World Tales
Local legends and folk tales from over 20 countries around the world, each honestly retold and paired with a real lullaby from the same culture.
Africa
Why the Sun and Moon Live in the Sky
Sun and Water were the best of friends, until the night Water finally came to visit, and there was nowhere left for anyone to stand but the sky.
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Rhodopis and the Golden Sandal
A slave girl’s sandal is carried off by a falcon, all the way to a king’s lap in Memphis, in what may be the oldest Cinderella story ever told.
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Lalibela and the Bees
A swarm of bees descends on a sleeping baby, not to sting him, but to crown him: the beginning of the legend behind Ethiopia’s famous rock-hewn churches.
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The Golden Bird
A baby is born with a golden star on his forehead, but jealous hands hide the truth and send him away: the story of a golden bird who finally reveals what really happened, from the Berber tales of Morocco’s Atlas Mountains.
Read the tale →Middle East
Mah-Pishani, the Girl with the Moon on Her Forehead
A poor girl’s kindness to a stranger earns her a moon on her forehead and stars in her hair, in one of Persia’s best-loved fairy tales.
Read the tale →King Midas and the Golden Touch
A king is granted a wish that turns everything he touches to gold, but soon learns that some things are more precious than gold itself: the ancient legend of King Midas, said to have ruled in the hills of ancient Anatolia, in what is now Turkey.
Read the tale →Asia
Heungbu and the Swallow’s Seed
A poor but kind-hearted brother mends a swallow’s broken leg, and a single seed he plants in return changes his family’s fortune forever.
Read the tale →Pina and the Thousand Watchful Eyes
A tired mother’s hurried wish for a daughter who could truly see gives rise to a new golden fruit, and a name that lasts to this day.
Read the tale →The Monkey and the Crocodile
A clever monkey and a hungry crocodile learn that true friendship can’t survive greed, in one of India’s oldest and best-loved fables, from the ancient Panchatantra collection.
Read the tale →The Legend of the Watermelon
Exiled to a deserted island with nothing but his own resourcefulness, a young prince discovers a strange seed that changes everything: the beloved Vietnamese legend of An Tiem and the first watermelon.
Read the tale →Houyi and Chang’e: The Legend of the Moon
A brave archer saves the earth from ten blazing suns, but it’s his devoted wife who becomes the reason families still look up at the full moon together: the ancient Chinese legend of Houyi and Chang’e.
Read the tale →Europe
The Dragon of Wawel Hill
A hungry dragon beneath a castle hill terrifies an entire town, until a clever young shoemaker outsmarts it with nothing sharper than a little cunning.
Read the tale →The Children of Lir
Four royal children are changed into swans by a jealous stepmother’s spell, and spend nine hundred years singing across Ireland’s waters before finding their way home.
Read the tale →Arion and the Dolphin
A celebrated musician, thrown into the sea by greedy sailors, is saved by an unlikely friend charmed by his own music: the ancient Greek legend of Arion and the dolphin.
Read the tale →Oceania
How Maui Fished Up New Zealand
A clever, mischievous demigod hides in his brothers’ canoe, casts a single magic hook into the deep sea, and pulls up an entire island.
Read the tale →Tiddalik the Frog
A giant frog drinks every drop of water in the land, and only laughter can bring it all flowing back: the beloved Aboriginal Dreaming story of Tiddalik the Frog.
Read the tale →The Americas
The Eagle and the Cactus
A wandering people follow a god’s promise across the land, searching for a single sign: an eagle, a cactus, and a serpent, that would finally tell them where home was.
Read the tale →Manco Capac and the Golden Staff
A brother and sister rise from the waters of Lake Titicaca carrying a single golden staff, sent to find the one place on earth where it would sink completely into the ground.
Read the tale →Vitoria-Regia: The Legend of the Moon Flower
A girl so drawn to the moon’s reflection on the water that she becomes something magical herself: the beautiful Amazonian legend of Vitoria-Regia, the giant water lily that still blooms by moonlight.
Read the tale →The Dreamcatcher
A spider spins her web to protect every child’s dreams, and when her people spread too far apart for her to reach them all, the mothers and grandmothers learn to weave her magic themselves: the Ojibwe legend of the first dreamcatcher.
Read the tale →Looking for a lullaby instead?
Explore our full encyclopedia of traditional lullabies from over 60 countries.
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