Showing results by narrator "Robin Nixon" in All Categories

The German tale of four brothers who set out to learn their crafts in the big wide world. When they return home as skilled men; a thief, an astronomer, a hunter, and a tailor their skills are challenged by their father - I should like to try what each of you can do in this way.

"Little Red Cap" captures a formative experience in the speaker's transition from childhood to adulthood: her first sexual relationship. The poem alludes to the tale of "Little Red Riding Hood", in which a young girl is hoodwinked and eaten by a wolf.

"Sweetheart Roland" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm .A wicked witch had an evil daughter, whom she loved, and a good stepdaughter, whom she hated. One day, the witch decided she would kill the stepdaughter at night, and the daughter was told to make sure she lay by the wall, and her stepsister in the front of the bed. The stepdaughter overheard this and, after her stepsister slept, she shifted their places. The witch instead killed her own daughter, and the stepdaughter rose and went to her sweetheart Roland, telling what had happened, and that they had to flee.

There is a man with three daughters. One day, he must leave on a journey and asks each of his daughters what they would like him to bring back. The oldest wants diamonds, the second pearls, and the youngest a singing, springing lark. The man is able to find diamonds and pearls, but he fails to find a lark. On his journey home, the man sees a lark in a tall tree, and orders his servant to catch it.

Jorinda and Jorindel, two lovers engaged to be married, went for a walk in the forest. They came too near to the witch's lair. She turned Jorinda into a nightingale and petrified Jorindel to the ground. Once she had carried away the bird, she freed Joringel, laughing that he would never see Jorindel again.

"The Emperor's New Clothes" (Danish: Kejserens nye Klæder) is a short tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, about two weavers who promise an emperor a new suit of clothes that they say is invisible to those who are unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent. When the emperor parades before his subjects in his new clothes, no one dares to say that they don't see any suit of clothes on him for fear that they will be seen as "unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent". Finally, a child cries out, "But he isn't wearing anything at all!"

Once upon a time there was a little boy who had taken cold. He had gone out and got his feet wet; though nobody could imagine how it had happened, for it was quite dry weather. So his mother undressed him, put him to bed, and had the tea-pot brought in, to make him a good cup of Elderflower tea. Just at that moment the merry old man came in who lived up a-top of the house all alone; for he had neither wife nor children--but he liked children very much, and knew so many fairy tales, that it was quite delightful.