151C: Anthology of Fairy Tales

Hi, I had this book probably in the late 90’s. It was a paperback book of fairy tales, but not traditional ones, “different” ones, and I’m pretty sure it was an anthology. I’ve thought of quite a few of the stories and plots but can’t remember the name of the book or editor. Anyways, The borders of the cover were red and there was some kind of blue and green forest type scene on the front I think? The colors looked like a drawing, not a real photo or anything. One of the stories is about a prince crossing an ocean and his boat begins to sink. A mermaid kisses him all over his face and he can breath underwater. He goes to live with her for a while but also wants to go back and tell his parents he’s ok, he does, meets a girl on land and marries her, and when he crosses the ocean again the sea princess drowns him I think. Another one is about a girl getting ready to be married and she meets some kind of half man half stag in a forest and he puts a braid of his hair around her finger. When she goes back home and goes to get married, the ring won’t go on her finger and the stag man shows up to take her back to the forest. The third story I remember is just about a girl with blue hair (maybe a mermaid?) who’s missing and her brothers are coming to a town one by one to search for her. They all end up getting indentured to different people and she shows up in town (or something) riding a tiger. And last, a princess stitches her dog into a tapestry she’s creating and stitches herself in too. Wanted to escape the castle or marriage or something. I found a similar answered question about a story like my very last one, but I know this one was in a book with lots of other stories, not by itself.

 

2 thoughts on “151C: Anthology of Fairy Tales

  1. Amanda

    Maybe one of Barbara Leonie Picard’s books? She wrote several collections of original fairy tales. At a guess, maybe The Faun and the Woodcutter’s Daughter–the “stag man” sounds very familiar, and might be from the title story, though it’s been a while since I’ve read the collection so I’m not certain.

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  2. Mary

    Was there a story about a selfish princess and a spider that lived in her bathtub/bathroom? The spider kept getting bigger?

    The drawings were like detailed pencil type drawings with almost a fisheye/detailed look?

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