I have always loved stories about giants, fairies, far away places and mythical beasts. The stories I love the most are steeped in cultural tradition. Stories passed down through the ages, before they were finally written down, go straight to the heart.

As soon as my children were old enough, I took them to the library. I read them folklore books. They loved listening to all the various Cinderella, hyenas in Africa and the Russian `Fool of the World' stories.

When my children grew up, my love of stories did not wane. Through the Internet, I collected tales from all over the world. I now have an online library of legends, myths and folklore. I can read myself a different story every night. Bed-time stories are not only for children. I have compiled an online collection of myths and folklore adults can appreciate.

Folklore often asks - how did we get here? Most of us are familiar with the biblical story. As a young child, my grandfather told me the story. I could close my eyes and believe I was right there at the beginning of time. Later I discovered every culture asks the same question. Creation Myths of the World is a collection of short tales from India, China, Assyria, Japan, Romania and many heartfelt stories from Africa.

I could almost feel the rain coming down when my grandfather talked about Noah's Arc. Later I discovered every culture has a flood story. It is not surprising that the Assyrian and Babylonian legends are eerily close to the biblical saga.

A deity destroys the earth through a flood, but saves one good person's family. At the Flood Myth site, you can find similar tales from all over Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America, Australia and the Pacific Ocean Islands. If everyone all over the world has a flood myth, there must be some truth to it.

Skip from Russia to China to Africa in Folk and Fairy Tales Around the World. Read how a little girl in Russia out wits the Emperor. I liked the tale of `Tiny Finger' - a Japanese `Tom Thumb' boy who saves a Princess from bandits.

Enjoy a Siberian tale of a hare rescuing the sun, and in an African story, a rabbit outwits the elephant and the whale. Little creatures and people often outsmart the big guys, in stories all over the world.

Growing up on the West Coast of Canada, I enjoyed listening and reading tales of the raven, thunderbird, killer whale and the wild woman of the woods. My first online folklore anthology in my collection was the Native American Folklore Index.

It is a treasure trove of more than 100 stories, mostly animal stories. I like to read about the coyote or buffalo or the bear. They are easy reading stories, but not sanitized. I can also listen to the real time audio chanting.

Native American Folklore Index is part of an even larger site called Stonee's Web Lodge which has stories and music from all over North America. Every month you can read a native legend and listen to the drums. You can also chat about native folklore or a ny other first nation topics.

On the other side of the world, the earth woman, lightning man and rainbow serpent live in the Australian dream-time. Legends of Gagudju tell about the beginning of time. Photographs of Australian wildlife and nature illustrate the Aboriginal myths of kangaroos and giant crocodiles.

Ever flip through a book to find a paragraph or a sentence, which describes your present situation or state of mind? This site allows you to randomly access a koan - a short Zen puzzle story. Find where it says `koan picked random from the text' and click.

When you have finished reading your koan, refresh the screen for more. With every click, you get another one. Alternatively, read all the koans at once to glean the wisdom.

The best way to read some tales is around a campfire, or at night with a flashlight, or cuddled up with someone special. The Grimm's Fairy Tales site has more than 200 classic tales of witches, talking animals and magic.

The original Grimm's version has Cinderella praying to a tree on her mother's grave, going to the ball three times, the prince putting pitch on the steps so her shoe would stick to it, and finally --pigeons plucking out the step-sister's eyes.

Many of the tales at this site I had never heard of before. A great place to re-read the old favorites and find new ones. Good stories to print out and read.

Ever sit down in a beautiful garden and wonder if fairies lived there? Ever wanted to visit their world? Dance into the cyber Land of the Fairies.

Feast your eyes on fairy art and read about the little people. There are many different fairies all over the world. Enjoy the fairy tales and look at the beautiful fairy pictures. Fairies live!

The Origins and Evolution of Fairytales tells about their mysterious beginnings. Parents passed down the stories to their children. Later, people collected the stories and wrote them down. There was some editing in the writing down.

There could have been many versions of Little Red Riding hood in the verbal telling. I found it fascinating reading the different written versions of well-known stories. All stories evolve and change with time and place.

Here are reference sites to help you understand the strange but wonderful world of myth and folklore.

Pick a topic like animal brides, or multiple births or werewolves and read the tales on the Folklore and Mythology Electronic Text. There are 11 water spirit stories from Russia, Germany and England. Traveler's folklore has 10 entries from England, Japan, North America, India and Romania. A great way to compare stories, globally.

Who was the Egyptian deity Hapi? Want to know about Etruscan mythology? Browse through select areas of world mythology like Celt, Roman, Japan, China, Maya and Polynesia in the Encyclopedia Mythica.

Or enter a key word into the onsite search engine. I entered `sea' into the search and discovered the names of sea deities and spirits for Japan, Egypt, the Inuit, Micronesia and the ancient Celts.

Now you can have your own online folklore and mythology collection. All the world's wisdom right there for you. You can escape - to a time long ago and a land far away - whenever you want.