Traditional fairy tales, urban legends, folk heroes, and storytelling lore.
Test your knowledge with these top questions!
In selkie tales, how does a selkie change into human form on land?
A human who hides the discarded skin can keep a selkie on land, a common beginning to stories of captive selkie wives.
What curse keeps the legendary Flying Dutchman at sea?
In a common version, the captain vows to round a cape despite a storm and receives an endless voyage as punishment.
In Scottish and Irish folklore, selkies take the form of which sea animals?
The name comes from a Scots word for seal, and the tales often link coastal families with seal ancestors.
Which animated film follows a young selkie named Saoirse and her brother Ben?
Director Tomm Moore drew on Irish folklore for the siblings' journey, including stories of fairies and the giant Mac Lir.
Who wrote and illustrated the 1975 children's book The Rainbow Serpent?
Roughsey, a Lardil artist also known as Goobalathaldin, helped bring Aboriginal stories to a wide children's readership.
Which cape is closely associated with the Flying Dutchman legend?
European ships rounded this cape on the sea route to Asia before the Suez Canal offered a shortcut.
In maritime folklore, what is the Flying Dutchman?
Richard Wagner adapted the legend into an opera in which a faithful woman can free the captain from his curse.
In many Aboriginal traditions, the Rainbow Serpent is especially associated with which natural element?
Stories often place the Rainbow Serpent in deep waterholes, linking its power to places that sustain life.
In Japanese folklore, Momotaro emerges from which fruit?
An elderly woman finds the giant fruit floating down a river while she washes clothes.
Which Scottish island group is especially associated with selkie folklore?
The Orcadian ballad "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry" tells of a seal-man who fathers a child with a human woman.