Fairy Tale Friday--The Unnatural Mother: a Swazi Tale

From Fairy Tales From South Africa by Mrs.E.J. Bourhill and Mrs. J.B. Drake enjoy The Unnatural Mother.

In this tale a child sends a parent on a quest; I've never come across that situation before.  A mother sins against nature, so has to redeem herself by finding and bringing home some special water.

Queen mother of Swaziland, mother of the present chief, Sobhuza II, paramount chief, Swazi, Swaziland, South Africa. Duggan-Cronin, Alfred Martin, between 1919 and 1936

Fairy Tale Friday--Jack o' the Lantern

This origin tale for the Jack-o'-lantern is on page 5 of Irish Fairy Tales: Folklore and Legends, illustrated by Geoffrey Strahan. A grumpy man, an angel, some demons.

Fairy Tale Friday--The Plague-Omen

This short Polish tale deals with the plague as a merry-making train of specters. or the Homen.  Look for it on page 19 of Slavonic Fairy Tales, Collected and Translated from the Russian, Polish, Servian, and Bohemian,  edited by John Theophilus Naaké.

Fairy Tale Friday--The Carnation Youth

This week check out another free online book by Elsie Spicer Eells, Tales of Enchantment from Spain.  I recommend the second tale in the collection: The Carnation Youth.

This tale features:

• A young man turned into a flower
• A young woman who leaves home to find him
• Helpful birds

Fairy Tale Friday--Folk-Lore of the Holy Land

This week's full-text Google Book is Folk-Lore of the Holy Land: Moslem, Christian, and Jewish, collected by J.E. Hanauer and edited by Marmaduke Pickthall.
My favorite sections of this book are:

Judgements of Karakash, page 120
Azrael, page 176
The Underground Folk, page 188
About Coffee, page 290

Courtesy of Wikimedia