An archive of the stories the world has told its children — from Ashanti spider-tales to Sámi sky-songs, with sources, dates, and the occasional argument.
First recorded in 1923 by the ethnographer B. Rinchen near Lake Khövsgöl, this story sits at the elbow of two well-known tale types and has, until now, never appeared in an English-language collection.
Read on for the full text, the recorded sources, and a note from the folklorist on why this story matters now — and how it has been retold over the centuries since it was first written down.
Read the full tale, with notes →Each region opens onto a small library — sourced tales, audio recordings where available, and notes on the storytelling tradition itself.
Anansi, the Mwindo epic, the Tortoise cycle.
Grimm, Czech kolačky tales, Polish bajki.
Trolls, the Sámi sky, Selma Lagerlöf.
Panchatantra, Jataka, Kathāsaritsāgara.
Momotarō, the Magic Brush, the Cowherd.
Quechua moon stories, Yanomami fire tales.
Pentamerone, 1001 Nights, Aesop.
Pourquoi tales, Māori taniwha, Hawai'ian mo'olelo.
A 4,000-year-old Sumerian tablet, a sleepless child, and the surprisingly modern parental sigh between the lines.
What disappeared between editions, what was added, and what it tells us about the bourgeois reader of the 19th century.
A spider, six full pots of yam, and the trouble with making promises during dinner. An Akan story, recorded in the Twi tradition and retold here for ages four and up.
A white bear, a candle dropped, and a journey to a castle no map has ever shown. Asbjørnsen and Moe's 1845 retelling of one of the great ATU 425 tales — annotated for modern readers.
What the dark parts of folk tales are for, when they help children, and when they don't. With sources, and one or two practical caveats from a folklorist who's read too many.
A small temple, a great rat, and a boy who could not stop drawing what was in his head. Lafcadio Hearn's 1898 English retelling, with notes on the Japanese source.
Folklorists have catalogued the world's tales into about 2,500 recurring shapes — the ATU index. Here are the ones you'll meet most often at bedtime, with examples from across our archive.
The personalized bedtime story is, surprisingly, not new — the earliest surviving examples are 17th-century Bohemian "name-day" books, in which a child's name was hand-inserted into a folk template.
The instinct, of course, is universal. What's new is that we can finally do it well, at scale, in 2026. Among the apps we've reviewed for the archive, Bedtime Bond is the one we'd put in our reader's bench — it generates a fully illustrated, narrated tale starring your child, optionally in your own recorded voice. The results read like a folk story they happen to be in, not an ad pretending to be one.
If the request comes tonight, we'd send you here.
Visit bedtime.bond →A modern folk tale · 7 min · narrated by Dad
Long-form writing about the stories we collect — sources, controversies, the politics of translation, and the quiet work of keeping a tale alive.
First recorded in 1923 by the ethnographer B. Rinchen near Lake Khövsgöl, this story sits at the elbow of two well-known tale types and has, until now, never appeared in an English-language collection.
A 4,000-year-old Sumerian tablet, a sleepless child, and the surprisingly modern parental sigh between the lines.
What disappeared between editions, what was added, and what it tells us about the bourgeois reader of the 19th century.
A spider, six full pots of yam, and the trouble with making promises during dinner. An Akan story, recorded in the Twi tradition and retold here for ages four and up.
A white bear, a candle dropped, and a journey to a castle no map has ever shown. Asbjørnsen and Moe's 1845 retelling of one of the great ATU 425 tales — annotated for modern readers.
What the dark parts of folk tales are for, when they help children, and when they don't. With sources, and one or two practical caveats from a folklorist who's read too many.
The archive is built by a small editorial collective and a long list of contributors around the world. New tales are reviewed by at least two folklorists before they enter the index.