Stor e Telling: April May 2014: Storytelling World Awards

From the folktale Phakir Chand
Folk-tales of Bengal, 1912
Illustrated by Warwick Goble

This issue focused on the Storytelling World Awards.  I offer you some public domain folktales from around the globe to complement the theme.

Ancient Tales and Folk-lore of Japan by Richard Gordon Smith, 1918. A collection of “historical legends and folktales from Japan. Themes include ghosts; unrequited love across social boundaries; Shinto landscape, tree and ocean spirits; and tales driven by Bushido and Buddhist ethics.”
http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/atfj/index.htm

Yashpeh: International Folktale Collection
This impressive project is the brainchild of Israeli storyteller Yoel Perez; he has begun to add books, which are in the public domain, to his website. While many of the books are found on websites, such as archive.org or Project Gutenberg, he is adding something special, a searchable database. You can key in a specific word, or words, to help you find stories that match your needs, in a number of publications. This is an ongoing project so visit often!

http://folkmasa.org/yashpeh/yashpeh.htm

Legends and Stories of Italy for Children - Sixteen stories from this 1909 publication, along with beautiful illustrations.

http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=steedman&book=italy&story=_front

Silesian Folk Tales (the Book of Rübezahl) by James Lee and James Thomas Carey, 1915.In legends Rübezahl is a giant, gnome or mountain spirit. He is friendly with good people but if you ridicule him he will take his revenge. Sometimes he is the trickster in folktales.

https://archive.org/details/silesianfolktal01caregoog

Turkish Fairy Tales and Folktales – Collected by Ignacz Kunos and translated from the Hungarian by Nisbet Bain, 1901. While this book contains some of the same stories as the Turkish book above, there are a number of new tales as well.
http://sacred-texts.com/asia/ftft/index.htm

Wonder Garden: Nature Myths and Tales from all Over the World by Frances Jennings Alcott, 1919. Here are 150 nature myths and short stories, “tales of transformations of maidens into trees and fountains, of youths into flowers, and of men into birds.” Perfect for celebrating spring!
http://archive.org/stream/wondergardennatu00olcoiala/wondergardennatu00olcoiala_djvu.txt

April is National Frog Month so here are some tales to get you hopping! The Frog – Collected by Andrew Lang
http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/055.htm

The Frog and the Condor – Peru
http://www.storiestogrowby.com/stories/frog_condor_body.html

The Frog Princess - Italianhttp://www.frogsonice.com/froggy/tales/frogprincess1.shtml

How Frog Went to Heaven - Angola
http://www.aaronshep.com/stories/044.html

The Kind Stepdaughter and the Frog - Germany
http://tinyurl.com/mawshhe

The Tiger and the Frog - Tibethttp://www.sacred-texts.com/asia/tft/tft05.htm

The Tsarevna Frog- Russiahttp://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/ftr/chap01.htm

Storybug.net: It’s Not Easy Being Green – The link will lead you to a blog post I wrote in 2010 to celebrate National Frog Month. You will find more stories, curriculum plans, and crafts.
http://karenchace.blogspot.com/2010/04/its-not-easy-being-green-frog-tales.html

Miscellaneous Site 

Dramatists Guild Bill of Rights – Many storytellers are also budding playwrights. This site will help you navigate the professional waters: Artistic Integrity, Royalties, Billing Credit, Intellectual Property, etc. My thanks to Linda Goodman for sharing this site.

http://www.dramatistsguild.com/billofrights/

Karen Chace 2015 ©

This blog post was researched and compiled by Karen Chace. Permission for private use is granted. Distribution, either electronically or on paper is prohibited without my expressed written permission. For permission please contact me at storybug@aol.com. Of course, if you wish to link to my blog via your website, blog, newsletter, Facebook page or Twitter please feel free to do so; I greatly appreciate your support and personal integrity.