Feb 22, 2008

"Don't Ever Look at a Mermaid" is a story from England and vicinity, about a mermaid's infatuation with a mortal man; and like last week's story, it entails humans, or in this case, humanoids, assuming animal form. The mermaid motif, which is particularly common in Europe but also crops up in other cultures around...

Feb 14, 2008

"The Castle in the Lake" from Tibet is a tale about a poor herdsman who undertakes a quest to change his fortunes. Like many other stories from many other cultures, he does so by submerging himself into a body of water. And the story also includes an animal transformation motif and a concealed identity motif, rather...