In Tales from Gallia we have a collection of tales from the French & Gallic folk tradition. These tales were originally collected by Andrew Lang, Charles Perrault, Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont, Comtesse de Sophie Segur, Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d'Aulnoy, Katharine Pyle and Edmund Dulac, representing some of the finest collectors working from the seventeenth century onwards.
As ever it's been a delight working with these tales. You'll see from the contents list that some of the more obviously famous French tales, such as Cinderella and Puss in Boots have been left out. I have so many tales of French origin that I wanted to re-tell some of the lesser known examples here. I'm sure, however, that we'll revisit those remaining classic tales before too long.
French, or Gallic, folklore encompasses the fables, folklore, fairy tales and legends of the French speaking people and their ancestors. Traditions of storytelling have a long and distinguished history, and in the Gallic tradition we can date back at least as far as Occitan literature in the Middle Ages. Occitan examples often include songs, poetry and literature from the South of France from the 11th and 12th centuries, much of which inspired vernacular literature throughout medieval Europe.