Hero Tales

Excerpt

In the world’s literature there are certain stories which, told ages
ago, can never be forgotten.  They have within them that which gives
pleasure to all intelligent men, women and children.  They appeal to
the sympathies, the desires, and the admiration of all sorts and
conditions of mankind.  These are the stories that are said to be
immortal.  They have been repeated and re-repeated in many forms and to
all kinds of audiences.  They have been recited and sung in royal
palaces, in the halls of mediaeval castles, and by the camp fires of
warring heroes.  Parents have taught them to their children, and
generation after generation has preserved their memory.  They have been
written on parchment and printed in books, translated into many
languages, abridged, extended, edited, and “adapted.”  But through all
these changes and the vicissitudes of time, they still preserve the
qualities that have made them so universally popular.