Folk Tales and Legends

Contents:

• How Gilgamesh Sought Immortality (Sumerian) 10
• The Death and Resurrection of Osiris (Egyptian) 19
• Daring Rama (Indian) 22
• How Prometheus Gave Men Fire (Greek) 28
• Daedalus, the Inventor and Icarus, his Son (Greek) 30
• How Theseus Slew Minotaur (Greek) 32
• The Adventurous Argonauts (Greek) 34
• Heroic Achilles (Greek) 46
• The Wanderings of Odysseus (Greek) 54
• The Founding of Rome (Roman) 66
• Sampo the Magic Mill (Finnish) 68
• Beowulf the Dragon Fighter (English) 78
• The Battle at the Palace of Mountain Ash Trees (Irish) 82
• The Beautiful Deirdre (Irish) 88
• How King Arthur Came to the Throne (English) 92
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (English) 96
• Sir Launcelot and the Knights of the Holy Grail (English) 100
• The Death of King Arthur (English) 106
• Siegfried and Beautiful Kriemhild (German) 110
• Kriemhild's Revenge (German) 118
• Old Man Tanzagan (Altai) 122
• Renaud and the Faithful Bayard (French) 126
• Brave Roland (French) 128
• Bertha with the Big Feet (French) 130
• The Valiant Cid Campeador (Spanish) 132
• The Mighty Maui (Maori) 144
• Nguranguran, the Son of a Crocodile (African) 150
• Heroic Ilya Muromets (Russian) 156
• The Faithful Love of Popocatepetl and Ishtla (Aztecs) 164
• Robin Hood (English) 166
• Kao Liang, the Saviour of Peking (Chinese) 174
• The Pied Piper of Hamelin (German) 176
• Prince Marko (Serbian) 178
• Nasreddin, the Practical Joker (Turkish) 184
• Doctor Faustus (German) 188
• Giant Golem (Czech) 194
• Narti Sosruko (Caucasus) 199
• The Wise Hiawatha (Iroquois) 206