Once Long Ago: Folk & Fairy Tales of the World is a book of 70 fairy tales from many countries and cultures. The tales are told by Roger Lancelyn Green and illustrated by Vojtěch Kubašta. The book was published in 1962 by Golden Pleasure Books in London and reprinted in 1966 (second edition) and 1967 (third edition). It is out of print.
The book is notable for the wide variety of its tales, most of which will be unfamiliar to readers from English-speaking countries, such as "The Nung-Guama" (Chinese), "The Voice of Death" (Romanian), and "Long, Stout, and Sharpeyes" (Czech). More familiar tales include "Little Snow White" and "The Sleeping Beauty."
Contents
All wording and spelling appears as in the original book.
Title Country/Culture The Boy and the Wolves American Indian The Son of the Wolf Chief American Indian The Blacksmith and the Devil American Negro The Prince and the Fairy Arabian Zoulvisia Armenian The Bunyip Australian The Nyamatsanes Basuto The Story of Yara Brazilian The Fairy Wife Chinese The Nung-Guama Chinese The Young Man and the Sea Maid Cretan Long, Stout and Sharpeyes Czech Hans, the Mermaid's Son Danish The Magic Book Danish The Treasure Thief Egyptian Jack and the Beanstalk English Coat of Rushes English The Three Bears English The Six Sillies English Sedna and the Hunter Eskimo The Dragon of the North Estonian The Hungry Beasts Finnish The Twelve Dancing Princesses Flemish Johnny Nut and the Golden Goose Flemish The Sleeping Beauty French Puss in Boots French Cinderella French Little Snow White German The Singing, Soaring Lark German The Three Treasures German The Fisherman and his Wife German The Hungry Prince Ancient Greek The Princess Atalanta Ancient Greek Yannikas and Marika Modern Greek The Boy and the Dragon Modern Greek The Grateful Animals Hungarian The Witch in the Stone Boat Icelandic The Lucky Adventurer Indian The Black Thief Irish The Leprechaun Irish The Frog Princess Italian The Cat Lovers Japanese The Foolish Giant Lapp The Three Princes Lithuanian The Wonderful Twins Mexican The Cunning Tortoise Nigerian Why the Sea is Salt Norse Soria Moria Castle Norse The Magic Bird Persian The Prince and the Maiden Peruvian The Glass Mountain Polish The Bones of Djulung Polynesian The Prince and the Dove Portuguese The Magic Mirror Rhodesian The Two Kings Rhodian The Voice of Death Romanian (spelled "Rumanian" in the text) Koshchei the Undying Russian The Witch in the Wood Russian Childe Roland Scottish The Brown Bull of Norrowa Scottish The Three Beggars Serbian The Cunning Shoemaker Sicilian The half-chick Spanish The Water of Life Spanish The Coward Sudanese The Prince and the Fox Swedish The Griffin Swiss Abu Nowas and his Wife Tunisian Madschun Turkish The Fairy of the Lake Welsh
Related works
A stripped-down version of the book, titled Once Upon a Time: Folk and Fairy Tales of the World, was also published in 1962 by Golden Press (New York) and The Musson Book Company (Toronto). This edition used the same illustrated layouts, but only half (35) of the tales, for a total of 140 pages.
References