Mary Huse Eastman 
Index to Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends 

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The increased use of the story hour in work with children and the ever-widening use of fables and myths in school work have Shown the need of an index which would save time by indicating at a glance the source of an asked – for story. When eight out of ten versions of a myth are given in their respective books under different titles bearing little or no resemblance to the one Sought for, when each new translator or compiler may give an entire set of new titles to old favorites, mechanical aid is necessary to Save reason as well as time. This index includes, besides fairy tales and fables, the stories from Greek and Norse mythology which seemed most likely to be called for, also hero stories and some modern stories like the Leak in the dyke, which are not strictly fairy tale or legend but which are constantly asked for by teachers and story tellers. Since inquiries for stories are mainly by title this is first of all a title index. When the same story appears under various titles, it is indexed under the best known or under the one that seemed most descriptive of the story, and references are made from all the other titles. The title as contained in each particular book, when differing from the one under which it is indexed, is given in parenthesis at the end of the entry. In the case of mythology and hero stories the titles have been inverted, or invented if necessary, in order to bring the entry under the name of the character. When a book con tains a number of stories about the same person but bear ing different titles, a general reference to the book is given; when two only, but not in direct Sequence, the titles are given in parenthesis at the end of the entry. The cross references from one story to another are intended to aid story tellers by suggesting similar stories in case the one wished for is not obtainable. The cross references from subjects – holidays, stars, flowers, etc.