World Myths

East Prussia, now Poland, is where I was born. In 1945, my family fled to the west of Germany. I went to school there and became a kindergarten teacher. In 1964, I immigrated to the United States, eventually becoming a Montessori teacher in Wisconsin, where I worked for many years. Reading to children, I learned that one of their favorite subjects was animals.

Some folk stories endure generation after generation because, although they are not literal, they resound in truths on a human scale. Folktales remind us of wisdom so elemental it is often lost in the rush of everyday life, so that "sometimes common sense makes no sense at all." The six wonder tales on this audiobook are gems of the genre. They have a "long ago and far away" quality.

Las informaciones y comentarios de este ameno e instructivo ensayo conducen al lector por los vericuetos de la creación mitológica griega como si se tratase de una novela de aventuras, comentando la poderosa influencia que los mitos han ejercido en la génesis y evolución del pensamiento humano, con particular énfasis en la formación de las principales lenguas que se hablan en el mundo.

Wondrous dragons live in jewelled palaces under the ground and stars and animals speak. Emperors live out their exquisite lives surrounded by the most refined art and luxury. Yet all these stories are rooted in a love of ordinary things and timeless regard for honesty and simplicity. Virtue is more prized than riches and there is more delight in the song of a bird than in all the craft that man could ever devise.

A beautiful collection of some of the finest Chinese fairy tales ever told. Incorporating magic, wicked witches, strange adventures and mysterious spirits. Enchanting! Stories include: "The Magic Pillow"; "The Stone Monkey"; "Stealing Peaches"; "The Painted Skin"; "The Wonderful Pear Tree"; "The Country of Gentlemen"; "Learning Magic"; "Theft of a Duck"; "Living for Ever"; "Football on a Lake"; "The Flower Fairies"; "The Talking Bird"; "The Peach Blossom Fountain"; "The Lute Girl’s Lament".

Six Gaelic tales of wonder and adventure, read in an authentic brogue by actor Des Keogh, transport wee listeners to a magic world of leprechauns and giants.

The English writer and scholar Joseph Jacobs travelled the land collecting and recording every traditional English story he could find. Many of these stories are similar to well-known European stories but the English tales have a distinctive wit and humour of their very own.

The world of the Australian Aborigines is so full of extraordinary force and beauty that the idea of natural miracles, or what we might call magic, can seem quite normal. So natural magic figures very strongly in their stories, and in their lives. However as people are part of nature too, selfishness, greed, jealousy; also love, courage and a sense of humour are readily described in nature just as in men and women.

She doesn't know where came from, but she knows where she is going. Grady Orphus sets out to save the Flumpkims, and just maybe, the whole wide world.

Fourteen-year-old Anna has just moved to New York with her mother and stepfather, and she hates everything about her new life. After another argument with her mother, she defiantly sneaks out to ski in Riverside Park. Much to her surprise, she meets another cross-country skier, a boy about her own age, and follows him into a snow-covered magical Otherworld inhabited by the monstrous Wyssun and the Skiers who hunt them.

Greek Mythology takes you on an amazing journey of discovery, as you learn about the Titans, Olympians, and heroes of old. You'll learn how the primordial forces came together to shape the world. You'll also learn the fascinating tales of how the Titans clashed with each other and the Olympians that came after them. Also, you'll learn about the heroic adventures of the mighty Heracles!

From the banks of the mighty Mississippi to a sparkling stream in Kyoto, from the misty moors of Scotland to Africa's folktale forests, listeners will be transported as legendary heroes, mythical maidens, and talented tricksters weave their magic.

In this second volume of folktales, a Punjabi woman outwits seven ruthless thieves, an Incan girl restores harmony to the empire, and a mischievous Norwegian lass thwarts her entitled landowner. Spanning centuries and continents, Kamala recalls how the dazzling courage, cleverness, and power of women have always held our world together.

Rosalba is a nine-year-old Mayan girl living in rural Mexico. Like her mother and grandmother, she weaves stories of her people onto blouses, ensuring that the age-old traditions continue. But new influences are entering her life. A ladina girl from the city, visiting with her scientist father, passes on the astonishing news that the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world in 2012. Rosalba knows nothing about that, but her village is faced with a bulldozer tearing through the forest, dying wildlife, and cornfields in danger.

Discover the stories of goddesses and other powerful women shared throughout the ages in this beautiful compendium for children. With profiles of over 80 goddesses, heroines, and legendary women featured, this is a must-have introduction to key female figures from cultures all over the world...

Get ready to hop on a mythical time machine and travel to Japan—a land of legendary samurai, magical creatures, and ancient wisdom! Prepare to dive into a world where brave warriors battle dragons, spirits roam enchanted forests, and gods and goddesses shape the destiny of mortals.

Nationally acclaimed storyteller J.J. Reneaux grew up Cajun for true, surrounded by the stories, music, food, and culture of rural communities in southeastern Texas and southern Louisiana. A traditional storyteller who collects by word-of-mouth, Reneaux has developed her repertoire over years of collecting: on front porches, school playgrounds, and her beloved fishing trips, as well as at nursing homes, airports, and at neighborhood fais-dodos.

During the course of the day, Koo straightens his room, feeds his cat and the hungry fish outside, and he bakes a cake to welcome new neighbors. He even helps a family of ducklings to safely cross a street. But still, Koo wonders, how will HE ever save the world? At the end of the day, Uncle Stillwater has the answer:

Magenta is a little kitten lost in the woods until she discovers a mysterious cottage filled with magic and wonders. Most magical of all is Iridessa, the young sorceress who accidentally enchants Magenta with wings and the ability to talk. There’s only one problem… Iridessa’s white raven, Obsidian, doesn’t like cats and isn’t happy about this strange new companion. Discover what matters most in this charming fairytale about Magenta’s magical mishaps that lead to finally finding the purr-fect place where she truly belongs.

Spanning several centuries of history in the Pacific, The Legends and Myths of Hawaiʻi: Fables and Folk-Lore of a Strange People is a collection of Hawaiian stories that were preserved through the ages by oral tradition and documented for posterity by King David Kalākaua in 1887. This massive tome recalls the tales of chiefs and kings, explorers and pirates, prophets, sorceresses, and renegades. This is the first in a series of 22 parts.