Maoriland Fairy Tales: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Maoriland Fairy Tales, credited to Edith Howes, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of LibriVox recording of Maoriland Fairy Tales, by Edith Howes. Read by Mareab. Most of the tales have some basis in history. It is an oral language so all histories have to be remembered and retold. To help with this memory retelling the carvings all have relative information and prompts, stories of Atua (sort of gods) and other people (pakeha) that have been encountered are all blended into the stories. One of the amazing things to listen to is a person's whakapapa (family line). My son's father can tell his whakapapa right back to first landing in the canoe Aotea. It takes hours with the stories of battles, moving and resettling and then the invasion of British soldiers and settlers. Those pale fairies in one of the recent stories would most probably have been Malaysian or Portugese fishermen/explorers. The Tikanga (way to behave/live) is quite strict and the stories support keeping people in line. This strictness is a kind of policing I think because it doesn't matter what time in history or what country, human nature doesn't change. There are greedy, silly, great and strong leaders and followers throughout time. A Taniwha is often found in a tapu (sacred or restricted place) That might be a dangerous bend in a river, a place where currents catch people and drag the out to sea or a place in the forest that is sacred so the elders don't want people wandering around in there. There taniwha could be from a spirit of someone or put there by the Atua as a guardian. A taniwha can also be friendly it depends on the place and it's history. It is interesting to think about the origins and reasons behind these stories. Some like Hatupatu are based on fact but also retold to tell people about abuse of power and underestimating people. Maori are great strategists. If you can find the DVDs 'The Maori Wars' you will see the difficulty the British had when trying to beat these mighty warriors. That's why they finally had to sign the Waitangi Treaty (as ambiguous as it is) because they just couldn't beat them. (Summary by mareab)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Maoriland Fairy Tales
• Author credits: Edith Howes
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 28
• Listed recording duration: 4:22:56

Catalogue topics

• nonfiction
• myths
• Maori
• creation
• children

Opening tracks: first 24 of 28

1. 01 - The Wanderers — 8:55
2. 02 - The Six Brothers — 10:22
3. 03 - Tiki — 3:18
4. 04 - Tawhaki's Climb — 15:56
5. 05 - How the Moon was Made — 13:40
6. 06 - Brother and Sister — 6:24
7. 07 - The Sea King's Victory — 9:28
8. 08 - The Magician's Magic — 8:03
9. 09 - Maui — 11:33
10. 10 - More about Maui — 13:44
11. 11 - The King and the Fairies — 10:27
12. 12 - Hatupatu — 14:31
13. 13 - The Star Hunt — 9:09
14. 14 - The Pet Whale — 8:39
15. 15 - On the Moon — 9:55
16. 16 - The Wooden Head — 5:33
17. 17 - The Fountain of Fish — 5:16
18. 18 - Rata — 14:25
19. 19 - The Island and the Taniwha — 9:41
20. 20 - The Most Beautiful Maiden in the World — 9:05
21. 21 - The Giant in the Cave — 7:34
22. 22 - Tama and His Brother — 6:38
23. 23 - Tama and His Wife — 9:32
24. 24 - Sea Goblins — 10:00

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.