Introducton: What Exactly IS a Fairytale?

“Once Upon A Time…..,” Those words are an immediate signal to any reader or listener that what they are about to hear or read is a fairy tale. If asked, it is almost guaranteed that any person would be able to identify a fairy tale as such very quickly based on just a few sentences. But what really IS a fairy tale? How was it defined at its origin? How is it defined now?

Fairy tales have been told since before the written word; their origins have been lost to time and are now untraceable. Fairy tales started in the oral tradition and were passed down from generation to generation, mostly by women, which is ironic, given that many of the famous fairytale storytellers to come in later history would be men. More on this shift can be found in the History of Fairytales section.

In an attempt at a definition of the genre,  a clear division must first be made between folktale and fairytale. These two types of stories have long been intertwined as the same kind of tale, but there is a specific distinction that is important to understanding that nature of each. Folktales tend to revolve around a set belief system of the audience to which they are told. These tales deal with people that the audience knows well in their real lives: friends, doctors, preachers, etc. Folktales usually deal with true to life scenarios: husbands or wives betraying each other, money being stolen by a trusted friend, or the death of a friend or spouse. These stories usually have tragic or dystopian endings and reflect the sad nature of real life. Folktales tend to be short, easy to remember, and follow a  linear timeline. “Folktales are rooted in the most universal and fundamental emotions: love, hate, jealousy, envy, greed, fear, ambition, “ (Smith, 2013, p. 106.)  Fairytales, however, differ in that they tend to offer happy endings and their are filled with a cast of characters the listener knows do not exist in real life situations. (Bottigheimer, 2006.)

Fairytales, in the most general sense, can be divided into two different kinds of tales: the Restoration Tale and the Rise Tale. In her 2006 essay, Ruth Bottigheimer defines these tales and the characteristics that each contains. The Restoration Tale is named because it revolves around the protagonist starts the story in an elevated position, usually as royalty, and is somehow ejected from this position. Through the use of magic, the protagonist is restored to his or her “rightful” place. One Restoration Tale that is immediately familiar to modern audiences is Sleeping Beauty: the princess is taken away from her kingdom due to a sleeping spell cast by the villain, is only restored to her throne with her royal parents through the magic of her three fairies. Another  Restoration Tale is the classic Brothers Grimm story of Twelve Brothers: A king with twelve sons vows to kill them all and give their inheritance to their newborn baby sister. The brothers escape the castle. When the sister eventually finds out about the brothers, she accidentally enchants them. To pay for her mistake, she endures seven years of silence, but eventually marries a king and is properly restored to her throne. One of the more modern versions of a Restoration Tale is Disney’s take on Rapunzel in the film Tangled, which was produced in 2010. In the film, young Rapunzel is kidnapped by an elderly witch when it is discovered that the baby’s hair has regenerative powers. When Rapunzel eventually finds out that she is the princess of the kingdom, she begins her adventure and finally finds her way back to the palace where she belongs.

The second major kind of fairytale is the Rise Tale. This kind of tale differs from Restoration in that the protagonist does not start the story in a place of wealth or royalty: in a Rise Tale, the protagonist begins the story in a very low economic and social position and eventually finds him or herself in a place of power by the end. One quite famous Rise Tale is Puss in Boots, a story first published by Giovanni Francesco Straparola, a storyteller who is discussed further in the History of Fairytales section. In this tale, a young and poor boy is left alone with only a cat when his mother dies. The cat is actually a fairy in disguise. The cat catches food for the King and always brings royal scraps back to the little boy. Over time, the cat ensures that the little boy grows up well and the cat eventually tricks the King into thinking the boy is a wealthy suitor for his daughter, the princess. The boy and the princess marry, and he is no longer the poor child he was growing up. Straparola also published another famous Rise Tale titled Pig King. In this story, a king and queen’s son is born as a pig. When he is grown up and ready for marriage, the only woman he can find is the oldest daughter of a poor woman that the king and queen have convinced to give her child away in marriage. The eldest daughter is disgusted by the pig, so he murders her. This happens with the next oldest daughter as well. The youngest daughter, Meldina, does not mind the prince’s outward appearance and he tells her his secret: at night, he can become a man and not a pig. Meldina tells the queen, and she and the king free the prince from his pig skin. The prince and Meldina end the story happily ever after. This story played a major part in the development of the 2001 Dreamworks movie Shrek. In the film, Shrek is an ogre who falls in love with the lovely Princess Fiona. In a twist on the original tale, Fiona reveals that she can turn into an ogre as well, and she and Shrek find love. This film also happens to include a feline character called Puss in Boots. Although this character is a cat, he does not follow the traditional story, but must have been included as a tip of the hat to Straparola. 

 With an understanding of what constitutes a fairy tale, the next step in exploration is to understand the history of fairy tales, which will be examined in the next section.

History of Fairytales

In order to best appreciate fairytales, it it is important for the modern reader to know the origin and history of the genre. The origin of fairy tales seems to have two beginnings: one beginning is credited to writers from the Renaissance like Giovanni Francesco Straparola and later printed in collections by men like Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, but the other beginning, and arguably the correct origin cannot accurately be traced, because while it has been “inferred that these stories were collected verbatim from oral story tellers, simple local peasants, particularly old women, we know now that their [the Brothers Grimm] sources were more often second hand, the stories gleaned from their middle-class social circle, although usually with a claim that they first heard them from a servant or old nurse,” (Maitland, 2012, p. 13-14.) So fairy tales did not begin with these writers and collectors; the origin of fairy tales cannot be tracked because the stories told generation after generation have an oral tradition that dates back farther than written record. Even knowing the fairy tale is it was originally told is now impossible, as most fairy tale writers, specifically the Brothers Grimm, “edited the stories heavily, shifting their focus and making them more Christian, more family oriented, less explicitly sexual, more nationalistic and more sexist,” (Maitland, 2007, p. 14.)  So, since, the origin cannot properly be traced, the modern reader must suffice to know only the history as it has been written. Bottigheimer (2010) discusses studying the origins of fairytales and claims, succinctly, “Identifying a point at which rise fairy tales appeared implies that there was a previous time in which they did not exist,” (p. 448.)

Scholars of the genre widely consider the first known written fairytale to be Cupid and Psyche, published by Apuleius as part of his collection Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass.) This collection was introduced somewhere between 100-200 A.D.in Greece and it comes as no great surprise that the claim of “first fairytale” goes back to the earliest cultures. Another major contribution during this time is Panchatantra, from the Hindu culture, which is seen by some scholars as the precedent to many of the famous European fairytales to come in later centuries.

As with many other cultural contributions, Eastern cultures also have their own versions of fairytales that predate their Western counterparts. Somewhere between 850 and 860, the first known version of Cinderella is published in China. This history of the written fairytale skips many centuries at this point in time, with few acknowledgements of the works published during Medieval times. The one key exception is the 1300 Latin collection Gesta Romanorum, which is thought not only to influence later fairytales, but also the work of William Shakespeare.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, fairytales begin to reemerge in Italy. Authors like Gianfrancesco Straparola and Giambattista Basile publish collections of tales that would later become some of the most recognizable stories of the genre. Basile’s collection, however, was initially published in Napoleonic dialect, so translations into Italian, German, and English didn’t come until almost 200 years later. The major theme of the Italians is that Straparola’s work was immediately entered into the lexicon, and Basile’s stories were not influential until centuries later.

The late 1600s brought the Salon era to France. This era is is particular importance because it is the first recorded history of women being primary storytellers after the oral tradition of fairytales had been replaced by the written word. Women at this time were not granted formal education, so some chose to gather in their living rooms, their salons, to discuss important matters of the day, including politics and the arts. One woman who frequented the salon talks was Marie-Catherine D’Aulnoy, who eventually went on to publish four volumes of stories. Another major contributor from France is Charles Perrault, who is credited with the invention of the Little Red Riding Hood tale. More about Perrault can be found in the Storyteller Spotlight section. Perhaps the most famous fairytale to come out of France is Beauty and the Beast, which was originally published in 1740 and written by Madame Gabriella Villeneuve. This version of the tale is novella length, and contains subject matter not appropriate for children. In 1756, a shortened version of the tale was written by Madame Le Prince de Beaumont. De Beaumont’s version of the story is the one that has lasted generations and became the basis for later interpretations. Her rendition of Beauty and the Beast is much simpler, and is the first example of a fairytale being adapted specifically for children.

The next major contribution to the genre takes place in the 19th century when brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm begin to publish their collections. Together known as the Brothers Grimm, their name has become synonymous with the genre and the two are often credited outside of scholarly work as the authors of many of the most famous fairytales, even though it is now widely accepted in literature that the brothers were adaptors and publishers rather than original authors.

In what is considered the last great push of fairytale publishing, the 19th century saw Hans Christian Andersen out of Denmark and Aleksandr Afanasev out of Russia publishing their own collections. Andersen has been celebrated as an original fairytale author, while Afanasev is credited as the pioneer of Russian folklore.

The history of fairytales is much like the history of any other subject; its origins go back to the earliest cultures and, like other subjects, there is a wide span of time where fairytales were being told but not written down, so tracking the history of any particular tale has become virtually impossible. The versions of fairytales that have been used over the course of generations and adapted into visual art, movies, and songs, are based on the works of the artists mentioned in this section. Researcher Heidi Anne Heiner created a blog entitled SurLaLune, which has helped shape this section of the blog. Please visit her page for a wonderfully detailed history, a fairytale timeline, a breakdown of contributions by country, and annotated tales. Please note that her wonderful blog is continuously updated, so be sure to check back often. 

Storyteller Study: Charles Perrault

     Charles Perrault is another famed fairytale storyteller whose contribution helped define the world of fairytales for generations to come. Born in 1628 to a wealthy family in Paris, Perrault was a good student starting from childhood, and eventually grew up to study law. Perrault had a long career in French governmental works, including a stint as the secretary of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, serving under the finance minister to King Louis XIV.
     Most reports claim that this government work relating to the arts is exactly what got Perrault to start writing and publishing fairy tales in the first place. A longtime family friend of the Perraults, Phillipe Quinalt, was becoming the go-to librettist for a new genre of music throughout France called opera. Quinalt helped write the opera Alceste, which shared a name with the famous Greek tragedy by Euripides. French traditionalists heavily criticized the work for going against classical French theater. Perrault wrote an essay titled Critique de l'Opera in 1674 not only defending and praising the work, but claiming that Quinalt's work with opera was better than Euripides' tragedy. Perrault's main claim was that traditional work was not so perfect as to exempt itself from critical analysis. This critique began what is known as the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns, in which French scholars found themselves at odds trying determine if traditional work was better or if modern work was better. Perrault wrote two more essays in the late 17th century arguing that modern contributions to the arts were superior to the works published in previous centuries.
   It was during this time that Perrault decided to leave his government work and dedicate his life to his children. In 1697, he published a collection of fairytales titled Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals: Tales of Mother Goose. Any modern reader is immediately familiar with the character of Mother Goose, and Perrault is the first author to use the character in publication. Stories in the collection include works that share similar themes and details to previously published stories, like Sleeping Beauty, as well as stories that have no previous publication history, like Little Red Riding Hood, which is widely thought to be a Perrault original. (Britannica 2016.)
   Perrault died in Paris in the early 18th century at the age of 75. His legacy has thrived in the 300 years since his death, and any history of fairytales is not complete without his inclusion. Modern readers can find his work in the Project Gutenberg e-book, which has translations of Perrault's most famous fairytales.

Oral Storytelling

    One of the great aspects of fairytales is that their origin lies in the oral storytelling tradition. As mentioned in other posts, the fairytales that modern audiences know all have root in oral storytelling. Today, stories are found in books and movies, but in certain domains, the oral tradition is being upheld. YouTube has become a platform for storytellers to share their craft with people all over the world while maintaining the intimate feel with which these stories began. Below are just a few examples of oral storytellers keeping the tradition alive for this generation and those to come.

• Karl Maaren tells the story of The Well of the World's End 

• Diane Ferlatte tells the story of Brer Rabbit's Dance

Storyteller Spotlight: Giovanni Francesco Straparola

     Born sometime around 1485 in Caravaggio, Italy, Straparola is one of the key figures in bringing fairytales to the modern world. Not much is known about his early life, due to poor record keeping and the suspicion some authors have that Straparola preferred this secrecy (Vaz da Silva, 2010.) Nothing else is known about Straparola's life until 1508, when he signed his name "Zoan" on the title page of one of his works.
    Straparola is widely considered to be one of the first authors to bring printed fairytales to Europe. In 1551, in Venice, Straparola published the first volume of what would become one half of his most famous and influential works, Le Piacevoli Notte, which translates to both The Pleasant Nights and The Facetious Nights. Bottigheimer (2002) claims that many of the stories contained within the collection come from other sources, most notably from Giorlamo Morlini, a lawyer who published Novellae, fabulae, comoedia, a similar collection, in 1520 (p. 82-84.) In certain circles, it is claimed the Straparola never denied this, which continues with the tradition mentioned earlier of authors publishing collections with stories they have not written, but with tales they have heard from other sources. Ziolkowski (2010) further elaborates, "In the absence of evidence that proves his indebtedness to a particular text, it remains equally plausible that the Italian author was inspired by oral forms," (p. 379.)
     Pleasant Nights contains stories mentioned in other blog posts, most notably Pig King and Puss in Boots. Below are two websites where full text versions of the collection are available.


The Facetious Nights of Straparola

Works by Straparola at Archive.Org

Not The Fairytales You Remember

      As mentioned briefly in the History of Fairytales section, many of the fairytales retold by the Brothers Grimm, Perrault, etc. were changed from their original versions in order to retain appropriate themes for children, the primary intended audience. Here are some videos that help show how the known fairytale adaptations of today vastly differ from the original versions.

**NOTE: Some of these videos contain information that replicates another video, but each is included on the merit of the singular information it provides.  This videos also discuss rape, torture, and other themes not appropriate for a young audience.


1. This video covers Cinderella, Pinocchio, Rapunzel, and more.

2. This video discusses Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, and more.

3. This video covers Snow White, Aladdin, The Pied Piper of Hamlin, and others.

Storyteller Spotlight: The Brothers Grimm

    The Brothers Grimm are sure to make any top five list of most famous fairytale storytellers in history. Many of the fairytales modern audiences know were first published by these brothers, and, according to Zipes (2014,) "it is well-known that the Grimms’ tales constitute the most widely published and disseminated books in Germany that can be categorized as fiction," (p. 56.) Jacob and Wilhelm were born in 1785 and 1786, respectively, in Germany. The boys were raised together in the small town of Hanau. Several biographies claim that Jacob was the healthier of the two and had a mind for research work, while Wilhelm was the weaker of the two and more interested in the arts. Before they published the works that would make them famous, both men were librarians.
     In the 18th and 19th centuries, there was a renewed interest across Germany in the nation's history. The Romantic Movement began during this time, and brought with it a return to nature, which is how folk tales, especially those of German origin, became more familiar during this time, and of more interest to the Grimms. The brothers had been in contact with several other writers during this time who were also interested in preserving other parts of near forgotten German culture, like folksongs. In 1812, the Brothers Grimm published their first collection of tales, titled Kinder-und Huasmarchen, which translates to Tales of the Children and the Home. (Encylopedia.com.)
     As mentioned above, it's not hard to understand the influence of the these two brothers on the world of fairy tales based solely on how much has been written and studied about their work since it was published. Santos (2014) writes in a broad statement that,"German Romanticism as it is understood today would be unthinkable without the Brothers Grimm," (p. 2.) Their contribution was so great that in his excellent book The Witch Must Die, when Sheldon Cashdan begins his study by laying out three myths about fairy tales that he will dispel, Myth #2 is titled "Fairy Tales were written by the Brothers Grimm," (p. 7.) Cashdan has to create an entire section to remind the reader that the Brothers Grimm, while worthwhile for study given their publishing history, did not actually write the fairy tales they published. Cashdan has to use this information early, because modern readers so often identify the word "fairytales" with "Brothers Grimm." Their influence on the fairytale world runs deep, without a doubt.
      Both brothers died in the 19th century while working on a dictionary that would trace the origin of every single German word, a project that was finally completed in 1960 by later scholars. (Encyclopedia.com.) The brothers' legacy continues to live on in the 21st century, with their life stories being told through biographies and, most notably, through a big budget film released in 2005 simply called The Brothers Grimm.
    For your listening pleasure, I have included a video that retells some of the Brothers Grimm's most famous published stories. This video has the stories of Rapunzle, Little Red Riding Hood, and many more familiar and not so familiar tales.

Conclusion

   The study of fairytales will never be truly done. The literature surrounding the definition and classification of the genre, the authors and adapters of fairytales, and the legacies surrounding the stories themselves is already grand in nature, but each new study comes with a different theory and a different perspective on the stories modern audiences know and love. The fact that fairytales are so ingrained in cultures across the world is a significant enough point to justify their study. So few ideas are universal, but an escape from and an understanding of reality is one of them. Carrassi (2016) perhaps encapsulates this idea best: "The fairytale can express a multi-dimensional worldview and the potential for a more complex idea of reality," (p. 69.)

References

Bottigheimer, R. B. (2006). Fairy-Tale Origins, Fairy-Tale Dissemination, and Folk Narrative Theory. Fabula, 47(3/4), 211-221. doi:10.1515/FABL.2006.023

Bottigheimer, R. B. (2002). Fairy Godfather: Straparola, Venice, and the Fairy Tale Tradition. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. 

Bottigheimer, R. B. (2010). Fairy Godfather, Fairy-Tale History, and Fairy-Tale Scholarship: A Response to Dan Ben-Amos, Jan M. Ziolkowski, and Francisco Vaz da Silva. Journal Of American Folklore, 123(490), 447-496.

Carrassi, V. (2016). A Broader and Deeper Idea of Fairy Tale:: Reassessing Concept, Meaning, and Function of the Most Debated Genre in Folk Narrative Research. Folklore (14060957), 6569-88. doi:10.7592/FEJF2016.65.carrassi

 Cashdan, S. (1999). The Witch Must Die: How Fairy Tales Shape Our Lives. New York City, New York: Basic Books. 

Encyclopaedia Britannica (2016.) Charles Perrault. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Perrault

"Grimm Brothers." UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography. . Retrieved December 01, 2016 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/grimm-brothers

Heider, H. A . (2016). SurLaLune: Fairytales.com. Retrieved from http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/index.html

Maitland, S. (2012). From the Forest: A Search for the Hidden Roots of Our Fairy Tales. Berkeley, California: Counterpoint. 

Santos, I. d. (2014). Reluctant Romantics - On the fairy tale poetics of the Brothers Grimm and their relationship to German Romanticism. Literator, 35(1), 1-8. doi:10.4102/lit.v35i1.1073

Smith, W. (2013). Happily Ever After: The folk tales gathered by the Brothers Grimm not only enchant us; they record the hardships European families endured for centuries. American Scholar, 82(1), 105-108. 

Vaz da Silva, F. (2010). The Invention of Fairy Tales. Journal Of American Folklore, 123(490), 398-425. 

Zipes, J. (2014). Two Hundred Years After Once Upon a Time. Marvels & Tales, 28(1), 54-74. 

Ziolkowski,  J. M. (2010). Straparola and the Fairy Tale: Between Literary and Oral Traditions. Journal Of American Folklore, 123(490), 377-397.