What is a fairy tale?

 

Here is a simple question: what is a folk tale? What is a fairy tale? And what is the connection with, say, the fabliaux of French medieval literature?

Before going any further, I’ll try a few definitions. Then I can compare them with those of other writers, and see if the definitions stand up after reading a few examples.

 A fairy tale is:

• A short story, not a novel
• A story of obstructions before a resolution is reached.
• Often includes the supernatural and magical.
• A path to a happy ending for the hero or heroine.
• Often ending in marriage.
• Does not question social boundaries. A peasant may marry a princess if he is clever enough, but there is no question that class distinctions should survive.
• Usually, but not always, involves magic.
• Typically has no sex. Sex is implied (Sleeping Beauty) but unspoken.
• Having a clear distinction between good and evil. The evil are usually punished and the good are rewarded.
• Often involves repetition (typically three times, with the last being successful).
• Moral world similar to that of Christianity: good deeds will ultimately be rewarded, even if not immediately. 

Helpfully, many critics make a distinction between “oral” fairy tales, transmitted by recitation, and “literary” fairy tales, which are written down and therefore subject to reworking by the author, and typically read rather then heard.

In contrast are folk tales or fabliaux (I have grouped them together, as they seem to have more in common with each other than with the fairy tale). Examples include Boccacio’s Decameron, Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptameron. Their characteristics are:

• Less supernatural, more based on individual attitude. The crafty characters are usually the winners, even if they have only a lowly place in the social order.
• Both fabliaux and folk tales are humorous, often raucous and sexual.
• Fabliaux are written in verse, folk tales in prose. 

There are of course cases of overlap, and collections that deliberately mix the different types. Calvino’s Italian Folktales mixes fairy tales with folk tales, and some of the lesser-known tales in Grimm are anything but fairy tales. But the distinctions above are, I hope, a good start to an assessment of fairy and folk tales. Let's see how these rules stand up with actual examples! 

The magic of fairy tales

 

Fairy tales! I’ve always been fascinated by fairy tales, without ever having been able to articulate exactly why. Fairy tales don’t correspond with the standard rules of literature. They have no characters. Rather embarrassingly, they are not politically correct. Disabled people are condemned. Beautiful people are praised. Success in a fairy tale is usually getting married, and usually to a prince or princess, with the implication that you are freed of any financial worries for life. Success doesn’t only come to those who deserve it, although the wicked never seem to prosper. Finally, fairy tales are almost always formulaic: the rule of three seems ubiquitous, with the first two failing but the last trial successful.

So what are we to make of fairy tales? Can they be justified? Yes, of course, because they address things that other types of literature don’t reach. They have a kind of primeval power that is very memorable. If you want a justification of fairy tales, just remember how the third bowl of porridge is just right – in Robert Southey’s words, “and that was neither too hot, nor too cold, but just right”.

 So over the next few posts, I intend to look at some aspects of fairy tales in more detail. I’ll look at some of the major commentators (the Opies, Bettelheim, Zipes) and some of the famous collections (Perrault, Madame d’Aulnay, Grimm, Calvino’s collection of Italian Folktales, which I’m currently reading, the Pentameron of Basile) and finally, some of the original writers (Andersen, Macdonald, Nesbit, Marcel Ayme). One thing is certain: it’s fun reading fairy tales!