Sjömansbiblioteket

The sly fox, the greedy wolf and the diligent ant are among the most iconic and loved characters from Aesop’s fables. Who doesn’t love discovering knowledge in the ancient tales? It doesn’t matter if you are just learning to read or you are picking up a good night story for your children: Aesop’s fables offers a piece of wisdom to everyone.

Aesop (620–564 BCE) was a storyteller that was believed to have lived in Ancient Greece. He is celebrated for a number of fables now collectively known as Aesop's Fables. In the few scattered sources about his life, Aesop was described as a slave who by his cleverness acquires freedom and becomes an adviser to kings and city-states.

Although Aesop's existence remains unclear, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a storytelling tradition that continues to this day.


Aesop's fables feature animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that speak, solve problems, and generally have human characteristics. All the stories story lead to a particular moral lesson.