The Groac'h Of The Isle Of Lok
The Groac'h of the Isle of Lok ( French: ''La Groac’h de l’Île du Lok'')Souvestre, Émile; de la Barre, Ernest du Laurens; Luzel, François-Marie. Contes et légendes de Basse-Bretagne'. Société des bibliophiles bretons, 1891. pp. 3-24. is a Breton fairy tale collected by Émile Souvestre in ''Le Foyer breton''. Andrew Lang included it in ''The Lilac Fairy Book'', and Ruth Manning-Sanders included it in '' A Book of Mermaids''. Synopsis Two cousins, a young man named Houarn Pogamm and a girl called Bellah Postik, grew up together, and their mothers thought they would marry, but when they came of age, their mothers died. Being penniless, Houarn and Bellah both had to become servants. They lamented their poverty, dreaming of a little farm where they could live, until Houarn decided to go away to seek his fortune. Bellah gave him a bell that could be heard at any distance, but only rang to warn of danger, and a knife that broke spells with its touch. She kept a stick that cou ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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French Language
French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien) largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the ( Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to France's past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is an official language in 29 countries across multiple continents, most of which are members of the '' Organisation internationale de la Francopho ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fairy Tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cultures, there is no clear line separating myth from folk or fairy tale; all these together form the literature of preliterate societies. Fairy tales may be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends (which generally involve belief in the veracity of the events described) and explicit moral tales, including beast fables. In less technical contexts, the term is also used to describe something blessed with unusual happiness, as in "fairy-tale ending" (a happy ending) or "fairy-tale romance". Colloquially, the term "fairy tale" or "fairy story" can also mean any far-fetched story or tall tale; it is used especially of any story that not only is not true, but could not possibly be true. Legends are perceived as real within t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Émile Souvestre
Émile Souvestre (April 15, 1806July 5, 1854) was a Breton novelist who was a native of Morlaix, Brittany. Initially unsuccessful as a writer of drama, he fared better as a novelist (he wrote a sci-fi novel, ''Le Monde Tel Qu'il Sera'') and as a researcher and writer of Breton folklore. He was posthumously awarded the Prix Lambert. Biography Education He was the son of a civil engineer and was educated at the college of Pontivy, with the intention of following his father's career by entering the Polytechnic School. However, his father died in 1823 and he matriculated as a law student at Rennes but soon devoted himself to literature. He was by turns a bookseller's assistant and a private schoolmaster in Nantes, a journalist and a grammar school teacher in Brest and a teacher in Mulhouse. He settled in Paris in 1836. In 1848 he became professor in the school for the instruction of civil servants initiated by Hippolyte Carnot, but which was soon to be cancelled. Literary career ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Le Foyer Breton
''Le Foyer breton'' (; in English: The Breton Hearth, or The Breton Home) is a collection of Breton stories by Émile Souvestre, written in French and published in 1844. This work is a collection of Breton folktales arranged by their place of origin. It was an immediate success, becoming the foremost work of prose narrative in Brittany, and inspiring several of the writer 's works. It has been republished several times. Debate over its authenticity The republication of ''Le Foyer breton'' by in 1947 started a long debate as to the authenticity of the stories collected by Souvestre, in which he was accused of having rearranged or, worse, totally rewritten them. In particular, Gourvil considered that "Souvestre did not weave the fabric of any of his tales, but was content to dress up ''à la bretonne '' those traditional stories which lacked the scenery and characteristics of the nation that he wanted to celebrate in his own way". In his investigation of the French folk t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him. Biography Lang was born in 1844 in Selkirk, Scottish Borders. He was the eldest of the eight children born to John Lang, the town clerk of Selkirk, and his wife Jane Plenderleath Sellar, who was the daughter of Patrick Sellar, factor to the first Duke of Sutherland. On 17 April 1875, he married Leonora Blanche Alleyne, youngest daughter of C. T. Alleyne of Clifton and Barbados. She was (or should have been) variously credited as author, collaborator, or translator of '' Lang's Color/Rainbow Fairy Books'' which he edited. He was educated at Selkirk Grammar School, Loretto School, and the Edinburgh Academy, as well as the University of St Andrews and Balliol College, Oxford, where he took a fi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Lilac Fairy Book
''The Langs' Fairy Books'' are a series of 25 collections of true and fictional stories for children published between 1889 and 1913 by Andrew Lang and his wife, Leonora Blanche Alleyne. The best known books of the series are the 12 collections of fairy tales also known as ''Andrew Lang's "Coloured" Fairy Books'' or ''Andrew Lang's Fairy Books of Many Colors''. In all, the volumes feature 798 stories, besides the 153 poems in ''The Blue Poetry Book''. Leonora Blanche Alleyne (1851–1933) was an English author, editor, and translator. Known to her family and friends as Nora, she assumed editorial control of the series in the 1890s, while her husband, Andrew Lang (1844–1912), a Scots poet, novelist, and literary critic, edited the series and wrote prefaces for its entire run. According to Anita Silvey, "The irony of Lang's life and work is that although he wrote for a profession—literary criticism; fiction; poems; books and articles on anthropology, mythology, history, and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ruth Manning-Sanders
Ruth Manning-Sanders (21 August 1886 – 12 October 1988) was an English poet and author born in Wales, known for a series of children's books for which she collected and related fairy tales worldwide. She published over 90 books in her lifetime Biography Childhood Ruth Vernon Manning was the youngest of three daughters of John Manning, an English Unitarian minister. She was born in Swansea, Wales, but the family moved to Cheshire when she was three. As a child, she read books and wrote and acted plays with her two sisters. According to a story she tells in the foreword to ''Scottish Folk Tales'', she spent her summers in a farmhouse in the Scottish Highlands named "Shian", which she says means the place where fairies live. Education Manning studied English literature and Shakespearean studies at Manchester University. Marriage After returning from a trip to Italy to recover from an illness that forced her to leave university, she went to Devon where she met English arti ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Groac'h
A ' ( Breton for "fairy", "witch" or " crone", pl. ') is a kind of Breton water-fairy. Seen in various forms, often by night, many are old, similar to ogres and witches, sometimes with walrus teeth. Supposed to live in caverns, under the beach and under the sea, the ' has power over the forces of nature and can change its shape. It is mainly known as a malevolent figure, largely because of Émile Souvestre's story '' La Groac'h de l'île du Lok'', in which the fairy seduces men, changes them into fish and serves them as meals to her guests, on one of the Glénan Islands. Other tales present them as old solitary fairies who can overwhelm with gifts the humans who visit them. Several place-names of Lower Brittany are connected with the ', especially the names of some megaliths in Côtes-d'Armor, as well as the island of Groix in Morbihan and the lighthouse of La Vieille. The origin of those fairies that belong to the archetype of "the crone" is to be found in the ancient fem ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fairy
A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural, or preternatural. Myths and stories about fairies do not have a single origin, but are rather a collection of folk beliefs from disparate sources. Various folk theories about the origins of fairies include casting them as either demoted angels or demons in a Christian tradition, as deities in Pagan belief systems, as spirits of the dead, as prehistoric precursors to humans, or as spirits of nature. The label of ''fairy'' has at times applied only to specific magical creatures with human appearance, magical powers, and a penchant for trickery. At other times it has been used to describe any magical creature, such as goblins and gnomes. ''Fairy'' has at times been used as an adjective ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Shapeshifting
In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shape-shifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, demonic manipulation, sorcery, spells or having inherited the ability. The idea of shape-shifting is in the oldest forms of totemism and shamanism, as well as the oldest existent literature and epic poems such as the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' and the ''Iliad''. The concept remains a common literary device in modern fantasy, children's literature and popular culture. Folklore and mythology Popular shape-shifting creatures in folklore are werewolves and vampires (mostly of European, Canadian, and Native American/early American origin), ichchadhari naag and ichchadhari naagin (shape-shifting cobras) of India, the huli jing of East Asia (including the Japanese ''kitsune'' and Korean ''kumiho''), and the gods, goddesses, and demons and demonesses like succubus and incubus and other numerous mythologies, s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cross-dressing
Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes usually worn by a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and self-express oneself. Cross-dressing has played an important part in society due to the nature of sociology. Sociology dictates that social norms are an inherent part of society and, thus, there are expected norms for each gender relating to style, color, type of clothing and more. Thus, cross-dressing allows individuals to express themselves by acting beyond guidelines, views, or even laws defining what type of clothing is expected and appropriate for each gender. The term "cross-dressing" refers to an action or a behavior, without attributing or implying any specific causes or motives for that behavior. Cross-dressing is not synonymous with being transgender. Terminology The phenomenon of cross-dressing is seen throughout recorded history, being referred to as far back as the Hebr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |