Europe of Tales

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• Learn more about folklore, language arts, mythology, second languages, and world cultures.

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Giants, hags, maidens are the characters in these tales, along with some fairy tale players you have never seen, like Korrigans and Hiisi. Read the folktales of various European countries, illustrated with animations, traditional artwork, and photographs, to learn more about the culture and history of the region. Select a country from the choices of Scotland, Finland, Iceland, Italy or Brittany, and then choose from one of four stories. There is a link to a map in the story window in case you don’t know where the country is located in Europe. Use the yellow arrow to move through the story and as you read, click on any underlined word to see a related image and read the definition of that word. Stories include readings in the native language, sound effects and music so make sure you have your sound enabled!

Tales include place names and culture-specific vocabulary that students may find challenging. Encourage students to first select the Photo Gallery (or Dictionary), linked at the bottom of each story window, to read, and in some cases see images, relevant to the stories from that country. For example, in the Scottish section there are explanations of more general but important related concepts like wedding, harvest and peat, illustrated with period photographs. There are also explanations of culturally specific items like the plaid, and images of places and historical items like The Maiden Stone, a Pictish artifact created sometime between 700 and 900 A.D. Once students have read about these new terms and seen images related to key vocabulary they will be better able to understand the folktale they are about to read. Not every country’s section includes a dictionary, so be sure to explore the contents before creating assignments.

Some additional information to provide context for the traditional tales and cultural resources is linked from the bottom of each story window. Click on Info to learn about the people from whom the tale originated, in some cases a minority ethnic group or ancient indigenous group. There are also links to other culture-specific websites.

Select the link at the bottom of the story window marked Tasks to locate ideas for teaching with this site. (the Tasks are general – the same throughout the website) These activities, designed to increase understanding of and interest in traditional storytelling, are focused on the traditional role stories play in preserving culture, entertaining and educating. After exploring stories from different cultures, students may compare and contrast the purpose, characters and plot to learn about the people who first told these tales. Compare these to the folktales of today — how does the “Disnification” of traditional tales affect the content or the emotions evoked by the telling?