1. Introduction: Fairy tales and Folktales

2. A quick recap... Myths and Legends
Myths and legends are often stories of the gods and of god-like heroes. They tell of beginnings and ends, creation and destruction, life and death.
They can explain the how and the why of life.

3. In other words...
Myths and Legends: These stories involve supernatural beings, adventure and magic. Stories of creation-the earth, she [heaven] and water. Adventures of heroes setting out on quests. They face many dangers and trials showing bravery and honestly. These are tales from all around the world and we remember many of the Greek heroes including Zeus, Hercules and Jason.

4. Introduction
The classic fairy tales – “Cinderella”, “Snow White”, “Little Red Riding Hood” – are among the first stories we encounter as children. These stories with their magic and wonder, cast an unfortunate spell – a spell that can last a lifetime. When, at the end of a fairy tale, we are told that the characters “lived happily ever after”, we readily believe it. The optimism of fairy tales, in which the good overcome the wicked and the humble outwit the proud, gives hope to everyone who reads them.

5. Introduction
However fairy tales are much more than just wish-fulfilment fantasies, Fairy-tale heroes and heroines achieve perfect happiness only after many trials and tribulations have been overcome, and fairy tales find room for grief as well as joy.

6. In other words...
Folk Tales / Fairy Tales: These are stories about ordinary people and situations. They are tales of wonder and magic in a world of reality and offer optimism.

7. Features of Fairy tales
Under a spell
ie The Sleeping Beauty, The Frog Prince
Riches to Rags
ie Rumpelstiltskin, Aladdin
Heroes and Heroines
ie Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Snow White
True Love Conquers All
ie Cinderella, Rapunzel

8. Under a spell
Many characters in fairy tales, such as Beast in “Beauty and the Beast”, are under a spell. They have been transformed by magic, often into a shape of an animal.
It is the task of the hero or heroine to recognise the essential person behind the spell; in the end Beauty’s courage and willingness to love Beast for his inner goodness breaks the spell.
MOST fairy tales about people under a spell ends with the cruel enchantment being broken.

9. Riches to Rags
Fairy tales were originally told and listened to by poor people, and so it not surprising that so many feature poor heroes hoping to make their fortunes. Sometimes they strike it rich through pure luck, sometimes they min through wit, but more often, it is goodness, bravery, or fidelity that is eventually rewarded.

10. Heroes and Heroines
Courage and steadfastness are two of the most important qualities of a fairy-tale hero and heroine. They are the ones who do and dare.
If a magic beanstalk sprouts outside their window, they unhesitatingly climb up it to see what is at the top. If they find themselves married to a murderer, or prosecuted by a wicked step mother, they keep their nerve and their wits about them.

11. True Love Conquers All
In fairy tales, it is love, not money, rank, or power, that makes the world go around: a prince may wed the family servant, Cinderella, or a witch’s prisoner, Rapunzel.
Even those who proudly protest they will never marry are not proof against love’s spell; their fate is to lose to their hearts.
The lovers road from “Once upon a time” to “Happily ever after” can be a long and hard but, as stories make clear, there are no hardships or terrors that those inspired by true love cannot endure and eventually overcome.