Buying a Dream

Six chiefs rule a single village, and the eldest holds the rest in fear. One night he sets them a strange challenge: dream, and he will buy the finest dream for a high price. But it is the youngest chief — the one who wants nothing from him — who finds himself in real danger when his turn comes, and who discovers that the smallest, humblest things can carry the greatest power.

A traditional tale from the Ainu people of northern Japan.

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 The World Story Bank is an initiative of the Scheherazade Foundation, gathering the folktales of the world, protecting them, and rewilding them back into modern culture. To hear more and support our work, visit https://www.sf.charity/world-story-bank

The Mystic Garden

A just king sends three young men of royal blood out into the world to earn their station, and their voyage brings them to an island garden of extraordinary beauty — where they are welcomed, but given three curious warnings. Each youth finds something different to love among the fruit, the treasures and the order of the place. And when the summons comes to leave, what each chose to do there turns out to have decided everything.

A traditional tale from the Jewish tradition.

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 The World Story Bank is an initiative of the Scheherazade Foundation, gathering the folktales of the world, protecting them, and rewilding them back into modern culture. To hear more and support our work, visit https://www.sf.charity/world-story-bank

The Star Wife

A young warrior, hunting where he has never been before, comes upon a worn circle in the grass — and from the sky descends a basket of dancing women, one of them lovelier than all the rest. He loses his heart in an instant, but winning her, and keeping her, will ask far more of him than cunning. This is a tale of love that reaches between the Earth and the stars, and of what a person will give up to be with the one they love.

A traditional tale from the Sioux people of North America.

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 The World Story Bank is an initiative of the Scheherazade Foundation, gathering the folktales of the world, protecting them, and rewilding them back into modern culture. To hear more and support our work, visit https://www.sf.charity/world-story-bank

The Tortoise & the Deer

When the tortoise challenges the swift-footed deer to a race along the river, the deer can hardly believe his luck — for surely no creature so slow could ever outrun him. But the tortoise has spent the evening before the race making some very particular arrangements among his relations. A tale of speed outwitted by wit, told with mischief and a smile.

A traditional tale from the Tapoia people of the middle Amazon, in northern Brazil.

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 The World Story Bank is an initiative of the Scheherazade Foundation, gathering the folktales of the world, protecting them, and rewilding them back into modern culture. To hear more and support our work, visit https://www.sf.charity/world-story-bank

The Serpent-Wife

A solitary labourer, happiest wandering the woods alone, meets a great serpent who offers him strange instructions — and following them brings him a beautiful wife and a life of unaccountable good fortune. But she asks one thing of him, a single word he must never speak. A haunting tale of a gift freely given, a warning unheeded, and the price of a careless tongue.

A traditional tale from the Cossack tradition.

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 The World Story Bank is an initiative of the Scheherazade Foundation, gathering the folktales of the world, protecting them, and rewilding them back into modern culture. To hear more and support our work, visit https://www.sf.charity/world-story-bank

How the Toad Got His Bruises

Long ago, the story goes, the toad had smooth and handsome skin — and never missed a party, however far he had to travel. So when an invitation arrives to a feast in the sky, the toad is determined to attend, even if the journey looks quite impossible for a creature so slow. With a borrowed violin and a great deal of cheek, he sets about getting there. A merry "just-so" tale of vanity, mischief, and how the toad came by his bumps.

A traditional tale from Brazil.

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 The World Story Bank is an initiative of the Scheherazade Foundation, gathering the folktales of the world, protecting them, and rewilding them back into modern culture. To hear more and support our work, visit https://www.sf.charity/world-story-bank

The Singing Bird of Heaven

The Sun Goddess of High Heaven means to send her August Child to rule the troubled Land of Reed Plains below — but first the land must be made calm, and one by one the messengers she sends fail to return. When at last a young prince descends, glory shining from his garments, he too finds the earth has a pull of its own. So Heaven sends its most beloved messenger of all: a golden bird, with a song meant only for his ears. A luminous and sorrowful myth of Heaven and Earth, duty and forgetting.

A traditional tale from Japan.

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 The World Story Bank is an initiative of the Scheherazade Foundation, gathering the folktales of the world, protecting them, and rewilding them back into modern culture. To hear more and support our work, visit https://www.sf.charity/world-story-bank

The Magic Fiddle

Seven brothers and the sister who keeps their house — until their jealous wives make a secret bargain with a spirit, and one day at the water's edge something terrible befalls the girl. But hers is not a tale that ends at the water. What follows is a strange and beautiful journey of transformation, through bamboo and music and patient waiting, toward a reckoning of its own. A haunting story of cruelty, endurance, and the long road home.

A traditional tale from the Santal people of India.

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 The World Story Bank is an initiative of the Scheherazade Foundation, gathering the folktales of the world, protecting them, and rewilding them back into modern culture. To hear more and support our work, visit https://www.sf.charity/world-story-bank

The Three Heads of the Well

In the days before King Arthur, the gentle daughter of the King of Colchester finds her father remarried to a cruel and envious queen, and chooses to leave the court to seek her fortune. On the road she meets an old man, a thorny hedge, and a well from which three golden heads rise singing — and how she treats them will shape all that follows. When her spiteful step-sister sets out to try the same road, she finds the well remembers exactly how it was used. A classic English fairy tale of kindness and cruelty, each repaid in full measure.

A traditional tale from England.

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 The World Story Bank is an initiative of the Scheherazade Foundation, gathering the folktales of the world, protecting them, and rewilding them back into modern culture. To hear more and support our work, visit https://www.sf.charity/world-story-bank

The Nsasak Bird & the Odudu Bird

The King of Calabar makes a promise: whichever bird can endure hunger the longest will be made a chief. The great Odudu bird, far larger than his small friend the Nsasak, is certain of victory and boldly offers to fast for seven days, each sealed inside a house of his own. But the tiny Nsasak bird has been thinking rather harder about the problem. A sly tale of how cunning can outweigh size — and why, to this day, the little Nsasak is the king of birds.

A traditional tale from southern Nigeria.

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 The World Story Bank is an initiative of the Scheherazade Foundation, gathering the folktales of the world, protecting them, and rewilding them back into modern culture. To hear more and support our work, visit https://www.sf.charity/world-story-bank