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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 186 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 186 pagesAbout this book
What if wit and kindness matter more than strength, and the poorest person has the best chance?
Georgian Folk Tales brings together short stories from Georgia, where Europe and Asia meet. High mountains rise in the north, and the Black Sea lies to the west. Gathered for English readers by Marjory Scott Wardrop, these tales offer a way into a culture with its own language, alphabet, and long Christian history.
These stories pass from mouth to mouth before they reach the page. Their shapes are plain and strong: a younger or poorer person may succeed where someone powerful fails. Wit, courage, and kindness matter here. Rather than following one long plot, you move from tale to tale, discovering familiar folk patterns in stories from the Caucasus.
What you’ll discover
- A mountain country's stories Enter the tales of a land between the Black Sea and the Caspian.
- Wit against power Discover stories where cleverness and kindness often count for more than rank or strength.
- Unlikely people who succeed Follow younger and poorer figures whose chances need not depend on their place in life.
- The pull of oral tales Enjoy plain, strong story patterns carried from one telling to the next.
- A door into Georgia Let Wardrop's collection introduce you to tales from a culture with its own language and alphabet.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy fairy tales told plainly, tricksters and brave youngest sons, or the folklore of places far from your own. It suits listeners who like short tales and sharp, funny endings.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Clever escapes open a strange world
- A pupil learns to escape
- Kindness answers cruelty with unexpected help
- The overlooked find unexpected power
- Fate and promises resist escape
- Mercy creates bonds beyond family
- Mingrelian heroes mix courage with cunning
- Small tricks expose large claims
- Different tales share familiar moral patterns
Who’s who
- The peasant's sonA poor boy apprenticed to a devil, he uses quick changes of shape to escape and to make money for his father.
- ConkiajgharunaA girl in rags, mistreated by her stepmother, she is helped by a magic cow and wants a life of dignity.
- GhvthisavariA boy born in the wild woods, strong with the bow, who wants to protect his mother and trusts the beasts he spares.
- AsphurtzelaThe youngest son of a widow, he sets out to rescue his brothers and sister from a hundred-headed devi.
- The Little ThiefA thief of astonishing cunning who outwits a king's guards, traps and tricks, and wants to prove himself the cleverest.
- The foxA helpful and demanding animal who builds a prince's fortune with the help of a wolf, a bear and an eagle.
- GeriaA poor man's son who crosses twelve mountains to win the sister of twelve demis, and fears no one.
- SanartiaA strong, quick-witted prince thrown into the sea by his father, who wants to be known by his deeds.
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Georgian Folk Tales in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Georgian Folk Tales
by Marjory Scott Wardrop · 1894
A boy changes into a hound and a horse to make money, then an apple to escape a devil, all in the first tale.
Easy read2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“Your own copper is better than someone else’s gold.”
In short
Picture a boy who must escape a devil who was once his teacher. He becomes a dove, a hound, a falcon and a horse.
Georgian Folk Tales at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 35 min2 h 50 min fast, 4 h 15 min slow
- Length
- 51,400 words
- Library level
- Easy short sentences, plain words
- First published
- 1894by Marjory Scott Wardrop
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A clever boy outwits his devil teacher
The book opens with Master and Pupil. A poor peasant takes his son to find a trade, and a devil named Vakhraca rises from a stream. He will teach the boy for a year. If the father cannot pick out his son at the end, the boy belongs to the devil for good.
The boy warns his father that the master will turn all the pupils into doves. The father points to the right bird, and the angry devil must let him go. Then the boy becomes a hound that catches a hare before the eyes of hunting nobles, and his father sells him for a high price. The boy escapes when the nobles are out of sight. He does the same as a falcon.
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A boy changes into a hound and a horse to make money, then an apple to escape a devil, all in the first tale.
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Details
- First published
- 1894
- Language
- English
- Level
- Easy read
- Paperback
- 186 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Hardcover
- 186 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print paperback
- 282 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print hardcover
- 282 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Delivery and returns
- Printed when you order. Usually here in 12 to 14 days.Arrives Tue 1 Dec to Mon 7 Decto United States, printed for you at cost
For Christmas, order by Thu 12 Nov
Cite this edition
Wardrop, Marjory Scott. Georgian Folk Tales. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/georgian-folk-tales.
Wardrop, M. S. (2026). Georgian folk tales. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/georgian-folk-tales (Original work published 1894)
Wardrop, Marjory Scott. Georgian Folk Tales. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/georgian-folk-tales.
@book{wardrop2026georgian,
author = {Wardrop, Marjory Scott},
title = {Georgian Folk Tales},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/georgian-folk-tales},
note = {First published 1894}
}
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What is Georgian Folk Tales about?
It is a collection of folk tales from Georgia, in the Caucasus. It includes tales of devils, griffins, wicked stepmothers, clever thieves, talking animals and kings who are outwitted, gathered from Georgian, Mingrelian and Gurian sources.
Who translated Georgian Folk Tales and when was it published?
Marjory Scott Wardrop translated the tales, and the book was published in 1894. She worked from printed collections made in Tiflis and Saint Petersburg, and dedicated the book to the anthropologist Edward Tylor.
What is a devi in these stories?
A devi is a giant, often many-headed, who lives in a house in the wilds, eats people and guards treasure or captive maidens. In Mingrelian tales the same kind of creature is called a demi.
The author
Marjory Scott Wardrop
1869–1909 · English translator and writer
Marjory Scott Wardrop (1869–1909) was an English writer and translator of Georgian literature. She was born in London and travelled to Georgia. Her Georgian Folk Tales appeared in 1894. She also translated The Knight in the Panther’s Skin; her translation was published in 1912, after her death.
“Your own copper is better than someone else’s gold.”
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