Italian Folktales


Italian Folktales is a collection of 200 Italian folktales published in 1956 by Italo Calvino. Calvino began the project in 1954, influenced by Vladimir Propp's Morphology of the Folktale; his intention was to emulate the Straparola in producing a popular collection of Italian fairy tales for the general reader. He did not compile tales from listeners, but made extensive use of the existing work of folklorists; he noted the source of each individual tale, but warned that was merely the version he used.
He included extensive notes on his alterations to make the tales more readable and the logic of his selections, such as renaming the heroine of The Little Girl Sold with the Pears Perina rather than Margheritina to connect to the pears, and selecting Bella Venezia as the Italian variant of Snow White because it featured robbers, rather than the variants containing dwarfs, which he suspected were imported from Germany.
It was first translated into English in 1962; a further translation is by Sylvia Mulcahy and constituted the first comprehensive collection of Italian folktales.

List of tales

  1. Dauntless Little John vannino senza paura;
  2. The Man Wreathed in Seaweed
  3. The Ship with Three Decks
  4. The Man Who Came Out Only at Night
  5. And Seven!
  6. Body-without-Soul
  7. Money Can Do Everything
  8. The Little Shepherd
  9. Silver Nose
  10. The Count's Beard
  11. The Little Girl Sold with the Pears
  12. The Snake
  13. The Three Castles
  14. The Prince Who Married a Frog
  15. The Parrot
  16. The Twelve Oxen
  17. Crack and Crook
  18. The Canary Prince
  19. King Crin
  20. Those Stubborn Souls, the Biellese
  21. The Pot of Marjoram
  22. The Billiards Player
  23. Animal Speech
  24. The Three Cottages
  25. The Peasant Astrologer
  26. The Wolf and the Three Girls
  27. The Land Where One Never Dies
  28. The Devotee of St. Joseph
  29. The Three Crones
  30. The Crab Prince
  31. Silent for Seven Years
  32. The Dead Man's Palace
  33. Pome and Peel
  34. The Cloven Youth
  35. Invisible Grandfather
  36. The King of Denmark's Son
  37. Petie Pete Versus Witch Bea-Witch
  38. Quack, Quack! Stick to My Back!
  39. The Happy Man's Shirt
  40. One Night in Paradise
  41. Jesus and St. Peter in Friuli
  42. The Magic Ring
  43. The Dead Man's Arm
  44. The Science of Laziness
  45. Fair Brow
  46. The Stolen Crown
  47. The King's Daughter Who Could Never Get Enough Figs
  48. The Three Dogs
  49. Uncle Wolf
  50. Giricoccola
  51. Tabagnino the Hunchback
  52. The King of the Animals
  53. The Devil's Breeches
  54. Dear as Salt
  55. The Queen of the Three Mountains of Gold
  56. Lose Your Temper, and You Lose Your Bet
  57. The Feathered Ogre
  58. The Dragon with Seven Heads
  59. Bellinda and the Monster
  60. The Shepherd at Court
  61. The Sleeping Queen
  62. The Son of the Merchant from Milan
  63. Monkey Palace
  64. Rosina in the Oven
  65. The Salamanna Grapes
  66. The Enchanted Palace
  67. Buffalo Head
  68. The King of Portugal's Son
  69. Fanta-Ghiro the Beautiful
  70. The Old Woman's Hide
  71. Olive
  72. Catherine, Sly Country Lass
  73. The Traveler from Turin
  74. The Daughter of the Sun
  75. The Dragon and the Enchanted Filly
  76. The Florentine
  77. Ill-Fated Royalty
  78. The Golden Ball
  79. Fioravante and Beautiful Isolina
  80. Fearless Simpleton
  81. The Milkmaid Queen
  82. The Story of Campriano
  83. The North Wind's Gift
  84. The Sorceress's Head
  85. Apple Girl
  86. Prezzemolina
  87. The Fine Greenbird
  88. The King in the Basket
  89. The One-Handed Murderer
  90. The Two Hunchbacks
  91. Pete and the Ox
  92. The King of the Peacocks
  93. The Palace of the Doomed Queen
  94. The Little Geese
  95. Water in the Basket
  96. Fourteen
  97. Jack Strong, Slayer of Five Hundred
  98. Crystal Rooster
  99. A Boat for Land and Water
  100. The Neapolitan Soldier
  101. Belmiele and Belsole
  102. The Haughty Prince
  103. Wooden Maria
  104. Louse Hide
  105. Cicco Petrillo
  106. Nero and Bertha
  107. The Love of the Three Pomegranates
  108. Joseph Ciufolo, Tiller-Flutist
  109. Bella Venezia
  110. The Mangy One
  111. The Wildwood King
  112. Mandorlinfiore
  113. The Three Blind Queens
  114. Hunchback Wryneck Hobbler
  115. One-Eye
  116. The False Grandmother
  117. Frankie-Boy's Trade
  118. Shining Fish
  119. Miss North Wind and Mr. Zephyr
  120. The Palace Mouse and the Garden Mouse
  121. The Moor's Bones
  122. The Chicken Laundress
  123. Crack, Crook, and Hook
  124. First Sword and Last Broom
  125. Mrs. Fox and Mr. Wolf
  126. The Five Scapegraces
  127. Ari-Ari, Donkey, Donkey, Money, Money!
  128. The School of Salamanca
  129. The Tale of the Cats
  130. Chick
  131. The Slave Mother
  132. The Sire Wife
  133. The Princesses Wed to the First Passer-By
  134. Liombruno
  135. Cannelora
  136. Filo d'Oro and Filomena
  137. The Thirteen Bandits
  138. The Three Orphans
  139. Sleeping Beauty and Her Children
  140. The Handmade King
  141. The Turkey Hen
  142. The Three Chicory Gatherers
  143. Beauty-with-the-Seven-Dresses
  144. Serpent King
  145. The Widow and the Brigand
  146. The Crab with the Golden Eggs
  147. Nick Fish
  148. Grattula-Beddattula
  149. Misfortune
  150. Pippina the Serpent
  151. Catherine the Wise
  152. The Ismailian Merchant
  153. The Thieving Dove
  154. Dealer in Peas and Beans
  155. The Sultan with the Itch
  156. The Wife Who Lived on Wind
  157. Wormwood
  158. The King of Spain and the English Milord
  159. The Bejeweled Boot
  160. The Left-Hand Squire
  161. Rosemary
  162. Lame Devil
  163. Three Tales by Three Sons of Three Merchants
  164. The Dove Girl
  165. Jesus and St. Peter in Sicily
  166. The Barber's Timepiece
  167. The Count's Sister
  168. Master Francesco Sit-Down-and-Eat
  169. The Marriage of Queen and a Bandit
  170. The Seven Lamb Heads
  171. The Two Sea Merchants
  172. Out in the World
  173. A Boat Loaded with…
  174. The King's Son in the Henhouse
  175. The Mincing Princess
  176. The Great Narbone
  177. Animal Talk and the Nosy Wife
  178. The Calf with the Golden Horns
  179. The Captain and the General
  180. The Peacock Feather
  181. The Garden Witch
  182. The Mouse with the Long Tail
  183. The Two Cousins
  184. The Two Muleteers
  185. Giovannuzza the Fox
  186. The Child that Fed the Crucifix
  187. Steward Truth
  188. The Foppish King
  189. The Princess with the Horns
  190. Giufa
  191. Fra Ignazio
  192. Solomon's Advice
  193. The Man Who Robbed the Robbers
  194. The Lions' Grass
  195. The Convent of Nuns and the Monastery of Monks
  196. The Male Fern
  197. St. Anthony's Gift
  198. March and the Shepherd
  199. John Balento
  200. Jump into My Sack