When you have five minutes
Short stories
71 stories with full text, ready to read aloud.
- Classic
Little Red Riding-Hood
A little girl talking to a wolf on the way to her grandmother's leads him to eat them both.
- Animals
Buckwheat
A proud buckwheat plant refuses to bow before a storm and is scorched by lightning while the humble grain survives.
- Adventure
Death's Messengers
Death promises to warn a young man before taking him, then reveals that sickness, pain, and sleep were the messengers all along.
- Adventure
Eve's Various Children
Eve hides her plain children from God, but he blesses them all with humble trades that keep the world running.
- Classic
Fair Katrinelje and Pif-Paf-Poltrie*
A suitor works through a family with a repeating rhyme of questions to win his bride.
- Classic
Frau Trude
A disobedient, curious girl visits a forbidden witch and pays a terrible price.
- Adventure
FThe Bright Sun Brings It To Light
A tailor who robbed and murdered a poor traveler years earlier is undone when his own confession spreads and brings his crime to light.
- Adventure
God's Food
A rich sister refuses to feed her starving widowed sister, and blood flows from the bread she cut.
- Classic
Going A-Travelling
A boy sets out to travel repeating whatever phrase he was last told, always saying the wrong thing and getting beaten for it.
- Classic
Hans Married
A crafty uncle uses a pun on 'patches' to trick a greedy father into marrying his daughter to poor simple Hans.
- Classic
Herr Korbes
A band of animals and household objects travel to Herr Korbes's house and gang up to torment him.
- Classic
Lean Lisa
A restless wife spins ever-grander plans over an imaginary cow until a quarrel with her husband ends the daydream.
- Classic
Mr. Korbes
A band of animals and objects ambush the wicked Mr. Korbes in his own house, one prank after another.
- Animals
Odds and Ends
A lazy bride mocks her hardworking maid, only to lose her bridegroom to the diligent girl.
- Adventure
Poverty and Humility lead to Heaven
A prince gives up his riches to live seven years as a beggar and dies unrecognized but at peace with heaven.
- Adventure
Preface
An editor's introduction praising Hans Andersen and his place in children's literature.
- Classic
Sharing Joy and Sorrow
An abusive tailor twists the phrase 'share joy and sorrow' to excuse beating his wife, and finally gets the punishment he deserves.
- Bedtime
Sweet Porridge
A magic little pot cooks sweet porridge on command — but what happens when someone forgets the words to make it stop? A cozy Brothers Grimm tale.
- Adventure
The Aged Mother
A grieving old woman sees her dead relatives in a ghostly church and learns her lost sons were spared a terrible fate.
- Adventure
The Beam
A clever girl sees through an enchanter's illusion, and he takes his revenge by fooling her on her wedding day.
- Animals
The Bittern and the Hoopoe
Two herdsmen, one whose pastures were too rich and one too poor, were turned into birds still calling their lost cattle.
- Classic
The Death of the Little Hen
A hen chokes to death, and in the funeral procession every mourner drowns or dies until nothing living remains.
- Classic
The Ditmarsch Tale of Wonders
A short chain of impossible, upside-down happenings deliberately told as playful lies.
- Animals
The drop of water
A magician colors a drop of ditch water to reveal tiny creatures savagely tearing each other apart, a mirror of city life.
- Animals
The Duration Of Life
God gives man extra years borrowed from the ass, dog, and monkey, which explains why old age brings toil, weakness, and foolishness.
- Adventure
The Ear of Corn
An origin legend explaining why corn stalks bear only small ears, after a woman wasted grain and angered the Lord.
- Classic
The Elves and the Shoemaker
Every night, tiny elves quietly finish the poor shoemaker's work while he sleeps — a gentle Brothers Grimm story about kindness repaid.
- Classic
The Flail from Heaven
A peasant spins an outlandish tall tale of growing oxen horns, a bean-stalk-like tree to heaven, and a flail brought back as proof.
- Animals
The Fox and His Cousin
A sly fox tricks the she-wolf into danger and then mocks her instead of helping.
- Animals
The Fox and the Cat
The fox brags of a hundred tricks and the cat knows only one — but when the hounds come, whose single trick actually saves the day? A sly Grimm fable.
- Animals
The Fox and the Geese
Geese about to be eaten by a fox ask for one last prayer and cackle on endlessly to delay their doom, so the tale never ends.
- Animals
The Fox and the Horse
A clever fox helps a cast-off old horse trap a lion and win back his master's care.
- Classic
The Giant and the Tailor
A boastful little tailor so unnerves a giant with his big talk that the giant is glad to be rid of him.
- Classic
The Godfather
A man's mysterious godfather grants power over life and death, but his house hides devilish, uncanny horrors.
- Bedtime
The Golden Key
In the deep snow a poor boy finds a tiny golden key and a little iron box — and the tale ends just as the lid begins to open. A Brothers Grimm miniature.
- Animals
The Greenies
A boastful little aphid pleads its case to the narrator, who decides to make soap bubbles instead of washing the bugs away.
- Animals
The Hare and the Tortoise
The beloved Aesop fable about a boastful hare and a slow, steady tortoise — and the race that proves slow and steady wins.
- Animals
The Hare's Bride
A girl carried off to marry a hare tricks him with a straw doll and slips back home to her mother.
- Adventure
The Hazel-Branch
The Virgin Mary hides behind a hazel-bush from an adder, blessing the plant as a protection against snakes ever after.
- Adventure
The Heavenly Wedding
A simple peasant boy who believes he has reached heaven shares his food with a wooden Madonna and is invited to a heavenly wedding.
- Adventure
The Lambkin and the Little Fish
A wicked stepmother bewitches a brother and sister into a fish and a lamb, and the lamb is nearly slaughtered before a kind cook saves them.
- Animals
The leap-frog
A flea, a grasshopper and a leap-frog compete for a princess in a jumping contest with an unexpected winner.
- Animals
The leaping match
A flea, a grasshopper, and a frog compete to jump highest for the princess's hand, and the quiet frog wins by cunning.
- Animals
The Lion and the Mouse
A classic Aesop bedtime fable: a tiny mouse begs a great lion for mercy — and later proves that even the smallest friend can save the mightiest.
- Bedtime
The Little Lighthouse Who Was Afraid of the Dark
A gentle bedtime story about a small lighthouse who discovers that his own light is exactly what keeps the whole sleepy harbor safe through the night.
- Adventure
The Lord's Animals and the Devil's
An origin tale explaining why goats have bitten-off tails and devil's eyes, from the Devil's failed bargain with the Lord.
- Classic
The Louse and the Flea
A louse burns herself and a chain of grieving objects escalates until a flood drowns everyone.
- Animals
The Mouse, The Bird, and the Sausage
Three housemates who swap their well-suited chores all come to grief when they abandon what worked.
- Animals
The Nail
A merchant in too much of a hurry to fix one missing horseshoe nail ends up losing his horse entirely.
- Adventure
The Old Man Made Young Again
A smith who watches the Lord magically restore an old man's youth tries the same on his mother-in-law with horrific results.
- Classic
The Peasant And The Devil
A crafty peasant outwits the Devil twice over a crop bargain and keeps the buried treasure for himself.
- Animals
The Peasant in Heaven
A poor peasant and a rich lord both die and reach heaven, where Saint Peter gently explains why the rich man got the louder welcome.
- Classic
The Princess and the Pea
A prince searches the world for a real princess — and one stormy night a single pea beneath twenty mattresses reveals the truth. Andersen's classic.
- Animals
The Rabbit's bride
A girl taken to be a rabbit's bride tricks him with a straw dummy and escapes home.
- Classic
The real princess
A soaked stranger proves she is a true princess by feeling a pea beneath twenty mattresses.
- Classic
The Shepherd Boy
A wise shepherd boy answers a king's three impossible questions with clever turnarounds.
- Adventure
The Shroud
A dead child returns as a ghost to ask his grieving mother to stop weeping so he can rest.
- Animals
The Sole
In a fish race to choose a king, the envious sole's jealous sneer leaves its mouth twisted to one side forever.
- Bedtime
The Star Money
A penniless orphan gives away her last bread and even her clothes to those in need — and the stars themselves shower down to reward her kindness.
- Adventure
The Stolen Farthings
The ghost of a dead child returns each noon until the coins it once wrongly kept are given to the poor.
- Classic
The Story of Schlauraffen Land
A rapid-fire string of tall tales and impossible sights told for the fun of the absurd.
- Animals
The Straw, The Coal, and the Bean
A straw, a coal, and a bean flee the cooking pot together and meet comic ends crossing a brook.
- Animals
The teapot
A vain teapot loses its spout and handle but finds new purpose nurturing a flower bulb in its later life.
- Animals
The Three Brothers
Three brothers master their trades in a friendly contest for the family house and choose to live together in harmony.
- Classic
The Three Feathers
A scorned youngest son follows a feather to a toad's underground realm and wins the kingdom with the finest gifts and a magically transformed bride.
- Classic
The Three Sluggards
A dying king promises his kingdom to whichever son can prove himself the laziest.
- Adventure
The Twelve Apostles
A poor mother's twelve hungry sons are each led by an angel to sleep for three hundred years and wake as the twelve apostles.
- Adventure
The Water Nix
A brother and sister tumble down a well into the clutches of a water witch, and must use their wits to escape. A short, thrilling Brothers Grimm tale.
- Animals
The Wise Servant
A servant sent to find a cow chases blackbirds instead, in an ironic little tale mocking so-called cleverness.
- Animals
The Wolf and the Fox
A clever fox repeatedly leads a greedy wolf into trouble until the wolf's gluttony proves fatal.
- Animals
The Wolf and the Man
A boastful wolf who wants to fight a man learns the hard way why animals fear humankind.
