Balkan Folktales

The telling of tales has been for many ages a principal form of entertainment among most peoples of the world. The guess is that it is the fundamental form of literature, a form which can be studied on a world-wide basis. The chief purpose of telling tales has been the whiling away of leisure time, an aesthetic practice. Listening to tales has the same function as looking at the movies has with us—simple, innocuous entertainment. There is no utilitarian, educational, or religious basis for folk tales, nor are they meant to be didactic in any way. There is not much realism in the field of folk tales; it is a world of imag­ination, improbability, and impossibility.

These tales and Folklore are the true mirrors of the Balkan civilizations, culture, customs, and traditions. And the beauty is that they teach very simple and basic universal values of moral character, love, truth, dutifulness, compassion and the brotherhood of all humans. The grassroots level texture of the stories is endearing. 

In this collection, we attempted to compile only the best educative and moral folktales. They entertain, educate, and kindle into the children a new realization of the world they are part of. The folktales introduce children to the civilizations and the cultures of the Balkan countries and to the diversity of their own country to embellish their general knowledge. This is an additional step further towards making them the brilliant ones.

This edition, the fourth volume in the series "Balkan Folktales" contains 12 magnificent Serbian folktales, selected and translated into English. The folk tales are translated into easy and accessible English and they are suitable for reading both by children and their parents.