Fables from Netherlands

Storm-tossed seas carry a ghost ship that can never reach harbor. A wealthy woman challenges fate and watches her fortune vanish. Giants drag a young woman into their lonely home, a mysterious knight arrives in a boat drawn by a swan, and a fearless princess enters the forest to confront a killer whose enchanted song has already claimed countless victims. The legends of the Flying Dutchman, the Lady of Stavoren, and Heer Halewijn are only the beginning. Clever foxes deceive stronger enemies, witches transform men into animals, princes speak with beasts, mermaids curse cruel fishermen, and ordinary villagers discover that the stranger on the road may be something far stranger than he appears. Meet Reynard the Fox, brave the White Women of Lochem, face the dragon of Gelderland, enter haunted houses after midnight, bargain with devils, hunt for hidden treasure, and discover magical objects capable of changing a person's fortune overnight. Gathered from centuries of Dutch folklore, these fifty-eight tales range from legends known around the world to strange and wonderful stories rarely encountered beyond the places where they were first told. Adventure, danger, humor, magic, mystery, and wonderfully unexpected endings carry the collection from windswept coasts and dark forests to castles, villages, lonely roads, and stormy seas. Every new tale offers another reason to keep reading and another corner of the Netherlands where anything might happen.