kids encyclopedia robot

Fairy tale facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

A fairy tale (also called a fairy story or magic tale) is a short story that is part of folklore. These stories often have magic, spells, and amazing creatures. In many cultures, it's hard to tell the difference between myths, folk tales, and fairy tales. They all come from stories told long ago before writing was common.

Fairy tales are different from legends, which people usually believe are true. They are also different from fables, which are stories that teach a clear lesson, often using talking animals. Common things you'll find in fairy tales include dragons, dwarfs, elves, fairies, giants, gnomes, goblins, griffins, merfolk, monsters, talking animals, trolls, unicorns, witches, and wizards.

Sometimes, "fairy tale" can also mean something that ends very happily, like a "fairy tale ending." But remember, not all fairy tales have happy endings! It can also just mean a story that is hard to believe.

Unlike legends or epic stories, fairy tales usually don't talk about specific religions, real places, people, or events. They also don't say exactly when things happened. Instead, they often start with "once upon a time."

Fairy tales have been passed down in two ways:

  • Oral form: Stories told from person to person.
  • Literary form: Stories written down in books.

It's hard to know the exact history of fairy tales because many were just spoken stories. But we know they are thousands of years old. Many fairy tales we know today come from very old stories that have been told in different ways in many cultures around the world. Even today, new fairy tales are still being written.

At first, fairy tales were for both adults and children. But now, they are mostly known as stories for kids. Some famous old fairy tales are Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, and "The Three Little Pigs". There are also newer fairy tales written by authors, like The Little Mermaid or Pinocchio. Famous authors who wrote new fairy tales include Hans Christian Andersen, James Thurber, and Oscar Wilde.

History of Fairy Tales

Before people started writing things down, fairy tales were passed on by telling them from person to person. Stories were spoken or acted out. This is why their history isn't always clear.

The oldest written fairy tales we know of are from ancient Egypt, around 1300 BC. You can also find fairy tales in old written works from different cultures, like The Golden Ass from Roman times (100–200 AD), which includes the story of Cupid and Psyche. These old writings show that fairy tales have been told for a very, very long time.

How Fairy Tales Spread

Have you ever wondered why similar fairy tales are found all over the world? There are two main ideas about this:

  • One Origin: One idea is that a story started in one place and then spread over many centuries as people traveled and shared tales.
  • Common Experience: The other idea is that similar fairy tales can appear in different places because people everywhere have similar experiences and ideas.

Fairy tales with very similar plots and characters are found in many different cultures. Many researchers think this is because the stories spread from one place to another. People would hear stories in foreign lands and then tell them in their own homes. It's hard to trace the exact path of these spoken stories.

The Brothers Grimm, who collected many famous German fairy tales, believed that European fairy tales came from a shared history of all Indo-European peoples. They thought these stories were much older than any written records.

Newer research supports this idea. Scientists have used a method called phylogenetic analysis (which is also used to study how living things are related) to trace fairy tales. For example:

Fairy tales often change to fit the place where they are told. They might use local animals, customs, or ways of speaking. For example, the Grimms' version of Little Red Riding Hood is similar to Charles Perrault's French version, but the ending is different.

Famous Fairy Tale Collections

Many people have collected and written down fairy tales from different parts of the world. Here are some of the most well-known:

From Many Countries

Italy

France

Germany

United Kingdom and Ireland

  • Joseph Jacobs's books of Celtic Fairytales and English Folktales
  • Popular Tales of the West Highlands by John Francis Campbell (Scotland, 1862)

Scandinavia

Russia

  • Narodnye russkie skazki by Alexander Afanasyev (1855–1863)

Indian Subcontinent

  • Panchatantra (India, 3rd century BC)
  • Kathasaritsagara, a collection from the 11th century CE

America

Images for kids

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Cuento de hadas para niños

kids search engine
All content from Kiddle encyclopedia articles (including the article images and facts) can be freely used under Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless stated otherwise. Cite this article:
Fairy tale Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.