• Cover
• Once Told: An Anthology of World Folklore
• Publication Information
• Chapter 1: Conquests, Tests, and Quests
• East of the Sun and West of the Moon
• The Song of Hiawatha
• Rumpelstiltskin
• The Three Delicate Wives of King Virtue
• Juan and Clotilde
• The King's Treasure
• Lady Godiva
• The Three Billy Goats Gruff
• The Goose Girl
• The Story of Aladdin; or, The Wonderful Lamp
• Additional Readings: Conquests, Tests, and Quests
• Chapter 2: Tricks and Tricksters
• The Valiant Little Tailor
• Puss in Boots
• Peik
• Big Peter and Little Peter
• The Emperor’s New Clothes
• The Fox and the Crow
• How the Tortoise Provoked a Contest of Strength Between the Tapir and Whale
• Old Nick and the Girl
• Hymn to Hermes
• The Simpleton and the Sharper
• Additional Readings: Tricks and Tricksters
• Chapter 3: Heroes and Heroines
• Niagara
• Li Chi Slays the Serpent
• Molly Whuppie and the Double-Faced Giant
• The Three Golden Hairs: The Story of a Charcoal Burner’s Son Who Married a Princess
• Theseus and the Minotaur
• Orpheus
• Perseus the Hero
• Additional Readings: Heroes and Heroines
• Chapter 4: Taboo
• Blue Beard
• Little Snow-White
• The Fisher-Boy Urashima
• Rapunzel
• The Fairy Dwelling on Selana Moore
• The Twelve Brothers
• Our Lady's Child
• How the Devil Married Three Sisters
• Hymn to Demeter
• The Story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
• Additional Readings: Taboo
• Chapter 5: Shapeshifters
• The Frog-Prince
• The Blacksmith’s Wife of Yarrowfoot
• The She-Wolf
• The Mermaid Wife
• The Princess Peony
• The Magician and his Pupil
• The Seven Iron Slippers
• How Uther Pendragon made war on the duke of Cornwall, and how by the mean of Merlin he lay by the duchess and gat Arthur
• The Woman Who Humored Her Lover at Her Husband’s Expense
• The Second Kalandar’s Tale
• Additional Readings: Shapeshifters
• Chapter 6: Magic and Curses
• The Snow, The Crow, and The Blood
• The Charcoal-maker who Became King
• The Black School
• The Flying Dutchman
• The Book of Magic
• Briar Rose
• The Shoemaker and the Elves
• The Crystal Ball
• Cinderilla; or The Little Glass Slipper
• The Tale of the Trader and Jinni
• Additional Readings: Magic and Curses
• Chapter 7: The Dead
• Orpheus and Eurydice
• The Story of the Messenger from Heaven
• A Story from the Time of the Romans
• A Ghost Story
• Dividing Souls
• Maku Mawu and Maku Fia or "I Will Die God's Death" and "I Will Die the King's Death"
• The White Butterfly
• The Old Woman Who Never Dies
• The Galloping Hessian
• Sila Tsarevich and Ivashka with the White Smock
• Fair Margaret and Sweet William
• The Suffolk Miracle
• Additional Readings: The Dead
• Chapter 8: Animals and Creatures of the Other World
• The Monster Mosquitoe
• Miss Britton’s Poker
• Bruce and the Spider
• The Griffin and the Minor Canon
• Beauty and the Beast
• The White Cat
• The Farmer and the Devil on Island of the Popefigs
• How the Fairies Worked Magic
• Three Leprechauns
• The Little Mermaid
• The Vampire Cat
• The Fourth Voyage of Sinbad
• Additional Readings: Animals and Creatures of the Other World
• Bibliography
• Conquests, Tests, and Quests
• Tricks and Tricksters
• Heroes and Heroines
• Taboo
• Shapeshifters
• Magic and Curses
• The Dead
• Animals and Creatures of the Other World

Bruce and the Spider

Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, was hiding in a hut in the forest. His enemies were seeking him far and wide.

Six times he had met them in battle, and six times he had failed. Hope and courage were gone.

Bruce had given up all as lost. He was about to run away from Scotland, and to leave the country in the hands of his enemies.

Full of sorrow, he lay stretched on a pile of straw in the poor woodchopper's hut. While he lay thinking, he noticed a spider spinning her web.

Robert Bruce and the Spider by Ernest Nister, 1895

The spider was trying to spin a thread from one beam of the cottage to another. It was a long way between the beams, and Bruce saw how hard a thing it was for her to do.

"She can never do it," thought the king.

The little spider tried it once and failed She tried it twice and failed. The king counted each time. At length she had tried it six times and had failed each time.

"She is like me," thought the king. "I have tried six battles and failed. She has tried six times to reach the beam and failed."

Then starting up from the straw, he cried, "I will hang my fate upon that little spider.

If she swings the seventh time and fails, then I will give up all for lost. If she swings the seventh time and wins, I will call my men together once more for a battle with the enemy."

The spider tried the seventh time, letting herself down upon her slender thread. She swung out bravely.

"Look! look!" shouted the king. "She has reached it. The thread hangs between the two beams. If the spider can do it, I can do it."

Bruce got up from the straw with new strength and sent his men from village to village, calling the people to arms.

The brave soldiers answered his call and came trooping in.

At length his army was ready to fight, and when the king led them in a great battle against the enemy, this time, like the spider, Bruce won.