This classic study of popular tales and fictions is a global map of human imagination reaching back to a time that the author calls "the childhood of the world."

First published in two volumes more than a century ago, the book traces familiar themes from strikingly different times, places, and cultures: invisible caps and cloaks, shoes of swiftness, inexhaustible purses, gold-producing animals, life tokens, bird maidens, forbidden rooms, fairy hinds, magic barks, thankful beasts, and magical transformations. The author investigates their origins, examines their variations, and follows...