"Experience the magical world of Irish storytelling where many remarkable characters await you: a king with a mysterious secret, brave warriors famous for their strength, a clever leprechaun who outwits humans, and many more"--Front dust jacket flap.

In this Irish folktale, a young and powerful king has an embarrassing secret: he has horse's ears! Then one day, the royal barber discovers this unusual trait. Can he keep the king's long-held secret, or will the barber be banished from the kingdom for good? With clever text and easy-to-follow panels, Discover Graphics: Global Folktales are perfect for even the newest graphic novel fans!

This witty folktale about a king with a secret is retold by an acclaimed storyteller. King Mark has a secret: he has horse's ears. No one knows about it except his barber, who could lose his head if he tells. But knowing the secret makes the barber ill, so his doctor advises him to tell his secret to the ground. The secret then grows into reeds, the reeds are made into pipes - and what happens next will surprise and amuse young readers. The story of King Mark and his ears is told with lively humor by professional storyteller Eric Maddern, and Paul Hess's delightfully droll artwork adds to the fun.

A varied collection of ten of the best-loved traditional Irish stories.

TOWARDS the close of the seventies I began to collect Welsh folklore. I did so partly because others had set the example elsewhere, and partly in order to see whether Wales could boast of any story-tellers of the kind that delight the readers of Campbell'sPopular Tales of the West Highlands. I soon found what I was not wholly unprepared for, that as a rule I could not get a single story of any length from the mouths of any of my fellow countrymen, but a considerable number of bits of stories. In some instances these were so scrappy that it took me years to discover how to fit them into their proper context; but, speaking generally, I may say, that, as the materials, such as they were, accumulated, my initial difficulties disappeared. I was, however, always a little afraid of refreshing my memory with the legends of other lands lest I should read into those of my own, ideas possibly foreign to them. While one is busy collecting, it is safest probably not to be too much engaged in comparison: when the work of collecting is done that of comparing may begin. But. after all I have not attempted to proceed very far in that direction, only just far enough to find elucidation here and there for the meaning of items of folklore brought under my notice. To have gone further would have involved me in excursions hopelessly beyond the limits of my undertaking, for comparative folklore has lately assumed such dimensions, that it seems best to leave it to those who make it their special study.

This collection of Newfoundland folk narratives, first published in 1996, grew out of extensive fieldwork in folk culture in the province. The intention was to collect as broad a spectrum of traditional material as possible, and Folktales of Newfoundland is notable not only for the number and quality of its narratives, but also for the format in which they are presented. A special transcription system conveys to the reader the accents and rhythms of each performance, and the endnote to each tale features an analysis of the narrator’s language. In addition, Newfoundland has preserved many aspects of English and Irish folk tradition, some of which are no longer active in the countries of their origin. Working from the premise that traditions virtually unknown in England might still survive in active form in Newfoundland, the researchers set out to discover if this was in fact the case.