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For most of human history, our accumulated wisdom was carried in a single, spellbinding chain of transmission: the folktale. Passed from voice to voice, generation to generation, these stories were – and remain – an instruction manual to the world.
The World Story Bank gathers the folktales and traditional stories of humanity — from all points of the compass — and returns them, alive, to the world. Each episode is a single tale, told simply, named with the tradition it comes from.
An initiative of the Scheherazade Foundation, the World Story Bank exists to gather this fragile and ancient wisdom, to protect it, and to rewild it back into modern culture. The project was launched in London in 2024, and celebrated its first anniversary in 2025 at an event hosted by Queen Camilla at Clarence House.
Listening and retelling keeps the stories alive.
https://www.sf.charity/world-story-bank
THE TORTOISE & THE DEER
From the Tapoia culture of the middle Amazon in northern Brazil
A tortoise once meeting a deer, said:
‘O my friend Deer, which of us do you think can run the faster?’
‘I can,’ replied the deer.
‘Well, suppose tomorrow we have a race?’ said the tortoise.
‘Agreed. Where shall I meet you?’
‘At the bank of the river; you can run there, but I am more accustomed to running in the woods,’ said the tortoise.
To this the deer readily consented, for he thought, I can run faster than that silly tortoise anywhere, and if he runs in the woods and I in the open country, I need make no effort at all.
After the deer had left him, the tortoise went into the woods and called together all his relations and told them he was to run a race with the deer. Then he directed them the next morning to go into the woods all along the bank of the river, and to place themselves there at intervals.
Then, when the deer called, ‘Where are you, Tortoise?’ the tortoise just ahead of the deer should reply, ‘I am here, Deer.’
It was so agreed, and early the next morning the relations of the tortoise took their stations, and the tortoise himself went to the bank of the river to meet the deer. They were soon both ready to start, and the tortoise called out:
‘Are you ready, Deer?’
‘Yes, I am ready,’ said the deer.
‘Then, run!’
And off started the deer thinking, I shall soon leave behind that stupid tortoise.
But the tortoise only crept a little further into the woods and waited.
The deer ran rapidly some distance then stopped and called:
‘Where are you, Tortoise?’
The tortoise just in advance of him, replied:
‘I am here, Deer.’
The deer, astonished, thought, I did not think that that the tortoise could run so fast. And he started off again.
After a while he again stopped and called:
‘Where are you, Tortoise?’
The answer came just ahead of him:
‘I am here, Deer.’
‘The Devil is in that Tortoise; how he does run,’ said the deer, and off he went again.
This time he ran very fast before stopping.
I am now certainly ahead of that tortoise, he thought to himself.
But on his calling out ‘Where are you, Tortoise?’ the same reply came from the woods just ahead of him.
So the deer ran on till he was completely exhausted, the same answer always coming from the woods, just ahead.
At last, panting for breath, with his tongue hanging out, he fell upon the sand.
Then a tortoise came out of the woods just before him, and going to the river, cupped some water and poured it into the deer's mouth.
When he had recovered a little, the deer said:
‘O, Tortoise, even though my legs are twice as long as yours, you have more strength and can run faster.’
Then the deer walked off into the woods saying:
‘Good bye, Tortoise; I do not care to run any more races with you.’
And the tortoises all came together, and they laughed long into the night.