I'm looking for some books about European folklore. I'm very interested in Polish folklore in particular, and would love it if there were some books on it. Thank you!
The American writer Joseph Campbell spent his career studying European mythology and coming up with theories about it. We read The Hero with a Thousand Faces at film school. It was given to us as the classic guide to the hero archetype. It's been influential on screenwriting, and on the film industry in general (George Lucas used it to base the original Star Wars trilogy on, for example). I'm not sure if it's quite what you're looking for, though. I'll see what else I can dredge up from Narrative 101 ;)
Johann Karl August Musäus was a German author who collected German folk and fairy tales before the Grimms, among them stories about the Silesian/Bohemian folklore spirit Rübezahl/Liczyrzepa/Krakonos. Parts of his "Volksmärchen der Deutschen" have been translated by William Thomas Beckford as Popular Tales of the Germans (1791), and three tales were included in German Romance (1827) translated by Thomas Carlyle. Then there is Ottfried Preußler, a modern German author of children's books, who also wrote about Rübezahl as well as Krabat, a magician from Sorbian folklore. His novel "Krabat" has been translated into English, the one about Rübezahl not, sadly.
Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but try Italo Calvino's Italian Folktales.
The first edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales (with all the blood and gore) has been published recently by Jack Zipes. If you haven't read it worth a read! http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10300.html
This isn't quite what youre looking for, but pick up The Dedalus Book Of Polish Fantasy. It's a short story collection that contains seminal, fantastical stories from Poland. Highly recommended, and available on Kindle, so you can try a free sample.
Yes, I second the recommendation for the colored fairy books. They are collected & put out by Andrew Lang. They contain what I would consider "classic" European fairy tales which is to say they are pretty Anglo in their outlook. If you want to go for more specific mythology and folklore, "European" is honestly a pretty broad category and I would consider breaking down more specifically via region, aka, Scandanavian folklore, Irish folklore, Roman/Grecian, etc. I'm afraid I can't recommend anything on Polish folklore in general but I think a quick search on Amazon should yield something like what you are looking for.
I read some of the books by Andrzej Sapkowski, the book series which the famous "The Witcher" games are based on. I heard they are based a lot on Polish Folklore, and it left me craving for more. I said European because it really doesn't matter to me, since I will probably want to read most of it. Thanks for the reply!
If you are looking for books of European folklore, there's a series of books named by their color (Blue Book of Folk Tales, Red Book of Folk Tales, &c...) which I really enjoyed when I was younger. And there's always the classic Bulfinch's Mythology. But it you are looking for studies on folklore, I have no clue.