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“Fairy Tales from Around the World” is a large-scale anthology compiled by Nikolay Raynov in the period 1930 - 1934. It consists of 28 volumes of fairy tales and 2 volumes of stories. Volume 1 – “The Tree of Fairy Tales” – includes a total of 100 fairy tales.

As an erudite and art historian with his own specific style, Nikolay Raynov presents the world folklore heritage to Bulgarian readers in an original way. He draws inspiration from the fairy tales of many peoples – Slavic (Bulgarian, Russian, Czech, Serbian), European (English, French, Spanish, German, Scandinavian), Eastern (Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Persian, Arabic), and the tales of the Indian peoples.

His translations are not literal, but stand out with beauty of expression and a search for meaning beyond the told story. They reflect his interest in the psychology of different peoples, their mythology and symbols, and often carry a deeper philosophical meaning than the original folklore texts.

Like a true magician, Nikolai Raynov creates an extraordinary fairy world, different from ours – distant and perfect in its diversity, full of magic and beauty, which evokes wonder and admiration in the reader.

The world of fairy tales is populated with magical objects and creatures, with heroes who possess extraordinary skills, wise dwarfs, evil old women, invincible magic-users, brave knights and maidens more beautiful than the moon and stars.

The magical actions (transformations, flights, spells) are described with a solemn, almost biblical rhythm that gives magic a ritual character. When the hero of the story is transformed into an animal or object, Nikolai Raynov does not spare details. The transformation is accompanied by shine, colors and sounds. If a prince becomes a falcon, he does not simply “fly away”, but is shrouded in a “cloud of silver dust” or a “sword of flame”. The hero passes through a test, he changes to appear in a new image. The change is an external expression of the hero's inner state. The wrong thing becomes an affair that is both good and bad, morals that are both forbidden and allowed.

When the reader enters the world of fairy tales, he too changes. The magic of love and goodness penetrates his soul and shows him the path that a man with a brave and clean heart follows, and the rewards that await him when he returns home.

Nikolai Raynov called the first volume of this precious series “The Tree of Fairy Tales”. On that magic tree there are a hundred “leaves” – a hundred fairy-tale stories – like a necklace that carries joy, wisdom, beauty and magic.