The Snow Queen

Once upon a time a magician made a magic mirror. In this mirror, a kind face became wicked, a look of hate was reflected as a look of love. One day, however, the mirror broke, and if a sliver of glass from the mirror entered someone's eye, that person's soul became evil, if another pierced a heart, that heart grew hard and cold as ice. In...

Read More

Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves

Once upon a time . . . in a distant Persian city lived two brothers called Ali Baba and Kasim. Ali Baba was terribly poor, and he lived with his wife in a mud hut. He picked up sticks in the woods and sold them in bundles at the market. Kasim, however, had a rich wife, and he lived in a big fine house and sold carpets. He became richer...

Read More

The Red Dragon

Once there was a time, thousands of years ago, when animals were not the same as they are now. Except for a few like the lion, the tiger and the butterflies, they all looked alike. All were more or less the same height, everyone had four legs and it wasn't easy to tell which was which, even though the elephant did weigh more than the hyena, and...

Read More

The Book Of Spells

Once upon a time... in the middle of a forest round whose edges lay scattered some peasants cottages, an ogre used to live. He was big, cruel and heartless, but he liked his house be tidy. So he said to himself, "I'm always out hunting, fishing and causing trouble. I need somebody to look after the house, clean the floors, wash the plates and...

Read More

The Mouse And The Lion

Once upon a time . . . a little mouse, scampering over a lion he had chanced upon, happened to wake him up. The angry lion grabbed the mouse and held it to his jaws. "Don't eat me, Your Majesty!" the mouse pleaded: "Forgive me! If you let me go, I'll never bother you again. I'll always be grateful, and will do you a good turn one day." The...

Read More

The Hare And The Tortoise

Once upon a time .... there was a hare who, boasting how he could run faster than anyone else, was forever teasing tortoise for its slowness. Then one day, the irate tortoise answered back: "Who do you think you are? There's no denying you're swift, but even you can be beaten!" The hare squealed with laughter. "Beaten in a race? By whom?...

Read More

The Adventures Of Aladdin

Once upon a time . . . a widow had an only son whose name was Aladdin. They were very poor and lived from hand to mouth, though Aladdin did what he could to earn some pennies, by picking bananas in faraway places. One day, as he was looking for wild figs in a grove some way from the town, Aladdin met a mysterious stranger. This smartly...

Read More

Snow White

Once upon a time in the middle of winter, when the flakes of snow were falling like feathers from the sky, a queen sat at a window sewing, and the frame of the window was made of black ebony. And whilst she was sewing and looking out of the window at the snow, she pricked her finger with the needle, and three drops of blood ...

Read More

Cinderella

The wife of a rich man fell sick, and as she felt that her end was drawing near, she called her only daughter to her bedside and said, "Dear child, be good and pious, and then the good God will always protect you, and I will look down on you from heaven and be near you." Thereupon she closed her eyes and departed. Every day...

Read More

The Wolf And The Crane

Once upon a time . . . a wolf well known for his ferocity received his punishment for being greedy. As he was devouring a lamb, a tiny sharp bone stuck in his throat. And from that day on, he could swallow nothing except sips of water, which neither soothed the pain nor appeased his hunger. Though he tried every remedy he knew, he was unable...

Read More

The Wise Little Girl

Once upon a time . . . in the immense Russian steppe, lay a little village where nearly all the inhabitants bred horses. It was the month of October, when a big livestock market was held yearly in the main town. Two brothers, one rich and the other one poor, set off for market. The rich man rode a stallion, and the poor brother a young mare. At...

Read More