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!