Stories and literature

Browse story summaries, literary works and mythology. Each article identifies its source or version where available.

Fairy tales, language and interpretation

Follow Thematic Reading Routes: Stories, Idioms and Movement for five ordered comparisons of agency, knowledge, obligation, recognition and homecoming.

Start with Fairy Tales, Idioms and Everyday Speech for expressions and themed reading routes, and Reading Fairy Tales: Archetypes, Motifs and Narrative Roles for versions, motifs and approaches to analysis.

• Cinderella
• Little Red Riding Hood
• Rumpelstiltskin
• Goldilocks and the Three Bears
• The Emperor's New Clothes
• The Ugly Duckling
• The Little Mermaid
• The Red Shoes

Further tales explore recognition, bargains, status and hidden journeys:

• Snow White
• The Frog Prince
• Jack and the Beanstalk
• Puss in Boots
• The Princess and the Pea
• The Snow Queen
• The Fisherman and His Wife
• The Twelve Dancing Princesses

Tales of work, cooperation, voice and vulnerability:

• The Three Little Pigs
• The Elves and the Shoemaker
• The Brave Little Tailor
• The Bremen Town Musicians
• Thumbelina
• The Wild Swans
• The Steadfast Tin Soldier
• The Little Match Girl

Tales of hidden value, animal helpers, time and listening:

• Aladdin
• Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
• Vasilisa the Beautiful
• The Firebird
• Momotaro
• Urashima Taro
• The Tongue-Cut Sparrow
• The Nightingale

Tales of recognition, belonging, contribution and control:

• The Goose Girl
• Mother Holle
• Iron Hans
• East of the Sun and West of the Moon
• The Bamboo-Cutter and the Moon-Child
• Stone Soup
• Sweet Porridge
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Tales of recovered voices, deceptive tests, compelled following and imposed instruction:

• The Juniper Tree: concealed violence, the returning song, narrative roles and opera.
• Fitcher's Bird: a test that fails its maker, collaborative rescue, disguise and photography.
• The Golden Goose: generosity, an involuntary procession, distinct golden-goose stories and film.
• King Thrushbeard: concealed rank, arranged failure, humility and humiliation, and film characterisation.

Browse the expanded collection by recurring image and narrative problem in the Fairy-Tale Motif Index.

Companion tales with detailed source comparisons, narrative roles, expressions and cultural adaptations:

• Rapunzel: access without an exit, changing Grimm editions, voice and recognition.
• Hansel and Gretel: shared agency, disappearing evidence, hunger and a changed homecoming.
• The Sleeping Beauty: different causes of awakening, Perrault's second danger, ballet and film.
• Beauty and The Beast: constrained choices, judgment of conduct, transformation, film and opera.

Compare Bluebeard for concealed violence, the key as evidence, distributed rescue and Bartók's operatic transformation. Pied Piper compares the Grimms' legend with Browning's poem, documented expressions and later visual culture.

Stories and myths

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - changing size, contested rules, narrative roles, rabbit-hole expressions and ballet
• The Pilgrim's Progress - burdens, paths and gates in Bunyan's Christian allegory
• The Odyssey - voyages, restraint, homecoming and recognition
• Pied Piper
• The Sleeping Beauty
• Beowulf
• St George and The Dragon
• Beauty and The Beast
• Peter Pan - Barrie's novel, the return window, time and memory, narrative roles and the hospital connection
• Mahabharata
• Theseus and the Minotaur
• Sisyphus
• Rapunzel
• Hansel and Gretel
• Bluebeard
• The Company of Wolves
• Paperhouse
• Moby Dick
• Frankenstein
• Dracula
• Faust and The Deal with The Devil
• The Golem

Collections

• The Canterbury Tales - an introduction and links to the individual tales

Cultural patterns and related reading

• The Muse
• Scapegoat
• Apocalypse
• Babies in Baskets Floating Down Rivers
• Pachisi
• The Ontological Argument
• The Egyptian Archetypes in The Wizard of Oz
• Chess
• Atlantis

Reading and interpretation

• Narrative and Interpretation - narrator, audience, the order of disclosure and different ways of reading character
• Metaphor in Literature and Creativity - figurative language in context and research on readers' responses
• The Hero's Journey - a comparative framework and its limits
• Metaphor Research Library - free books, research and historical texts

Campbell and comparative mythology

• Myth as Metaphor: Joseph Campbell's Approach
• Joseph Campbell's Four Functions of Myth
• Comparative Mythology: Methods, Evidence and Limitations
• Rites of Passage, Liminality and Thresholds
• Descent into the Underworld
• Death and Renewal in Myth and Metaphor
• The Trickster: Boundaries, Reversals and Disruption

Campbell stories and images

Start with Joseph Campbell: Reading and Listening Guide for the complete collection and its primary sources.

• The Grail Quest and the Wasteland
• Dragons, Treasure and the Thou Shalt
• The Tiger Raised by Goats
• Indra and the Parade of Ants
• Love, Marriage and Sacred Union
• The Goddess in Joseph Campbell's Interpretation of Myth
• Sacrifice, Surrender and Transformation
• Serpents in Myth: Renewal, Knowledge and Danger

Literary and personal interpretation

• Metaphor in Poetry: Close Reading and Interpretation
• Numbers, Pattern and Symbolism in Literature
• Dreams, Metaphor and Interpretation
• Metaphor and Personal Narratives

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Subject index | People and authors | All stories and literature