検索キーワード： 制作 "Astorg Audio" 童話・民話・神話

Classic fairy tales and stories are an essential part of children's development. This collection brings together rare fairy tales, stories, myths and legends, to feed the intelligence and imagination of children in their years of development. Here are seven of the rarest and most delightful tales: "How to Tell a True Princess" and "The Darning Needle" by master storyteller Hans Christian Andersen; "Belling the Cat" and "The Wolf and the Fox", taken from Aesop's fables; an English fairy tale, "Master of all Masters"; "Persevere and Prosper", and "The Story of Caliph Stork", two old Arabian tales.

"The Six Swans" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. An evil stepmother uses witchcraft to turn the six sons of her daughter-in-law, the Queen, into swans. The curse can only be broken if their sister sews six nettle shirts and remains silent for seven years. She retires from the world and starts her work, but another King is stricken by her beauty and wants to marry her.

"Hop-o'-My-Thumb" (Hop-on-My-Thumb), or "Hop o' My Thumb", also known as "Little Thumbling" or "Little Poucet" is one of the eight fairytales published by Charles Perrault in "Histoires ou Contes du temps passé" (1697). "Hop-o'-My-Thumb" is the youngest of seven children in a poor woodcutter's family, and his greater wisdom compensates for his smallness of size. When the children are abandoned by their parents, he finds a variety of means to save his life and the lives of his brothers, eventually confronting a scary ogre.

"Hans in Luck" is a fairy tale of German origin, recorded by the brothers Grimm. It is an ironic tale which inverts the normal "rags to riches" story format: in it, Hans gradually loses more and more while persuading himself of his good luck, thus warning children about the dangers of denial and bad business sense. This charming and ancient tale is told by Katie Haigh.

"The Goose Girl" is a German fairy tale in which a widowed queen sends her daughter to her bridegroom in a faraway land, only accompanied by a waiting maid and a magical talking horse. But the evil maid rebels and forces the princess into trading clothes with her and swearing secrecy, effectively taking her place until they arrive at a foreign palace.

"The Fir Tree" is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, about a fir tree so anxious to grow up, so anxious for greater things, that he cannot appreciate living in the moment. It is a melancholy story, warning about the dangers of always expecting greater glory just around the corner, only to be disappointed or to regret the unappreciated instants; only the moment is worthwhile.

"The Flying Trunk" is a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. A young man squanders his inheritance until he has almost nothing left. A friend sends him a trunk with directions to pack up and be off. Having nothing to pack, he gets into the trunk himself, only to discover that the trunk is enchanted and carries him to the land of the Turks.

"The Tinder Box" is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. A poor soldier returning home from war meets a witch who asks him to climb into a hollow tree to retrieve a magic tinder box. In the tree, he finds three chambers filled with precious coins guarded by three monstrous dogs, "one with eyes the size of teacups", who guards a vault filled with pennies, one with "eyes the size of water wheels", who guards a vault filled with silver, and one with eyes "the size of Round Tower", who guards a vault filled with gold.

"Jack and the Beanstalk" is an English fairy tale, the best known of the "Jack Tales", a series of stories featuring an archetypal English hero. According to scholarly research, this particular tale takes its roots in ancient stories told more than 5000 years ago, in which a boy steals an ogre's treasure. In this tale, Jack is a poor boy sent by his mother to the market to sell their dairy cow. He encounters a bean dealer who sells him magic beans.

"Aesop's Fables" is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller believed to have lived in ancient Greece around the fifth century BC. These fables are charming stories, each one leading towards a wise moral. They have been the inspiration for La Fontaine, one of the greatest French writers of all time, and are a perfect tool for educating young children as well as a delight for lovers of elegance and simplicity.