In distant ages of ice and stone, when the long, high glaciers of Norway poked their cold noses into Friesland, the shrine of Stavo the storm-god stood, in the city of Stavoren. These were poor times for the people of Stavoren. But many pilgrims came to worship at Stavo’s alters and new religion entered the land, and in time trade paths opened, to the warm lands of the south. Ships sailed out and brought back wealth, and a great, prosperous city sprang up to which the counts of Holland granted privileges, second to none. And the city glistened on the banks of the Zuider Zee for quite some time - but not forever.

One day a poor man tied his horse at noon hour to a tree and he sat down to eat his meal. A rich man came along and started to tie his horse to the same tree.

A  Folktale from Korea - Yun Ok and her husband lived in the country of Korea, where much of the land was used to cultivate rice. The rice paddies stretched in long, curving, bands from behind their neighboring villages like ribbons in multiple shades of green and gold, to where they reached to the base of the mountains beyond them.

A story goes that in the ancient days of Ethiopia, the young boy Arha made his way out of the fertile country of Guraghe to find employment in the city of Addis Ababa.

Mio Strand is in the Province of Suruga. Its sand is yellow and fine, strewn with rose shells at the ebb tide. Its pine trees are ancient and they lean all one way, which is the way that the wild wind wills. Before Mio rolls the deep sea, and behind Mio rises Fuji, the most sacred, the mountain of mountains. Small marvel that the Strange People should come to Mio.

The story you are about you are about to hear comes to us from the First Nations people of Canada. In the culture of these indigenous peoples, written language was not used to record history.Instead, they relied on strong oral tradition to pass on their histories, which became even more important when over 150 years ago, other nationalities arrived and began to settle in North America, forcibly displacing them from their lands.

The Nordic Island country of Iceland rises up from the waters where the North Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean meet.   It is a land shaped by the forces of nature, abundant with volcanoes, lava fields, waterfalls, fjords and glaciers, and rivers flowing through the lowlands to the sea. Because it sits so close to […]

Today’s story is a retelling of one of the many ancient Jataka Tales of Buddhist literature, dating back to the 4th century.  FINDING A NEW SPRING A tale of perseverance. In a far off land of a long ago past, there lived a prosperous Tradesman who traveled from country to country to sell his goods. […]

The story today was written in China in 421 CE, during a time of political instability and national disunity. The author, Tao Yuan Ming, was thought to be the greatest poet during the centuries between the Han and Tang dynasties, known as the Six Dynasties period.

Today’s story is a  re-telling of a 3rd century Jataka Tale. Also known as the “Birth-stories”, the Jatakas form one of the sacred books of the Buddhists, and tell wisdom stories of the Buddha in his many reincarnations. Today's tale is called The Banyan Deer.