The Original Fairy Tales 1

Fairy Tales Fairy Tale: A fanciful tale of legendary deeds and creatures, usually intended for children. What makes the fairy tale different from folklore, fables, and tall tales is its use of magic and fantasy. 2

The Purpose: While today parents love telling their favorite Fairy Tales to their own children, the dark and often gruesome plot lines of the original stories were intended for adult audiences, not youngsters. Fairy Tales were originally created and told by women who were revolting against societal norms. At that time, women were meant to be seen and not heard. Many women did not agree with this concept and rebelled by creating shockingly gruesome stories where the endings were not always happy. They would then tell these stories at parties and other gatherings. 3

The Purpose Cont. Throughout history, tales continued to be told and retold as women spent much of their time together, spinning, weaving, and sewing. Their tales allowed them to create heroines that were strong and enabled them to pass on stories to their daughters and granddaughters that taught powerful lessons of conquering adversity and rewarding virtuousness. These tales often included cautionary warnings of what would happen if young ladies (teenagers) did not behave as they should. 4

Famous Fairy Tale Authors Charles Perrault (France) 1600’s Grimm Brothers (Germany) 1800’s Hans Christian Andersen (Denmark) 1800’s 5

Question… Question: If women originally came up with these fairy tales, why are all the authors men? Answer: These famous authors did not come up with these fairy tales themselves. These tales had been around for years and years, spread by word of mouth. These men just took these stories, tweaked them a little, and put them in a book. Women could not be authors during this time, so men “stole” their stories and published them in books. They also toned them down and removed much of the violence so they would be more suitable for children (even though by today’s standards, they’re still pretty rough). 6

Charles Perrault Charles Perrault (France) 1600’s Collected fairy tales and published Tales of Mother Goose in 1697 Among the eight stories in this book are The Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, and Cinderella. 7

Grimm Brothers Grimm Brothers (Germany) 1800’s Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm Wilhelm Carl Grimm -The brothers went to school determined to study law as their father had done. -However, while attending school, Jacob became interested in the legends and both discovered that they enjoyed folk poetry. 8

Grimm Brothers The Grimm Brothers traveled about the countryside for 13 years listening to folktales as told by those who had heard them from their mothers and fathers. Their 200 stories commonly called Grimm’s Fairy Tales have been translated into 70 languages. 9

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Anderson (Denmark) 1800’s Andersen's writings began to be published in Danish in 1829. His first works were poems, plays, novels, and impressions of his travels. In 1835 Andersen published Fairy Tales Told for Children. He published these short stories with little appreciation of their worth and returned to the writing of novels and poems. However, people who read the stories--adults as well as children--wanted more. 10

Hans Christian Andersen In 1833 the king gave him a grant of money for travel, and he spent 16 months wandering through Germany, France, Switzerland, and Italy collecting stories. Andersen published 168 fairy tales in all. 11

Common Elements of Fairy tales Talking animals / objects Cleverness / trickster / word games Travel Triumph of the poor Human weakness explored (i.e., curiosity, gluttony, pride, laziness, etc.) Human strengths glorified (i.e., kindness, generosity, patience, etc.) Tall story (slight exaggeration – hyperbole) Guardians (fairy godmothers, mentors, magical helpers, guides, etc.) Monsters (dragons, ogres, evil creatures, etc.) Struggle between good and evil, light and dark Youngest vs. Oldest (sons, daughters, sibling rivalry) Sleep (extended sleep, death-like trances) Impossible tasks (ridiculously mind-numbing, fantastic effort needed to complete, etc.) Recurring 3’s, 6’s, or 7’s 12

Fairy Tale Research You will get into groups of 3 and research the fairy tale that has been assigned to your group. You will need to You will use the website: www.surlalunefairytales.com You will then create a powerpoint presentation that you will share and present to the rest of the class. Here are the Fairytales you will be researching: 13

Sleeping Beauty Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault (1889) 14

Little Red Riding Hood By Charles Perrault, (1697). 15

Three Little Pigs The Three Little Pigs by John Russell Smith, 1849. 16

Hansel and Gretel By The Brother’s Grimm 1889 17

The Frog King By The Brother’s Grimm (1884) 18