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Told Again: Old Tales Told Again
An enchanting retelling of nineteen fairy tales, introduced by popular fantasy writer Philip Pullman
Originally published in 1927, Told Again is an enchanting collection of elegant fairy tales, showcasing the formidable talents of a writer who used magical realism before the term had even been invented. Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) was one of the most celebrated writers of children's literature during the first half of the twentieth century--so much so that W. H. Auden edited a selection of his poems and British children could recite de la Mare's verses by heart. His abundant literary gifts can be savored once more in this new edition. With marvelous black and white illustrations by A. H. Watson, this volume includes a splendid introduction by Philip Pullman, the contemporary master of fantasy literature.
The significance of the nineteen adapted classics in Told Again lies in de la Mare's poetic insights and graceful prose, which--as Pullman indicates in his introduction--soften and sweeten the originals, making these tales appropriate for younger readers. In The Four Brothers, the siblings allow the princess to choose her own husband rather than argue over her; and in Rapunzel, de la Mare discreetly leaves out details of the prince's tortured, blind search for his love. Familiar stories, such as Little Red Riding-Hood, Rumplestiltskin, and The Sleeping Beauty are also made new through de la Mare's expansive, descriptive, and lyrical prose. Pullman covers important details about de la Mare's life and captures the stylistic intention behind the rewriting of these wonderful favorites.
Reviving the work of a writer who exemplified a romantic vision and imagination, Told Again is a remarkable retelling of fairy tales touched by mystery and magic.
Originally published in 1927, Told Again is an enchanting collection of elegant fairy tales, showcasing the formidable talents of a writer who used magical realism before the term had even been invented. Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) was one of the most celebrated writers of children's literature during the first half of the twentieth century--so much so that W. H. Auden edited a selection of his poems and British children could recite de la Mare's verses by heart. His abundant literary gifts can be savored once more in this new edition. With marvelous black and white illustrations by A. H. Watson, this volume includes a splendid introduction by Philip Pullman, the contemporary master of fantasy literature.
The significance of the nineteen adapted classics in Told Again lies in de la Mare's poetic insights and graceful prose, which--as Pullman indicates in his introduction--soften and sweeten the originals, making these tales appropriate for younger readers. In The Four Brothers, the siblings allow the princess to choose her own husband rather than argue over her; and in Rapunzel, de la Mare discreetly leaves out details of the prince's tortured, blind search for his love. Familiar stories, such as Little Red Riding-Hood, Rumplestiltskin, and The Sleeping Beauty are also made new through de la Mare's expansive, descriptive, and lyrical prose. Pullman covers important details about de la Mare's life and captures the stylistic intention behind the rewriting of these wonderful favorites.
Reviving the work of a writer who exemplified a romantic vision and imagination, Told Again is a remarkable retelling of fairy tales touched by mystery and magic.
248 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1927
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127 people want to read
About the author
Walter de la Mare
526 books173 followersWalter John de la Mare was an English poet, short story writer and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners", and for his psychological horror short fiction, including "Seaton's Aunt" and "All Hallows". In 1921, his novel Memoirs of a Midget won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, and his post-war Collected Stories for Children won the 1947 Carnegie Medal for British children's books.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 20, 2025
So yes and to be totally honest (but for me not at all surprisingly and also kind of expected), I definitely do prefer the original folk and fairly stories Walter de la Mare has adapted to what is textually presented in his 1927 Told Again: Old Tales Told Again (and I also should point out that I cheated a bit in so far that I only read the folk and fairy tales that de la Mare has retold from the Brothers Grimm and from Charles Perrault, as I was kind of doing a comparative reading study and focussing on how Walter de la Mare has taken and changed these particular German and French language originals, or perhaps I should say their translations into English). And while in Told Again: Old Tales Told Again, admittedly, de la Mare certainly manages to generally capture the main essence of the original Brothers Grimm and Charles Perreault fairy and folk tales he has chosen to adapt (and keeps his retellings thematically and content-wise sufficiently similar to the originals as well), there is I am sorry to say just something that I kind of personally feel is somewhat lacking in the reimagined tales of Told Again: Old Tales Told Again Walter de la Mare has taken from the Brothers Grimm and from Charles Perrault.
For one, while de la Mare has taken two of the Brothers Grimm most humorous stories with The Musicians (Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten) and Clever Grethel (Das kluge Grethel), sorry, but the sense of fun, ingenuity and paying back so obvious and delightfully present with the Brothers Grimm, this is totally absent in both The Musicians and in Clever Grethel, leaving me perhaps painfully smiling a bit (since I do know just how laugh out loud hilarious the original German texts are) but also groaning at how tedious and dragging, how on the surface and not at all engagingly entertaining Walter de la Mare's retellings of Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten and Das kluge Grethel in fact and frustratingly are (and that actually with Told Again: Old Tales Told Again, anything even remotely funny in ALL of the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault stories being adapted by Walter de la Mare is kind of majorly missing in action and as such also rather annoyingly and sorely missed).
And for two, what is it with all the sanitising in Told Again: Old Tales Told Again? Sure, in the original Aesop fable of The Tortoise and the Hare, the hare does not end up dead but defeated and severely chastised, but since in the both the Brothers Grimm Der Hase und der Igel and actually in most of the German language fairy stories about the hare and his race with the hedgehog, the hare does end up dying, well, in my humble opinion, Walter de la Mare should also have the hare end up deceased in his The Hare and the Hedgehog. And while I can to a point understand de la Mare changing a dead hare to a living one in The Hare and the Hedgehog, that he in Told Again: Old Tales Told Again basically scrubs everything that could be remotely seen as off-colour or too violent from his Brothers Grimm and Charles Perreault retellings, this definitely does bother me and it leaves Walter de la Mare's renditions of Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Snow White and Rapunzel at best a pale reflection of the originals and as such also kind of tedious to read if you are like I am familiar with the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perreault (and not to mention that how inactive and how stereotypically damsel in distress the in the originals quite self sufficient and active heroines are in Walter de la Mare's Bluebeard and Rumpelstiltskin retellings also leaves me pretty well majorly textually frustrated).
However, I was still mostly prepared to consider Told Again: Old Tales Told Again with three stars (as I do find the majority of the retold Grimm and Perreault stories sufficiently readable even if not quite as good as the originals) until I realised that Walter de la Mare has (in my humble opinion) left out a very essential and necessary piece of textual information in his adaptation of the Brothers Grimm Dornröschen (which is more commonly known in English as The Sleeping Beauty). For while I am glad that de la Mare is retelling the Brothers Grimm and not the Charles Perreault version of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale (as I have always much preferred it and find the ogres in the Perreault version unnecessary and tacked on), that he, that Walter de la Mare basically in his retelling just claims that the princess' parents, that the king and the queen have just forgotten to invite the fairy who ends up making that sleep for a hundred years curse, well, that is actually not how the story goes in both the Grimms' Dornröschen and in Perreault's La Belle aux Bois Dormants, since with both tales, it is made abundantly clear that the fairy has been in fact deliberately not invited because of there not being enough cutlery and plates available, so indeed, a decided breaking of the taboo of offering hospitality is encountered and that there therefore with both the Brothers Grimm and with Charles Perreault a heavy dose of blame for Sleeping Beauty's, for Dornröschen's curse being cast at her parents. And that this does not at all happen in Walter de la Mare's Sleeping Beauty adaptation as featured in Told Again: Old Tales Told Again, that the princess' parents are basically shown by de la Mare as somehow entirely blameless, this has certainly annoyed me sufficiently to now lower my originally considered three stars to only two.
For one, while de la Mare has taken two of the Brothers Grimm most humorous stories with The Musicians (Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten) and Clever Grethel (Das kluge Grethel), sorry, but the sense of fun, ingenuity and paying back so obvious and delightfully present with the Brothers Grimm, this is totally absent in both The Musicians and in Clever Grethel, leaving me perhaps painfully smiling a bit (since I do know just how laugh out loud hilarious the original German texts are) but also groaning at how tedious and dragging, how on the surface and not at all engagingly entertaining Walter de la Mare's retellings of Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten and Das kluge Grethel in fact and frustratingly are (and that actually with Told Again: Old Tales Told Again, anything even remotely funny in ALL of the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault stories being adapted by Walter de la Mare is kind of majorly missing in action and as such also rather annoyingly and sorely missed).
And for two, what is it with all the sanitising in Told Again: Old Tales Told Again? Sure, in the original Aesop fable of The Tortoise and the Hare, the hare does not end up dead but defeated and severely chastised, but since in the both the Brothers Grimm Der Hase und der Igel and actually in most of the German language fairy stories about the hare and his race with the hedgehog, the hare does end up dying, well, in my humble opinion, Walter de la Mare should also have the hare end up deceased in his The Hare and the Hedgehog. And while I can to a point understand de la Mare changing a dead hare to a living one in The Hare and the Hedgehog, that he in Told Again: Old Tales Told Again basically scrubs everything that could be remotely seen as off-colour or too violent from his Brothers Grimm and Charles Perreault retellings, this definitely does bother me and it leaves Walter de la Mare's renditions of Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Snow White and Rapunzel at best a pale reflection of the originals and as such also kind of tedious to read if you are like I am familiar with the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perreault (and not to mention that how inactive and how stereotypically damsel in distress the in the originals quite self sufficient and active heroines are in Walter de la Mare's Bluebeard and Rumpelstiltskin retellings also leaves me pretty well majorly textually frustrated).
However, I was still mostly prepared to consider Told Again: Old Tales Told Again with three stars (as I do find the majority of the retold Grimm and Perreault stories sufficiently readable even if not quite as good as the originals) until I realised that Walter de la Mare has (in my humble opinion) left out a very essential and necessary piece of textual information in his adaptation of the Brothers Grimm Dornröschen (which is more commonly known in English as The Sleeping Beauty). For while I am glad that de la Mare is retelling the Brothers Grimm and not the Charles Perreault version of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale (as I have always much preferred it and find the ogres in the Perreault version unnecessary and tacked on), that he, that Walter de la Mare basically in his retelling just claims that the princess' parents, that the king and the queen have just forgotten to invite the fairy who ends up making that sleep for a hundred years curse, well, that is actually not how the story goes in both the Grimms' Dornröschen and in Perreault's La Belle aux Bois Dormants, since with both tales, it is made abundantly clear that the fairy has been in fact deliberately not invited because of there not being enough cutlery and plates available, so indeed, a decided breaking of the taboo of offering hospitality is encountered and that there therefore with both the Brothers Grimm and with Charles Perreault a heavy dose of blame for Sleeping Beauty's, for Dornröschen's curse being cast at her parents. And that this does not at all happen in Walter de la Mare's Sleeping Beauty adaptation as featured in Told Again: Old Tales Told Again, that the princess' parents are basically shown by de la Mare as somehow entirely blameless, this has certainly annoyed me sufficiently to now lower my originally considered three stars to only two.
March 8, 2015
Okay, I have to ask what the hell Phillip Pullman has against Dahl’s version of Little Red Riding Hood because I love it. We need more girls to know that version than Walter de la Mare’s.
Sorry, had to get it out of the way.
This collection is de la Mare’s retellings of famous fairy tales, mostly from the Brothers Grimm, and if you though the Grimms cleaned things up too much, you are going to think that de le Mare has some type of mental illness.
It’s strange, though, the tales that aren’t source from the Grimms tend to be the better ones. De la Mare adapts Aesop’s “Tortoise and the Hare” for the British child, making it “The Hedgehog and the Hare,” and it is a very charming tale. It’s the best one in the book. The retelling of “Bluebeard” is better too though it wanes a little at the end. De la Mare has a thing against beautiful, vain, and dumb women. Honestly, one of those shows up, you know something bad is going to happen. The retelling of Dick Whittington is good too, though the cat becomes male for some reason.
There are some beautiful descriptions in the stories.
Sorry, had to get it out of the way.
This collection is de la Mare’s retellings of famous fairy tales, mostly from the Brothers Grimm, and if you though the Grimms cleaned things up too much, you are going to think that de le Mare has some type of mental illness.
It’s strange, though, the tales that aren’t source from the Grimms tend to be the better ones. De la Mare adapts Aesop’s “Tortoise and the Hare” for the British child, making it “The Hedgehog and the Hare,” and it is a very charming tale. It’s the best one in the book. The retelling of “Bluebeard” is better too though it wanes a little at the end. De la Mare has a thing against beautiful, vain, and dumb women. Honestly, one of those shows up, you know something bad is going to happen. The retelling of Dick Whittington is good too, though the cat becomes male for some reason.
There are some beautiful descriptions in the stories.
July 14, 2015
Mention Walter de la Mare, and most Irish people of a certain vintage will recall his name from poems learned in school, particularly the evocative Edgar Allan Poe-style verses of 'The Listeners' ('Is there anybody there?' said the Traveller, / Knocking on the moonlit door; / And his horse in the silence champed the grasses / Of the forest's ferny floor...). De la Mare was certainly best known as a poet, but he was also widely acknowledged as one of finest ghost story writers of his era, in addition to being an acclaimed and award-winning novelist, deeply admired by such literary giants as W.H. Auden, Dylan Thomas and Vladimir Nabokov. But beyond the touchstones of a few ingrained verses and, for aficionados of the macabre, the supernatural stories, he is a writer who seems to have been largely forgotten by the modern world. Which is a great shame.
'Told Again' is a genuinely beautiful book. Most of the nineteen stories included here are known to everyone by heart, classic bedtime tales like 'Jack and the Beanstalk', 'Little Red Riding-Hood', 'Snow-White' and 'The Sleeping Beauty'. But where the likes of the Brothers' Grimm favoured lean folk renditions, with characterisations kept paper-thin in favour of such fairytale necessities as pacing, plot twists and the inevitably heavy helpings of moral consequence, de la Mare favours a more literary turn, which allows him to find the song inside each story.
In language rich, vivid and always full of melody, he understands the value of setting, and if pace is sometimes lost as he lingers over a scene, then it is always to a purpose. These are stories that unfurl across a living landscape, however magical. 'Expansive' is a word Philip Pullman uses in his insightful introduction, and that's a good summation of de la Mare's style. But even when the author gives us sentences that can be deemed unnecessary to the plot, nothing is wasted. His sense of story is immaculate. Characters are often flawed but always properly motivated, and the descriptions work because of their vivid intensity and because of how they so subtly and so often foreshadow things to come.
Sometimes, the stories ('Rapunzel', for example, or the less-familiar 'The Four Brothers' or 'The Dancing Princesses') will occasionally stray in detail from the ways we've known them told, but folk tales are defined by their constant state of flux, and it's important to remember that these had already passed through generations of oral tradition by the time the Brothers' Grimm and others finally got around to setting them in print.
With 'Told Again', Princeton University Press have resurrected a 1927 classic that deserves a place in any home where young children lay down their heads to sleep.
'Told Again' is a genuinely beautiful book. Most of the nineteen stories included here are known to everyone by heart, classic bedtime tales like 'Jack and the Beanstalk', 'Little Red Riding-Hood', 'Snow-White' and 'The Sleeping Beauty'. But where the likes of the Brothers' Grimm favoured lean folk renditions, with characterisations kept paper-thin in favour of such fairytale necessities as pacing, plot twists and the inevitably heavy helpings of moral consequence, de la Mare favours a more literary turn, which allows him to find the song inside each story.
In language rich, vivid and always full of melody, he understands the value of setting, and if pace is sometimes lost as he lingers over a scene, then it is always to a purpose. These are stories that unfurl across a living landscape, however magical. 'Expansive' is a word Philip Pullman uses in his insightful introduction, and that's a good summation of de la Mare's style. But even when the author gives us sentences that can be deemed unnecessary to the plot, nothing is wasted. His sense of story is immaculate. Characters are often flawed but always properly motivated, and the descriptions work because of their vivid intensity and because of how they so subtly and so often foreshadow things to come.
Sometimes, the stories ('Rapunzel', for example, or the less-familiar 'The Four Brothers' or 'The Dancing Princesses') will occasionally stray in detail from the ways we've known them told, but folk tales are defined by their constant state of flux, and it's important to remember that these had already passed through generations of oral tradition by the time the Brothers' Grimm and others finally got around to setting them in print.
With 'Told Again', Princeton University Press have resurrected a 1927 classic that deserves a place in any home where young children lay down their heads to sleep.
sony-or-android
April 26, 2017mentioned as the source for The Turnip which was charming... this is on Open Library
December 22, 2008
I didn't like the way some of the tales were told. Like instead of the soldier at the end of "the twelve dancing princesses" marry one of the princesses, he decides to go raise pigs instead. These aren't original versions of fairy tales, they are the fairy tales. I don't think they're very kid friendly in the way they are written either (the language is hard to understand--lots of unique phrases of saying things; almost in an old English sort of way).
February 22, 2017
I picked up this book at a library book sale because Walter de la Mare's poems rank among my favorites. The tales are not instilled with his characteristic shiver-inducing fantastic description, but they are valuable tales nevertheless.
August 13, 2018
Sweet retellings of fairy tales, with some modern (for the early 20th century) twists, but overall faithful to the spirit of the stories - no complete updates or rewrites here, just nicer and with more details and more personality than many of the original fairy tales.
April 27, 2020
Amazing retelling of fairy tales. Reading this collection is nostalgic: your heart seems to pine for the joyous days of childhood.
January 1, 2021
Walter de la Mare retells 19 classic folk and fairy tales. Illustrations by Alan Howard.
December 22, 2020
After a couple of fruitless attempts to find a replacement copy of the Arbuthnot Anthology of Children's Literature in the precise edition I used to own, so that I could read my granddaughter de la Mare's lovely retelling of Cinderella, I gave up and bought this book. Over a few weeks we read all the stories -- retellings of classic folktales such as are found in Perreault, Grimm, and Jacobs, with de la Mare's poetic sensibility. I think these are best suited for reading aloud by an adult -- both because of the language, which may occasionally need explanation, and, sadly, because of occasional locutions influenced by the casual racism and anti-Semitism of de la Mare's time, necessitating a bit of editing-on-the-fly by the reader aloud. With this caveat, highly recommended.
March 3, 2013
Still one of my favorite collections of fairy tales. A real GEM.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews