English Fairy Tales
1918
Here are the tales England told before the world forgot how dark fairy stories could be. Flora Annie Steel gathered forty-one stories from the oral tradition and set them down with a folklorist's ear for rhythm and arc, while Arthur Rackham's illustrations render giants, witches, and talking cauldrons with an elegance that still startles. These are not the softened versions familiar from film and picture books. Jack is cunning and occasionally cruel. The Three Bears are genuinely frightening. Good prevails, but often through wit rather than virtue, and the consequences for trespass and disobedience carry real weight. The collection opens with St. George slaying a dragon to save a maiden, establishing the collection's commitment to heroic adventure and moral complexity in equal measure. These are the stories that shaped English imaginative life, and they retain their power to delight and unnerve in the same breath. For readers who want the originals, unspun and undiluted, this is where to find them.
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“Be bold, be bold, but not too bold,Lest that your heart's blood should run cold.””
— Flora Annie Webster Steel
“My darter ha' ate five, five pies to-day. My darter ha' ate five, five pies to-day." The king was coming down the street, and he heard her sing, but what she sang he couldn't hear, so he stopped and said: "What was that you were singing, my good woman?" The woman was ashamed to let him hear what her daughter had been doing, so she sang, instead of that: "My darter ha' spun five, five skeins to-day.””
— Flora Annie Webster Steel
“Now, what's my name?" says he. "What, is that Bill?" says she. "Noo, that ain't," says he, and he twirled his tail. "Is that Ned?" says she. "Noo, that ain't," says he, and he twirled his tail. "Well, is that Mark?" says she. "Noo, that ain't," says he.””
— Flora Annie Webster Steel
“Once upon a time there was a teeny-tiny woman lived in a teeny-tiny house in a teeny-tiny village. Now, one day this teeny-tiny woman put on her teeny-tiny bonnet, and went out of her teeny-tiny house to take a teeny-tiny walk. And when this teeny-tiny woman had gone a teeny- tiny way she came to a teeny-tiny gate; so the teeny-tiny woman opened the teeny-tiny gate, and went into a teeny-tiny churchyard. And when this teeny-tiny woman had got into the teeny-tiny churchyard, she saw a teeny-tiny bone on a teeny-tiny grave, and the teeny-tiny woman said to her teeny-tiny self, "This teeny-tiny bone will make me some teeny- tiny soup for my teeny-tiny supper." So the teeny-tiny woman put the teeny-tiny bone into her teeny-tiny pocket, and went home to her teeny-tiny house.””
— Flora Annie Webster Steel
“Lady Mary was young, and Lady Mary was fair. She had two brothers, and more lovers than she could count. But of them all, the bravest and most gallant, was a Mr. Fox, whom she met when she was down at her father's country-house. No one knew who Mr. Fox was; but he was certainly brave, and surely rich, and of all her lovers, Lady Mary cared for him alone. At last it was agreed upon between them that they should be married. Lady Mary asked Mr. Fox where they should live, and he described to her his castle, and where it was; but, strange to say, did not ask her, or her brothers to come and see it. So one day, near the wedding-day, when her brothers were out, and Mr. Fox was away for a day or two on business, as he said, Lady Mary set out for Mr. Fox's castle. And after many searchings, she came at last to it, and a fine strong house it was, with high walls and a deep moat. And when she came up to the gateway she saw written on it: BE BOLD, BE BOLD. But as the gate was open, she went through it, and found no one there. So she went up to the doorway, and over it she found written: BE BOLD, BE BOLD, BUT NOT TOO BOLD. Still she went on, till she came into the hall, and went up the broad stairs till she came to a door in the gallery, over which was written: BE BOLD, BE BOLD, BUT NOT TOO BOLD, LEST THAT YOUR HEART'S BLOOD SHOULD RUN COLD. But Lady Mary was a brave one, she was, and she opened the door, and what do you think she saw? Why, bodies and skeletons of beautiful young ladies all stained with blood.””
— Flora Annie Webster Steel
“Well, come supper-time the woman said: "Go you, and get one o' them there pies. I dare say they've come again now.””
— Flora Annie Webster Steel
“breakfast.””
— Flora Annie Webster Steel
“When the little pig saw what he was about, he hung on the pot full of water, and made up a blazing fire, and, just as the wolf was coming down, took off the cover, and in fell the wolf; so the little pig put on the cover again in an instant, boiled him up, and ate him for supper, and lived happy ever afterwards.””
— Flora Annie Webster Steel
