Book excerpt: Folk and Fairy Tales from Denmark is a collection of stories hitherto unavailable to English speaking audiences. Recorded at source by Danish folklorist Evald Tang Kristensen towards the latter part of the 1800s, they were told to him by storytellers from different social positions; the majority of whom were well versed in the hardships of the rural life of the times. The stories are brim full of shrewd observations, humour, invention, down to earth advice and are as fresh and relevant today as when they were told over a century ago