Here’s a tale that the kids love around Halloween time. Kids aren’t scared of the ghost at all because the ghost is scared of them (after all, ghosts are made of clouds, how could a ghost hurt you?). Copyright (c) 2010 by Michael Litzky
I found this Swedish folk tale in a collection called The Maid of the North: Feminist Folk Tales from Around the World , edited by Ethel Johnston Phelps. This version is aimed more at younger viewers but can be enjoyed by all.
It seems that every storyteller has a version of this African American tale. I can’t even remember who I first heard it from but you can find it in The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton. The Hairy Man is all kinds of fun to act out.
I first heard this Irish tale more than 20 years ago from a friend of the family. The faerie people in the story are not cute little elves with pointy hats. They are a proud and ancient people and a mortal who has dealings with them never knows what might happen…