In days gone by there was a land where the nights were always dark, and the sky spread over it like a black cloth, for there the moon never rose, and no star shone in the obscurity.

Two or three hundred years ago, when people were far from being so crafty and cunning as they are today, an extraordinary event took place in a little town. By some mischance one of the great owls, called horned owls, had come from the neighboring woods into the barn of one of the townsfolk...

"Where do you like best to feed your flocks?" said a man to an old cowherd.

"Here, sir, where the grass is neither too rich nor too poor, or else it is no use."

The fishes had for a long time been discontented because no order prevailed in their kingdom.

In former days every sound still had its meaning and application.

There was once a tailor, who was a quarrelsome fellow, and his wife, who was good, industrious, and pious, never could please him.

A poor lumberjack lived with his wife and three daughters in a little hut on the edge of a lonely forest. One morning as he was about to go to his work, he said to his wife, "Let my dinner be brought into the forest to me by my eldest daughter..."

Lean Lisa was of a very different way of thinking from Lazy Harry and Fat Trina, who never let anything disturb their peace.

Once upon a time a poor pious peasant died, and arrived before the gate of heaven. At the same time a very rich, rich lord came there who also wanted to get into heaven.

There was once a man and a woman who had an only child, and lived quite alone in a solitary valley. It came to pass that the mother once went into the woods to gather branches of fir, and took with her little Hans, who was just two years old.