‘Tis destiny unshunnable, like death. (Othello) In this legend from Switzerland, a saint acquires the gift of second sight through pray...

The Bird, Who Tells the Truth, a Fairy Tale from the Rhaeto-Romansh Region of Switzerland One morning a miller found a large and heavy ch...

The Future in Fairy Tales: Grimm’s Fairy Tale No. 89: The Goose Girl There once lived a queen who was no longer very young; her...

Grimm’s Fairy Tale No. 197: The Crystal Ball There once lived a sorceress, she had three sons who were filled with brotherly love for eac...

The future casts long shadows on these fairy tale characters. Grimm’s Saga No. 119: Crystal Ball Gazi ng A noble and beautiful m...

The importance of seeing the future. Of all the fairy tale genres presented on this website, the Icelandic form is most interest...

Part II: Finn-magic. Ingimund commences the trip to Iceland . King Harold had retired, the mightiest of all kings in the Nor...

Themes: The Finnwife as prognosticator and the Finns themselves as powerful seers. Destiny versus fortune. Things that can versus thi...

Seers in the New Year: Good Luck, Bad Luck or Out of Luck A Fairy Tale from Iceland: Groa’s Magic It is said that many summe...

To help you navigate the various Christmas links on this blog, sort through the many different Christmas themes and perhaps provide impetus...