apples from a Tsar’s garden; a Grey Wolf, both terrifying and tender,…

Origins and setting “The Frog Princess” (Tsarevna Lyagushka) is a classic Russian wonder tale, widely told across the East Slavic world. It blends two powerful folktale strands: the animal-bride who is secretly an enchanted wise woman, and the youngest prince’s quest through the “thrice-nine lands” to win her back. Its set pieces are famous: the…

Origins and setting The tale of Koschei the Deathless (Кощей Бессмертный) is one of the most famous wonder tales of Russia and the East Slavic world. Koschei is a figure both grotesque and fearsome: gaunt as bone, ravenous for gold and for women, and yet impossible to kill by ordinary means. His “death” is hidden…

Origins and setting “Morozko”—also known as Father Frost—is a beloved East Slavic wonder tale, most often told in Russia and Belarus, within the international tale-type ATU 480: Kind and Unkind Girls. Its figures are archetypal and few: a sweet-natured stepdaughter, a jealous stepmother, a weak but sorrowing father, and Morozko, winter personified—crisp, crackling, and just.…

Origins and setting “Jack and the Beanstalk” is an English wonder tale from the family of “boy-thief vs. ogre/giant” adventures. Its core has remained steady since the early nineteenth century: a poor widow’s son trades the family cow for magic beans, climbs a beanstalk into the clouds, and outwits a flesh-eating giant (often called an…

Origins and setting “Tom Tit Tot” is an English wonder tale from East Anglia (often Suffolk), kin to the broader European family of “name-of-the-helper” stories, of which “Rumpelstiltskin” is the best known. In this local telling the flavour is entirely English: rush-light kitchens, pie-crusts on the sill, spinning-wheels humming, and a goblin with a name…

Origins and setting “Mr Fox” is an English wonder tale from the Bluebeard/Robber Bridegroom story family (often grouped under ATU 955). It keeps the grim kernel of those tales—an elegant suitor with a hidden house and a murderous secret—but is remembered above all for two ringing formulas: the carved warning “Be bold, be bold… but…

Origins and setting “Cap o’ Rushes” is an English wonder tale most often told in East Anglia and the Fens, where reeds and rushes rim the meres and rivers. It belongs to two well-loved story families: the “As meat loves salt” testing-of-love tales and the “Disguised heroine” cycle (a cousin to “Catskin” and “Cinderella”). Its…