Belgian Fairy Tales

Folklore is an integrant part of Europe. It both expresses Europe’s history and influenced it in return. There are in Europe a rich amount of Fairy tales which made the fame of renowned collectors such as the Grimm brothers or Hans Christian Andersen. But for some country, few is actually known about the variety of their Fairy Tales outside their borders. The following list is a selection of the best Fairy Tales or pieces of literature for children collected in every European country. Folklore of the Low Countries, often just referred to as Dutch folklore, includes the epics, legends, fairy tales and oral traditions of the people of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. Traditionally this folklore is written or spoken in Dutch. Some of the Pre-Christian Dutch mythology took less sacred forms in the Middle Ages folklore and fairy tales, for example tales of the witte wieven, elf and kabouter continued, combining Christian and fairy tale elements. The mythology of Wodan on the Wild Hunt sailing through the sky, is thought to have been one of the tales that changed into tales of Christian Sinterklaas traveling the sky.