“The Two Cakes” is a story from The Pentameron, or The Story of Stories by Giambattista Basile, here given in the translation by John Edward Taylor. You can also read the story on my Patreon. I have always heard say, that he who gives pleasure finds it: the bell of Manfredonia says, “Give me, I give […]
On day 2 of Giambattista Basile‘s 1634 Tale of Tales, also known as The Pentameron, the sixth tale features a story that’s close to “Allerleirauh” by the Grimm Brothers and features some typical tropes in folklore, including shapeshifting through a magical object. Henriette-Julie de Murat, a XVII Century aristocratic French writer, uses this same device […]
People over at Twitter called for Folklore of our local places, so I thought I’d unearth some of my favourite Italian folk tales. 1. We invented Cinderella I’m sure all of you are familiar with Cinderella and similar tales, but few know that the oldest tale of that sort comes from Italy and particularly it’s […]