Kirjastus "Raduga" Moscow

This collection has well over 50 folk-tales from the British isles as compiled into one set by James Riordan. The tales are organized by region. These include the West Country, the South East, Wales, the Midlands and so forth. Also included are tales from Scotland and Ireland. The book is from a Soviet publisher, Raduga, but the stories themselves are in English. The foreward is in Russian, though, and there are a number of the stories in Russian translation at the end of the book. The end of the book includes notes in English to the stories that are fascinating to read as well as they explain the sources of the stories, some of which are older people who were interviewed by folklorists. There is also an extensive English bibliography. A glossary is also included. The glossary is necessary because the stories are told in folk language and the English that is spoken in the folk-tales is sometimes archaic or has the differences expected in dialects. However, none of the stories are difficult to read, although they do sound quite folksy.

Reading these stories is quite amazing. The language is quite old-fashioned and the mindset in them seems to be rooted in the distant past. They truly seem to be taken directly out of the deep past and presented as if an ancient one was telling them. They are, to be a little poetic, fringed with mist and fog and as you read you begin to see queer things out of the corner of your eye. The stories are indeed at times a bit scary and I spent many winter evenings cozying up with this up under a warm blanket.

Some of the stories included are Jan Coo, Jacky-my-Lantern, The Three Sillies, The Sweating Fairies, The Lady of Llyn y Fan Fach, Taffy ap Sion and the Fairy Ring, The Sunken City of Llyn Bala, The Wise Men of Gotham, Ghosts in the Fen, Tom Tit Tot,The Selkie Wife, the Wal at the Warld's End, the Selkie that Deud No' Forget and many others.

This is truly a wonderful book that is worth purchasing and treasuring.