What is a
Fairy Tale

In a fairy tale, a poor girl could marry a prince and become a princess. They may have contained improbable happenings or enchantments.

In many of the older versions, the main characters often came to a bad end, while modern versions almost always have a happy ending.

The exact definition of a fairy tale from Webster's Dictionary states that a fairy tale is "a story for children about fairies, or about magic and enchantment; a very improbably story; a lie."

This definition really doesn't encompass all that a fairy tale is, though. So, what is a Fairy Tale?

Through the ages, fairy tales have been stories of wonder and magic; of lowly, deserving people who got to move up in the world while those who oppressed them were punished; of royalty and peasantry ignoring class distinctions to seek enchantments or the answers to riddles.

Talking animals often came to the rescue, as in "Puss in Boots."

Fairy tales exist from every culture, and they existed orally long before any were written down. These stories, or folktales, were passed down from generation to generation.

The oldest known written fairy tales are from ancient Egypt and they are found throughout history. If you read fairy tales from Germany, France, Japan, China and Ireland, you'll see similarities in the stories.

For those who study literature from different cultures, it helps define the common human experience no matter where a person lived, or in what time period.

Today, the best known fairy tales often come from the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson. Who can forget the adventures of "Hansel and Gretel" or the sad tale of "The Little Mermaid"? "Cinderella" even exists in many different versions from different cultures.

Fairy tales are a way of sharing some of the common experiences, hopes and dreams of humanity. Even the watered down versions of today still touch a chord with many of us.

Some people have a slightly different definition of a fairy tale. For them, a fairy tale is about the realm of Faerie… where the little folk live.

It doesn't need to be about fairies themselves, although they sometimes are; more often they are about the nature of the Faerie realm itself. J. R. R. Tolkien, in his book "On Fairy Stories," describes a fairy tale as "one which touches on or uses Faerie, whatever its own main purpose may be: satire, adventure, morality, fantasy.

Faerie itself may perhaps most nearly be translated by Magic – but it is magic of a peculiar mood and power… There is one proviso: if there is any satire present in the tale, one thing must not be made fun of, the magic itself." And we do take the magic in fairy tales seriously.

We do not laugh at the fact that the young princess in "The Seven Swans" is able to break the enchantment which turns her brothers into swans by sitting silent in a tree for several years sewing them shirts.

This is a serious business, and we want her to succeed at her task.

Fairy tales are a part of us all. We grow up with them, we tell them to our children. They will always be a part of our culture.