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A fairy tale is a story, either told to children or as if
told to children, concerning the adventures of mythical characters such as
fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, and others. The fairy tale is a
sub-class of the folktale. These stories often involve princes and princesses,
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.
The original fairy tales were for adults who believed in fairies. They were
often brief, and tied to a specific time and place. The story had no moral
lesson. Rather, they read like a sighting or local news to the superstitious
folk. They were passed orally from generation to generation, not written down.
The tales often had sad endings; such was the penalty for dealing with the
fairy folk.
Later fairy tales were about princes and pricesses, combat, adventure,
society, and romance. Fairies had a secondary role. Moral lessons and happy
endings were more common, and the villain was always punished. In the modern
era, fairy tales were altered, usually with violence removed, so they could be
read to children.
Sometimes fairy tales are simply miraculous entertainments, but often they are
disguised morality tales. This is true for the Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale
Collection, and much of the drily witty, dead-pan, social criticism beneath
the surface of Hans Christian Andersen's tales, which influenced Roald Dahl.
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.
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.
According to a 2004 poll of 1,200 childen by UCI Cinemas, the most popular
fairy tales are:
Cinderella
Sleeping Beauty
Hansel and Gretel
Rapunzel
Little Red Riding Hood
Source:
Wikipedia.org
Fairy
Tales by the Grimm brothers |
