Back to Myths,
Folktales and Fairy Tales Home
A fairy tale, or wonder tale, is a kind of folktale or fable. In these
stories we meet witches and queens, giants and elves, princes, dragons,
talking animals, ogres, princesses, and sometimes even fairies. Marvelous
and magical things happen to characters in fairy tales. A boy may become
a bird. A princess may sleep for a hundred years. A seal may become
a girl. Objects too can be enchanted — mirrors talk, pumpkins become
carriages, and a lamp may be home to a genie.
The oldest fairy tales
were told and retold for generations before they were written down. French
fairy tales were the first to be collected and written down, but now we
can read fairy tales from almost any culture. When these stories were
studied together, something amazing was discovered. From countries as
distant and different as Egypt and Iceland similar fairy tales are told.
Both Egypt and Iceland have "Cinderella" stories, as do China,
England, Korea, Siberia, France, and Vietnam; and the list doesn't stop
there. There may be a thousand versions of the Cinderella story, each
with a unique telling which carries cultural information about the time
and place the story was told. One thing is for sure; people everywhere
like stories in which truth prevails over deception, generosity is ultimately
rewarded, hard work overcomes obstacles, and love, mercy and kindness
are the greatest powers of all.
Today, some authors
still like to retell and invent new fairy tales. The Cinderella story
was recently re-imagined by Diane
Goode in her book Cinderella: The Dog and Her Little Glass
Slipper. Jon Scieszka's fractured fairy tales in The Stinky Cheese
Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales are another example of a retelling
but with humor. So jump in and find out what makes these fairy tales so
enduring, or try your hand at creating your own!