Gustave Doré's illustration to the European fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. Little Red Riding Hood is a famous fairy tale about a young girl's encounter with a wolf

A fairy tale or fairy story is a fictional story that may feature folkloric characters (such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, witches, giants, and talking animals) and enchantments, often involving a far-fetched sequence of events. History The concept of folklore developed as part of the 19th century ideology of Romantic nationalism, leading to the reshaping of oral traditions to serve modern ideological A fairy (also fay, fey, fae, faerie; collectively wee folk, good folk, people of peace, fair A goblin is an evil crabby or Mischievous Creature of Folklore, often described as a grotesquely disfigured or Gnome -like phantom An elf is a creature of Norse mythology. The elves were originally imagined as a race of minor nature and fertility gods, who are often pictured as youthful-seeming A troll is a fearsome member of a race of creatures from Norse mythology. Witchcraft, in various historical anthropological religious and mythological contexts is the use of certain kinds of Supernatural or magical powers The Mythology and Legends of many different Cultures include monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength The talking animal or speaking animal term in general refers to any form of animal which can speak human languages In modern-day parlance, the term is also used to describe something blessed with unusual happiness, as in "fairy tale ending" (a happy ending)^[1] or "fairy tale romance", though not all fairy tales end happily. A happy ending is an ending of the plot of a work of Fiction in which almost everything turns out for the best for the Hero or Heroine Colloquially, a "fairy tale" or "fairy story" can also mean any far-fetched story.

In cultures where demons and witches are perceived as real, and the teller and thaere of a tale see it as having historical actuality, fairy tales may merge into legendary narratives. Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic Witchcraft, in various historical anthropological religious and mythological contexts is the use of certain kinds of Supernatural or magical powers A legend ( Latin, legenda, "things to be read" is a Narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to However, unlike legends and epics, they usually do not contain more than superficial references to religion and actual places, persons, and events; they take place "once upon a time" rather than in actual times. A legend ( Latin, legenda, "things to be read" is a Narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to An epic is a lengthy Narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos "Once upon a time" is a Stock phrase that has been used in some form since at least 1380 (according to the Oxford English Dictionary) in ^[2]

The history of the fairy tale is particularly difficult to trace, because only the literary forms can survive. Still, folklorists have found these forms from every culture over many centuries. Thus the oral fairy tale may have existed for at least that long, although not perhaps recognized as a genre. A genre (ˈʒɑːnrə also /ˈdʒɑːnrə/ from French "kind" or "sort" from Latin: genus (stem gener-) is a loose set The name "fairy tale" was first ascribed to them by Madame d'Aulnoy. Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville Baronne d'Aulnoy (1650/1651&ndash 4 January 1705) was a French Writer known for her Fairy tales Fairy tales, and works derived from fairy tales, are still written today.

The older fairy tales were intended for an audience of adults as well as children, but they were associated with children as early as the writings of the précieuses; the Brothers Grimm titled their collection Children's and Household Tales, and the link with children has only grown stronger with time. The literary style called préciosité ("preciousness" arose from the lively conversations and playful word games of les précieuses, the witty and educated The Brothers Grimm ( German: Die Gebrüder Grimm) Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Children's and Household Tales (Kinder- und Hausmärchen is a collection of German origin Fairy tales first published in 1812 by Jacob

Folklorists have classified fairy tales in various ways. Among the most notable are the Aarne-Thompson classification system and the morphological analysis of Vladimir Propp. The Aarne-Thompson classification system is a system for classifying folktales. Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp (Владимир Яковлевич Пропп &mdash 22 August 1970) was a Russian formalist scholar who Other folklorists have interpreted the tales' significance, but no school has been definitively established for the meaning of the tales.

Defining marks

Although the fairy tale is a clearly distinct genre, the definition that marks a work as a fairy tale is a source of considerable dispute. ^[3] Vladimir Propp, in his Morphology of the Folktale, criticized the common distinction between "fairy tales" and "animal tales" on the grounds that many tales contained both fantastic elements and animals. Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp (Владимир Яковлевич Пропп &mdash 22 August 1970) was a Russian formalist scholar who Fantasy is a Genre that uses magic and other Supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting ^[4] Nevertheless, to select works for his analysis, Propp used all Russian folktales classified as a folk lore Aarne-Thompson 300-749—in a cataloguing system that made such a distinction—to gain a clear set of tales. Slavic mythology is the Mythological aspect of the Religion that was practised by the ancient Slavs. Antti Amatus Aarne ( December 5, 1867 &ndash February 2, 1925) was a Finnish Folklorist. ^[5] His own analysis identified fairy tales by their plot elements, but that in itself has been criticized, as the analysis does not lend itself easily to tales that do not involve a quest, and furthermore, the same plot elements are found in non-fairy tale works. Mythos (Aristotle In literature the plot comprises all the events in a story particularly rendered towards the achievement of some particular Artistic or Emotional This article is about the word for other meanings see Quest (disambiguation A quest is a journey towards a goal used in Mythology ^[6]

The Russian tale Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Gray Wolf features no fairies, but a talking wolf. Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Gray Wolf is a Russian Fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki

One universally agreed-on factor is that the nature of a tale does not depend on whether fairies appear in it. Obviously, many people, including Angela Carter in her introduction to the Virago Book of Fairy Tales, have noted that a great many of so-called fairy tales do not feature fairies at all. Angela Carter ( May 7, 1940 – February 16, 1992) was an English novelist and journalist known for her Feminist, ^[7] This is partly because of the history of the English term "fairy tale" which derives from the French phrase conte de fées, and was first used in the collection of Madame D'Aulnoy in 1697. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people ^[8]

As Stith Thompson and Carter herself point out, talking animals and the presence of magic seem to be more common to the fairy tale than fairies themselves. Stith Thompson ( March 7, 1885 – 1976 was an American scholar of Folklore and the "Thompson" of the Aarne-Thompson classification system Magic in Fiction is the endowing of Fictional characters or objects with magical powers. ^[9] However, the mere presence of animals that talk does not make a tale a fairy tale, especially when the animal is clearly a mask on a human face, as in fables. A fable is a succinct story in prose or verse that features Animals Plants inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are ^[10]

In his essay "On Fairy-Stories", J. R. R. Tolkien agreed with the exclusion of "fairies" from the definition, defining fairy tales as stories about the adventures of men in Faërie, the land of fairies, fairytale princesses, dwarves, elves, and not only other magical species but many other marvels. "On Fairy-Stories" is an essay by J R R Tolkien which discusses the fairy-story as a literary form DWARF is a widely used standardized Debugging data format. DWARF was originally designed along with ELF, although it is independent of Object file ^[11] However, the same essay excludes tales that are often considered fairy tales, citing as an example The Monkey's Heart, which Andrew Lang included in The Lilac Fairy Book. The Heart of a Monkey is a Swahili Fairy tale collected by Edward Steere in Swahili Tales. For the former National Basketball Association player see Andrew Lang (basketball. Andrew Lang's Fairy Books or Andrew Lang's "Coloured" Fairy Books constitute a twelve-book series of Fairy tale collections ^[10] Other tales that include no magic but are often classified as fairy tales include What Is the Fastest Thing in the World? and Catskin. What Is the Fastest Thing in the World? is a Greek Fairy tale collected by Georgios A Catskin is an English Fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs, in More English Fairy Tales.

Some folklorists prefer to use the German term Märchen to refer to the genre, a practice given weight by the definition of Thompson in his 1977 edition of The Folktale: "a tale of some length involving a succession of motifs or episodes. Folkloristics is the formal academic study of Folklore. What actually constitutes folklore is disputed even within the discipline but generally folklore focuses on the The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. In a Narrative, such as a novel or a film motifs are recurring structures contrasts or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes It moves in an unreal world without definite locality or definite creatures and is filled with the marvelous. In this never-never land, humble heroes kill adversaries, succeed to kingdoms and marry princesses. A hero (from Greek grc ἥρως hērōs) in Greek mythology and Folklore, was originally a Demigod, the offspring of a mortal and "^[12] The characters and motifs of fairy tales are simple and archetypal: princesses and goose-girls; youngest sons and gallant princes; ogres, giants, dragons, and trolls; wicked stepmothers and false heroes; fairy godmothers and other magical helpers, often talking horses, or foxes, or birds; glass mountains; and prohibitions and breaking of prohibitions. The youngest son is a Stock character in Fairy tales where he features as the Hero. An ogre (feminine ogress) is a large cruel and hideous Humanoid Monster, featured in mythology folklore and fiction The Mythology and Legends of many different Cultures include monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength The dragon is a Legendary creature of which some interpretation or depiction appears in almost every culture worldwide A troll is a fearsome member of a race of creatures from Norse mythology. The false hero is a Stock character in Fairy tales and sometimes also in Ballads The character appears near the end of a story in order to claim to be the In Fairy tales a fairy godmother is a Fairy with magical powers who acts as a Mentor or Parent to someone in the role that an actual In fairy tales a donor is a character that tests the hero (and sometimes other characters as well and provides magical assistances to the hero while he succeeds The talking animal or speaking animal term in general refers to any form of animal which can speak human languages ^[13] Italo Calvino cited the fairy tale as a prime example of "quickness" in literature, because of the economy and concision of the tales. Italo Calvino ( October 15, 1923 &ndash September 19, 1985) (ˈiːtalo kalˈviːno was an Italian journalist and writer of short ^[14].

History of the genre

Originally, stories we would now call fairy tales were merely a kind of tale, not marked out as a separate genre. The German term "Märchen" means, literally, "tale" rather than any specific type. The genre itself was first marked out by writers of the Renaissance, who began to define a genre of tales, and became stabilized through the works of many writers, becoming an unquestioned genre in the works of the Brothers Grimm. Renaissance Literature refers to the period in European literature, which began in Italy during the 15th century and spread around Europe through The Brothers Grimm ( German: Die Gebrüder Grimm) Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, ^[15] In this evolution, the name was coined when the précieuses took up writing literary stories; Madame d'Aulnoy invented the term contes de fée, or fairy tale. The literary style called préciosité ("preciousness" arose from the lively conversations and playful word games of les précieuses, the witty and educated ^[16]

Prior to the definition of the genre of fantasy, many works that would now be classified as fantasy were termed "fairy tales", including Tolkien's The Hobbit, George Orwell's Animal Farm, and L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Fantasy is a Genre that uses magic and other Supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting The Hobbit or There and Back Again is an award-winning fantasy Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950 who used the Pseudonym George Orwell, was an English writer Animal Farm is a Novel by George Orwell, and is the most famous satirical Allegory of Soviet Totalitarianism Lyman Frank Baum ( May 15 1856 &ndash May 5 1919) was an American Author, Actor, and Independent filmmaker ^[17] Indeed, Tolkien's "On Fairy-Stories" includes discussions of world-building and is considered a vital part of fantasy criticism. Although fantasy, particularly in the sub-genre fairytale fantasy, draws heavily on fairy tale motifs,^[18] the genres are now regarded as distinct. Fairytale fantasy is distinguished from other subgenres of Fantasy by the works' heavy use of motifs and often plots from folklore

Folk and literary

A picture of Mother Goose by Gustave Doré: reading written (literary) fairy tales

The fairy tale, told orally, is a sub-class of the folktale. Mother Goose is a well-known figure in the Literature of Fairy tales and Nursery rhymes Mother Goose is best known in the United States, in the History The concept of folklore developed as part of the 19th century ideology of Romantic nationalism, leading to the reshaping of oral traditions to serve modern ideological Many writers have written in the form of the fairy tale. These are the literary fairy tales, or Kunstmärchen. ^[8] The oldest forms, from Panchatantra to the Pentamerone, show considerable reworking from the oral form. The Panchatantra (also spelled Pañcatantra, in Sanskrit: पञ्चतन्त्र 'Five Principles' or Kalīleh o Demneh Giambattista Basile (1566 or 1575 – February 23, 1632) was an Italian Poet, Courtier, and Fairy tale collector ^[19] The Brothers Grimm were among the first to try to preserve the features of oral tales. Yet the stories printed under the Grimm name have been considerably reworked to fit the written form. ^[20]

Literary fairy tales and oral fairy tales freely exchanged plots, motifs, and elements with each other and with the tales of foreign lands. ^[21] Many 18th century folklorists attempted to recover the "pure" folktale, uncontaminated by literary versions. Yet while oral fairy tales likely existed for thousands of years prior to the literary forms, there is no pure folktale. And each literary fairy tale draws on folk traditions, if only in parody. ^[22] This makes it impossible to trace forms of transmission of a fairy tale. Oral story-tellers have been known to read literary fairy tales to increase their own stock of stories and treatments. ^[23]

History

Ivan Bilibin's illustration of the Russian fairy tale about Vasilissa the Beautiful. Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin (Иван Яковлевич Билибин ( August 16, 1876 - February 7, 1942) was one of the most influential 20th-century

The oral tradition of the fairy tale came long before the written page. Oral tradition, oral culture and oral lore is a way for a society to transmit history, literature, law and other Knowledges Tales were told or enacted dramatically, rather than written down, and handed down from generation to generation. Because of this, the history of their development is necessarily obscure. ^[24] The oldest known written fairy tales stem from ancient Egypt, c. Ancient Egypt was an Ancient Civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now 1300 BC,^[25] and fairy tales appear, now and again, in written literature throughout literate cultures, as in The Golden Ass, which includes Cupid and Psyche (Roman, 100–200 AD),^[26] or the Panchatantra (India 200–300 AD),^[26] but it is unknown to what extent these reflect the actual folk tales even of their own time. The Metamorphoses of Lucius Apuleius, which according to St Augustine was referred to as The Golden Ass ( Asinus aureus The Tale of Cupid and Psyche (or The Tale of Amor and Psyche) first appeared as a digressionary story told by an old woman in Lucius Apuleius ' Novel, Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC The Panchatantra (also spelled Pañcatantra, in Sanskrit: पञ्चतन्त्र 'Five Principles' or Kalīleh o Demneh This article is about the folklore of the Indian subcontinent. The stylistic evidence indicates that these, and many later collections, reworked folk tales into literary forms. ^[27] What they do show is that the fairy tale has ancient roots, older than the Arabian Nights collection of magical tales (c. 1500 AD),^[26] such as the Vikram and the Vampire, and Bel and the Dragon. Baital Pachisi or Vetala Panchvimshati (" Twenty five tales of Baital " or Vikram and The Vampire is a collection The tale of Bel and the Dragon incorporated as chapter 14 of the extended Book of Daniel was written in Aramaic around the late Second century BC and Besides such collections and individual tales, in China, Taoist philosophers such as Liezi and Zhuangzi recounted fairy tales in their philosophical works. Chinese folklore has a long history going back several thousand years Taoism (pronounced /ˈdaʊɪzəm/ or /ˈtaʊɪzəm/ also spelled '''Daoism''') refers to a variety of related Philosophical and Religious traditions Note This article is about the Liezi text For the author Liezi please see Lie Yukou. For the book with the same name see Zhuangzi (book Zhuangzi ( was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th ^[28] In the broader definition of the genre, the first Western famous fairy tales are those of the Greek Aesop (6th century BC). The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca Aesop (also spelled Æsop, from the Greek Αἴσωπος — Aisōpos) (620-560 BC) known only for the genre of Fables

Allusions to fairy tales appear plentifully in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, and the plays of William Shakespeare. Geoffrey Chaucer (c 1343 – 25 October 1400? was an English author poet Philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and Diplomat. The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century (two of them in Prose, the rest in verse) Edmund Spenser (c 1552 &ndash 13 January, 1599) was an important English Poet and Poet Laureate best known for The The Faerie Queene is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser, published first in three books in 1590 and later in six books in 1596 William Shakespeare ( baptised ^[29] King Lear can be considered a literary variant of fairy tales such as Water and Salt and Cap O' Rushes. King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1603 and 1606 and is considered one of his greatest works Water and Salt is an Italian Fairy tale, it can be found in the collection Italian Popular Tales, collected by Thomas Frederick Crane. Cap O' Rushes is an English Fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in English Fairy Tales. ^[30] The tale itself resurfaced in Western literature in the 16th and 17th centuries, with The Facetious Nights of Straparola by Giovanni Francesco Straparola (Italy, 1550 and 1553),^[26] which contains many fairy tales in its inset tales, and the Neapolitan tales of Giambattista Basile (Naples, 1634–6),^[26] which are all fairy tales. Western literature refers to the Literature of the Indo-European languages, as well as several languages geographically or historically related to the Indo-European The Facetious Nights of Straparola, also known as The Nights of Straparola, is a two-volume collection of 75 fairy tales produced by the Italian Giovanni Francesco (or Gianfrancesco) Straparola ( Caravaggio, c Naples ( Napoli, Neapolitan: Nàpule) is a historic City in southern Italy, the Capital of the Giambattista Basile (1566 or 1575 – February 23, 1632) was an Italian Poet, Courtier, and Fairy tale collector ^[31] Carlo Gozzi made use of many fairy tale motifs among his Commedia dell'Arte scenarios,^[32] including among them one based on The Love For Three Oranges (1761). Carlo Count Gozzi ( 13 December 1720 &ndash April 4, 1806) was an Italian Dramatist. Commedia dell'Arte ( Italian: "the comedy of artists" is a form of Improvisational theatre that began in Italy in the 16th century The Love for Three Oranges or The Three Citrons is an Italian literary Fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in the Pentamerone ^[33] Simultaneously, Pu Songling, in China, included many fairy tales in his collection, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (published posthumously, 1766). Pu Songling ( June 5 1640 — February 25 1715) was a Chinese author who wrote during the Qing Dynasty. Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio or Liaozhai Zhiyi (also Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio or Strange Tales of Liaozhai ^[28] The fairy tale itself became popular among the précieuses of upper-class France (1690–1710),^[26] and among the tales told in that time were the ones of La Fontaine and the Contes of Charles Perrault (1697), who fixed the forms of Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. The literary style called préciosité ("preciousness" arose from the lively conversations and playful word games of les précieuses, the witty and educated Early Modern France is the Early modern period of French history from the end of the 15th century to the end of the 18th century (or from the French Renaissance Sleeping Beauty ( "La Belle au Bois dormant" (The Beauty asleep in the wood is a Fairy tale classic the first in the set published in 1697 by Cinderella ( French: Cendrillon, Slovak: Popoluška, German: Aschenputtel, Spanish: Cenicienta ^[34] Although Straparola's, Basile's and Perrault's collections contain the oldest known forms of various fairy tales, on the stylistic evidence, all the writers rewrote the tales for literary effect. ^[35]

Făt-Frumos (lit. Făt-Frumos (from Romanian făt: son infant frumos: beautiful is a knight hero in Romanian folklore, usually present in Fairy tales Akin "Handsome youth") killing the Zmeu, on the book cover of Petre Ispirescu's Legends or Romanian fairytales. The Zmeu (plural zmei, feminine zmeoaică / zmeoaice) is a fantastic creature of Romanian folklore and Romanian mythology Petre Ispirescu (January 1830&ndash 21 November 1887) was a Romanian printer and publicist Legende sau basmele românilor ("Legends or Romanian Fairy-tales" is a collection in several volumes of Romanian Folktales first published The good vs. evil battle is often personified by these two fairy tale characters of the Romanian folklore. The Romanians (dated Rumanians or Roumanians; Romanian: români or historically and today rather seldom and only regional rumâni

The first collectors to attempt to preserve not only the plot and characters of the tale, but also the style in which they were preserved, were the Brothers Grimm, collecting German fairy tales; ironically enough, this meant although their first edition (1812 & 1815)^[26] remains a treasure for folklorists, they rewrote the tales in later editions to make them more acceptable, which ensured their sales and the later popularity of their work. The Brothers Grimm ( German: Die Gebrüder Grimm) Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, ^[36]

Such literary forms did not merely draw from the folktale, but also influenced folktales in turn. The Brothers Grimm rejected several tales for their collection, though told orally to them by Germans, because the tales derived from Perrault, and they concluded they were thereby French and not German tales; an oral version of Bluebeard was thus rejected, and the tale of Briar Rose, clearly related to Perrault's Sleeping Beauty, was included only because Jacob Grimm convinced his brother that the figure of Brynhild proved that the sleeping princess was authentically German folklore. French folklore encompasses the Fables, Folklore and Fairy tales and Legends of the Gauls Franks, Normans, Bluebeard is the title character in a famous Fairy tale about a violent nobleman and his curious wife Sleeping Beauty ( "La Belle au Bois dormant" (The Beauty asleep in the wood is a Fairy tale classic the first in the set published in 1697 by Brynhildr is a Shieldmaiden and a Valkyrie in Norse mythology, where she appears as a main character in the Völsunga saga and some ^[37]

"Tấm Cám" Silk painting by Yên Hòa: the Vietnamese fairy tale The Story of Tam and Cam. The Story of Tấm and Cám (Tấm Cám is a Vietnamese Fairy tale collected by L

This consideration of whether to keep Sleeping Beauty reflected a belief common among folklorists of the 19th century: that the folk tradition preserved fairy tales in forms from pre-history except when "contaminated" by such literary forms, leading people to tell inauthentic tales. ^[38] The rural, illiterate, and uneducated peasants, if suitably isolated, were the folk and would tell pure folk tales. ^[39] Sometimes they regarded fairy tales as a form of fossil, the remnants of a once-perfect tale. ^[40] However, further research has concluded that fairy tales never had a fixed form, and regardless of literary influence, the tellers constantly altered them for their own purposes. ^[41]

The work of the Brothers Grimm influenced other collectors, both inspiring them to collect tales and leading them to similarly believe, in a spirit of romantic nationalism, that the fairy tales of a country were particularly representative of it, to the neglect of cross-cultural influence. Romantic nationalism (also National Romanticism, organic nationalism, identity nationalism) is the form of Nationalism in which the state derives Among those influenced were the Russian Alexander Afanasyev (first published in 1866),^[26] the Norwegians Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe ( first published in 1845),^[26] the Romanian Petre Ispirescu (first published in 1874), the English Joseph Jacobs (first published in 1890),^[26] and Jeremiah Curtin, an American who collected Irish tales (first published in 1890). Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Alexander Nikolayevich Afanasyev (Александр Николаевич Афанасьев ( 11 July, 1826 — 23 October, 1871) was a Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (1812-1885 was a Norwegian writer and scholar Jørgen Engebretsen Moe (1813-1882 was a Norwegian Bishop and Author. Petre Ispirescu (January 1830&ndash 21 November 1887) was a Romanian printer and publicist England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Joseph Jacobs ( 29 August 1854 - 30 January 1916) was a literary and Jewish Historian. Jeremiah Curtin ( September 6, 1835 – December 14, 1906, Vermont) was an American Translator and The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world ^[42] Ethnographers collected fairy tales over the world, finding similar tales in Africa, the Americas, and Australia; Andrew Lang was able to draw on not only the written tales of Europe and Asia, but those collected by ethnographers, to fill his "coloured" fairy books series. The Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World, consisting of the Continents of North America and South America For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. For the former National Basketball Association player see Andrew Lang (basketball. Andrew Lang's Fairy Books or Andrew Lang's "Coloured" Fairy Books constitute a twelve-book series of Fairy tale collections ^[43] They also encouraged other collectors of fairy tales, as when Yei Theodora Ozaki created a collection, Japanese Fairy Tales (1908), after encouragement from Lang. Yei Theodora Ozaki was an early 20th century translator of Japanese short stories and Fairy tales. ^[44] Simultaneously, writers such as Hans Christian Andersen and George MacDonald continued the tradition of literary fairy tales. Hans Christian Andersen (ˈhanˀs ˈkʰʁæʂd̥jan ˈɑnɐsn̩ in Danish or simply H George MacDonald ( 10 December 1824 &mdash 18 September 1905) was a Scottish author poet and Christian minister Andersen's work sometimes drew on old folktales, but more often deployed fairytale motifs and plots in new tales. ^[45] MacDonald incorporated fairytale motifs both in new literary fairy tales, such as The Light Princess, and in works of the genre that would become fantasy, as in The Princess and the Goblin or Lilith. The Light Princess is a Fairy tale by George MacDonald. It was published in 1864. Fantasy is a Genre that uses magic and other Supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting The Princess and the Goblin is a children's Fantasy Novel by George MacDonald. Lilith (Hebrew he לילית is a mythological female Mesopotamian Storm Demon associated with Wind and was thought to be a bearer ^[46]

Cross-cultural transmission

Two theories of origins have attempted to explain the common elements in fairy tales found spread over continents. One is that a single point of origin generated any given tale, which then spread over the centuries; the other is that such fairy tales stem from common human experience and therefore can appear separately in many different origins. ^[47]

Fairy tales with very similar plots, characters, and motifs are found spread across many different cultures. Many researchers hold this to be caused by the spread of such tales, as people repeat tales they have heard in foreign lands, although the oral nature makes it impossible to trace the route except by inference. ^[48] Folklorists have attempted to determine the origin by internal evidence, which can not always be clear; Joseph Jacobs, comparing the Scottish tale The Ridere of Riddles with the version collected by the Brothers Grimm, The Riddle, noted that in The Ridere of Riddles one hero ends up polygamously married, which might point to an ancient custom, but in The Riddle, the simpler riddle might argue greater antiquity. Joseph Jacobs ( 29 August 1854 - 30 January 1916) was a literary and Jewish Historian. The Ridere of Riddles is a Scottish Fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands, listing as his informant The Riddle (Das Rätsel is a German Fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 22 The term polygamy (a Greek word meaning "the practice of multiple marriage" is used in related ways in Social anthropology, Sociobiology, and ^[49]

Folklorists of the "Finnish" (or historical-geographical) school attempted to place fairy tales to their origin, with inconclusive results. ^[50] Sometimes influence, especially within a limited area and time, is clearer, as when considering the influence of Perrault's tales on those collected by the Brothers Grimm. Little Briar-Rose appears to stem from Perrault's Sleeping Beauty, as the Grimms' tale appears to be the only independent German variant. Sleeping Beauty ( "La Belle au Bois dormant" (The Beauty asleep in the wood is a Fairy tale classic the first in the set published in 1697 by ^[51] Similarly, the close agreement between the opening of Grimms' version of Little Red Riding Hood and Perrault's tale points to an influence—although Grimms' version adds a different ending (perhaps derived from The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids). Little Red Riding Hood is a famous fairy tale about a young girl's encounter with a wolf The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids (original Der Wolf und die sieben Geißlein is a German Fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 5 ^[52]

Fairy tales also tend to take on the color of their location, through the choice of motifs, the style in which they are told, and the depiction of character and local color. ^[53]

Association with children

Originally, adults were the audience of a fairy tale just as often as children. ^[54] Literary fairy tales appeared in works intended for adults, but in the 19th and 20th centuries the fairy tale came to be associated with children's literature. Children's literature is an age category of literature written for published for or marketed to Children roughly through age 12

Cutlery for children. Detail showing fairy-tale scenes: Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel. Snow White (in Low German Sneewittchen; in High German Schneeweißchen) is the title character of a Fairy tale known from many countries in Little Red Riding Hood is a famous fairy tale about a young girl's encounter with a wolf Hansel and Gretel ( Hänsel und Gretel) is a Fairy tale of Germanic origin adapted by the Brothers Grimm and earlier by Giambattista

The précieuses, including Madame d'Aulnoy, intended their works for adults, but regarded their source as the tales that servants, or other women of lower class, would tell to children. The literary style called préciosité ("preciousness" arose from the lively conversations and playful word games of les précieuses, the witty and educated Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville Baronne d'Aulnoy (1650/1651&ndash 4 January 1705) was a French Writer known for her Fairy tales ^[55] Indeed, a novel of that time, depicting a countess's suitor offering to tell such a tale, has the countess exclaim that she loves fairy tales as if she were still a child. ^[56] Among the late précieuses, Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont redacted a version of Beauty and the Beast for children, and it is her tale that is best known today. Jeanne Marie Le Prince de Beaumont (born Rouen, France in 1711 died Chavanod, Savoie, in 1780 was a French Novelist. Beauty and the Beast ( French: La Belle et la Bête) is a traditional Fairy tale (type 425C -- search for a lost husband -- in the Aarne-Thompson ^[57] The Brothers Grimm titled their collection Children's and Household Tales and rewrote their tales after complaints that they were not suitable for children. ^[58]

In the modern era, fairy tales were altered so that they could be read to children. The Brothers Grimm concentrated mostly on eliminating sexual references;^[59] Rapunzel, in the first edition, revealed the prince's visits by asking why her clothing had grown tight, thus letting the witch deduce that she was pregnant, but in subsequent editions carelessly revealed that it was easier to pull up the prince than the witch. " Rapunzel " is a German Fairy tale in the collection assembled by the Brothers Grimm, and first published in 1812 as part of Children's ^[60] On the other hand, in many respects, violence – particularly when punishing villains – was increased. ^[61] Other, later, revisions cut out violence; J. R. R. Tolkien noted that The Juniper Tree often had its cannibalistic stew cut out in a version intended for children. The Juniper Tree is a German Fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. Cannibalism (from Spanish es ''caníbal'' in connection with cannibalism among the Antillean Caribs, also called anthropophagy (from Greek ἄνθρωπος ^[62] The moralizing strain in the Victorian era altered the classical tales to teach lessons, as when George Cruikshank rewrote Cinderella in 1854 to contain temperance themes. Culture The Victorian fascination with novelty resulted in a deep interest in the relationship between modernity and cultural continuities George Cruikshank ( September 27, 1792 — February 1, 1878) was an English Caricaturist and book illustrator praised as See also Prohibition, Teetotalism The Temperance Movement attempted to reduce the amount of Alcohol consumed within a community or society in His acquaintance Charles Dickens, protested "In an utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that fairy tales should be respected. "^[63]

Psychoanalysts such as Bruno Bettelheim, who regarded the cruelty of older fairy tales as indicative of psychological conflicts, strongly criticized this expurgation, on the grounds that it weakened their usefulness to both children and adults as ways of symbolically resolving issues. Psychoanalysis is a body of ideas developed by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud and his followers which is devoted to the study of human psychological functioning and behavior Bruno Bettelheim ( August 28, 1903 – March 13, 1990) was a Jewish native of Austria who escaped as a refugee to the US before it entered ^[64]

The adaptation of fairy tales for children continues. Walt Disney's influential Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was largely (although certainly not solely) intended for the children's market. Walter Elias Disney (December 5 1901 – December 15 1966 was a multiple Academy Award -winning American Film producer, director, Screenwriter Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American film based on the eponymous German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. ^[65] The anime Magical Princess Minky Momo draws on the fairy tale Momotarō. (anime in Japanese, also known as Magical Princess Gigi or Gigi (France is the title of two different magical-girl Anime. is a popular Hero from Japanese folklore. His name literally means Peach Tarō; as Tarō is a common Japanese boy's name it is often translated as ^[66]

Contemporary tales

Literary

John Bauer's illustration of trolls and a princess from a collection of Swedish fairy tales

In contemporary literature, many authors have used the form of fairy tales for various reasons, such as examining the human condition from the simple framework a fairytale provides. John Bauer ( June 4, 1882 – November 20, 1918) was a Swedish painter and illustrator The human condition encompasses all of the Experience of being Human. ^[67] Some authors seek to recreate a sense of the fantastic in a contemporary discourse. ^[68] Some writers use fairy tale forms for modern issues;^[69] this can include using the psychological dramas implicit in the story, as when Robin McKinley retold Donkeyskin as the novel Deerskin, with emphasis on the abusive treatment the father of the tale dealt to his daughter. Robin McKinley (born November 16, 1952 as Jennifer Carolyn Robin Turrell McKinley) is a Fantasy Author especially known for her Donkeyskin ( French: Peau d'Âne) is a French Fairy tale told by Charles Perrault. Deerskin is a dark Fantasy novel by Robin McKinley. It is based on an old French Fairy tale by Charles Perrault called ^[70] Sometimes, especially in children's literature, fairy tales are retold with a twist simply for comic effect, such as The Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieszka. The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales is a children's book by Jon Scieszka. Jon Scieszka (SHEH-ska which means "path'" in Polish) was born September 8, 1954 in Flint Michigan is a Polish-American A common comic motif is a world where all the fairy tales take place, and the characters are aware of their role in the story. ^[71]

Other authors may have specific motives, such as multicultural or feminist reevaluations of predominantly Eurocentric masculine-dominated fairy tales, implying critique of older narratives. The term multiculturalism generally refers to a state of racial, cultural and ethnic diversity within the Demographics of a specified Feminism is a discourse that involves various movements theories, and Philosophies which are concerned with the issue of Gender difference, advocate Eurocentrism is the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective with an implied belief either consciously or subconsciously in the preeminence of European (and ^[72] The figure of the damsel in distress has been particularly attacked by many feminist critics. The subject of the damsel in distress, or persecuted maiden is a classic theme in world literature art and film Examples of narrative reversal rejecting this figure include The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch, a picture book aimed at children in which a princess rescues a prince, and Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, which retells a number of fairy tales from a female point of view. Robert Norman Munsch, CM (born 11 June, 1945) is an American -born Canadian children's author. Angela Carter ( May 7, 1940 – February 16, 1992) was an English novelist and journalist known for her Feminist,

One interesting use of the genre occurred in a military technology journal named Defense AT&L, which published an article in the form of a fairytale titled Optimizing Bi-Modal Signal/Noise Ratios. Written by Maj. Dan Ward (USAF), the story uses a fairy named Garble to represent breakdowns in communication between operators and technology developers. ^[73] Ward's article was heavily influenced by George MacDonald. George MacDonald ( 10 December 1824 &mdash 18 September 1905) was a Scottish author poet and Christian minister

Other notable figures who have employed fairy tales include Oscar Wilde, A. S. Byatt, Jane Yolen, Terri Windling, Donald Barthelme, Robert Coover, Margaret Atwood, Kate Bernheimer, Espido Freire, Tanith Lee, James Thurber, Robin McKinley, Kelly Link, Donna Jo Napoli, Cameron Dokey, Robert Bly, Gail Carson Levine, Jasper Fforde and many others. Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900 was an Irish Playwright, Novelist, poet and Author of Dame Antonia Susan Duffy DBE (born Antonia Susan Drabble 24 August 1936 Sheffield, England) is a Postmodern Novelist Jane Hyatt Yolen (born February 11, 1939 in New York City) is an American Author and editor of almost 300 books Donald Barthelme ( April 7, 1931 – July 23, 1989) was an American author of short fiction and Novels He also Robert Lowell Coover (born February 4, 1932) is an American author and professor in the Literary Arts program at Brown University. Margaret Eleanor Atwood, CC (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian Writer. María Laura Espido Freire (her pen name is just her surnames Espido Freire) was born in Bilbao Spain on July 16, 1974. Tanith Lee (born September 19, 1947) is a British Writer of Science fiction, horror and Fantasy. James Grover Thurber ( December 8, 1894 &ndash November 2, 1961) was an American Humorist and Cartoonist. Robin McKinley (born November 16, 1952 as Jennifer Carolyn Robin Turrell McKinley) is a Fantasy Author especially known for her Kelly Link is an American author of Short stories born in 1969. Donna Jo Napoli (born February 28, 1948) is an Author of children's and young adult Books, as well as a prominent linguist who has worked in Cameron Dokey (born 1956 is an American author She lives in Seattle Washington with her four cats and her husband Robert Bly (born December 23, 1926 in Madison Minnesota) is an American Poet, Author, activist and Gail Carson Levine (born September 17, 1947 in New York NY is an American author of young adult books Jasper Fforde (born in London on 11 January, 1961) is an English Novelist.

It may be hard to lay down the rule between fairy tales and fantasies that use fairy tale motifs, or even whole plots, but the distinction is commonly made, even within the works of a single author: George MacDonald's Lilith and Phantastes are regarded as fantasies, while his "The Light Princess", "The Golden Key", and "The Wise Woman" are commonly called fairy tales. Fairytale fantasy is distinguished from other subgenres of Fantasy by the works' heavy use of motifs and often plots from folklore Lilith is a fantasy novel written by Scottish writer George MacDonald and first published in 1895 Phantastes A Faerie Romance for Men and Women is a Fantasy novel written by George MacDonald, first published in London in 1858 The Light Princess is a Fairy tale by George MacDonald. It was published in 1864. The Golden Key is a Fairy tale written by George MacDonald. It was published in 1867. The most notable distinction is that fairytale fantasies, like other fantasies, make use of novelistic writing conventions of prose, characterization, or setting. A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story ^[74]

Film

Fairy tales have been enacted dramatically; records exist of this in commedia dell'arte,^[75] and later in pantomime. Commedia dell'Arte ( Italian: "the comedy of artists" is a form of Improvisational theatre that began in Italy in the 16th century Pantomime (informally panto) (not to be confused with a Mime artist, referring to a theatrical performer of mime is a performance genre traditionally found ^[76] The advent of cinema has meant that such stories could be presented in a more plausible manner, with the use of special effects and animation; the Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 was a ground-breaking film for fairy tales and, indeed, fantasy in general. The illusions used in the Film, Television, Theater, or Entertainment industries to simulate the imagined events in a story are traditionally called The bouncing ball animation (below consists of these 6 frames Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American film based on the eponymous German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. ^[77] Disney's influence helped establish this genre as children's movies, despite the fact that Snow White, as well as the company's other early feature-length films, were originally intended for adults as well, and has been blamed for simplification of fairy tales ending in situations where everything goes right, as opposed to the pain and suffering — and sometimes unhappy endings — of many folk fairy tales^[70]

Many filmed fairy tales have been made primarily for children, from Disney's later works to Aleksandr Rou's retelling of Vasilissa the Beautiful, the first Soviet film to use Russian folk tales in a big-budget feature. The cinema of the Soviet Union, not to be confused with " Russian Cinema " despite Russian language films being predominant in both genres includes ^[78] Others have used the conventions of fairy tales to create new stories with sentiments more relevant to contemporary life, as in Labyrinth,^[79] and the films of Michel Ocelot. Labyrinth is a 1986 Fantasy film directed by Jim Henson, produced by George Lucas, and designed by Brian Froud. Michel Ocelot (possibly a pseudonym real name unknown is a French writer, character Designer, Storyboard artist and director of ^[80]

Other works have retold familiar fairy tales in a darker, more horrific or psychological variant aimed primarily at adults. Notable examples are Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast^[81] and The Company of Wolves, based on an Angela Carter's retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (5 July 1889 &ndash 11 October 1963 was a French Poet, Novelist, Dramatist, Designer, Boxing Beauty and the Beast ( La Belle et la Bête) is a 1946 French romantic Fantasy film adaptation of Jeanne-Marie Le Prince The Company of Wolves is a 1984 gothic fantasy - Horror film directed by Neil Jordan, and starring Sarah Patterson and Angela Carter ( May 7, 1940 – February 16, 1992) was an English novelist and journalist known for her Feminist, Little Red Riding Hood is a famous fairy tale about a young girl's encounter with a wolf ^[82] Likewise, Princess Mononoke^[83] and Pan's Labyrinth^[84] create new stories in this genre from fairy tale and folklore motifs. is a 1997 Japanese Anime film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli. Pan's Labyrinth (Spanish El laberinto del fauno, literally The Labyrinth of the Faun) is a 2006 Spanish language

In comics and animated TV series, The Sandman, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Princess Tutu, Fables and MÄR all make use of standard fairy tale elements to various extents but are more accurately categorised as fairytale fantasy due to the definite locations and characters which a longer narrative necessitates. The Sandman is a Comic book series written by Neil Gaiman and published in the United States by the DC Comics imprint Vertigo is a Manga by Chiho Saito and Anime directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara. is a Magical girl Anime created by Ikuko Itoh in 2002 for Animation studio Hal Film Maker. which stands for "Märchen Awakens Romance" is a Manga series created by Mangaka Nobuyuki Anzai. Fairytale fantasy is distinguished from other subgenres of Fantasy by the works' heavy use of motifs and often plots from folklore

Motifs

Beauty and the Beast, illustration by Warwick Goble

Any comparison of fairy tales quickly discovers that many fairy tales have features in common with each other. Beauty and the Beast ( French: La Belle et la Bête) is a traditional Fairy tale (type 425C -- search for a lost husband -- in the Aarne-Thompson Warwick Goble (1862 &ndash 1943 was a Victorian illustrator of children's books Two of the most influential classifications are those of Antti Aarne, as revised by Stith Thompson into the Aarne-Thompson classification system, and Vladimir Propp's Morphology of the Folk Tale. Antti Amatus Aarne ( December 5, 1867 &ndash February 2, 1925) was a Finnish Folklorist. Stith Thompson ( March 7, 1885 – 1976 was an American scholar of Folklore and the "Thompson" of the Aarne-Thompson classification system Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp (Владимир Яковлевич Пропп &mdash 22 August 1970) was a Russian formalist scholar who

Aarne-Thompson

This system groups fairy and folk tales according to their overall plot. Common, identifying features are picked out to decide which tales are grouped together. Much therefore depends on what features are regarded as decisive.

For instance, tales like Cinderella – in which a persecuted heroine, with the help of the fairy godmother or similar magical helper, attends an event (or three) in which she wins the love of a prince and is identified as his true bride – are classified as type 510, the persecuted heroine. Cinderella ( French: Cendrillon, Slovak: Popoluška, German: Aschenputtel, Spanish: Cenicienta In Fairy tales a fairy godmother is a Fairy with magical powers who acts as a Mentor or Parent to someone in the role that an actual In fairy tales a donor is a character that tests the hero (and sometimes other characters as well and provides magical assistances to the hero while he succeeds Some such tales are The Wonderful Birch, Aschenputtel, Katie Woodencloak, The Story of Tam and Cam, Ye Xian, Cap O' Rushes, Catskin, Fair, Brown and Trembling, Finette Cendron, Allerleirauh, and Tattercoats. The Wonderful Birch is a Finnish Fairy tale. A variant on Cinderella, it is Aarne-Thompson folktale type 510A the persecuted heroine Cinderella ( French: Cendrillon, Slovak: Popoluška, German: Aschenputtel, Spanish: Cenicienta Katie Woodencloak or Kari Woodengown is a Norwegian Fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in Norske Folkeeventyr The Story of Tấm and Cám (Tấm Cám is a Vietnamese Fairy tale collected by L Ye Xian ( Simplified Chinese: 叶[[wikt 限|限]] Traditional Chinese: 葉[[wikt 限|限]] pinyin: Yè Xiàn or in the southern Cap O' Rushes is an English Fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in English Fairy Tales. Catskin is an English Fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs, in More English Fairy Tales. Fair Brown and Trembling is an Irish Fairy tale collected by Jeremiah Curtin in Myths and Folk-lore of Ireland and Joseph Jacobs in his Finette Cendron (meaning in English Cunning Cinders) is a French literary Fairy tale written by Madame d'Aulnoy. Allerleirauh or All-Kinds-of-Fur is a Fairy tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm. Tattercoats is an English Fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in his More English Fairy Tales.

Further analysis of the tales shows that in Cinderella, The Wonderful Birch, The Story of Tam and Cam, Ye Xian, and Aschenputtel, the heroine is persecuted by her stepmother and refused permission to go to the ball or other event, and in Fair, Brown and Trembling and Finette Cendron by her sisters and other female figures, and these are grouped as 510A; while in Cap O' Rushes, Catskin, and Allerleirauh, the heroine is driven from home by her father's persecutions, and must take work in a kitchen elsewhere, and these are grouped as 510B. But in Katie Woodencloak, she is driven from home by her stepmother's persecutions and must take service in a kitchen elsewhere, and in Tattercoats, she is refused permission to go to the ball by her grandfather. Given these features common with both types of 510, Katie Woodencloak is classified as 510A because the villain is the stepmother, and Tattercoats as 510B because the grandfather fills the father's role.

This system has its weaknesses in the difficulty of having no way to classify subportions of a tale as motifs. Rapunzel is type 310 (The Maiden in the Tower), but it opens with a child being demanded in return for stolen food, as does Puddocky; but Puddocky is not a Maiden in the Tower tale, while The Canary Prince, which opens with a jealous stepmother, is. " Rapunzel " is a German Fairy tale in the collection assembled by the Brothers Grimm, and first published in 1812 as part of Children's " Puddocky " is a German Fairy tale. A variant " Cherry," was collected by the Brothers Grimm, and in French, The Canary Prince is an Italian Fairy tale, the 18th tale in Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino.

It also lends itself to emphasis on the common elements, to the extent that the folklorist describes The Black Bull of Norroway as the same story as Beauty and the Beast. The Black Bull of Norroway is a Fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in More English Fairy Tales. Beauty and the Beast ( French: La Belle et la Bête) is a traditional Fairy tale (type 425C -- search for a lost husband -- in the Aarne-Thompson This can be useful as a shorthand but can also erase the coloring and details of a story. ^[85]

Morphology

Vladimir Propp specifically studied a collection of Russian fairy tales, but his analysis has been found useful for the tales of other countries. Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp (Владимир Яковлевич Пропп &mdash 22 August 1970) was a Russian formalist scholar who ^[86]

Father Frost acts as a donor in the Russian fairy tale Father Frost, testing the heroine before giving her riches. Father Frost is a Russian Fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki.

Having criticized Aarne-Thompson type analysis for ignoring what motifs did in stories, and because the motifs used were not clearly distinct,^[87] he analyzed the tales for the function each character and action fulfilled and concluded that a tale was composed of thirty-one elements and eight character types. While the elements were not all required for all tales, when they appeared they did so in an invariant order — except that each individual element might be negated twice, so that it would appear three times, as when, in Brother and Sister, the brother resists drinking from enchanted streams twice, so that it is the third that enchants him. The rule of three is a principle in English Writing that suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier more satisfying or more effective than other Brother and Sister is a well known European Fairy tale which was among others written down by the Brothers Grimm in their collection of Children's ^[88]

One such element is the donor who gives the hero magical assistance, often after testing him. In Fairy tales a fairy godmother is a Fairy with magical powers who acts as a Mentor or Parent to someone in the role that an actual ^[89] In The Golden Bird, the talking fox tests the hero by warning him against entering an inn and, after he succeeds, helps him find the object of his quest; in The Boy Who Drew Cats, the priest advised the hero to stay in small places at night, which protects him from an evil spirit; in Cinderella, the fairy godmother gives Cinderella the dresses she needs to attend the ball, as their mothers' spirits do in Bawang Putih Bawang Merah and The Wonderful Birch; in The Fox Sister, a Buddhist monk gives the brothers magical bottles to protect against the fox spirit. " The Golden Bird " is a Brothers Grimm Fairy tale, number 57 about the pursuit of a golden bird by a king's three sons A fox is an Animal belonging to any one of about 27 Species (of which only 12 actually belong to the Vulpes genus or 'true foxes' of small " The Boy Who Drew Cats " is a Japanese Fairy tale collected by Lafcadio Hearn in Japanese Fairy Tales. Cinderella ( French: Cendrillon, Slovak: Popoluška, German: Aschenputtel, Spanish: Cenicienta Bawang Putih Bawang Merah is one of the more famous of old Malay archipelago Folktales, passed down orally through the generations The Wonderful Birch is a Finnish Fairy tale. A variant on Cinderella, it is Aarne-Thompson folktale type 510A the persecuted heroine The Fox Sister is a Korean Fairy tale. Synopsis A man had three sons and no daughter Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices The roles can be more complicated. ^[90] In The Red Ettin, the role is split into the mother – who offers the hero the whole of a journey cake with her curse or half with her blessing – and when he takes the half, a fairy who gives him advice; in Mr Simigdáli, the sun, the moon, and the stars all give the heroine a magical gift. The Red Ettin or The Red Etin is a Fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs. Mr Simigdáli is a Greek Fairy tale, collectd by Irene Naumann-Mavrogordato in Es war einmal Neugriechische Volksmärchen. Characters who are not always the donor can act like the donor. ^[91] In Kallo and the Goblins, the villain goblins also give the heroine gifts, because they are tricked; in Schippeitaro, the evil cats betray their secret to the hero, giving him the means to defeat them. Kallo and the Goblins is a Greek Fairy tale. Fani Papalouka Nikolaos Politis and Haris Sakellariou collected variants of the story Schippeitaro is a Japanese Fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Violet Fairy Book, listing his source as Japanische Marchen WikipediaManual of Style (spelling, articles should conform to one overall spelling style of English typically the one most linked to the article topic (if it is geographic Other fairy tales, such as The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was, do not feature the donor. The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was or The Story of a Boy Who Went Forth to Learn Fear is a German Fairy tale collected

Analogies have been drawn between this and the analysis of myths into the Hero's journey. ^[92]

This analysis has been criticized for ignoring tone, mood, characters and, indeed, anything that differentiates one fairy tale from another. ^[93]

Interpretations

Bluebeard gives his wife a key—a motif specific to that variant of that fairy tale.

Many variants, especially those intended for children, have had morals attached. Morality (from the Latin la moralitas "manner character proper behavior" has three principal meanings Perrault concluded his versions with one, although not always completely moral: Cinderella concludes with the observation that her beauty and character would have been useless without her godmother, reflecting the importance of social connections. ^[94]

Many fairy tales have been interpreted for their (purported) significance. One mythological interpretation claimed that many fairy tales, including Hansel and Gretel, Sleeping Beauty, and The Frog King, all were solar myths; this mode of interpretation is rather less popular now. Hansel and Gretel ( Hänsel und Gretel) is a Fairy tale of Germanic origin adapted by the Brothers Grimm and earlier by Giambattista Sleeping Beauty ( "La Belle au Bois dormant" (The Beauty asleep in the wood is a Fairy tale classic the first in the set published in 1697 by The Frog King or Iron Heinrich (German Der Froschkönig oder der eiserne Heinrich) also known as The Frog Prince, is a Fairy tale, best known through "Sun god" redirects here For the Ramsey Lewis album see Sun Goddess (album. ^[95] Many have also been subjected to Freudian, Jungian, and other psychological analysis, but no mode of interpretation has ever established itself definitively. Psychoanalysis is a body of ideas developed by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud and his followers which is devoted to the study of human psychological functioning and behavior Analytical psychology (or Jungian psychology) refers to the school of Psychology originating from the ideas of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, and then advanced Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and

Specific analyses have often been criticized for lending great importance to motifs that are not, in fact, integral to the tale; this has often stemmed from treating one instance of a fairy tale as the definitive text, where the tale has been told and retold in many variations. ^[96] In variants of Bluebeard, the wife's curiosity is betrayed by a blood-stained key, by an egg's breaking, or by the singing of a rose she wore, without affecting the tale, but interpretations of specific variants have claimed that the precise object is integral to the tale. Bluebeard is the title character in a famous Fairy tale about a violent nobleman and his curious wife Bluebeard is the title character in a famous Fairy tale about a violent nobleman and his curious wife Fitcher's Bird is a German Fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 46 How the Devil Married Three Sisters is an Italian Fairy tale collected by Thomas Frederick Crane in Italian Popular Tales. ^[97]

Other folklorists have interpreted tales as historical documents. Many German folklorists, believing the tales to have been preserved from ancient times, used Grimms' tales to explain ancient customs. ^[98] Other folklorists have explained the figure of the wicked stepmother historically: many women did die in childbirth, their husbands remarried, and the new stepmothers competed with the children of the first marriage for resources. ^[99]

Compilations

• List of fairy tales

• Notable authors and collections
  • Panchatantra
  • Giovanni Francesco Straparola
  • Pentamerone by Giambattista Basile
  • Contes de ma mère l'Oye by Charles Perrault
  • Grimm's Fairy Tales
  • Hans Christian Andersen, for Andersen fairy tales
  • Joseph Jacobs, for collected fairy tales
  • Ruth Manning-Sanders, for collected fairy tales
  • Norske Folkeeventyr
  • Narodnye russkie skazki
  • Madame d'Aulnoy
  • Popular Tales of the West Highlands by John Francis Campbell
  • Andrew Lang's Fairy Books
  • Fairy Tales, a book by E. E. Cummings
  • Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino
  • Legende sau basmele românilor by Petre Ispirescu
  • Tales of Brother Goose by Brett Nicholas Moore
  • Tono Monogatari (Legends of Tono) by Kunio Yanagita

See also

• Bengt Holbek
• Fairytale fantasy
• Fable
• Nursery rhyme
• Saga

Notes

References

• Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson: The Types of the Folktale: A Classification and Bibliography (Helsinki, 1961)
• Thompson, Stith, The Folktale.
• Heidi Anne Heiner, "The Quest for the Earliest Fairy Tales: Searching for the Earliest Versions of European Fairy Tales with Commentary on English Translations"
• Heidi Anne Heiner, "Fairy Tale Timeline"

External links

• Best of the Web: SurLaLune Fairy Tales - Annotated Tales including histories, Discussion Forum, Fairy Tale Books, Illustrations and Multicultural tales
• Cabinet des Fees - An Online Journal of Fairy Tale Fiction
• Children's resource for Andersen
• Children's resource for Grimm Brothers
• Endicott Studio - Journal of Mythic Arts, fairy tale history and contemporary fairy tales
• Fables - Collection and guide to fables and Fairy Tales for children
• Fairy Tale Review: A Journal of Fairy Tale Literature
• Once Upon a Time - How Fairy Tales Shape Our Lives, by Jonathan Young, Ph. D.
• Vladimir Propp's theories, and the Fairy Tale outline generator