Myths, Fairytales and Legends

A girl’s choice of words sees her turned out of hearth and home.

This distinctively English tale has a lot of Cinderella in it, but in some ways it is a richer story, framed by an Aesop-like moral and not cluttered by magic.

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A man’s mid-life crisis leaves him a little ... exposed.

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The outlaw showed that strange as it may be, he did have a code of honour.

This tale opens a mediaeval ballad called ‘The Gest of Robin Hood’, and introduces us to the dashing outlaw’s peculiar code of ethics.

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One had natural talent but no discipline, the other had discipline but no natural talent.

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The legend of how Rome was settled gave rise to the March festival of Roman motherhood.

Romans began March, the month of the war-god Mars, by celebrating the ‘Matronalia’, a kind of mothers’ day with presents for the ladies and a day off for slaves. The strange juxtaposition of war and love was said to go back to the legend of how Romulus’s Rome was settled.

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A little fable of encouragement for all the suffering.

This touching tale appears almost out of nowhere in Jerome K. Jerome’s comic novel. It reminds us that only those who utterly despair understand hope, and only those who truly grieve know the meaning of joy.

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