Browse Category

European Folktales

At Old Folktales we collect and share traditional folktales from every corner of Europe, including: United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Malta, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Andorra, San Marino, Monaco, and Vatican City. These stories include: Witch tales, fairy legends, and moral parables. Heroic knights, forest spirits, and clever peasants. Slavic myths, Celtic fables, and Nordic trickster tales

A black rooster crows in a Balkan village square at sunrise, as villagers watch with awe and fear.

The Black Rooster of the Balkans

by Oyebode Ayoola

August 3, 2025

European Folktales

Once, in a mountain village where wolves howled louder than the church bell, there lived an old widow named Baba Velka. Her only companion was the black rooster, a sleek, sharp-eyed, and oddly watchful one. She called him Karakalak, and he never crowed at dawn like other roosters. He crowed only when something was about to change. The villagers whispered.

European Folktales

The Woodcarver and the Laughing Tree

In a small Slovak village where the mountains rose like sleeping giants, there lived a woodcarver whose hands could coax life from even the ugliest knot of pine. His name was Marek, and though his neighbors respected his work, they often whispered that his talent came from talking to the trees