What are Fairy Tales ?

Gingerbread dates back to the 15th century. The first documented instance of figure-shaped gingerbread biscuits was at the court of Elizabeth I of England.

The red hood in Little Red Riding Hood was introduced by Charles Perrault in Tales Of Mother Goose (1697), who said the moral of the story was that children "do very wrong to listen to strangers".

The 1992 song Three Little Pigs by cartoon band Green Jelly sets the story in LA, with the three pigs featured as an aspiring guitarist, a dumpster-diving evangelist and a Harvard architecture graduate, with the wolf driving a Harley Davidson motorcycle. At the end the third pig calls 911 and the wolf is machine-gunned down by John Rambo.

The first play of Jack And The Beanstalk was produced by David Garrick in 1773 at Drury Lane, taking its theme from an 19th century fairy tale. The first pantomime version was in 1819 and was marked by the appearance of the first ever female principal boy, Eliza Povey, playing Jack.

The earliest dateable version of the Cinderella story appears in a Chinese book written about 850-860AD. The earliest European version was published in Italy in 1634, and in 1697 Perrault introduced 'Cinderella, Or The Tale Of The Little Glass Slipper'.

Learn about the origins of fairy tales and what defines a fairy tale and sets it apart from a folk story. Find out about how fairy tales have changed over time and read about examples of wondrous elements and character transformation.

At some point in our lives, most of us have heard about the ''real fairy tales.'' We know the Disney movie version, but we have been told that, somewhere, there is a book with the original Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast in it.

Usually, whoever tells us this is saying that Disney messed up the stories, or perhaps that fairy tales used to be very violent to scare children into obedience. However, the real tale about the ''real fairy tales'' is a little more complex than that.

The father of the fairy tale is the folk story. A folk story tells a tale created by a community over many generations and passed down orally.

A fairy tale is a folk story that has been written down and includes a wondrous element.

Writing it down makes a big difference; when one person writes the story, he or she changes details to tell the tale his or her own way.

Basically, folk tales don't have specific authors, but fairy tales do.However, since folk tales spread across countries, a folk story might have been written down by any number of people in very different ways. So, many versions of ''Cinderella'' were written all over Europe.

Next time people tell you that Disney messed up the real fairy tale, you can let them know that there is no such thing as the original version of a fairy tale.

Plenty of folk tales don't become fairy tales when written. Some give birth to fables, and others become myths or epics. For a folk tale to become a fairy tale, it must have a wondrous element.

According to scholars like Vladimir Propp and Jack Zipes, the wondrous element is something supernatural that brings about transformation in a character's life.

We all love Fairy Tales! This guide offers recommended stories by age group, teaching ideas, discussion questions, and useful links.

Fairy Tales are stories involving fantastic forces, usually good versus evil, most originating in folklore, mythology, and legend. They feature fantasy beings like dragons, dwarfs, fairies and talking animals.

They aren't just for kids. In fact, many are complex morality tales; some are graphic or morbid, and shouldn't be read to children at all. We recommend previewing stories before reading with your children.

They often feature magic or enchantments, but are unlike modern Fantasy, in which new worlds are created far from home (works by J.R.R. Tokien and C.S.Lewis). Fairy Tales tend to occur near home (Little Red Riding Hood was walking distance from her grandmother)

They differ from Science Fiction, which usually occurs in the future and involves newfangled technologies, space and time travel (again, far from home).

Folk Tales and Fables are types of Fairy Tales. A Folk Tale is a traditional story shared by a culture, passed on from one generation to the next.

A Fable offers a moral lesson, usually involving animals and primarily geared towards children, such as Aesop's Fables. Some Fables are intended for older students and adults because they pose complex ethical questions, employ ironic twists, or are cautionary tales with elements of Gothic Horror

As you can tell, what we call "Fairy Tales" covers a lot of literary ground. They appeal to all ages and all cultures. Common characters and plots have been adapted in different countries, modernized for new generations, resulting in an ongoing shared global literacy.

Fairy tale, wonder tale involving marvellous elements and occurrences, though not necessarily about fairies. The term embraces such popular folktales (Märchen, q.v.) as “Cinderella” and “Puss-in-Boots” and art fairy tales (Kunstmärchen) of later invention, such as The Happy Prince (1888), by the Irish writer Oscar Wilde.

Fairy tale, wonder tale involving marvellous elements and occurrences, though not necessarily about fairies. The term embraces such popular folktales (Märchen, q.v.) as “Cinderella” and “Puss-in-Boots” and art fairy tales (Kunstmärchen) of later invention, such as The Happy Prince (1888), by the Irish writer Oscar Wilde.