Classic Scandinavian Folk Tales
- The Three Billy Goats Gruff
- A classic example of cunning, talking, and human-like animals vs. a not-so-smart troll.
- Prince Lindworm
- Another story of a human outwitting a creature
- The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body
- A great example of a hero rescuing a princess after she is kidnapped by an evil creature.
- The Seven Foals
Read more about this topic: Scandinavian Folklore
Famous quotes containing the words folk tales, classic, folk and/or tales:
“Myths, as compared with folk tales, are usually in a special category of seriousness: they are believed to have “really happened,” or to have some exceptional significance in explaining certain features of life, such as ritual. Again, whereas folk tales simply interchange motifs and develop variants, myths show an odd tendency to stick together and build up bigger structures. We have creation myths, fall and flood myths, metamorphose and dying-god myths.”
—Northrop Frye (1912–1991)
“One classic American landscape haunts all of American literature. It is a picture of Eden, perceived at the instant of history when corruption has just begun to set in. The serpent has shown his scaly head in the undergrowth. The apple gleams on the tree. The old drama of the Fall is ready to start all over again.”
—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)
“I think that Richard Nixon will go down in history as a true folk hero, who struck a vital blow to the whole diseased concept of the revered image and gave the American virtue of irreverence and skepticism back to the people.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)
“Shall we rest us here,
And by relating tales of others’ griefs,
See if ‘twill teach us to forget our own?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)