Hans In Luck

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Folk Tales Every Child Should Know

by Hamilton Wright MABIE (1846 - 1916)

We have always loved stories. people have always entertained each other by telling tales around the campfire; traveling storytellers were huge crowd-pullers. Many of these stories were passed down through the generations, largely unchanged. "The stories made by the people, and told before evening fires, or in public places and at the gates of inns in the Orient, belong to the ages when books were few and knowledge limited, or to people whose fancy was not hampered by familiarity with or care for facts; they are the creations, as they were the amusement, of men and women who were children in knowledge, but were thinking deeply and often wisely of what life meant to them, and were eager to know and hear more about themselves, their fellows, and the world. In the earlier folk-stories one finds a childlike simplicity and readiness to believe in the marvellous; and these qualities are found also in the French peasant's version of the career of Napoleon. " (from the Introduction). - Summary by Lynne Thompson

Listen next episodes of Folk Tales Every Child Should Know:
Ananzi And The Lion , George With The Goat , Hans Who Made The Princess Laugh , Intelligence And Luck , Long, Broad And Sharpsight , The Badger's Money , The Dragon And The Prince , The Dun Horse , The Good Children , The Grateful Foxes , The Greedy Youngster , The Lad And The Deil , The Lad Who Went To The North Wind , The Origin Of Rubies , The Peasant Story Of Napoleon , The Story Of Tom Tit Tot , The Wonderful Hair , Why Brother Bear Has No Tail , Why The Sea Is Salt