In my teens I read and loved stories by the Scottish writer George MacDonald ( 1824 – 1905).

He wrote wonderful fairy tales and fantasy novels, and was one of the first fantasy writers. Some of his books include:

Phantastes
The Light Princess,
Dealings with the Fairies (contains The Golden Key)
At the Back of the North Wind
The Princess and the Goblin
The Lost Princess (aka The Wise Woman: a Parable)
The Day Boy and the Night Girl
The Princess and Curdie
Lilith

While these are not ancient tales handed down through generations, they a beautiful tales that inspired and generated a new genre, as he inspired and influenced Tolkien, and C. S. Lewis. C. S. Lewis wrote that he regarded MacDonald as his "master": "Picking up a copy of Phantastes one day at a train-station bookstall, I began to read. A few hours later," said Lewis, "I knew that I had crossed a great frontier." G. K. Chesterton cited The Princess and the Goblin as a book that had "made a difference to my whole existence."

I feel the same way.