Yellow bandReady now · Open and print today

Why the Sea Is Salt

A Norwegian fairy tale from The Blue Fairy Book, collected by Andrew Lang

This Norwegian fairy tale was collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in the nineteenth century and retold in Andrew Lang's The Blue Fairy Book, first published in 1889. It is an aetiological tale—a story that explains how something in nature came to be. Like many folk tales, it teaches lessons about greed, generosity and the consequences of not listening to advice. The magic mill is a classic fairy-tale object: it grants wishes but punishes those who do not respect its power. This text reflects its era.

Band

Yellow · Emerging readersTypical starting range: ages 6–8

Length

medium · about 587 words in 6 sections · 4 pictures

Source

The Blue Fairy Book, Andrew Lang

First published

see the About page in the reader

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (8 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Colouring page
• · Teacher’s Edition (members)

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.

Report a concern about this reader · What’s in a HummingRead reader