The Yellow Fairy Book
THE
YELLOW FAIRY BOOK
WORKS BY ANDREW LANG.
COCK LANE AND COMMON SENSE: a Series of Papers. Crown 8vo. 6s. 6d. net. BAN and ARRIÈRE BAN: a Rally of Fugitive Rhymes. Crown 8vo. 5s. net. ST. ANDREWS. With 8 Plates and 24 Illustrations in the Text by T. Hodge. 8vo. 15s. net. HOMER AND THE EPIC. Crown 8vo. 9s. net. CUSTOM AND MYTH: Studies of Early Usage and Belief. With 15 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. BALLADS OF BOOKS. Edited by Andrew Lang. Fcp. 8vo. 6s. LETTERS TO DEAD AUTHORS. Fcp. 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. BOOKS AND BOOKMEN. With 2 Coloured Plates and 17 Illustrations. Fcp. 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. OLD FRIENDS. Fcp. 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. LETTERS ON LITERATURE. Fcp. 8vo. 28. 6d. net. GRASS OF PARNASSUS. Fcp. 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. ANGLING SKETCHES. With 20 Illustrations by W.G. Burn-Murdoch. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK. Edited by Andrew Lang. With 8 Plates and 130 Illustrations in the Text by H. J. Ford and G. P. Jacomb Hood. Crown 8vo. 6s. THE RED FAIRY BOOK. Edited by Andrew Lang. With 4 Plates and 96 Illustrations in the Text by H. J. Ford and Lancelot Speed. Crown 8vo. 6s. THE GREEN FAIRY BOOK. Edited by Andrew Lang. With 11 Plates and 88 Illustrations in the Text by H. J. Ford. Crown 8vo. 6s. THE BLUE POETRY BOOK. Edited by Andrew Lang. With 12 Plates and 88 Illustrations in the Text by H. J. Ford and Lancelot Speed. Crown 8vo. 6s. School Edition, without Illustrations. Fcp. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Special Edition, printed on Indian paper. With Notes, but without Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. THE TRUE STORY BOOK. Edited by Andrew Lang. With 8 Plates and 58 Illustrations in the Text by H. J. Ford, Lucien Davis, Lancelot Speed, and L. Bogle. Crown 8vo. 6s.
London: LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. New York: 15 East 16th Street.
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THE
Yellow Fairy Book
EDITED BY
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WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS BY H. J. FORD
LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16th STREET 1894
All rights reserved
Dedication TO JOAN, TODDLES, AND TINY
Books Yellow, Red, and Green and Blue, All true, or just as good as true, And here’s the Yellow Book for you!
Hard is the path from A to Z, And puzzling to a curly head, Yet leads to Books—Green, Blue, and Red
For every child should understand That letters from the first were planned To guide us into Fairy Land
So labour at your Alphabet, For by that learning shall you get To lands where Fairies may be met.
And going where this pathway goes, You too, at last, may find, who knows? The Garden of the Singing Rose.
PREFACE
The Editor thinks that children will readily forgive him for publishing another Fairy Book. We have had the Blue, the Red, the Green, and here is the Yellow. If children are pleased, and they are so kind as to say that they are pleased, the Editor does not care very much for what other people may say. Now, there is one gentleman who seems to think that it is not quite right to print so many fairy tales, with pictures, and to publish them in red and blue covers. He is named Mr. G. Laurence Gomme, and he is president of a learned body called the Folk Lore Society. Once a year he makes his address to his subjects, of whom the Editor is one, and Mr. Joseph Jacobs (who has published many delightful fairy tales with pretty pictures)[1] is another. Fancy, then, the dismay of Mr. Jacobs, and of the Editor, when they heard their president say that he did not think it very nice in them to publish fairy books, above all, red, green, and blue fairy books! They said that they did not see any harm in it, and they were ready to ‘put themselves on their country,’ and be tried by a jury of children. And, indeed, they still see no harm in what they have done; nay, like Father William in the poem, they are ready ‘to do it again and again.’
Where is the harm? The truth is that the Folk Lore Society—made up of the most clever, learned, and beautiful men and women of the country—is fond of studying the history and geography of Fairy Land. This is contained in very old tales, such as country people tell, and savages:
‘Little Sioux and little Crow, Little frosty Eskimo.’
These people are thought to know most about fairyland and its inhabitants. But, in the Yellow Fairy Book, and the rest, are many tales by persons who are neither savages nor rustics, such as Madame D’Aulnoy and Herr Hans Christian Andersen. The Folk Lore Society, or its president, say that their tales are not so true as the rest, and should not be published with the rest. But we say that all the stories which are pleasant to read are quite true enough for us; so here they are, with pictures by Mr. Ford, and we do not think that either the pictures or the stories are likely to mislead children.
As to whether there are really any fairies or not, that is a difficult question. Professor Huxley thinks there are none. The Editor never saw any himself, but he knows several people who have seen them—in the Highlands—and heard their music. If ever you are in Nether Lochaber, go to the Fairy Hill, and you may hear the music yourself, as grown-up people have done, but you must go on a fine day. Again, if there are really no fairies, why do people believe in them, all over the world? The ancient Greeks believed, so did the old Egyptians, and the Hindoos, and the Red Indians, and is it likely, if there are no fairies, that so many different peoples would have seen and heard them? The Rev. Mr. Baring-Gould saw several fairies when he was a boy, and was travelling in the land of the Troubadours. For these reasons, the Editor thinks that there are certainly fairies, but they never do anyone any harm; and, in England, they have been frightened away by smoke and schoolmasters. As to Giants, they have died out, but real Dwarfs are common in the forests of Africa. Probably a good many stories not perfectly true have been told about fairies, but such stories have also been told about Napoleon, Claverhouse, Julius Cæsar, and Joan of Arc, all of whom certainly existed. A wise child will, therefore, remember that, if he grows up and becomes a member of the Folk Lore Society, all the tales in this book were not offered to him as absolutely truthful, but were printed merely for his entertainment. The exact facts he can learn later, or he can leave them alone.
There are Russian, German, French, Icelandic, Red Indian, and other stories here. They were translated by Miss Cheape, Miss Alma, and Miss Thyra Alleyne, Miss Sellar, Mr. Craigie (he did the Icelandic tales), Miss Blackley, Mrs. Dent, and Mrs. Lang, but the Red Indian stories are copied from English versions published by the Smithsonian Bureau of Ethnology, in America. Mr. Ford did the pictures, and it is hoped that children will find the book not less pleasing than those which have already been submitted to their consideration. The Editor cannot say ‘good-bye’ without advising them, as they pursue their studies, to read The Rose and the Ring, by the late Mr. Thackeray, with pictures by the author. This book he thinks quite indispensable in every child’s library, and parents should be urged to purchase it at the first opportunity, as without it no education is complete.
- ↑ You may buy them from Mr. Nutt, in the Strand.
CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATES
| The Swineherd takes the Ten Kisses | Frontispiece | |
| The Six Brothers changed into Swans by their Stepmother | To face page | 8 |
| The Witch-maiden sees the Young Man under a Tree | „ | 12 |
| ‘Here you shall remain chained up until you die’ | „ | 20 |
| The Prince throws the Apple to the Princess | „ | 30 |
| The Iron Stove | „ | 32 |
| ‘Standing in the doorway a charming maiden at whose sight his mind seemed to give way’ | „ | 58 |
| The Seven-headed Serpent | „ | 62 |
| The Mirror of the Present | „ | 84 |
| Prince Gnome learns the Name of his Rival at the Golden Fountain | „ | 88 |
| The Black Girl stops the Witch with a Bit of the Rock | „ | 144 |
| Militza and her Maidens in the Garden | „ | 168 |
| Iwanich casts the Fish into the Water | „ | 172 |
| ‘In winter, when everything is dead, she must come and live with me in my palace underground’ | „ | 196 |
| Simpleton's Army appears before the King | „ | 204 |
| The Snow Maiden | „ | 206 |
| ‘Gee up, my five horses’ | „ | 226 |
| The Swineherd takes the Ten Kisses | „ | 250 |
| The Irishman arrives at the Blue Mountains | „ | 262 |
| The Witch comes on Board | „ | 274 |
| Sigurd hews the Chain asunder | „ | 276 |
| The King finds the Queen of Hetland | „ | 302 |
WOODCUTS IN TEXT
| PAGE | |
| The Partnership | 1 |
| At Home in the Church | 2 |
| Protestation | 3 |
| The Way of the World | 3 |
| ‘And then her dress’ | 7 |
| The Youth secures the Dragon | 17 |
| The Emperor comes to see his New Clothes | 24 |
| ‘Let down, let down thy petticoat that lets thy feet be seen’ | 27 |
| The Fisherman brings the Crab on the Golden Cushion | 28 |
| ‘Then she reached the three cutting swords, and got on her plough-wheel and rolled over them’ | 35 |
| The Dragon carries off the Three Soldiers | 39 |
| The Fiend defeated | 41 |
| The Maiden obtains the Bird-heart | 44 |
| The Hunter is transformed into a Donkey | 46 |
| The Young Man gives the Donkeys to the Miller | 48 |
| The Prince looks into the Magic Mirror. | 51 |
| Prince Saphir Steals the Horse and Harness | 55 |
| Ferko healed by Magic Waters | 67 |
| Ferko before the King | 68 |
| Ferko leads the Wolves on | 73 |
| The Herd-boy binds up the Giant's Foot | 75 |
| Rosalie | 82 |
| In the Labyrinth of Despair | 85 |
| The Evil Spirits drag the Girl to the Cauldron | 93 |
| My Enemy is given into my Hands | 97 |
| The Princess and the Eagle in the Flowery Meadow | 102 |
| The Wizard King pays a Visit to the Princess | 105 |
| The Miller sees the Nixy of the Mill-pond | 109 |
| A Wave swept the Spinning-wheel from the Bank | 112 |
| The Boy attacked by the Eagle on the Glass Mountain | 116 |
| The King makes Friends with the Green Monkey | 121 |
| The Green Monkey in the Bath | 123 |
| Lagree gives the Two Bottles to Fairer-than-a-Fairy | 127 |
| Fairer-than-a-Fairy summons the Rainbow | 130 |
| ‘Then the youth swung his mighty sword in the air, and with one blow cut off the serpent’s head’ | 136 |
| ‘My brother, my brother, I am becoming a wolf!’ | 139 |
| ‘But the waters seized her chariot and sunk it in the lowest depths’ | 147 |
| The Indian finds his Wife sitting by the Fire | 150 |
| The Witch persuades the Queen to bathe | 156 |
| The King catches the White Duck | 159 |
| Iwanich holds fast the Swan | 163 |
| Militza leaves Iwanich in the Tree | 164 |
| The Prickly Man with his Attendants | 168 |
| Iwanich seizes the Magician by his Beard and dashes him to the Ground | 176 |
| Martin extinguishes the Flames | 181 |
| The Princess summons the twelve Young Men | 186 |
| Schurka upsets the Baker | 187 |
| The Mouse steals the Ring from the Princess | 189 |
| The Dragons dancing | 195 |
| The Simpleton awakes and sees the Flying Ship | 199 |
| The Comrades in the Flying Ship meet the Drinker | 201 |
| ‘Maiden, are you warm?’ | 211 |
| The Sun-hero guards the Apples of the Sun | 214 |
| ‘Who’s there?’ | 217 |
| The Comb grows into a Forest | 220 |
| The Black King’s Gift | 224 |
| The Farmer thinks he sees the Devil in the Chest | 229 |
| The Shoemakers and Tanners drive Big Klaus out of the Town | 231 |
| ‘Open the sack,’ said Little Klaus | 234 |
| The Woman pushes Prince Ring into the Cask | 238 |
| Snati and Prince Ring fight with the Oxen | 242 |
| Prince Ring and Snati overthrow the Troll’s Ghost | 246 |
| A True Princess | 255 |
| The Princess revives the Irishman | 258 |
| The Soldier fills his Knapsack with Money | 267 |
| The Dog brings in the Princess | 269 |
| ‘He was skipping along so merrily’ | 271 |
| ‘“Croak, croak, croak !” was all he could say’ | 280 |
| Thumbelina rides on the Waterlily Leaf | 281 |
| Thumbelina brings Thistledown for the Swallow | 285 |
| Thumbelina has to spin | 287 |
| ‘We will call you May-blossom’ | 289 |
| The Kitchenmaid listens to the Nightingale | 293 |
| The Present from the Emperor of Japan | 295 |
| The True Nightingale sings to the Emperor | 299 |
| Hadvor burns the Lion’s Skin | 306 |
| ‘Don’t look at things that aren’t intended for the likes of you’ | 309 |
| Down the Drain | 310 |
| And that was the End | 312 |
| ‘Then they oiled the corners of their mouths’ | 314 |
| Hans fills his Pocket with the Mud | 315 |
| ‘The reporters giggled,’ &c | 317 |
THE OUTDOOR WORLD SERIES
With 12 Coloured Plates and a large number of Illustrations in the Text. Crown 8vo. price 10s. 6d. net.
BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS (BRITISH). By W. FURNEAUX, F.R.G.S.
Crown 8vo. price 7s. 6d. With 546 Illustrations, including 16 Coloured Plates.
THE OUTDOOR WORLD OR THE YOUNG COLLECTOR'S HANDBOOK. By W. FURNEAUX, F.R.G.S.
CONTENTS.
| Part I.—ANIMAL LIFE. | |||
| CHAP. | CHAP. | ||
| I. | Ponds and Streams. | V. | Spiders, Centipedes, and Millepedes. |
| II. | Insects and Insect Hunting. | VI. | Reptiles and Reptile Hunting. |
| III. | The Sea-shore. | VII. | British Birds. |
| IV. | Snails and Slugs. | VIII. | British Mammals. |
| Part I.—THE VEGETABLE WORLD. | |||
| IX. | Sea-weeds. | XIII. | Wild Flowers. |
| X. | Fungi. | XIV. | Grasses. |
| XI. | Mosses. | ||
| XII. | Ferns. | XV. | Our Forest Trees. |
| Part I.—THE VEGETABLE WORLD. | |||
| CHAP. XVI. Minerals and Fossils. | |||
London: LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.
New York: 15 East 16th Street.
LONGMANS’ SERIES OF BOOKS FOR GIRLS. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. each.
THE ATELIER DU LYS; or, An Art Student in the Reign of Terror.
By the same Author. MADEMOISELLE MORI: a Tale of Modern Rome. THAT CHILD. With Illustrations by Gordon Browne. UNDER A CLOUD. THE FIDDLER OF LUGAU. With Illustrations by W. Ralston. A CHILD OF THE REVOLUTION. With Illustrations by C. J. Staniland. HESTER’S VENTURE. IN THE OLDEN TIME: a Tale of the Peasant War in Germany. THE YOUNGER SISTER.
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This work was published before January 1, 1925, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.