As children, we are captivated by tales of strange worlds with mystical rules and impossible inhabitants. As adults, we are fascinated by their simple telling of often complex messages about the world and moral instructions on how to live in it.
But it hasn’t always been ‘happily ever after’ for this type of story. Individual fairytales have their roots in the oral tradition where centuries-old tales were spoken, or even acted out, and the act of telling these almost certainly pre-dates the oldest known examples from a thousand years ago.
Early written versions – in the west, most notably in the 18th century by Madame d'Aulnoy, Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm – attempted to preserve the plot, characters and styles of the traditional versions. These are notably darker in their tone than the ‘fairytale endings’ of Disney-style contemporary renditions. And whilst fairy tales understandably assume local colour, there are similar plots, characters and styles which span cultures, continents and centuries.
Academics argue about exactly what constitutes a fairytale as well as what they actually mean, but there’s one thing that can’t be denied – fairytales have certainly not lost their power to enchant us.
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