Macedonian Folk Tales

Macedonian Folk Tales (Македонски народни приказни) is a curated collection of Macedonian oral tales, selected and edited by Vasil Iljoski with Krum Tošev, and issued by the State Publishing House of Macedonia.

Across roughly 240 pages, it gathers stories from village life and the mountains to the marketplace, blending trickster plots, moral fables, and encounters with the supernatural (fairies, devils, shape-shifters).

The book’s aim is both preservational and nation-building: to fix oral tradition into print, sustain folk wisdom, and help shape the modern Macedonian literary language in the immediate post-war period.

In tone it is lively and didactic, celebrating wit, hospitality, and justice, while offering a vivid portrait of everyday customs and beliefs across Macedonia.