A collection of twenty-five traditional Mongolian folktales about animals, magic, domestic affairs, and the relationship between man and nature.

From the descendants of the Huns and the mighty warrior, Chinggis Khan (or, as he is known to Westerners, Genghis Khan), and the land of the steppes and the Gobi Desert, come tales of passion, strife, magic, and laughter. This collection of traditional Mongolian folktales, the only one of its kind currently available in English, features more than 60 fascinating stories, ranging from The Legend of the Magic Bone and Seven Brown Mice to The Dreaming Boy and A Fiery Red Khan. The tales are organized in chapters that cover legends, myths, animal tales, magical tales, stories of life conditions, and humor. In addition, the authors provide an introduction to Mongolia, games, recipes, color photos, and notes on the stories. All levels.

This introduction to both written and oral Mongolian literature from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century provides a rare insight into the changing world views of the Mongolian people: from clan society to Soviet culture. Translated by renowned scholar Charles Bawden, the work is organised into Histories, Legends, Didactic literature, Epics, Shamanistic Incantations, Folk tales, Myths, Sino-Mongolian Prose Literature, Lyrics and Other Verse and Reminiscences, concluding with a modern short story. This important work, which makes the rich tradition of Mongolian literature available for the first time, will be essential reading for many years to come.

Over the course of the twentieth century, Mongolian life was transformed, as a land of nomadic communities encountered first socialism and then capitalism and their promises of new societies. The stories collected in this anthology offer literary snapshots of Mongolian life throughout this tumult. Suncranes and Other Stories showcases a range of powerful voices and their vivid portraits of nomads, revolution, and the endless steppe. Spanning the years following the socialist revolution of 1921 through the early twenty-first century, these stories from the country’s most highly regarded prose writers show how Mongolian culture has forged links between the traditional and the modern. Writers employ a wide range of styles, from Aesopian fables through socialist realism to more experimental forms, influenced by folktales and epics as well as Western prose models. They depict the drama of a nomadic population struggling to understand a new approach to life imposed by a foreign power while at the same time benefiting from reforms, whether in the capital city Ulaanbaatar or on the steppe. Across the mix of stories, Mongolia’s majestic landscape and the people’s deep connection to it come through vividly. For all English-speaking readers curious about Mongolia’s people and culture, Simon Wickhamsmith’s translations make available this captivating literary tradition and its rich portrayals of the natural and social worlds.