Vietnamese Folklore Novels & Stories

Like I was shopping for bedtime stories instead of trying to decide whether my life had cracked open into impossibility. “Thank you,” I murmured. The folklore section was tucked into a quiet corner near a window that looked out toward the forest. Of course it did. The books there were a strange little army: weathered hardcovers, thin local history pamphlets, glossy paperbacks with titles involving moons and curses and women who looked poorly dressed for weather. I started with the serious looking ones. Northern Appalachian Folk Beliefs, Predator Myths of the American East, Silver, Salt, and Blood: Ritual Materials in Regional Lore. I pulled them down one by one, making a stack against my che

** My hands were firm on the steering wheel as Mikael and I journeyed through the darkened road. It had been one hour of us in the car, the city turning into country and the road transitioning into dirt and moist earth beneath my car's wheels. We kept conversation minimal the first hour because we were both nervous. Mikael, however, was more anxious than I was. He had never been to the Bayou of the Shunned, but like everyone else, had heard tales about the cursed swamp and the witch that ruled over it as its Supreme Sorceress. Sajida was the bedtime story mambos and houngans told their kids about to keep them in line; in the black community, Sajida was "that" woman that the children of voodo

Danté asked. "Not sure, nothing much is elaborated about it, so far its only talks and tales, it's originating from Cherokee folklore and a name here of an ancient Shaman named Blair" "Blair?" "Cherokee Indian" Liam said looking at him. Danté sat back thinking, they all knew of Vlad Dracul, the supposed first vampire, but it was never spoken of any first wolf, or great wolf, maybe only a werewolf will know the full story. "What if we ask a werewolf?" Danté asked "An old one?"

Now dear reader, I want to insert a bit of local Filipino Folklore into the Spa. In the future, we will be talking about other culture's mythological creatures as well but we can start with these for now. The aswangs are humans that augment themselves with a ritual then eating innards and drinking blood. The manananggals are also humans that augment themselves with magickal balms and consumption of human flesh, innards and blood. They mostly target unborn babes that they suck from the tummies of their mothers using a long, thin cord-like tongue.

The moon shines fully, illuminating the darkness outside and providing a glint of light to Svetlana’s eyes as she stared up at it while she sat on a bench with Ahrio next to her. “There’s a legend in Southeast Asian countries that whenever it’s the full moon, ghosts, monsters and other scary supernatural beings appear and roam the world of the living. Do you know that?” Svetlana shared one of those horror stories she had heard from her childhood. Smiling, she glanced at Ahrio and caught him just staring at her face like he’s engrossed about everything about her. “Really? Do those supernatural beings include goddesses? Coz I’m definitely seeing one right now.”

The first few lines are an introduction to her academic paper, and about three paragraphs down I find what I'm looking for. It's widely acknowledged that the myth of the Creeslough Sea Maid is endemic to the northernmost villages of Ireland, but variations of the story can be found as far South as Kilkeel. The fable is assumed to be more than three thousand years old, and has long fascinated scholars of Celtic folklore – both for its longevity in oral tradition, and for its links to several older, more obscure mythologies. Each telling of the tale varies, but the central theme is always that of a sea witch or sorceress who finds or kidnaps a beautiful girl, and raises her until fate interven

I wasn’t in the mood for socialising. I ate slowly, mentally planning out my day. I’d been drafting an essay about how useful folklore was in modern life; mostly creating mind maps and beginning to search for sources. I wanted to look into tribal folktales, investigating how tradition has been passed down through generations to teach the children of today. Wolfic folklore is intrinsically entangled with Native American folklore, so my research crossed over, often making it harder for me to pin down references that I could use.

The Bali Girls of course accepted him wholeheartedly afterwards, especially because he and their outside blocker Trish are actually an item now, but, and at Babylee’s own suggestion, he no longer joined their sleepovers. From Mrs. Lapuz, Kate had heard stories about an unspecified hometown as Kate was growing up. During bedtime storytelling, Mrs. Lapuz, who liked going all out, getting into character and changing her voice, told her tales a la Hansel and Gretel, but the grimmer and definitely scarier version because it sounded like it had been lifted from real-life superstition – or what was, in Kate’s own words, “rural legends”, because they retained distinct motifs of countryside animism.

Elena continued, pacing slowly, “is one of the oldest celebrations in this region, rooted in traditions that date back centuries. It’s not just a festival; it’s a story - a narrative woven through generations. And like all great stories, it evolves with time while retaining the heart of its origins.” She clicked the remote, and an image of the full moon glowing over a forest appeared on the screen. “In the old days,” she said, her voice lowering conspiratorially, “villagers believed that the Moonlight Festival was a time when the veil between worlds was thinnest. According to local folklore, spirits of the forest walked among the living, and the moon itself had the power to reveal hidden tru

This story is my personal contribution to the folklore I take pride in – the folklore of Kamarsuburi. Like any other folk-tale, in any part of the world, this has evolved through and enriched by the tradition of oral-storytelling over a number of years. My paternal and maternal grandmothers had their own versions of it, my mother her own, which at times, was quite in conflict with the versions of my grandmothers; there were bits and pieces of it that Nisim had passed over to me, just as people in our vicinity, during casual conversations, had passed on certain controversial parts of it. Those controversial parts, for the ease of your understanding, my dear reader, I will call rumours. This s