Collocations for tale - noun

long, rambling
familiar
amazing, bizarre, curious (esp. BrE), extraordinary, fantastic, magical, marvellous/marvelous, strange
awful (esp. BrE), sad, sorry, terrible, tragic
the sorry tale of his marriage breakdown

chilling, gruesome, hair-raising, harrowing, horror, macabre
lurid, sordid, tawdry
dark
a dark tale of sexual obsession

mysterious, spooky
funny, humorous, witty (esp. BrE)
fascinating, interesting
heart-warming
simple
fanciful, incredible, tall, unlikely (esp. BrE)
a tall tale that would fool no one

true
old wives'
coming-of-age, rags-to-riches
the rags-to-riches tale of an orphan who becomes a star

epic, heroic
an epic tale of courage and heroism

cautionary, moral, morality
classic, folk, old, traditional
childhood
fairy (often figurative)
Winning the French Open was a fairy-tale end to her career.

gothic, romantic
original

narrate, recount, regale sb with, relate, tell (sb)
She regaled us with tales of her wild youth.

hear
make up, spin, weave
read, write
begin

begin
unfold
concern sb/sth, involve sb/sth
be set in …
a tale set in 19th-century Moscow

be based on sth

tale about
a tale about a hungry snake

tale of
tales of adventure
the strange tale of the man who sold his hair

a tale of woe (= about failure, bad luck, etc.)
(have) a tale to tell
Each of the survivors had a terrible tale to tell.

tell tales (= to say things about sb that are untrue or that they would prefer to be secret)