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Stan Bolovan

Stan Bolovan's wife was sad, though they were prosperous. Finally, she confessed that she was grieved that they had no children. Stan visited a wise man and begged him for children, and ignored his warnings about feeding them all. He returned to find his wife delighted: they had a hundred children. Soon, they found they could not feed them all, and Stan set out to find food.

He found a flock of sheep and hoped to steal some, but a dragon stole animals and milk from the flock. He asked, and the shepherds promised him a third of the flock if he rid them of the dragon. He met up with the dragon and said he ate rocks by night and flowers by day and would fight. He set a contest: he squeezed buttermilk from cheese, and the dragon tried to squeeze it from a rock, and had to own he was better. The dragon offered him service with his mother, who would pay him sacks of ducats.

The mother set them two trials: her son threw a staff as far as he could, and then it was Stan's turn. First, he told the dragon he was afraid that he would kill him with the force; then he claimed to be waiting until the moon got out of the way, at which the dragon, who prized the staff as his grandfather's, threw it back instead. The mother then sent them to fetch water, and Stan could not have carried the skins she sent, but when he said it was too much bother and threatened to carry the stream instead, the dragon carried them for him. The mother then sent them to gather wood, and Stan started to tie trees together, declaring he would carry back the entire wood, and the dragon brought back wood for him, before he uprooted the forest.

The mother told her son to crack open his head in the night. Stan hid under the pig's trough and was not harmed. They gave him gold to go away, which he could not carry, but he said he wanted to stay in her service, because his friends would be ashamed of him, to carry so little; they urged him to go, and he went on the condition that the dragon carry back the gold for him.

He did not want to go all the way home with the dragon, so that it would not know where he lived, but his hungry children came running, and were so hungry they shouted for the dragon's flesh. It dropped the gold and ran away.

Starlight

A king whose kingdom was constantly imperiled by another king had an only son who had fallen in love with a slave, Starlight. Her family was quite unknown, but he cared nothing for anything but her. Angry, the queen had the slave imprisoned in a tower. A beautiful white cat kept her company. The prince despaired. His father, because of a new attack, implored him to lead the army. The prince did, and the father promised that no one had harmed Starlight and that he would see her when he returned. He led the army and utterly defeated the other king's, capturing the king himself, but the king reneged on his promise. The prince freed the captive king, and the king and queen had him imprisoned. One day, Starlight confided to her cat that she was certain he had forgotten her, and the cat answered that he was also imprisoned. The cat then revealed herself as the fairy Ermine White, and told her that she was a princess. She gave her a box to be opened in her worst need, turned the tower in a stair for her escape, and made her promise to never tell who had freed her. She found the prince, and they concluded that she had to hide, which would cause his parents to free him, and send him a message of her refuge. The white cat warned them that the king's men were coming, and Starlight fled.

She found her way to the forest, where centaurs found her; this was where they had taken refuge after the unpleasantness with the Lapiths at the wedding of Pirithous. They let her stay with them, and one bore her message to the court, that the prince could hunt a white doe with silver hooves in their forest. They met there, and went to the sea, where they found a marvelous ship awaiting them, with white cats as the sailors. They set sail, but Starlight confided in the prince how she had been rescued, and a storm overtook them. The waves separated them, carrying them to different countries. The prince was carried to a quiet country, where the women did the fighting, with crabapples. He found the king abed, resting, while his wife fought the war; he thrashed him and made him go to war himself; once there, he routed the enemies. But the kingdom was attacked and defeated, and the prince taken prisoner, whereupon he was put in a boat and lost consciousness.

When he regained consciousness, he found himself in a ship that sailed by itself, back to his parents' kingdom, where he learned they had died of grief, and he was now king. He made peace with the centaurs but was always sad. His subjects proposed that he marry; he told them that he wished to marry only Starlight, but even a reward brought no news of her.

Starlight had washed ashore and been found by a king who sheltered her. One day, his queen asked her her story, and telling it, she revealed she was their long-lost daughter. Her father resolved to marry her to a neighboring king. She opened the box and was surrounded by a cloud that darkened her skin and made her ugly. The fairy Ermine-White carried her off, back to her prince, and in his court, she became herself again. They married.

Stone soup

Some travellers come to a village, carrying nothing more than an empty cooking pot. Upon their arrival, the villagers are unwilling to share any of their food stores with the hungry travellers. Then the travellers go to a stream and fill the pot with water, drop a large stone in it, and place it over a fire. One of the villagers becomes curious and asks what they are doing. The travellers answer that they are making "stone soup", which tastes wonderful, although it still needs a little bit of garnish to improve the flavour, which they are missing. The villager does not mind parting with a few carrots to help them out, so that gets added to the soup. Another villager walks by, inquiring about the pot, and the travellers again mention their stone soup which has not reached its full potential yet. The villager hands them a little bit of seasoning to help them out. More and more villagers walk by, each adding another ingredient. Finally, a delicious and nourishing pot of soup is enjoyed by all.

A String of Pearls Twined with Golden Flowers

A young and handsome king, whenever he could leave his duties, liked to wander the world. He passed by the castle of an emperor and heard his three daughters speak. They all wished they could marry him; the oldest said that she would keep his house clean; the second, that she would make his house like two golden apples; the third, that she would bear him golden twins. He married the third, and she became pregnant, but his old favorite, a gypsy slave, envied the queen. When the children were due, the king had to go to war. He was greeted back with two puppies, which he was told the queen had borne. He made the queen a slave, and the gypsy girl his queen.

In reality, the queen had borne two golden babies, but the gypsy girl had killed them and buried them in the vineyard. Two firs grew from their graves. At night, they turned into children again and went to nurse from their mother, which consoled her. The king liked the trees but the gypsy hated them, and she made him cut them down. The king had two beds made from them. In the night, the beds talked to each other; the one carrying the gypsy did not like it, but the one carrying their father liked it better. The gypsy girl heard it and had them burned. Two sparks flew into bran that a ewe ate, and the ewe gave birth to two lambs with golden fleeces. The king saw these lambs and loved them. The gypsy girl had them killed and assigned the queen the task of washing out their entrails.

A crow caught some of the entrails and would not give it back without some cornmeal; the miller would not give her cornmeal without a chicken; a hen would not give her chick without corn; but a kind farmer gave her corn, the hen gave her a chick, the miller gave her cornmeal, and the crow gave her back the piece -- but more had washed away while she did this, and she could not retrieve it.

The entrails caught on a snag, and when the waters retreated, they became a girl and a boy. The boy cut down osiers with his hatchett and the girl spun on her distaff, and people came to look at their beauty. The king was so delighted that he took them home, and the gypsy girl did not dare do anything to them. One day she broke her pearl necklace and it could not be rethreaded; the pearls escaped everyone's fingers. The king asked the children to do it, and they could. While they did it, the boy told the king the story of their lives (with a refrain of "o, a string of pearls twined with golden flowers"). The king had the gypsy girl stoned to death and restored his queen.

Sweetheart Roland

A witch had a daughter, whom she loved, and a stepdaughter she hated. Her daughter wanted the stepsister's apron, and her mother promised she would have it: she would chop off her stepsister's head in the night, and the daughter was to make sure she lay by the wall, and her stepsister in the front of the bed. The stepdaughter overheard this and, after her stepsister slept, shifted their places. The witch cut off her own daughter's head, and the stepdaughter rose and went to her sweetheart Roland, telling what had happened, and that they had to flee.

Roland said they must take her silver wand. The stepsister went back to take it, and leave three drops of blood. When, in the morning, the witch called, the drops of blood answered her, but when she could not see her daughter where she heard the voice, she went into the bedroom and saw her dead daughter. Raging, she set out after them in seven league boots.

The girl turned herself into a duck, and Roland into a pond, and the witch was unable to lure the duck to her, and had to return home that night. The girl and Roland went on, and when, the next day, the witch caught them again, she turned Roland into a fiddler and herself into a flower in a brier-hedge. The witch asked permission to pick the flower, and got it, but when she crawled into the hedge, Roland played his fiddle, which forced her to dance until the thorns tore her to death.

Roland went to his father to arrange for the wedding, and the girl remained as a red boundary-stone, but a woman made Roland forget her. Sad, the girl turned herself into a flower, thinking that someone would trample her. A shepherd picked her and took her home. He found that whenever he left, all the housework was done in his absence. At the advice of a wisewoman, he threw a white cloth when he saw something move in the morning, and this revealed the girl. She agreed to keep house for him.

At Roland's wedding, all the girls about sang, as was the custom, and Roland recognized his true love and married her instead of his new bride.

The Tailor in Heaven

God went to walk in the heavenly garden and took everyone except St. Peter. A tailor arrived at the gate. St. Peter refused to admit him, because he had stolen clothing and because God had forbidden him to admit anyone. The tailor begged, and St. Peter let him sit in the corner to await God. The tailor wandered off and found the chair where God could see everything on earth. He sat and saw an old woman steal two veils while doing laundry. He threw a golden stool at her. God returned, said that if he was that merciless, Heaven would be bare because he would have thrown everything at the earth, and threw the tailor out.

The Story of Tam and Cam

The original story has two parts. The first part is about the life of Tấm before she married the king. The second part is what happened after she married him. This part is very horrific and bloody, containing murder and cannibalism, and a shift of the protagonist into the antagonist.
[edit] Part one

Once upon a time there was a young girl named Tấm, whose mother died early and so her father remarried. Now, her stepmother also had a daughter named Cám. When Tấm's father died, stepmother began to abuse Tấm and forced her to do all the housework, while Cám lived luxuriously. Stepmother's hatred of Tam was intensified by the fact that Tam was much more beautiful and fair than her own daughter Cám, even though Tấm was forced to do all the laboring under the sun.

One day, stepmother sent Tấm and Cám to fish, promising to reward the girl who caught the most fish with more superiority in the household. Cám knew her mother would never punish her and so bathed herself carelessly in the river while Tấm worked hard fishing. When Cám noticed all the fish Tấm had caught, Cám advised Tấm to wash the mud out of her hair or else she would be scolded by mother. As Tấm washed her hair, Cám poured all the fish Tấm had caught into her own basket and ran home. She was considered the eldest girl in the family from that time onward.

Upon discovering she had been tricked, Tấm sobbed until a male fairy (or in some versions, the Buddha) appeared to her and comforted her. She told Tám to look into her basket to discover the one remaining little carp. She told Tam to take the carp home and put it into the well at the back of the house, reciting a special poem/greeting whenever she came to feed it, which meant:

"Oh my dear little carp!

Come and eat the golden rice, silver rice of mine

Not to eat the stale rice, old porridge of the other's."

Everyday, Tấm would come out to the well a few times to feed the carp, always reciting the greeting beforehand so that the carp would come up from the water. The carp grew fatter everyday that Tấm fed it, and stepmother began to suspect Tấm's behavior. One day, stepmother sneaked out close to where Tấm was feeding the fish. She waited until Tấm was gone, and went over to the well, finding nothing. Stepmother repeated the greeting she had heard Tam reciting and to her delight, saw the carp come up from the water. Stepmother caught and killed it to put in her rice porridge.

When Tấm discovered this, she broke into sobs. The Goddess of Mercy again appeared to Tấm and consoled her, and instructed her to salvage the bones of the carp and bury them in four separate jars underneath each corner of her bed.

A short while later, there is going to be a large celebration in the city. Since the road was filled with people thronging on the way to the capital to arrive on time, Tấm pleaded to go along with Cám and stepmother, but stepmother schemed to keep Tấm at home. Stepmother mixed together countless black and green beans (in other versions husked and white rice) and ordered Tấm to sort them out before she was allowed to go (adding that Tấm did not have any decent clothes to attend the event anyway). Tấm waited until Cám and stepmother had gone for a while and called out to the Goddess of Mercy, who appeared and turned the nearby flies into sparrows that sorted the beans for Tấm. Tấm was then told to dig up the four jars from the corners of her bed, and found on the first jar a blue silk dress embroidered with silver, on the second jar a pair of golden slippers, on the third jar a saddle-furniture of high value, and on the fourth a noble, white steed. Tấm dressed herself splendidly and made her way to the celebration.

Everyone admired the beautiful stranger, which is no other than Tam. As she was enjoying herself, her stepmother and stepsister saw her among the guests. Afraid of being humiliated in front of many people, she left hastily. She dropped a slipper on a nearby stream.

The slipper flowed along the river until it came into the king's garden, and was picked up by one of the king's attendants. The king proclaimed that any maiden whose foot fit the slipper would be made into his Queen. Every eligible lady who went at the celebration tried the slipper, including Cám, but all to no avail. Suddenly, a stranger dressed in a magnificent silk gown appeared whose foot fit perfectly into the slipper (not to mention on her other foot was adorned the corresponding slipper of the same make). Stepmother and Cám were shocked to discover the mysterious lady was no other than Tấm! Tấm was immediately brought on the royal palanquin into the imperial palace for a grand wedding celebration, right in front of her seething stepmother and stepsister.
[edit] Part two

On Tấm's father's death anniversary, Tấm proved her filial duty and made a short visit home to honor the anniversary with her family, despite the abuse she had suffered at the hands of stepmother. Stepmother asked Tấm to climb an areca tree and gather its betel nuts for her late father's altar. Tấm obeyed and as she climbed to the top of the tree, stepmother took an axe and chopped the tree down, so that Tấm fell to her death. By tradition, Cám was married into the palace in place of her late sister. Tấm had reincarnated into a nightingale and followed her sister into the palace.

The king remained despondent and dearly missed his late wife, while Cám tried hard to please him. One day, a palace maid hung out the king's dragon robe to the sun, when the nightingale appeared to sing a song to remind the maid to be careful with her husband's gown. The bird's song captivated everyone who listened to it, and even drew the attention of the king. The king called out to the nightingale to land in the wide sleeves of his robe if it really was the spirit of his late wife. The nightingale did exactly as the king had asked and ever since then, it was put into a golden cage where the king spent most of his days as it sang songs to him. Cám became increasingly incensed and asked her mother what she should do. Her mother instructed her to catch the bird and feed it to a cat. Cám did as she was told and after skinning it, threw the feathers over the gate of the palace.

From the feathers rose a beautiful white cedar tree. Its shade was so soothing that the King ordered a hammock to be made under it, and to his immense liking, he always dreamed about his late wife Tấm when he rested under that tree. Cám was jealous again when she learned about it so she told her mother, whom instructed Cám to chop down the tree and make a loom out of its wood. But later on when Cám sat on the loom and tried to weave some cloth, the decorative crow on the loom spoke with Tấm's voice, accusing Cám of stealing her husband.

Following her mother's advice, Cám burned the loom and buried its ash far outside the palace. From where the ashed was buried, a persimmon tree rose, bearing only a single but magnificent fruit. A poor old woman who worked as a water vendor walked by one day and saw it, begging it to fall to her, and promising that she would not to eat it, only admire it. Indeed it fell to her, and she did not eat it. The next day, the old woman found that when she came home from her errands, the housework was done while she was gone and there was a hot meal waiting for her. This miracle happened continuously for a month, so one day, the old lady pretended to leave but stayed back to spy, when she saw Tấm emerge from the fruit and begin to do the household chores. The old woman emerged and tore up the peel so Tấm could no longer turn back.

One day, the king, lost while hunting, stopped by the hut. The old woman offered him betel, and when the king saw how the betel had been prepared, in the peculiar special way his late queen had always prepared it: the betel leaves looked just like the wings of a phoenix; he inquired as to whom had prepared the betel. The old woman told him her daughter had done it, and the king made her produce the daughter, and saw it was Tấm. He was overjoyed and Tấm was brought back into the palace as the king's first wife.

Later when Tấm has returned to the palace. Cám asked Tấm about her beauty secret, Tấm told Cám that to be beautiful, just taking a bath in boiling water. Cám did exactly what Tấm said and was boiled alive.

Cám's body was then cut apart and made into a jar of food. Tấm sent that jar to her stepmother. The stepmother believed what was inside the jar was just food and started to eat it. One day, a crow flew by the stepmother's house and rested on her roof. It cried out:

"Delicious! The mother is eating her own daughter's flesh! Is there any left? Give me some."

The stepmother was enraged, but when she finally reached the bottom of the jar, she discovered Cám's skull inside and immediately died of shock.

Tatterhood

A king and queen had no children, which grieved the queen greatly. To alleviate the queen's loneliness, they adopted a girl to raise as their own. One day, when the queen saw her adopted daughter playing with a beggar girl, she scolded her adopted daughter and tried to drive the other girl off. However, the beggar girl mentioned that her mother knows a way for the queen to become pregnant.

When the queen approached the beggar woman, the woman denies having such knowledge. The queen treated the woman to as much wine as the woman pleased until the woman is drunk. When the queen asked the drunk beggar woman how she could get a child of her own, the beggar woman told her to wash herself in two pails of water before going to bed, and afterward pour the water under the bed. The next morning, two flowers will have sprung up from under the bed: one fair and one ugly. The beggar tells the queen that she must eat the beautiful one, but not to eat the hideous one no matter what. The queen followed this advice, and the next morning under the bed were two flowers. One was bright and lovely, and the other was black and foul. The queen ate the beautiful flower at once, but it tasted so sweet that she craved the other and ate it as well.

Not long afterward, the queen bore a child. She gave birth to a girl who carried a wooden spoon in her hand and rode upon a goat. She was very ugly and loud and the moment she was born. The queen despairs having such a daughter until the girl tells her mother that her next child will be fair and agreeable. As the girl promised, the queen gave birth to a second daughter, one who was born fair and sweet, which pleased the queen very much. The sisters were as different as they could be, but they were very fond of each other. The elder daughter was named Tatterhood, because she wore a tattered hood over her unruly hair.

One Christmas Eve, when the girls where half grown, there was great noise in the gallery outside the queen's rooms. When Tatterhood demanded to know what is causing the noise, the queen reluctantly reveals that it was a pack of trolls (in some versions, witches) who came to the palace every seven years. Tatterhood, being headstrong, decides to drive the trolls off and instructs her mother keep the door tightly shut. Worried about Tatterhood, Tatterhood's younger sister opens one of the doors during the battle with the trolls. Her head is instantly snatched off by a troll and replaced with a calf's head, afterwhich the trolls flee from the castle.

To restore her sister's head, Tatterhood sets off in a ship with no crew or company aside from her own sister. They arrive at the isle of the trolls and Tatterhood battles the trolls to successfully regain her sister's head. The sisters escaped and arrive in a distant kingdom. The king, a widower with one son, fell in love with the younger sister at first sight. However, she declared she will not marry until Tatterhood does. The king begged his son to marry Tatterhood, and eventually he reluctantly agreed.

The two sisters were to be married to their grooms on the same day. The king, his young princess bride, and the king's son were regally adorned, while Tatterhood refused to dress up and happily wore her rags. As the couples rode to church to be married, Tatterhood asked her bridegroom why he did not ask why she rides a goat, and when he duly asked, she answered that she rode a grand horse, which it promptly becomes. She asked the prince why he does not ask why she carries a wooden spoon, which he asks, and she declares it to be a fan (or in some versions a wand), which it turns into. This is repeated with the tattered hood, which is turned into a golden crown, and with Tatterhood herself, whose beauty she declares to surpass her sister's, which it then does. The prince is overjoyed by her beauty and finally glad to be married to her.