Fables and Fairytales.com is a non-profit site for visitors from all over the world to share and read fables and fairy tales.

Our main objective is to promote the importance of such stories in developing culture, imagination and creativity. We believe that reading the fables and fairy tales from different cultures allow us to build a greater understanding and appreciation of the diversity around the world.

We organise storytelling sessions around the world. Watch out for our monthly “Fable and Fairy Tale” writing competition for different age groups. We also run the permanent “Fable and Fairy Tales” museum in Hanau, Germany, at the home of the Brothers Grimm.

Contact us at museum@fablesandfairytales.com to arrange your visit!

The museum is open to all individuals and school groups with a booking. A multilingual guide is available on request. No charges for guides and admissions but donations are much appreciated.

Ongoing Event: Find a Storyteller Listen to a story come to life with some of best storytellers in the world. Choose from enthusiastic performers who will sing and act out a famous story for you, or an elderly grandmother who will charm the audience with her voice alone. We have more than 150 amateur and professional storytellers in our list. Join us as a storyteller! If you are passionate about being a storyteller, send us a video of a reading to storyteller@fablesandfairytales.com. Most of our storytellers are amateurs who do it for the love of the stories. Some are professionals who do charge for their services. Do contact to find out the cost, if any, for their services.

Put up a great performance and we will include you in our list!

Anyone who knew Jack knew him well. He was the first to hide under the bed covers every time the sky grew grey and thunder was heard in the distance. He was in great fear of storms. However, that day changed it all.

With dark clouds in the morning, Jack was in the car with his sister, Emily, who was driving them home. Jack was holding the sides of his seat tightly. As a result, his knuckles (指关节) turned white. Suddenly, the treacherous road conditions sent the car into a slide. The vehicle went off the wet and slippery road, rolled several times and finally rest upside down. Fortunately, both of them were wearing seat belts. Head bleeding heavily, Emily was conscious but unable to move. Thankfully Jack was unhurt.

Water poured through the broken windows of the car. Suddenly, Jack recalled something. He quickly unfastened the seat belt and moved out of the passenger window. With rain beating against his face and arms, Jack made his way to the driver’s side with great difficulty. He managed to pull her through the window. Suddenly, he felt a strong pain on his arms. It was only later that Jack realized the broken pieces of the window had cut them while he was pulling his sister through the window. Finally Jack dragged Emily up to the road. They were soon rescued.

Emily later recalled her terrifying experience and was truly amazed by his courage. Jack’s act of courage was motivated by his favourite book: The Little Engine That Could. In it, when everyone had given up hope, the Little Engine carried the heavy toys and candies over the hill to the children waiting on the other side. The Little Engine had shown courage and taken action.

Obviously, we cannot attribute Jack’s bravery to that one story but without doubt, the book had left a deep impression on him and inspired him to respond positively in a difficult situation.

Researchers in Japan have installed (安装) on a train a speaker that barks like a dog and snorts like a deer in order to prevent collisions with animals on the tracks.

The country has been troubled by a problem with trains colliding with deer on its railways. According to Japan’s transport ministry, there were 613 cases of train services delayed for at least 30 minutes resulting from collisions with deer and other wild animals in 2018-19.

Deer are attracted to railway lines because of a need for iron in their diets. They lick (舔) the rails to pick up iron filings caused by the action of wheels against tracks. This dietary need has led to a constant battle to keep the deer separate from the danger of a fast-moving train. In the past, flashing red lights and even lion faces have been unsuccessfully trialed in an attempt to keep deer off the tracks.

This new device has been invented by a team at the country’s Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRD). RTRI officials explain that deer have a habit of repeatedly snorting short, shrill sounds to warn other deer when they sense danger. The barking of the hunting dog, which drives deer to panic, strengthens the effect of the warning noise, according to the RTRI. When the deer hear a combination of a 3-second-long recording of a deer’s snort and 20 seconds of a barking dog, they panic and flee rapidly.

RTRI researchers say late-night tests, at times when deer are most frequently seen by railway tracks, have resulted in a 45 percent reduction of deer sighting. Future plans include still barking sites where deer are commonly seen, but the unpleasant noises will not be so loud in areas where people live beside the tracks.

Being able to tell human faces apart is a skill that almost every person has, although some are far better at it than others. But a new study out from the journal Scientific Reports says that this is not just a skill that humans possess. Even fish can do it.

Following up on research studying different species’ abilities to recognize human faces (sheep, dogs, cows, horses, and-birds have all been tried), the researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Queensland decided to pick an animal that does not have an evolved neocortex, the part of the brain that processes sight and sounds, and does not have a close relationship with humans. That way, there would be no reason why these test subjects would have a past history of identifying human faces. So they picked the archerfish, a reef fish variety that shoots water into the air to knock its prey out of the sky. They used this adaptation to have the fish spray water at a face on a monitor hanging over their tanks for a reward. Most of the fish were able to pick out their learned face, even when colors were taken away or methods were used to make the face shapes unclear.

This study gives more backing to the hypothesis that differentiating between faces is not just a skill that big -brained organisms are born with. It is possible that a good portion of recognizing faces is learned over time. The development of the neocortex may contribute only to quickly process a large number of faces in varying situations. But more work needs to be conducted to find a deeper link to this possible learned behavior. The sample size of this study was very small—only eight fish were used altogether. Also, the faces displayed on the monitor were only white, female faces from a German database, shown in a frontal view, with no expressions. Other animal trials have shown that some species, like pigeons, respond more to differing angles and varied expressions.