French Legends, Tales & Fairy Stories

France is full of folk-tales and fairy stories, heroic, courtly, plain and coloured. Barbara Leonie Picard, outstanding as a writer in the true Andersen tradition, has brought together and told anew a selection of these traditional stories, a distinguished addition to the Oxford Myths and Legends series.

The book is in four parts. The immortal Roland and Oliver open the tales of the French epic heroes; courtly tales of the Middle Ages include Aucassin and Nicolette, Huon of Bordeaux, Amis and Amile, and the enchanting story of The Grey Palfrey; in legends from the French provinces you will find, among others, The Stones of Plouhinec (from Brittany), The Cliff of the Two Lovers (from Normandy), and from Gascony the pleasantly entitled Prince of the Seven Golden Cows; and last come the fairy stories, which include a splendidly comic tall story, The Miller and the Ogre, as well as the delightful Mouse-Princess.