Dedicated to the study of fairy tales and folktales of the world.

 
Fairy Tales Home
Fairies

Norse-Franco-German Fairy Tales
Norse Franco German Fairies
Gernan Fairy Tales
Swedish Fairy Tales
Norwegian Fairy Tales

French Fairy Tales
& More tales

Celtic Fairy Tales
Celtic Fairies
Welsh Fairy Tales
Irish Fairy Tales
& More Tales


Fairy Blog
Fairy Songs
Origins of Europes Fairies
& More Fairy Articles

Finno-Baltic-Siberian Fairy Tales
Finno-Baltic-Siberian Fairies
Finnish Mythology
Estonian Mythology
Mari-el Fairy Tales
& More Tales

Greco-Roman Mythology
Greco-Roman Fairies
Greek Fairy Tales
Roman Mythology


Slavic Mythology
Slavic Fairies
Russian Fairy Tales
Polish Fairy Tales
& More Tales


Tales of Other Lands
Fairies of Other Lands
Japanese Fairy Tales
Chinese Folktales
& More Tales

Fairy Tales for Kids
Children's Dutch Fairy Tales
Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know



Fairy Tale Stories      Children's Fairy Tales      Fairies      Blog     About






Sir Gammer Vans


Last Sunday morning at six o'clock in the evening as I was sailing over the tops of the mountains in my little boat, I met two men on horseback riding on one mare: So I asked them, "Could they tell me whether the little old woman was dead yet who was hanged last Saturday week for drowning herself in a shower of feathers?" They said they could not positively inform me, but if I went to Sir Gammer Vans he could tell me all about it. "But how am I to know the house?" said I. "Ho, 't is easy enough," said they, "for 't is a brick house, built entirely of flints, standing alone by itself in the middle of sixty or seventy others just like it."

"Oh, nothing in the world is easier," said I.

"Nothing can be easier," said they: so I went on my way.

Now this Sir G. Vans was a giant, and a bottle-maker. And as all giants who are bottle-makers usually pop out of a little thumb-bottle from behind the door, so did Sir G. Vans.

"How d'ye do?" says he.

"Very well, I thank you," says I.

"Have some breakfast with me?"

"With all my heart," says I.

So he gave me a slice of beer, and a cup of cold veal; and there was a little dog under the table that picked up all the crumbs.

"Hang him," says I.

"No, don't hang him," says he; "for he killed a hare yesterday. And if you don't believe me, I'll show you the hare alive in a basket."

So he took me into his garden to show me the curiosities. In one corner there was a fox hatching eagle's eggs; in another there was an iron apple tree, entirely covered with pears and lead; in the third there was the hare which the dog killed yesterday alive in the basket; and in the fourth there were twenty-four hipper switches threshing tobacco, and at the sight of me they threshed so hard that they drove the plug through the wall, and through a little dog that was passing by on the other side. I, hearing the dog howl, jumped over the wall; and turned it as neatly inside out as possible, when it ran away as if it had not an hour to live. Then he took me into the park to show me his deer: and I remembered that I had a warrant in my pocket to shoot venison for his majesty's dinner. So I set fire to my bow, poised my arrow, and shot amongst them. I broke seventeen ribs on one side, and twenty-one and a half on the other; but my arrow passed clean through without ever touching it, and the worst was I lost my arrow: however, I found it again in the hollow of a tree. I felt it; it felt clammy. I smelt it; it smelt honey. "Oh, ho," said I, "here's a bee's nest," when out sprang a covey of partridges. I shot at them; some say I killed eighteen; but I am sure I killed thirty-six, besides a dead salmon which was flying over the bridge, of which I made the best apple-pie I ever tasted.

 

 











All English Fairy Tales

THE STORY OF THE THREE LITTLE PIGS

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK

JACK THE GIANT-KILLER

THE PIED PIPER OF FRANCHVILLE

THE STORY OF THE THREE BEARS

TOM TIT TOT

THE THREE SILLIES

THE ROSE-TREE

THE OLD WOMAN AND HER PIG

HOW JACK WENT TO SEEK HIS FORTUNE

MR. VINEGAR

NIX NOUGHT NOTHING

JACK HANNAFORD

BINNORIE

MOUSE AND MOUSER

CAP O' RUSHES

TEENY-TINY

THE MASTER AND HIS PUPIL

TITTY MOUSE ND TATTY MOUSE

JACK AND HIS GOLDEN SNUFF-BOX

HENNY-PENNY

CHILDE ROWLAND

MOLLY WHUPPIE

THE RED ETTIN

MASTER OF ALL MASTERS.

THE GOLDEN ARM

THE HISTORY OF TOM THUMB

MR. FOX

LAZY JACK

JOHNNY-CAKE

EARL MAR'S DAUGHTER

MR. MIACCA

WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAT

THE STRANGE VISITOR

THE LAIDLY WORM OF SPINDLESTON HEUGH

THE CAT AND THE MOUSE.

THE FISH AND THE RING.

THE MAGPIE'S NEST

KATE CRACKERNUTS

THE CAULD LAD OF HILTON

THE ASS, THE TABLE, AND THE STICK

FAIRY OINTMENT

THE WELL OF THE WORLD'S END.

THE THREE HEADS OF THE WELL