Currently working on a webcomic idea where I adapt old fables and fairy tales to comic form.

So far I've got Grimm's, Aesop's, and Hans Christian Anderson's collections. Plus Bullfinch's Mythology. Does anyone have any recommendations of more obscure stuff or even any mainstream must-haves that I'm missing? My current next targets are the Andrew Lang books.

Mods feel free to move or close this if it's off-topic by dint of not really being for RPG use.


And a link to the fb album documenting my progress on the comic until I build the site proper: here

Give the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander a good read. Plenty of stuff based upon celtic mythology in there.

I would suggest a good folktales collator of sorts and looking into parallel mythic stories (the same stories told in many different cultures like animal bride/groom stories.)

The one I use is older the last edition I recall was printed in '94 or so, but there are likely to be other similar resources. It is the Funk and Wagnall's Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend.

Quote from: jeff37923;629962Give the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander a good read. Plenty of stuff based upon celtic mythology in there.

I read those back in middle school. Loved those books. Set my expectations of what D&D would be before I played D&D about as much as LotR and reading through cousins' Monster Manuals. I would like to give those books another read at some point.

Quote from: Silverlion;630041I would suggest a good folktales collator of sorts and looking into parallel mythic stories (the same stories told in many different cultures like animal bride/groom stories.)

The one I use is older the last edition I recall was printed in '94 or so, but there are likely to be other similar resources. It is the Funk and Wagnall's Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend.

There are folktale collators? This could be helpful. Thanks for the tip.

Quote from: beejazz;630061There are folktale collators? This could be helpful. Thanks for the tip.

Essentially  dictionary that lists what we call "tropes" and ideas, specific myths, and refers them to other similar tales.

I don't know if they do them anymore, though, but they might for schools/educational purposes.

If you can find it, Jacob Grimm's (one of the bros) « Teutonic Mythology » would be an essential (albeit not an easy) read for anyone interested in folktales.

For Celtic tales, there is the Mabinogion


The Prydain stuff borrows a lot of ideas and especially names from Celtic mythology, but isn't really based on it. Sort of more like what Tolkien did.

Norwegian folktales are fairly different from say Grimm while still frequently being "man vs. monster in a dark forest (or a mountain, this being Norway)". A fair amount have been translated into English (some kiddification probably happens when they are though).

In Norwegian folktales smarts is generally at least as important as virtue; rather than a "wise fool" or "virtuous fool", the archetypical Norwegian folk hero, Espen, is more of a rogue with a heart of gold/benign trickster. He's basically a D&D rogue/thief with a Good alignment. I mean he generally kills monsters from ambush or by trickery - in one particular tale he kills the troll by tricking it into commiting suicide.

There's also, of course, that the society depicted is quite different from that in say Grimm. Norwegian folk tales have their roots in 16th century Norway or thereabouts - mainly the latter half of that century I'd say, post-Reformation - a time when the native aristocracy was basically gone while the Danes rarely visited. So the "king" frequently depicted in the tales is really a petty noble like a squire or similar, living in a big wooden manor with maybe a couple men at arms.