I ventured alone in my frail boat and fell asleep. The boat drifted east, to the shore of the sweetest spot in the world. In the bright morning light, I found myself in the shadow of Fusan, the Wonder Mountain, and I knew I had come to Horaizan, the Isle of the Blest....
Story Themes Results
Your Search Results
Magpie of Heaven
The Weaving Maiden was such a dutiful worker, she would never leave her loom. Her father said, "You should go out and have some fun!" She said, “Sorrow, age-long sorrow, shall come upon the Weaving Maiden when she leaves her loom." Her father put no stock in old...
Rai-Taro, Son of Thunder
In the cool of the evening, my father and I walked upon the ramparts of the Castle of Cloud as we often did. My father was a great and mighty god of Thunder and all the Elements. From the ramparts we viewed the doings of men upon the Land of Reed Plains. North and...
Song of the Ballad-Singer
Walking along the road, the wandering ballad-singer came upon a girl with a black bowl over her head. "Oh, girl with the black bowl over your head, why do you sit weeping by the roadside?" he asked. “I weep because the world is hard," she said. "I am hungry and tired....
Generous Tailor
I told the goldsmith he shouldn't do it! But he wouldn't listen to me. He insisted on going back to the place where the little folk were dancing. We had found them once, and they sent us away with coal in our pockets. By morning, the coal had turned to gold. The old...
Maiden Who Loves Animals
When I came to the hut in the woods, I was very upset because I had not found my father. I had gone out to bring him food, and now he would have nothing to eat. The windows of the cottage were lit up, so I knocked on the door, and a rough voice cried, "Come in." I...
Red Shoes
Who cares what "good Christian people" say? We know what we mean to Karen. Did you know that in the beginning, the poor girl had no shoes at all? That’s right. She went barefoot or wore old wooden clumpers that chafed her instep until her feet bled. The old...
Mirror of Understanding
The Snow Queen calls me the Mirror of Understanding, but I am cracked in a thousand pieces. She has recruited an intelligent little boy named Kay to fit my pieces together, but he has gone quite black and blue with cold. His heart has become a lump of ice, and yet he...
Listening Moon
When she came to my door, I said the same thing to her as the Sun had said. "I have seen you in your cottage, and I have seen you in your palace. I have seen you everywhere you are." Then I asked her, "Do you, rich as you are, need help?" Weeping, she told me her...
Bloody Knife
My blade shines brightly as long as everything is going well for the ones who keep me. However, if something happens to any one of them, my blade will run with blood. I am not just made of steel, you see. If my relations suffer, I bleed. The Bloody Knife in The Water...
Prince in the Tower
The king is ailing, and he wants me to marry before he dies. I have not met a woman I could imagine as my wife. He tells me to go up the staircase to the top of the tower and look carefully at what I find there. I haven't been up here before. I unlock an iron door...
Simple Son of a Man with Strange Eyes
My father has strange eyes. One is a laughing eye, and the other is a weeping eye. My two older brothers and I have grown up afraid to ask him why he has such strange eyes. Well, we're grown men now, getting ready to find our fortune, and we'd like to know. My older...
Protective Godmother
I was heartbroken when I heard that the queen had died in childbirth. The poor king! He was beside himself with grief. He invited me to be the child's godmother, and I rushed to the christening. I looked at that sweet elf in his cradle, and, right away, I named him...
Healing Serpent
The king has been locked in the burial vault with his dead wife. He tries to stretch out his days. He eats his provisions slowly. Every day, a bite of bread, a sip of wine. We serpents hear him moaning in grief and pain as death draws near. Then we devise a plan. My...
Fisherman Who Catches a Flounder
I go out fishing in the sea every day, and I don't catch much of anything. Then today, when I was sitting in the boat with my rod, the line suddenly caught. It went down, down, down, and I drew it up, up, up. I had a Flounder on my line! I landed him in the boat, and...
Devil’s Grandmother
A young fellow came to the door. He smelled like a living man, but he didn't have the smell of fear on him. No fear at all. I asked him what sort of business he had with us. He said he wanted three golden hairs from the devil's head, or else he'd lose his wife....
Falada, the Speaking Horse
I was decapitated for speaking out, but that didn't stop me from speaking my mind. In fact, when my head was nailed to the bridge, I became quite the public speaker! I watch the queen's daughter come and go. I remind her, over and over, that she lost her power because...
Pea Under Mattresses
Many people come to the Museum to see me in my glass case. I am not just any pea. I am the Pea. I was buried under twenty mattresses (and twenty eiderdowns), and I could still be felt! I am the thought that does not go away. The truth that disturbs sleep. The grit in...
Paper Dancer
I do pirouettes on the table in front of a cardboard castle while little boys play with their toy soldiers on the floor. The castle has little windows, and I can see inside them when the breeze spins me round. In front of the castle, cardboard trees gaze at their...
Red Tulip
I have had three awakenings. First, there was the crack of my husk when the kernel burst, deep in the earth. I grew and grew, stretching my neck out through the soil. Then there was the crack of the light, the first ray of the sun. Finally there was the third crack,...
Hippo
One day, the most beautiful princess came up the river in a barge. She and several servants built a small home on an island in the middle of the river. It was a very lonely place for her to be. Nobody ever came up this part of the river. Every day, she would come and...
Youngest Fairy
The fairies gave the princess all their best gifts: beauty, an angel's wit, grace, and talents for dancing, singing and playing instruments. Then the spiteful Old Fairy came in and gave her a curse. The princess would be pierced by a spindle and would die of the...
Parrot of the Beast
When the girl came into our room of parrots and cockatoos, she had songbirds from the aviary perching on her shoulders and her head. I squawked. "Awk! Hello, pretty bird. Pretty songs. Awk!“ "Aren't you a handsome fellow!" she said, opening my cage door. "You might...
Magpie
The Water Lily has been singing her sad song endlessly. Alas! bewitched and all forsaken, ‘Tis I must lie for ever here! My beloved no thought has taken To free his bride, that was so dear. The Thrush sang: "How stupid men are! For a whole year we've been listening to...
Dick Whittington’s Cat
My master, Mr. Whittington (I wouldn't think of calling him Dick) is badly abused by the cook. After living my whole life on the street, I have never met such an ill-natured hussy as that woman. When she's not basting or roasting, she's beating Mr. Whittington...
Shading Tree
Oh what a thing I have seen tonight! The Captain of the Guard took the Princess Miranda out into the forest. He was ordered by the king to kill her. Imagine! His youngest and sweetest daughter. He wanted his captain to bring back her heart and her tongue as proof that...
All-Seeing Sun
When my darling girl comes to see me, she has already come a long way. She has consulted the Wind, the Moon, and the Stars. They have given her the means to walk through the heavens. She asks me if I have seen her beloved white wolf. Yes, I have seen him, I say...
Nurse of the Confined Princess
The king is so terrified that something will happen to his daughter that he refuses to let her leave the palace. He keeps her shut in her rooms like she's some kind of prisoner. Of course I understand how bitterly she hates her confinement. I've listened to her...