The Wonderful Birch

Andrew Lang (1844 – 1912) was a Scots poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him. Lang was also a prolific author of works both fiction and non; he wrote his own fairy tales such as Prince Prigio and Prince Ricardo of Pantouflia, and wrote numerous historical texts.


‘The Wonderful Birch’ tells us about a farmer and his wife who lose one of their sheep. The sheep was of great importance to them so the wife thought of a way to bring it back. So she went to a witch and told her about their problem. In the result the witch turned her into a black sheep but everything wasn’t that simple. The witch was cunning and she turned herself into that woman to in order to deceive the woman’s husband and steal her life…