by Steve Gregory

Created on: December 05, 2011

Fairy tales are part of the heritage of children the world over.  From birth through to about the teenage years, children and told fairy tales.  They’ve existed for thousands of years, and their universality has been well documented.  It is no wonder then that there are still numerous fairy tales circulating today, as well known by children today as they were generations ago.

But before getting into the tales, it is important to clarify two points.  First, there is the definition of a fairy tale.  For a purely academic definition, one can reference the works of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson, and even refer to the Aarne-Thompson classification of tales to determine tales by their motifs.  However, for simplification (and there are academics who would scream over-simplification), fairy tales can be more or less defined as a short story that involves fairies or other magical creatures, and generally involves the use of magic or spells.  That is, “Beauty and the Beast” is a fairy tale, but “Little Red Riding Hood” is not, being simply a folktale.  The tales of Aesop would be classified as folktales, and specifically as fables.  And as for “ancient,” the definition varies from a general “very old” to predating the Roman Empire.  Again, perhaps an over-simplification, but something at least a couple hundred years old will have to do.

Snow White

This tale is mostly popular because of the Walt Disney cartoon, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”  The story is rather simple.  A young princess grows up to become more beautiful than her vain mother, who orders her killed.  But the man sent to kill the princess can’t do the deed and instead releases her in the woods where she finds the home of the seven dwarves (note the proper spelling of the plural here).  The witch queen uncovers the deception through her magic mirror and sets out to destroy her own daughter, who eventually falls into a comatose state by a poisoned apple.  She is then found by a prince, who marries her and they live happily ever after.  The witch/queen, let justice be served, is in one way or another killed.  Again, the Disney version is the most popular, but the Brothers Grimm discovered this story long before Walt Disney animated it, and older versions go back to the 1500s in Italy.

Cinderella

Again, thanks to Disney, this tale has not gone away. 

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