Word of unknown origin, possibly from the Greek meaning not loving light or Hebrew meaning destroyer and liar. It is the name of the evil spirit or devil to whom Faust sold his soul, according to medieval German legend. The character appears in the anonymous 1587 German Faustbuch as Mephostophiles. Christopher Marlowe's Tragicall History of Dr. Faustus play is based on it. Shakespeare mentions Mephostophilus in The Merry Wives of Windsor. The character appears in J. W. von Goethe's dramatic poem Faust in the first half of the 1800s. Musical references include Charles Gounod's opera, Faust and the Arrigo Boito opera, Mefistofele. In the 20th Century he appears in the play Damn Yankees by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop from the Wallop novel The Year the Yankees Won the Pennant.

This character in Arthurian legend is sometimes linked to Myrddin in
Welsh (Celtic) legend. In the 10th Century Geoffrey of Monmouth used a 9th Century Welsh legend to make Merlin advisor to Uther Pendragon in his Historia regum Britanniae. Libellus told of Merlini, a Celtic druid who moved Stonehenge from Ireland to Amesbury, England. Robert de Borron added Christianity to the tale in the 13th Century and made Merlin a prophet of the Holy Grail in Merlin. Thomas Malory's Morte D 'Arthur was penned in the 15th Century. In the late 1800s Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote his 12-poem Idylls of the King. Tennyson inspired Dante Gabriel Rossetti to paint the Arthurian legend. Familiar to modern readers is T. H. White's Book of Merlyn, the concluding part of the The Once and Future King series. This adaptation of Malory's work inspired, in turn, the Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe musical play, Camelot.

Full name is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He was born on August 28, 1749 in Frankfurt am Main of middle class German parents. Goethe is known as one of the giants in world literature, but was a scientist as well as a literary figure. He wrote Faust at the end of his life, completing Faust I in 1808 and second part in 1832. Goethe died in Weimer, Germany on March 22, 1832.

The word Quixote means cuish-armed (cuisse: armor for the thighs). He is the hero of the satirical romance by Miguel de Cervantes Savaadra, 1605. The full title of Cervantes book was El Inqeniojo Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. He is a noble but simple-minded knight, bemused by too many tales of knights-errant. He sets out to redress all the world's ills and save the oppressed. There have been many versions and imitations through the years. Don Quichotte is an opera in 5 acts from 1908-9 by Jules Massenet to a libretto by Henri Cain after J. Le Lorrain's play Le chevalier de la longue figure (1906) based on Cervantes's novel. There is a well-known retelling from 1959 by James Reeves—Exploits of Don Quixote—with illustrations by Edward Ardizzone. In 1966 the character became the subject of a musical stage production, Man of La Mancha with music by Mitch Leigh, lyrics by Joe Darion and book by Dale Wasserman (after his TV play I, Don Quixote). The Don Quixote role was played by Richard Kiley. The 1972 film version featured Peter O'Toole, Sophia Loren, and James Coco.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1855 poem, "The Song of Hiawatha" is a narrative in unrhymed trochaic tetrameter, the metre of the Finnish Kalevala. It centers on the legendary North American Indian of the Onondaga tribe (fl. c. 1570). His name in Ojibwa means "he makes rivers." According to tradition, he was co-founder of the Iroquois Confederacy, possessed magical powers, and taught his people agriculture, navigation, medicine, and the arts. Longfellow was influenced by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft who wrote on Indian legend and religion. In Longfellow's telling, Hiawatha marries the Dacotah maiden Minnehaha (laughing water), and after various adventures, departs for the Isles of the Blest to rule the kingdom of the Northwest Wind. The popularity of the tale has spurned much parodying over the years.

The name of Bottom Nick, the weaver in Midsummer Night's Dream, refers to the bottom or core of a skein upon which weaver's yarn was wound. A droll, The Merry Conceited Humours of Bottom the Weaver, adapted from Shakespeare's play, was printed in 1661. Titania, the queen of the fairies in the play, is unknown in English folklore, but in Elizabethan England, fairies were equated with the classic nymphs, attendants of Diana. In Ovid, the queen of the fairies was therefore Diana herself, whom he called Titania. (Metamorphoses, iii. 173). In the 16th Century, Puck was the name of a mischievous goblin or sprite, aka Robin Goodfellow and Hobgoblin. He also figured in Michael Drayton's fairy poem, Nimphidia. Earlier, he was considered an evil demon, luring travellers off their path and young girls to disaster. Cf., Irish púca and Welsh pwcca.

It's the Stahlbaum home at Christmas. Clara's godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer gives her a gift of a nutcracker who turns into the nutcracker prince in her Christmas fantasy dream. The Nutcracker (Shchelkunchik) ballet has music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, (Op.71, comp. 1891-2), choreography by Lev Ivanov, and libretto by Marius Petipa. It was first produced in St. Petersburg in 1892 and has been re-choreographed by George Balanchine, John Cranko, Rudolph Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov. The story is based on an 1818-21 work by E.T.A. Hoffmann in Die Serapionsbruder, called "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (Der Nüssknacker und der Mäusekönig)," and a revised version by Alexander Dumas.

The first recorded version of this folktale dates from China, 850-860 A.D. A girl is treated cruelly by her stepfamily. Help comes from a supernatural agent, the fairy godmother, her deceased mother, or an animal. The tale ends with a reversal of fortunes as she marries a prince. The heroine appears in more than 500 European tellings. Our familiar version is Charles Perrault's “Cendrillon,” from his 1697 collection, Contes de ma mere l'oye (Tales of Mother Goose). There have been operas by Jules Massenet (Cendrillon) and Gioacchino Rossini (Cenerentola). The ballet, Zolushka (Ash-Girl) was created by Sergei Prokofiev with choreography by Rostislav Zakharov. In 1950 the Walt Disney animated film was produced. In 1957 a Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein musical for television made its first appearance.

Jacob in Hebrew is a trickster, or supplanter. In the Old Testament he is a Hebrew patriarch, the younger of twin sons of Isaac and Rebecca. Jacob's twelve sons became the founders of the twelve tribes of Israel. By trickery Jacob wins the birthright and father's blessing due his older brother, Esau. He flees from his brother. In Genesis 28:12 he is at Luza on his way to Haran, and has a dream or vision of angels ascending and descending a mysterious ladder which reaches from earth to heaven. Yahweh renews his promise made to Abraham and to Isaac of blessings and prosperity. Jacob calls the place Beth-El, and vows exclusive worship to Yahweh if he will accompany Jacob on his way and bring him home safely.

One of Aesop's Fables. This one tells of a crow who is half dead with thirst and finds a jug with water in the bottom that he cannot reach to drink. He drops in pebbles to raise the water level to his reach and finally succeeds. Little by little does the trick. Aesop is the supposed author of a collection of Greek fables. Herodotus wrote that he was a Phrygian slave from Samos who lived in the 6th century B.C. The fables are anecdotal stories that originated in popular oral folklore and whose animal characters are used to illustrate a moral point. They were popularized and translated into Latin by the Roman poet Phaedrus in the 1st century A.D. The French poet Jean de La Fontaine wrote more sophisticated verse versions, the Fables (1668-94).

Wendy's name came from Barrie's nickname, Friendly-Wendy. The character's full name is Wendy Moira Angela Darling. The character is drawn on Barrie's mother, who was orphaned and had to raise her younger brother. Tinker Bell is his attendant fairy. Nana is a Newfoundland dog who acts as the Darling children's nursemaid.

The Arabian Nights Entertainments Or The Thousand and One Nights collection of stories was written in Arabic and popularized in Europe by Antoine Galland whose translation appeared ca.1704-17. Other versions followed, but the most celebrated was by Sir Richard Burton (1885-8).
They are medieval stories set in Central Asia, derived from Indian, Persian, and Arabic sources, dated from the 8th to the 16th Centuries.

The story of the clever Scheherazade or Shahrazad is the framework for the other tales. She marries the king and makes up stories to entertain the king and escape being killed. The origin of her story is a lost book of Persian fairy-tales, called Hazar Afsanah (A Thousand Tales), which was translated into Arabic ca. 850 A.D.

"Sinbad (or Sindbad) of the Sea Or Sindbad the Sailor" is the tale of a wealthy young man of Baghdad who lives the high life and and has wonderful adventures while on sea voyages as a merchant. In Sinbad's fifth voyage, a character known as the Old Man of the Sea persuades Sinbad to carry him on his shoulders. He keeps Sinbad captive with his grip until Sinbad gets him drunk on wine and dislodges him. The “old man of the sea” has come to stand for a bore, a heavy burden, or nuisance.

Sheherazade is a symphonic suite for orchestra (1888) by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Michel Fokine created the ballet Schéhérazade in 1910. There have been several film versions.