Summary
Summary of Folk-Tales of Bengal
Folk-Tales of Bengal at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 30 min25 min fast, 35 min slow
- Length
- 6,950 words22 chapters
- Pages
- 207 pages313 in large print
- Library level
- Easy short sentences, plain words
- First published
- 1883by Lal Behari Day
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
Spoken tales become written stories
A prince dies every morning and comes back to life every night, while his father mourns him as a corpse. This strange situation opens the door to the world of Lal Behari Day’s tales, where ordinary family ties meet extraordinary dangers.
Day heard the stories in Bengali from a Christian woman, two Brahmans, a barber and a servant. He translated them into English himself. Their different voices lie behind a collection in which secrets, wishes and quick thinking shape people’s fortunes.
Key idea 2
A secret becomes a weapon
Dalim Kumar’s life is hidden in a gold necklace inside a fish’s heart.
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Key idea 3
Friendship risks more than it promises
A king’s son and a minister’s son discover a serpent’s shining jewel and a princess in a palace beneath a tank.
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Key idea 4
Good fortune can scatter a family
Swet, Basanta and Swet’s wife escape a hostile household with a remarkable gift: the brothers can laugh jewels and cry pearls.
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Key idea 5
A daughter claims her own fortune
When a merchant asks whose luck supports his daughters, the youngest refuses to credit him with hers.
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Key idea 6
Hear the story before judging
A young prince learns that his father will die that night and discovers a cobra beside the royal bed.
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Key idea 7
Appearances cannot settle the truth
A ghost takes a Brahman’s exact shape and lives with his family while the real man is away.
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Key idea 8
Power needs more than a charm
Four friends watch a hermit bring bones to life and then try his charms themselves.
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Key idea 9
Kindness and cunning answer hidden danger
Across these tales, jealous queens and stepmothers cause harm, while loyal friends and quick thinkers work to repair it.
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who it’s for
You will love this book if you enjoy fairy tales from other lands, clever tricksters, magic pots and talking birds, or the sound of a living oral tradition written down.
What this book is
What if a prince died every morning and came back to life every night, while his own father mourned a corpse?
Lal Behari Day, a Bengali teacher and writer who died in 1892, set down twenty-two tales in English and dated his preface in 1883. He heard them in Bengali from a Christian woman, two Brahmans, a barber and a servant, and then translated them himself.
In this summary
- 1Spoken tales become written storiesFree
- 2A secret becomes a weapon
- 3Friendship risks more than it promises
- 4Good fortune can scatter a family
- 5A daughter claims her own fortune
- 6Hear the story before judging
- 7Appearances cannot settle the truth
- 8Power needs more than a charm
- 9Kindness and cunning answer hidden danger
A secret told to a rival costs a life
A king and his queen Suo have no children. A holy beggar promises Suo a son named Dalim Kumar, and warns that the boy's life lies in a gold necklace inside the heart of a boal fish in the palace pond.
The boy loves pigeons, and they keep flying into the rooms of the Duo queen, who hates him. She holds them back until he promises to learn his secret from his mother. After hearing his secret, she hides dry hemp stalks under her bed to crack like bones and claims to be gravely ill. A physician in league with her says the cure lies in the fish. When it is caught, the queen puts on the necklace and the boy dies.
The king cannot bear to bury his son. The queen takes off the necklace each night when the king comes to her, so Dalim lives by night and lies dead by day. A bride marked at birth to marry a dead husband finds him there. A secret told once to the wrong person can cost a life.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
Why does revealing Dalim Kumar’s secret put him in danger?
Right. “When it is caught, the queen puts on the necklace and the boy dies.”Not quite. “When it is caught, the queen puts on the necklace and the boy dies.”
Why do the older princes tell stories after their mother accuses the youngest?
Right. “Each older son tells the king a story urging him to hear before striking.”Not quite. “Each older son tells the king a story urging him to hear before striking.”
What pattern links the treatment of kindness and greed across the tales?
Right. “Kindness to a tree, a bull or a bird is rewarded, and greed is punished.”Not quite. “Kindness to a tree, a bull or a bird is rewarded, and greed is punished.”
Go deeper: the whole of Folk-Tales of Bengal
About 30 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 6,950 words
- Reading timeAbout 30 min
Questions about Folk-Tales of Bengal
What is Folk-Tales of Bengal about?
It is a collection of twenty-two folk tales that Lal Behari Day heard from Bengali storytellers and translated into English. The stories feature princes, Rakshasas, ghosts, magic objects, talking animals and clever tricksters.
What is the Natiya thorn rhyme at the end of every tale?
It is a traditional closing formula about a thorn, a cow, a cowherd, a daughter-in-law, a child and an ant, ending with koot. Day says he does not know what it means and suggests it may be playful nonsense.
Where did Lal Behari Day get these stories?
He heard them in Bengali from a Bengali Christian woman, two old Brahmans, a barber and a servant. He remembered Sambhu's mother from childhood but needed new tellers, and translated each tale into English himself.
Are the tales based on real events?
No, they are folk tales passed down by voice. Day believed them to be a genuine sample of very old tales Bengali women told for many generations, and he set them down in 1883.
Is Folk-Tales of Bengal easy to read?
Yes, in the sense that each tale is short and self-contained, with a clear plot and plain language. You can read one tale in a sitting, and the same patterns return, which makes them easy to follow.
Cite this edition
Day, Lal Behari. Folk-Tales of Bengal. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/folk-tales-of-bengal.
Day, L. B. (2026). Folk-tales of Bengal. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/folk-tales-of-bengal (Original work published 1883)
Day, Lal Behari. Folk-Tales of Bengal. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/folk-tales-of-bengal.
@book{day2026folktales,
author = {Day, Lal Behari},
title = {Folk-Tales of Bengal},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/folk-tales-of-bengal},
note = {First published 1883}
}
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