Preface

Preface

The tales in the Grey Fairy Book are derived from many countries—Lithuania, various parts of Africa, Germany, France, Greece, and other regions of the world. They have been translated and adapted by Mrs. Dent, Mrs. Lang, Miss Eleanor Sellar, Miss Blackley, and Miss hang. ‘The Three Sons of Hali’ is from the last century ‘Cabinet des Fees,’ a very large collection. The French author may have had some Oriental original before him in parts; at all events he copied the Eastern method of putting tale within tale, like the Eastern balls of carved ivory. The stories, as usual, illustrate the method of popular fiction. A certain number of incidents are shaken into many varying combinations, like the fragments of coloured glass in the kaleidoscope. Probably the possible combinations, like possible musical combinations, are not unlimited in number, but children may be less sensitive in the matter of fairies than Mr. John Stuart Mill was as regards music.

CONTENTS

Preface

Donkey Skin

The Goblin Pony

An Impossible Enchantment

The Story Of Dschemil and Dschemila

Janni and the Draken

The Partnership of the Thief and the Liar.

Fortunatus and His Purse

The Goat-faced Girl

What Came of Picking Flowers

The Story of Bensurdatu

The Magician’s Horse

The Little Gray Man

Herr Lazarus and the Draken

The Story of the Queen of the Flowery Isles

Udea and Her Seven Brothers

The White Wolf

Mohammed with the Magic Finger

Bobino

The Dog and the Sparrow

The Story of the Three Sons of Hali

The Story of the Fair Circassians

The Jackal and the Spring

The Bear

The Sunchild

The Daughter Of Buk Ettemsuch

Laughing Eye and Weeping Eye, or the Limping Fox

The Unlooked-for Prince

The Simpleton

The Street Musicians

The Twin Brothers

Cannetella

The Ogre

A Fairy’s Blunder

Long, Broad, and Quickeye

Prunella