Welcome to The Arabian Nights Entertainments! This is the second of 16 parts that make up Andrew Lang’s The Arabian Nights Entertainments. In this series, you’ll hear some familiar stories, some new stories, and even stories within stories. Everyone has a story to tell. In today’s stories we have four different characters telling stories, in addition to our main narrator! Our stories are  The Story of the Fisherman, The Story of the Greek King and the Physician Douban, The Story of the Husband and the Parrot, The Story of the Vizir Who Was Punished, and The Story of the Young King of the Black Isles.  

Family Folk Tales

The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Part 2

Welcome to The Arabian Nights Entertainments! This is the first of 16 parts that make up Andrew Lang’s The Arabian Nights Entertainments. In this series, you’ll hear some familiar stories, some new stories, and even stories within stories.  Our stories today are The Arabian Nights, The Story of the Merchant and the Genie, The Story of the First Old Man and the Hind, and The Story of the Second Old Man, and of the Two Dogs. Here we begin with Scheherazade and  stories within a story. You’ll soon discover that genies are not always kind and helpful!  

The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Part 1

A young prince is left in charge of his step-father’s prize prisoner and decides to release him. Deciding not to wait for his inevitably painful death, the prince runs away. As he travels, he spares the lives of a wood-pigeon, a duck, and a stork, then meets up and travels with two former soldiers. Their ultimate betrayal leaves the prince fearing for his life; will his earlier kindness save his own life? 

The Gold-Bearded Man

Three brothers have acquired amazing skills; who will most impress their father, and earn the inheritance? 

The Three Brothers

Three sisters, each lost in the woods, find themselves in the same humble home for the night. Who will know the importance of kindness, and who will receive an unpleasant surprise? 

The House in the Wood

You’re probably familiar with this story, but there’s a lot more to it than you may know! 

Jack and the Beanstalk

Three princes are sent on an impossible quest by their stepmother. They join forces with a notorious thief, but can they talk their way out of death when they’re caught? 

The Black Thief and the Knight of the Glen

An exceptionally strong youth named Paul goes out to seek his fortune and is joined by three companions almost as strong. When he is betrayed by those friends, how will Paul find his way? 

Shepherd Paul

After his father’s death, a young man squanders his inheritance and is left penniless. When a friend sends him a trunk that can fly, he ends up in Turkey and charms a princess. Will they get their happily ever after? 

The Flying Trunk

The movie adaptation you probably know is much gentler than this story by Hans Christian Andersen really is; grown-ups may want to listen alone before listening with little ones! 

The Little Mermaid

A happy youth, or a happy old age – which would you choose? Catherine is given that very choice by her Destiny; let’s see if she chooses wisely!  

Catherine and Her Destiny

 A king asks his two daughters if they are they satisfied to leave their life and fortune in his hands. The elder daughter, Kupti, agrees, but the younger daughter, Imani, would like a chance to make her own future. The displeased king calls for an old fakir, and sends Imani to live with him and try to make a life for herself. Which princess will have a happier ending?  

Kupti and Imani

You may already know this story! A woodcutter and his wife have no more food for their family, and so decide to take their 2 children into the forest and abandon them to their fates. They are taken in by an old woman living in a fantastical house, but all is not as it seems.

Hansel and Grettel

This Icelandic tale features a clever princess, an evil witch-queen, and a prince taken by a dragon. What will happen when the prince returns to his parents years later?

Geirlaug the King's Daughter

In this French tale, an impish little rogue who can transform himself into anything but a sewing needle seeks new victims for his tricks.

A French Puck

What is Family Folktales? Think of it as a storytime on demand; whether you?re running errands, trying to make dinner, or getting little someones ready for bed, you can listen to a story or two. The stories may be new to you or old favorites, or even different (possibly gorier) versions of those stories you now share with your children.

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Family Folk Tales

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