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European Folktales - Page 4

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

The Little Red Hen – A British Folktale About Hard Work

by Aanu Adegun

July 20, 2025

European Folktales

In a cheerful farmyard in the English countryside, there lived a Little Red Hen. She was always busy, pecking for worms, cleaning her nest, and tending to her garden. She lived with three companions—a sleepy Dog, a lazy Cat, and a noisy Duck. One morning, as the sun peeked over the hills, the Little Red Hen found some wheat grains

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

European Folktales

The Black Rooster of the Balkans

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