Gustave Doré's illustration to the European fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood

A fairy tale is a story featuring folkloric characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, and others. The fairy tale is a sub-class of the folktale. These stories often involve royalty, and modern versions usually have a happy ending. In cultures where demons and witches are perceived as real, fairy tales may merge into legendary narratives, where the context is perceived by teller and hearers as having historical actuality. However, unlike legends and epics they usually do not contain more than superficial references to religion and actual places, persons, and events although these allusions are often critical in understanding the origins of these fanciful stories. Image File history File links Dore_ridinghood. ... Image File history File links Dore_ridinghood. ... Doré photographed by Felix Nadar. ... A depiction by Gustave Dore Little Red Riding Hood (French: Le petit chaperon rouge; lit. ... Folklore is the body of verbal expressive culture, including tales, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs current among a particular population, comprising the oral tradition of that culture, subculture, or group. ... by Sophie Anderson A fairy, or faerie, is a spirit or supernatural being that is found in the legends, folklore, and mythology of many different cultures. ... A goblin is an evil or merely mischievous creature of folklore, often described as a grotesquely disfigured or elf-like phantom. ... A small forest elf (älva) rescuing an egg, from Solägget (1932), by Elsa Beskow An elf is a creature of Norse mythology which survived in northern European folklore. ... Trolls with an abducted princess (John Bauer, 1915). ... The mythology and legends of many different cultures include mythological creatures of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. ... Folklore is the ethnographic concept of the tales, legends, or superstitions current among a particular ethnic population, a part of the oral history of a particular culture. ... For the slang meaning of happy ending, see handjob. ... St. ... This article is part of the Witchcraft series. ... // For other senses of this word, see Legend (disambiguation). ... // For other senses of this word, see Legend (disambiguation). ... The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, which retells in a continuous narrative the life and works of a heroic or mythological person or group of persons. ...

Many people, including Angela Carter in her introduction to the Virago Book of Fairy Tales have noted that a great deal of so-called fairy tales do not feature fairies at all. This is partly because of the history of the English term "fairy tale" which derives from the French phrase contes de fée which was first used in the collection of Madame D'Aulnoy in 1697. 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. Angela Carter (May 7, 1940-February 16, 1992) was an English novelist and journalist, known for her post-feminist magical realist works. ...

Some folklorists prefer to use the German term Märchen to refer to fairy tales, a practice given weight by the definition of Stith Thompson in his 1977 edition of The Folktale: "a tale of some length involving a succession of motifs or episodes. 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." (Thompson: 8) Folkloristics is the formal academic study of folklore such as fairy tales and folk mythology in oral or non-literary traditions. ...

History

Ivan Bilibin's illustration of the Russian fairy tale about Vasilisa the Beautiful.

Although in the late nineteenth and twentieth century the fairy tale came to be associated with children's literature, adults were originally as likely as children to be the audience of the fairy tale. The fairy tale was part of an oral tradition; tales were narrated orally, rather than written down, and handed down from generation to generation. Image File history File links Ivan Bilibin (1876-1942). ... Image File history File links Ivan Bilibin (1876-1942). ... Ivan Ya. ... // Basic characteristics There is some debate as to what constitutes childrens literature. ...

Despite the name, there never appears to have been a time where "fairy tales" depicted solely tales of encounters with fairies. Fairy tales were about princes and princesses, combat, adventure, society, and romance. Fairies had a secondary role.

In later versions, moral lessons and happy endings were more common, and the villain was usually punished. In the modern era, fairy tales were altered, usually with violence removed, so they could be read to children (who according to a common modern sentiment should not hear about violence).

Sometimes fairy tales are simply miraculous entertainments, but often they are disguised morality tales. This is true for the Brothers Grimm Kinder- und Hausmärchen, and much of the drily witty, dead-pan, social criticism beneath the surface of Hans Christian Andersen's tales, which influenced Roald Dahl. According to many religions, a miracle, derived from the old Latin word miraculum meaning something wonderful, is a striking interposition of divine intervention by God in the universe by which the operations of the ordinary course of Nature are overruled, suspended, or modified. ... they are very interesting writers. ... Hans Christian Andersen. ... Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1954 Roald Dahl IPA: (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist and short story author of Norwegian descent, famous as a writer for both children and adults. ...

The fairy tale has ancient roots, older than the "Arabian Nights" collection of magical tales, in antiquity: Cupid and Psyche, Bel and the Dragon. Fairy tales resurfaced in literature in the 17th century, with the Neapolitan tales of Giambattista Basile and the later Contes of Charles Perrault, who fixed the forms of Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. Such literary forms did not merely draw from the folktale, but fed back into it. The Brothers Grimm rejected several tales for their collection, though told orally to them, because the tales dervied from Perrault. The rediscovery of a manuscript of Cupid and Psyche quickly produced variants of that tale in regions where the tale had been unknown before. Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King Shahryar. ... The Abduction of Psyche by William-Adolphe Bouguereau The tale of Cupid and Psyche first appeared as a digressionary story told by an old woman in Lucius Apuleius novel, The Golden Ass, written in the second century AD. Apuleius probably used an earlier folk-tale as the basis for his... Wikisource has original text related to this article: Bible, English, King James, Bel The tale of Bel and the Dragon forms chapter 14 of the Book of Daniel. ... Giambattista Basile (1566 or 1575–February 23, 1632) was an Italian poet, courtier, and fairy tale collector. ... Charles Perrault, 1665 Charles Perrault (January 12, 1628 – May 16, 1703) was a French author who laid foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, and whose best known tales include Le Petit Chaperon rouge (Little Red Riding Hood), La Belle au bois dormant (Sleeping Beauty), Le Chat bott... Sir Edward Burne-Jones painted The Sleeping Beauty. ... Gustave Dorés illustration for Cendrillon For other uses, see Cinderella (disambiguation). ... The Abduction of Psyche by William-Adolphe Bouguereau The tale of Cupid and Psyche first appeared as a digressionary story told by an old woman in Lucius Apuleius novel, The Golden Ass, written in the second century AD. Apuleius probably used an earlier folk-tale as the basis for his...

An extensive collection of European fairy tales were published by Andrew Lang in a series of books: The Red Fairy Book, The Orange Fairy Book, and so forth. These provide some excellent examples of the genre. Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one, leading to various perspectives about Europes borders. ... For the former National Basketball Association player, see Andrew Lang (basketball). ...

According to a 2004 poll of 1,200 children by UCI Cinemas, the most popular fairy tales (in the USA) are: 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... United Cinemas International or UCI is owned by Terra Firma Capital Partners. ...

1. Cinderella
2. Sleeping Beauty
3. Hansel and Gretel
4. Rapunzel
5. Little Red Riding Hood
6. Town Musicians

In addition, the Arabian Nights stories like Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves are often thought to be fairy tales themselves. Gustave Dorés illustration for Cendrillon For other uses, see Cinderella (disambiguation). ... Sir Edward Burne-Jones painted The Sleeping Beauty. ... Gretel tricks the witch Hansel and Gretel (German: Hänsel und Gretel) is a fairy tale of Germanic origin, collected by the Brothers Grimm. ... Rapunzel is a fairy tale in the collection assembled by the Brothers Grimm, and first published in 1812 as part of Childrens and Household Tales. ... A depiction by Gustave Dore Little Red Riding Hood (French: Le petit chaperon rouge; lit. ... The Town Musicians of Bremen, erected in 1951. ... Aladdin in the Magic Garden, an illustration by Max Liebert from Ludwig Fuldas Aladdin und die Wunderlampe Aladdin (a corruption of the Arabic name Alauddin/ʿAlāʾu d-Dīn, Arabic: علاء الدين, Chinese: 阿拉丁) is one of the tales with a Syrian origin in the collection 1001 Nights and one of... The adventure tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves was added to the traditional collection of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights by its European transcriber, Antoine Galland, an 18th-century French orientalist who had heard it in oral form from a Maronite story-teller from Aleppo. ...

Contemporary fairy tales

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. Some authors seek to recreate a sense of the fantastic in a contemporary discourse. 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. 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 figure of the damsel in distress has been particularly attacked by many feminist critics. 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, or Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, which retells a number of fairytales from a female point of view. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1356x1267, 3365 KB) Namn: Name: Konstnär / Artist: John Bauer Källa: Illustration av Walter Stenströms Pojken och trollen eller Äventyret i Bland tomtar och troll, 1915 Source: Illustration of Walter Stenströms The boy and the trolls or... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1356x1267, 3365 KB) Namn: Name: Konstnär / Artist: John Bauer Källa: Illustration av Walter Stenströms Pojken och trollen eller Äventyret i Bland tomtar och troll, 1915 Source: Illustration of Walter Stenströms The boy and the trolls or... Tyr and Fenrir, by John Bauer (1911) The Changeling, by John Bauer (1913) Trolls with an abducted princess, by John Bauer (1915) John Bauer (1882–1918) was a Swedish illustrator best known for Bland Tomtar och Troll (Among Elves and Trolls), an annual Christmas book for children published in Sweden. ... The human condition encompasses the totality of the experience of being human and living human lives. ... Cover of The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales The Stinky Cheese Man is a parody of the fairy tale of The Gingerbread Man, and features as the title of Jon Scieszkas childrens book The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. ... Jon Scieszka is an American author of childrens literature born September 8th, 1954 in Flint, Michigan. ... Multiculturalism is a public policy approach for managing cultural diversity in a multiethnic society, officially stressing mutual respect and tolerance for cultural differences within a countrys borders. ... Feminism is a diverse collection of social theories, political movements, and moral philosophies, largely motivated by or concerning the experiences of women. ... Eurocentrism is the practice, conscious or otherwise, of placing emphasis on European (and, generally, Western) concerns, culture and values at the expense of those of other cultures. ... A poster for The Perils of Pauline (1914). ... Robert Norman Munsch CM (born June 11, 1945) is a Canadian childrens author. ... Angela Carter (May 7, 1940-February 16, 1992) was an English novelist and journalist, known for her post-feminist magical realist works. ...

Other notable figures who have employed fairy tales include A. S. Byatt, Jane Yolen, Terri Windling, Donald Barthelme, Robert Coover, Margaret Atwood, Tanith Lee, James Thurber, Kelly Link, Robin McKinley, Donna Jo Napoli, Robert Bly, Gail Carson Levine and many others. Dame Antonia Susan Byatt , DBE, (born August 24, 1936, Sheffield, England) has been hailed by some as one of the great postmodern novelists in Britain. ... Jane Yolen (born February 11, 1939) is an American writer, author, and editor of almost 300 books. ... Terri Windling is an influential fantasy editor, artist, essayist, and author of the novel The Wood Wife (1996), winner of the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for best novel. ... Donald Barthelme (April 7, 1931 - July 23, 1989) was an American author of short fiction and novels. ... Robert Coover (born February 4, 1932) is an American author and professor in the Literary Arts program at Brown University. ... Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Peggy Atwood, CC (born November 18, 1939) is one of Canada’s most important contemporary writers. ... Tanith Lee Tanith Lee (born September 19, 1947) is a British writer of science fiction, horror and fantasy. ... James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894–November 2, 1961) was a U.S. humorist and cartoonist. ... Kelly Link is an American author of short stories born in 1969 (judging by this 2001 article). ... Robin McKinley (born November 16, 1952 as Jennifer Carolyn Robin McKinley) is a fantasy author especially known for her Newbery Medal-winning novel The Hero and the Crown. ... Donna Jo Napoli is an author of childrens and young adult books, as well as a prominent linguist with work in syntax, phonetics, phonology, morphology, historical and comparative linguistics, Romance studies, structure of Japanese, structure of American Sign Language, poetics, writing for ESL students, and mathematical and linguistic analysis... Robert Bly (born December 23, 1926 in Madison, Minnesota) is a poet, author, and leader of the Mythopoetic Mens Movement in the United States. ... Gail Carson Levine Gail Carson Levine (born September 17, 1947 in New York, N.Y.) is an American author of young adult books. ...

Fairy tales are more than true -

not because they tell us dragons exist,

but because they tell us dragons can be beaten.

G. K. Chesterton

G.K. Chesterton Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was a prolific English writer of the early 20th century. ...

See also

• Antti Aarne
• Bengt Holbek
• Fables, a comic book series about the lives of various fairy tale characters in the "real" world.
• Fairytale fantasy
• Fantasy
• Fairy
• List of fairy tales
• Vladimir Propp
• Fable (video game)

Antti Amatus Aarne (1867 - 1925) was a Finnish folklorist, who developed the initial version of what became the Aarne-Thompson classification system of classifying folktales, first published in 1910. ... Bengt Holbek was a Danish folklorist who wrote one of the definitive works of fairy tale scholarship entitled Interpretation of Fairy Tales (1987). ... Fables is a Vertigo comic book series created and written by Bill Willingham. ... Fairytale fantasy is a diverse subgenre of fantasy fiction, starting perhaps with Charles Perrault and other writers who took up the folktales of their time and developed them into literary forms. ... // For other meanings see Fantasy (disambiguation) Fantasy is a genre of art, literature, film, television, games and music that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of either plot, theme, setting, or all three. ... by Sophie Anderson A fairy, or faerie, is a spirit or supernatural being that is found in the legends, folklore, and mythology of many different cultures. ... This is a list of fairy tales and the dates of their earliest known printed version. ... Vladimir Propp (St Petersburg, April 29, 1895 – Leningrad August 22, 1970) was a Russian structuralist scholar who analysed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements. ... Fable is a video game for Xbox. ...

External links and references

• SurLaLune Fairy Tale Pages: Annotated tales, illustrations, and much more.
• The Endicott Studio Journal of Mythic Arts: Fairy tale history, contemporary fairy tale arts, and much more
• How Fairy Tales Shape Our Lives, by Jonathan Young, Ph.D.
• A collection of fairy tales from KidsGen
• Fairy Book collections edited by Andrew Lang, from Project Gutenberg
  • Blue Fairy Book
  • Orange Fairy Book
  • Red Fairy Book
  • Brown Fairy Book
  • Crimson Fairy Book
  • Violet Fairy Book
  • Yellow Fairy Book
  • Lilac Fairy Book
• Grimm's Fairy Tales from Project Gutenberg
• Andersen's Fairy Tales from Project Gutenberg
• D.L. Ashliman's Grimm Brothers website
• Irish Fairy Tales
• A Fairytale Outline Generator: based on Vladimir Propp's Morphology of the Folktale
• Fairy Stories, Myths and Legends
• Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson: The Types of the Folktale: A Classification and Bibliography (Helsinki, 1961)
• Thompson, Stith The Folktale
• J. R. R. Tolkien, "On Fairy-Stories" essay first published in Essays Presented to Charles Williams, Oxford University Press, 1947
• Fables - Collection and guide to fables and Fairy Tales for children.
• The Fairy Tale Review: A Journal of Fairy Tale Literature
• Cabinet des Fees: An Online Journal of Fairy Tale Fiction
• Old Wives Tales: a page of women's fairy tale art, historical and contemporary
• Free Audio Fairy Talesat Storynory