Defining Fairytales by Libby_ch

“ If you want your children to be intelligent, read them Fairy tales" Albert Einstein

COLOPHON

Published in 2022 by Laurence King Publishing Ltd 361-373 City Road London EC1V 1LR United N201821 6000 Fax: + 44 20 7841 6910 Email: enquiries@laurenceking.com www.laurenceking.com Copyright © 2021 Elizabeth Chambers All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

CONTENTS

INDEX FOLKLORE LANGUAGES ADAPTATION PSYCHOLOGY

01 03 15 33 59

FOLKLORE TO FAIRYTALE

LETTER FROM WILHELM 1842

CHAPTER ONE

FOLKLORE TO FAIRYTALE

A FAIRY TALE Noun: Fairytale 1. A children’s story about magical and imaginary beings and lands; a fairy story. Similar: fairy story, folk tale, folk story, traditional story, myth Something resembling a fairy tale in being magical, idealised, or extremely happy. Modifier noun: fairy-tale “A fairy-tale romance”

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION Writers Marina Warner Jamie Tehrani

The characters and images of fairy tales have cast a spell over adults and children for centuries. These fantastic stories have travelled across cultural borders, and been passed on from generation to generation, ever-changing, renewed with each re-telling. Few forms of literature have greater power to enchant us and rekindle our imagination than a fairy tale. But what is a fairy tale? Where do they come from and what do they mean? What do they try and communicate to us about morality, sexuality, and society? From the fairytales of Little Red Riding Hood to Cinderella these stories go much further back than that’s of the Disney movies we grew up with. Dating back to as far as the 16th and 17th century these stories are deep rooted in folklore encapsulating the history and legends of ancient civilisations. By using the techniques employed by biologists and historians, academics have been able to discover the root of some of these stories, for example Jack and the Beanstalk was found to be rooted in a group of stories classified as The Boy Who Stole Ogre’s Treasure, and could be traced back to when Eastern and Western Indo-European languages split more than 5,000 years ago and Beauty And The Beast and Rumpelstiltskin to be about 4,000 years old. With such vast history these stories were never condensed down to a disgust-able level for the public, that was until two German brothers known as the Brother Grimm decided to write and illustrate them.

FOLKLORE TO FAIRYTALE

" THE GRIMM BROTHERS WERE CONSIDERED THE FATHERS OF THE MODERN FAIRYTALE" Jack Zipes

INTRODUCTION

FOLKLORE TO FAIRYTALE

THE BROTHERS GRIMM ESSAY BY Ludwig Denecke

German folklorists and linguists, Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm, born in January 1785, and Wilhelm Carl Grimm, born February 24, 1786, were best known for their book Kinder und Hausmärchen also called Grimm’s Fairy Tales produced in 1812. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were the oldest in a family of five brothers and one sister. Jacob, a scholarly type, while Wilhelm was taller, had a softer face, and was sociable and fond of all the arts. After attending the University of Marburg (1802-6) and falling under the spell of folk poetry. With the intention of compiling a book of folklore the Grimm brothers looked to the distant past and saw in antiquity the foundation of all social institutions of their days. From the beginning, the Grimms were more Realists than Romantics. They sought to include material from beyond their own frontiers, from the literary traditions of Scandinavia, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Scotland, England, Serbia, and Finland to show the authenticity of the history of folklore. They first collected folk songs and tales for their friends Achim von Arnim and Brentano, who had collaborated on an influential collection of folk lyrics in 1805, and the brothers examined in some critical essays the essential difference between folk literature and other writing. To them, folk poetry was the only true poetry, expressing the eternal joys and sorrows, the hopes and fears of humankind. They soon published their collected tales as the Kinder- und Hausmärchen, implying in the title that the stories were meant for adults and children alike. In contrast to the extravagant fantasy of the Romantic school’s poetical fairy tales, the 200 stories of this collection (including, among the most enduring,“Snow White,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Sleeping Beauty,” and “Rumpelstiltskin”) aimed at conveying the soul, imagination, and beliefs of people through the centuries or at a genuine reproduction of the teller’s words and ways. Most of the stories were taken from oral sources, though a few were from printed sources. The great merit of Wilhelm Grimm is that he gave the fairy tales a readable form without changing their folkloric character. The results were threefold:

BROTHERS GRIMM FOLKLORE TO FAIRYTALE Our Lady’s Child The Story of a Youth Who Went Forth This first edition is wholly unlike the so-called definitive to Learn What Fear Was edition of 1857. In the process of publishing seven different The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids editions over forty years, the Grimms made vast changes Faithful John in the contents and style. The stories in The Good Two young German librarians by the first edition are closer to the oral the names of Jacob and Wilhelm Bargain tradition than the tales of the final, The Twelve Grimm published a collection of which can be regarded more as a literary tales that would become one of the Brothers collection, because Wilhelm, the younger Brother and most influential works of folklore brother, continually honed the tales so that in Germany. Sister they would resonate with a growing literary Rapunzel public. Their books would become second in popularity The Three Little Men in the Wood only to the Bible in German-speaking lands. By the twentieth The Three Spinners century, they would become the most famous collection Hansel and Gretel of folk and fairy tales in the western world. The Three Snake-Leaves The White Snake When Jacob and Wilhelm began collecting folk tales The Valiant Little Tailor and songs at the beginning of the nineteenth century, they Cinderella were precocious students at the University of Marburg, still The Riddle in their teens. They grew up quite fast, plagued by money Mother Holle problems and caring for their siblings—their father died in The Seven Ravens 1796, leaving the once middle-class family in poverty. Their Little Red-Cap situation was further aggravated by the rampant Napoleonic The Singing Bone Wars. Jacob interrupted his studies to serve the Hessian War The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs Commission, although Wilhelm passed his law exams and The Girl Without Hands found work as a low- paid librarian in the royal library. In Clever Hans 1807, Jacob lost his position with the War Commission, when The Three Languages the French occupied Kassel, but he was then hired Clever Elsie as a librarian for the new King Jérome, Napoleon’s brother, The Wishing-Table, The Gold-Ass, who now ruled Westphalia. Amidst all the upheavals, their and The Cudgel in the Sack mother died in 1808, and Jacob and Wilhelm became fully Thumbling responsible for their three younger brothers and sister. The Frog King The Elves (two stories) Despite difficult personal problems and meager financial The Robber Bridegroom support from 1805 to 1812, the brothers proved themselves The Godfather to be innovative scholars in the new field of German Frau Trude philology by publishing articles and books on medieval Godfather Death literature. In fact, they would be surprised to learn that they Thumbling as Journeyman are more famous today for their tales than for their superb Fitcher’s Bird philological studies, which include pioneering work on The Juniper-Tree German sound shifts, and the founding of the voluminous Old Sultan German Dictionary in 1854. But it was their training in The Six Swans philology and the demands that they placed on themselves Little Briar-Rose as researchers that assisted their collecting and editing Fundevogel the tales. King Thrushbeard Little Snow-White In 1808, their friend, the romantic poet Clemens Brentano, The Knapsack, The Hat, and The Horn asked them to collect all types of folk tales so he could use Rumpelstiltskin them in a book of literary fairy tales. In 1810, they sent him Sweetheart Roland The Golden Bird The Two Brothers

FOLKLORE TO FAIRYTALE

character. The results were threefold: the collection enjoyed wide distribution in Germany and eventually in all parts of the globe; it became and remains a model for the collecting of folktales everywhere; and the Grimms’ notes to the tales, along with other investigations, formed the basis for the science of the folk narrative and even of folklore. To this day the tales remain the earliest “scientific” collection of folktales. The Kinder- und Hausmärchen was followed by a collection of historical and local legends of Germany, Deutsche Sagen (1816–18), which never gained wide popular appeal, though it influenced both literature and the study of the folk narrative. The brothers then published (in 1826) a translation of Thomas Crofton Croker’s Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland, prefacing the edition with a lengthy introduction of their own on fairy lore. At the same time, the Grimms gave their attention to the written documents of early literature, bringing out new editions of ancient texts, from both the Germanic and other languages. While collaborating on these subjects for two decades (1806–26), Jacob also turned to the study of philology with an extensive work on grammar, the Wilhelm’s outstanding contribution Deutsche Grammatik (1819–37). The was Die Deutsch Heldensage (German word Deutsch in the title does not Heroic Tale), a collection and study mean strictly “German,” but it rather of themes and names from heroic refers to the etymological meaning of legends mentioned in literature and “common,” thus being used to apply art from the 6th to the 16th centuries, to all of the Germanic languages, the together with essays on the art of the historical development of which is traced for the first time. He represented the natural laws of sound change (both vowels and consonants) in various languages and thus created bases for a method of scientific etymology; i.e., research into relationships between languages and development of meaning. In what was to become known as Grimm’s law, Jacob demonstrated the principle of the regularity of correspondence among consonants in genetically related languages, a principle previously observed by the Dane Rasmus Rask. Jacob’s work on grammar exercised an enormous influence on the contemporary study of linguistics, Germanic, Romance, and Slavic. In 1824 Jacob Grimm translated a Serbian grammar by his friend Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, writing an erudite introduction on Slavic languages and literature. He extended his investigations into the Germanic folk-culture with a study of ancient law practices and beliefs published as Deutsche Rechtsaltertümer (1828), providing systematic

BROTHERS GRIMM

source material but excluding actual laws. The work stimulated other publications in France, the Netherlands, Russia, and the southern Slavic countries. In 1840 they accepted an invitation from the king There they began work in earnest of Prussia, Frederick William IV, to go on their most ambitious enterprise, to Berlin, where as members of the Royal the Deutsches Wörterbuch, a large Academy of Sciences they lectured at the fully equipped German dictionary university. Intended as a guide for the user of the written and spoken word as well as a scholarly reference work. In the dictionary, all German words found in the literature of the three centuries “from Luther to Goethe” were given with their historical variants, their etymology, and their semantic development; their usage in specialized and everyday language was illustrated by quoting idioms and proverbs. Begun as a source of income in 1838 for the brothers after their dismissal from Göttingen, the work required generations of successors to bring the gigantic task to an end more than a hundred years later. Jacob lived to see the work proceed to the letter F, while Wilhelm finished only four letters. For some 20 years they worked in Prussia’s capital, free from financial worries. Much of importance can be found in the brothers’ lectures and essays, the prefaces and reviews (Kleinere Schriften) they wrote in this period. In Berlin they witnessed the Revolution of 1848 and took an active part in the political strife of the succeeding years. In spite of close and even emotional ties to their homeland, the Grimm's were not nationalists in the narrow sense. They maintained genuine—even political—friendships with colleagues at home and abroad, among them the jurists Savigny and Karl Friedrich Eichhorn; the historians Friedrich Dahlmann, Georg Gottfried Cervinus, and Jules Michelet; and the philologists Karl Lachmann, John Mitchell Kemble, Jan Frans Willems, Vuk Karadžić, and Pavel Josef Šafařik. Nearly all academies in Europe were proud to count Jacob and Jacob remained a bachelor in life. Wilhelm among their members. The more robust Jacob undertook many journeys for Wilhelm married Dorothea Wild scientific investigations, visiting France, the from Kassel, and had children. Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Denmark, and Sweden. The Grimm Brothers were able to transform the fairytale. Their work made it possible for other countries and cultures to want to translate and create their own version of fairytales. In fact the concept of language and culture is a major feature in the concept of a fairytale.

FOLKLORE TO FAIRYTALE

BROTHER GRIMM TIMELINE Important Fairytale Events

200BC

Origins of the folklore

1796 1798

1785 1786

Death of their Father Philipp

Jacob and Wilhelm go to the lyceum in Kassel, Germany

Jacob Grimm born on the 4th of January

1802

Jacob goes to the University of Marburg

1803

Wilhelm joins his brother at University

Wilhelm Grimm born on the 24th February

1806 1808

Jacob takes a job as secretary of Hessian War College

Jacob becomes the librarian to King Jerome Bonaparte

BROTHERS GRIMM

1812 1823 1825

Volume one of Kinder und Hausmärchen (Children and household tales) is published

llustrated editions aimed at children, translated into English into German Popular Stories

Wilhelm marries Dorothea Wild German Edition in 1825 as Kleine Ausgabe (Small Edition) reprint.

1826 -28

American version of German Popular Stories Published

1830

The brothers take jobs at the University of Gottingen, Germany

1854 1859 1863 1837 1841

First volume of the Grimm German Dictionary is published

Death of Wilhelm on December 16th

Death of Jacob on September 20th

The Protest of the Gottingen Seven makes the brothers political heroes

The brothers move to Berlin

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A FAIRYTALE LANGUAGE

CHAPTER TWO

A FAIRYTALE LANGUAGE

How fairytales became a global phenomenon, incorporating cultural changes along the way.

A FAIRYTALE LANGUAGE

INTRODUCTION Writers Cerrie Burnell

In the fairy tale, no matter how terrible the situation faced by our protagonist, it is lightened by brief sprinkles of magic, heroic acts and often love. The glory of the fairy-tale villain is never long lived, their all-consuming darkness being balanced with the light of a kind deed or fairy godmother. Fairy tales exist in every culture and language. They embolden our childhoods with a shared experience of storytelling, a brightening of our imaginations and an emotional response to literature. They are warnings learned from a safe distance. The action is always happening learned from a safe distance. The action is always happening in a different time to our own, so the danger isn’t threatening. These much-loved stories are part of our cultural heritage and are often the root from which classical children’s books have blossomed. They are a global phenomenon, having whispered their way around the world, incorporating multiple changes along the way. For instance, Cinderella has its origins in Chinese culture, yet there are 500 different versions of Cinderella that have been found in Europe alone. In earlier translations, the fairy godmother takes the role of a fish, who grants Cinderella her wishes. In another telling, there is no actual fairy godmother but a tree that has grown upon the grave of Cinderella’s mother. She cries at the root, ‘watering the tree with her tears’, and the tree produces everything she needs.

INTRODUCTION

In an early French version, Cinderella is not a poorly treated parlour maid, but a highly gifted witch who is very pragmatic and has the ability to appear invisible and tame birds. The version of the Cinderella tale that we know best also comes from France, where the description of the glass slippers was originally ‘pantoffles en vair’, which means ‘slippers of white squirrel fur.’ It’s believed this was mistranslated or misheard as ‘pantoufle en verre’: slippers of glass. Hence, in our beloved version, Cinderellas goes to the ball in magnificent but highly unwearable glass high heels. But this hardly matters. If anything, it adds to the wonder. Cinderella is going to the ball in a pumpkin coach. Nothing about that night is supposed to be real. In contrast to the cruelty she’s suffered, this is a night of extraordinary happenings and the glass slippers are simply a dazzling part of it. And its that which I love best: the commitment to creating something gloriously spellbinding. The way the shoes appear, with the help of a magic wand, is startling, exquisite and joyously unbelievable. It almost doesn’t matter what the slippers are made from, if they are too grand or "out of reach" for seemingly normal people to ever own. I love that the translator mistook fur for glass without question. To me, white squirrel fur is as unexpected as glass. I wouldn’t imagine wearing either. Yet, both capture my imagination. Both flavour Cinderella’s special night with wonderment. Both are memorable for years to come, as a moment of absolute triumph. I love With the passing of time, the language that a fairy tale can pass through so many of fairy tales has altered, so that readers diverse societies and the language is able of every age can still engage with the to capture the essence of enchantment, story. If we tried to read a fairy tale so the heart of the story prevails: the dark from a hundred years ago, we might and the sorrow, the brilliance, and the grasp the meaning but the phrasing utterly gorgeous and astonishing shoes, would seem specifically peculiar. are still meaningful hundreds of years later. And the influence of fairy tales can still be found in brandnew books being published today. Take any of your favourite books or well-loved children’s classics: Harry Potter, Peter Pan, Lemony Snicket's a series of Unfortunate Events, or Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials. You may consider these books to be very modern, or quintessentially British, but they all take inspiration from a legacy of storytelling that has woven its way through a myriad of times and cultures, making literature as powerful a part of our future as it is our history.

A FAIRYTALE LANGUAGE

" These much loved stories are part of our cultural heritage." Writers Cerrie Burnell

FROM GERMAN TO GLOBAL

FROM GERMAN TO GLOBAL What’s not so well known is that in the linguistics world, Jacob Grimm is mostly famous as the linguist for whom the eponymous Grimm’s Law is named, a fact quite apart from collecting tales as old as time. It’s also not widely known that the Grimm brothers’ sleeper hit Kinder und Hausmärchen (Children’s and Household Tales) was initially a scientific work of scholarship on local culture, not written for children at all. Instead, they were among the first to set down a rigorous methodology of the collection and research of oral tradition, in which copious notes were kept of the speakers, the places and times. Unusually, the storytellers’ very language, the dialectal and vernacular words they used, was preserved. Careful comparisons were made between different versions of tales the Grimms were told. The Grimms declared: “Our first aim in collecting these stories has been exactness and truth. We have added nothing of our own, have embellished no incident or feature of the story, but have given its substance just as we ourselves “I did not write the story book received it.” This really was pioneering for children, although I rejoice that work in folkloristics. And as he compared it is welcome to them; but I would tales, attempting to reconstruct the distant not have worked over it with pleasure beginning of German culture, Jacob if I had not believed that it might Grimm grew more interested in language. appear and be important for poetry, Language was a vehicle that could reach mythology, and history to the most even further back to the authentic and serious and elderly people as well original German past. How and why did as to myself.” words change from different Germanic languages or dialects to other Indo-European languages? Jacob Grimm’s work led to a more rigorous, scientific approach In historical linguistics, which ultimately led the way to modern formal linguistics as a science.

ESSAY BY Lingua Obscura

Though he was not the first to observe the phenomenon, it was Grimm’s linguistics research that explained the comprehensive and systematic sound correspondences between the Germanic languages and their cognates in other Indo-European languages, such as the change from voiceless stops like /p/ in the word for father in Latin and Sanskrit, as in “pater” and “pitā” to a voiceless fricative /f/ in Germanic languages, as in “father” (English) and “vater” (German). This phenomenon is now known as Grimm’s Law. And just like that, Germanic historical linguistics was born out of a desire to understand the origins of German folktales

A FAIRYTALE LANGUAGE

And just like that, Germanic historical linguistics was born out of a desire to understand the origins of German folktales better, and historical phonology developed as a new field of study. Jacob Grimm’s work, along with his contemporaries’, led to a more rigorous, scientific approach in historical linguistics, which ultimately led the way to modern formal linguistics as a science. With those great accomplishments, we could say the brothers Grimm lived happily till their end. Of course, every good story has a twist (and I don’t mean the part where the Grimm brothers, as part of the Göttingen Seven, were later exiled from their beloved homeland by the King of Hanover, causing mass student protests). With the best of intentions, the Grimm brothers had laid out a scientific conceptual framework for folklore scholarship. But their driving passion really still was the building of a national folk literature. One imagines the two excitable librarians travelling about the countryside gathering tall tales from There they began work in earnest their country people, buttonholing them in on their most ambitious enterprise, muddy fields, in pubs and country inns, beer the Deutsches Wörterbuch, a large steins and notebooks in hand. Sadly this is fully equipped German dictionary apocryphal. In reality, many of their sources were either literary or gathered from eager acquaintances of their own class (some which were kept anonymous to avoid uncomfortable questions), and as a result, some were probably not even natively German. Orrin W. Robinson’s study shows how, despite the Grimm brothers’ insistence that they recorded the language of the storytellers verbatim as they received it, the truth is these tales were edited and manipulated, particularly by Wilhelm. We can track the changes through the editions and an earlier manuscript they lent to the absent-minded Clemens Brentano, who forgot to destroy it. The Grimm brothers were able to use their considerable experience of folk tales and linguistics to massage the stories into seeming more authentically German. For example, the names Hänsel and Gretel that we know so well were simply chosen because they gave the outward appearance of a true and authentic folktale from a certain area, even though initially, the tale was known as “The Little Brother and the Little Sister.” Though in earlier versions some tales were narrated in indirect speech, or the standard German used by the Grimms’ middle class informants, in later versions they’d acquired direct dialogue, often in regional dialects,

FROM GERMAN TO GLOBAL

their moral and gender biases, by switching pronouns for female characters even within a single story, such as when a transformation has occurred. Considering Jacob Grimm’s own childhood experience with pronouns, this is curious. Robinson points out that when girls are good or very young, they’re referred to by the neutral pronoun “es,” while bad girls or mature young women are referred to by the feminine “sie.” The contrast in usage makes it clear it’s not random, especially when compared to another written source of the same tale, where pronouns are used consistently. For some, the Grimm brothers’ failure to follow their own research methods represents a disastrous loss for German folklore. But it should also be noted that by regularly editing the narrative structure, the Grimm brothers Grimm has been Translated into also set down the stylistic format for how we more than 160 languages and recognize a fairytale, and that format has been dialects all over the world. followed ever since. Once upon a time, despite their flaws, the brothers Grimm accomplished something legendary in building a national body of folk literature. And the legacy they left behind for historical linguistics and folkloristics has lived happily ever after.

A FAIRYTALE LANGUAGE

FROM GERMAN TO GLOBAL

A FAIRYTALE LANGUAGE

REVISION AND TRANSLATION Originally written in German the Grimm Brothers works were in need of translation and alteration to fit the context of differing cultures and customs. In 2014, Princeton University Press published The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, the first-ever English translation of the first edition of the Grimms’ stories. In the introduction, translator Jack Zipes writes that “... the more they began gathering tales, the more they became totally devoted to uncovering the ‘natural poetry’—naturpoesie—of the German people, and all their research was geared toward exploring the epics, sagas, and tales that contained what they thought were essential truths about the German cultural heritage. Underlying their work was a “As soon as they published their first pronounced romantic urge to excavate edition, they gradually became fairly and preserve German cultural famous, and not only in the Germancontributions made by the common people speaking countries—remember, before the stories became extinct.” Germany is not united at that point, These preservation efforts are seen most their name and their collection spread clearly in the first edition, with all its like wildfire.” lewdness and violence. But once the stories started gaining popularity, the Grimm brothers found it too tempting to alter some of the more unsavory aspects to appeal to a wider audience. ARTICLE BY Hannah Keyser

The effect of this growing renown was twofold: At the same time as the Grimms were working, a literate middle class was just beginning to emerge in Europe as a result of public school becoming compulsory. With the traditionally oral stories now bound in a text, the literate middle and upper classes took an interest in the tales, but imposed their Victorian Puritan sentiments on some of the rougher aspects. As Zipes writes in his book’s introduction, “Although they did not abandon their basic notions about the ‘pure’ origins and significance of folk tales when they published the second edition in 1819, there are significant indications that they had been influenced by their critics to make the tales more accessible to a general public and more considerate of children and readers and listeners of the stories.” This was made possible by the other impact of the first edition’s renown. Although the text was only moderately well-received, people from across Europe began sending the Grimms their own versions of the stories, as they were told in their families. The influx of new material gave the brothers options to

REVISIONS AND TRANSLATION

We rounded up some of the more surprising aspects of the first edition that were later cleaned up or scrubbed from the text altogether.

compare and intentionally conflate in an effort to get at the essence but also as a justification for sanitizing some of the less savory aspects in stories.

1. THE TALES BECOME MUCH LONGER. Through a mix of receiving different, more detailed versions to base their text on and adding their own literary flourishes, the Grimms’ subsequent editions were all much longer than the first. Zipes says that there was “no real cohesion” to the first edition, and this is true particularly of the form and format—while are some fully-realized stories, others read more like ideas or outlines. This reflects the Grimms’ dedication to reprinting only what they heard. “Wilhelm could not control his desire to make the tales more artistic to appeal to middle-class reading audiences,” Zipes wrote. “The result is that the essence of the tales is more vivid in the two volumes of the first edition, for it is here that the Grimms made the greatest effort to respect the voices of the original storytellers or collectors.”

2. BIOLOGICAL MOTHERS BECAME STEPMOTHERS. If you grew up watching Disney movies, you learned that stepmothers are all evil witches, jealous of their beautiful stepdaughters—largely because of the remakes of the Grimms’ fairytales. But in the original versions, it was Hansel and Gretel’s own mother who tried to abandon her children in the forest and Snow White’s real mom who not only hired a huntsman to murder the 7-year-old girl but also planned to eat her organs. In an interview with The Guardian, Zipes said “that the Grimms made the change in later editions because they ‘held motherhood sacred,’” but that there were sociological grounds for the change—beyond the fear of offending potential readers—because “many women died from childbirth in the 18th and 19th centuries, and there were numerous instances in which the father remarried a young woman, perhaps close in age to the father’s eldest daughter,” of whom the new wife might feel jealous.

A FAIRYTALE LANGUAGE

3. PLOT CHANGES. In the first version of Rapunzel, the evil fairy finds out about the Prince when her naive charge wonders aloud, “Tell me, Mother Gothel, why are my clothes becoming too tight? They don’t fit me any more.” The reader, or listener, is to infer from this that Rapunzel has become impregnated by the Prince during their “merry time” together. By the 1857 seventh edition, this pregnancy has been cut out of the story entirely and instead, Rapunzel accidentally reveals that she’s been seeing the Prince by asking Mother Gothel why she is so much more difficult to pull up than he is— and they didn’t really take away the magic too much in the following editions,” he told Mental Floss. “This miraculous transformation that occurs in the tales was generally not deleted.”

4. THE FAIRIES WERE RECAST. Zipes described the supernatural element of the stories as "Kafka-esque." But while much of the text is altered to be more in line with Christianity, some improbable plot developments remain. "There is a good deal of magic in the tales, and they didn’t really take away the magic too much in the following editions," he told Mental Floss. "This miraculous transformation that occurs in the tales was generally not deleted." That said, the brothers made a particular change to the way they cast these more fantastical elements. In the first edition, the harbingers of magic were almost always fairies, unsurprising, in the fairy tale genre. But during the time that the Grimms worked, the Napoleonic wars saw the French occupy of much of German-speaking Europe. Somewhere along the line, they decided to stop using the French term "fairy"—or sometimes "faerie"—and instead replace each instance with some other vaguely mystical being. For example, in Rapunzel, the fairy became a sorceress, and in Briar Rose, better known as Sleeping Beauty, the fairies are changed into wise women.

5. SOME STORIES GOT CUT ALTOGETHER. The first edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales was 156 tales, and the final edition was 210—but they didn’t only

REVISIONS AND TRANSLATION

add in the interim. The deluge of similar tales they received after the first publication drew widespread acclaim gave the brothers plenty of material to work with, but certain tales just couldn’t be sufficiently amended to fit a less gruesome standard. One such story was the aptly-named “How Some Children Played At Slaughtering.” In it, two children play as a pig and a butcher. As part of the game, the older brother slits his younger brother’s throat, killing him. When their mother finds the scene, she becomes so enraged that she kills the older brother. While she was off doing this, the youngest son drowns in the bath. Now the mother is so despondent that she hangs herself. Eventually, the father returns. When he finds his whole family dead he, too, dies—of heartbreak. Even with a liberal approach to editing, it’s unlikely such a story could be Disneyified.

CONCLUSION These changes and revisions can be seen in even in the earliest works by the Grimm Brothers. With unique German characters, the beginning fairytales uniquely alter as they translate into English and with the passage of the time and the adaptation of new editions they continue to change.

A FAIRYTALE LANGUAGE

HÄNSEL UND GRETEL Language Auf Deutsche

Vor einem großen Walde wohnte ein armer Holzhacker mit seiner Frau und seinen zwei Kindern; das Bübchen hieß Hänsel und das Mädchen Gretel. Er hatte wenig zu beißen und zu brechen, und einmal, als große Teuerung ins Land kam, konnte er das tägliche Brot nicht mehr schaffen. Wie er sich nun abends im Bette Gedanken machte und sich vor Sorgen herumwälzte, seufzte er und sprach zu seiner Frau: "Was soll aus uns werden? Wie können wir unsere armen Kinder ernähren da wir für uns selbst nichts mehr haben?" - "Weißt du was, Mann," antwortete die Frau, "wir wollen morgen in aller Frühe die Kinder hinaus in den Wald führen, wo er am dicksten ist. Da machen wir ihnen ein Feuer an und geben jedem noch ein Stückchen Brot, dann gehen wir an unsere Arbeit und lassen sie allein. Sie finden den Weg nicht wieder nach Haus, und wir sind sie los." - "Nein, Frau," sagte der Mann, "das tue ich nicht; wie sollt ich's übers Herz bringen, meine Kinder im Walde allein zu lassen! Die wilden Tiere würden bald kommen und sie zerreißen." - "Oh, du Narr," sagte sie, "dann müssen wir alle viere Hungers sterben, du kannst nur die Bretter für die Särge hobeln," und ließ ihm keine Ruhe, bis er einwilligte. "Aber die armen Kinder dauern mich doch," sagte der Mann. Die zwei Kinder hatten vor Hunger auch nicht einschlafen können und hatten gehört, was die Stiefmutter zum Vater gesagt hatte. Gretel weinte bittere Tränen und sprach zu Hänsel: "Nun ist's um uns geschehen." - "Still, Gretel," sprach Hänsel, "gräme dich nicht, ich will uns schon helfen." Und als die Alten eingeschlafen waren, stand er auf, zog sein Röcklein an, machte die Untertüre auf und schlich sich hinaus. Da schien der Mond ganz hell, und die weißen Kieselsteine, die vor dem Haus lagen, glänzten wie lauter Batzen. Hänsel bückte sich und steckte so viele in sein Rocktäschlein, als nur hinein wollten. Dann ging er wieder zurück, sprach zu Gretel: "Sei getrost, liebes Schwesterchen, und schlaf nur ruhig ein, Gott wird uns nicht verlassen," und legte sich wieder in sein Bett. Als der Tag anbrach, noch ehe die Sonne aufgegangen war, kam schon die Frau und weckte die beiden Kinder: "Steht auf, ihr Faulenzer, wir wollen in den Wald gehen und Holz holen." Dann gab sie jedem ein Stückchen Brot und sprach: "Da habt ihr etwas für den Mittag, aber eßt's nicht vorher

REVISIONS AND TRANSLATION Hansel and Gretel Near a great forest there lived a poor woodcutter and his wife, and his two auf, weiter kriegt ihr nichts." Gretel nahm das Brot unter children; the boy’s name was Hansel die Schürze, weil Hänsel die Steine in der Tasche hatte. and the girl’s Grethel. They had very little Danach machten sie sich alle zusammen auf den Weg nach to bite or to sup, and once, when there was great dem Wald. Als sie ein Weilchen gegangen waren, stand Hänsel dearth in the land, the man could not even gain the still und guckte nach dem Haus zurück und tat das wieder daily bread. As he lay in bed one night thinking of und immer wieder. Der Vater sprach: "Hänsel, was guckst this, and turning and tossing, he sighed heavily, and du da und bleibst zurück, hab acht und vergiß deine Beine said to his wife, “What will become of us? we cannot nicht!" - "Ach, Vater," sagte Hänsel, "ich sehe nach meinem even feed our children; there is nothing left weißen Kätzchen, das sitzt oben auf dem Dach und will mir for ourselves.” Ade sagen." Die Frau sprach: "Narr, das ist dein Kätzchen nicht, das ist die Morgensonne, die auf den Schornstein “I will tell you what, husband,” answered scheint." Hänsel aber hatte nicht nach dem Kätzchen the wife; “we will take the children early gesehen, sondern immer einen von den blanken Kieselsteinen in the morning into the forest, where it is thickest; aus seiner Tasche auf den Weg geworfen. we will make them a fire, and we will give each of them a piece of bread, then we will go to our work Als sie mitten in den Wald gekommen waren, sprach der and leave them alone; they will never find the way Vater: "Nun sammelt Holz, ihr Kinder, ich will ein Feuer home again, and we shall be quit of them.” anmachen, damit ihr nicht friert." Hänsel und Gretel trugen Reisig zusammen, einen kleinen Berg hoch. Das Reisig ward “No, wife,” said the man, “I cannot do that; I cannot angezündet, und als die Flamme recht hoch brannte, sagte find in my heart to take my children into the forest die Frau: "Nun legt euch ans Feuer, ihr Kinder, und ruht and to leave them there alone; the wild animals would euch aus, wir gehen in den Wald und hauen Holz. Wenn soon come and devour them.” - “O you fool,” said wir fertig sind, kommen wir wieder und holen euch ab." she, “then we will all four starve; you had better get the coffins ready,” and she left him no peace until he Hänsel und Gretel saßen um das Feuer, und als der Mittag consented. “But I really pity the poor children,” said kam, aß jedes sein Stücklein Brot. Und weil sie die Schläge the man. der Holzaxt hörten, so glaubten sie, ihr Vater wär' in der Nähe. Es war aber nicht die Holzaxt, es war ein Ast, den The two children had not been able to sleep for er an einen dürren Baum gebunden hatte und den der Wind hunger, and had heard what their step mother had hin und her schlug. Und als sie so lange gesessen hatten, said to their father. Grethel wept bitterly, and said fielen ihnen die Augen vor Müdigkeit zu, und sie schliefen to Hansel, “It is all over with us.” fest ein. Als sie endlich erwachten, war es schon finstere Nacht. Gretel fing an zu weinen und sprach: "Wie sollen “Do be quiet, Grethel,” said Hansel, wir nun aus dem Wald kommen?" Hänsel aber tröstete sie: “and do not fret; 1 will manage something.” "Wart nur ein Weilchen, bis der Mond aufgegangen ist, dann And when the parents had gone to sleep wollen wir den Weg schon finden." Und als der volle Mond he got up, put on his little coat, opened the back door, aufgestiegen war, so nahm Hänsel sein Schwesterchern an and slipped out. The moon was shining brightly, and der Hand und ging den Kieselsteinen nach, die schimmerten the white flints that lay in front of the house glistened wie neugeschlagene Batzen und zeigten ihnen den Weg. like pieces of silver. Hansel stooped and filled the Sie gingen die ganze Nacht hindurch und kamen bei little pocket of his coat as full as it would hold. Then anbrechendem Tag wieder zu ihres Vaters Haus. Sie klopften he went back again, and said to Grethel, “Be easy, an die Tür, und als die Frau aufmachte und sah, daß es dear little sister, and go to sleep quietly; God will not Hänsel und Gretel waren, sprach sie: "Ihr bösen Kinder, forsake us,” and laid himself down again in his bed. was habt ihr so lange im Walde geschlafen, wir haben When the day was breaking, and before the sun had geglaubt, ihr wollet gar nicht wiederkommen." Der Vater aber risen, the wife came and awakened the two children, freute sich, denn es war ihm zu Herzen gegangen, daß er sie saying, “Get up, you lazy bones; we are going into the forest to cut wood.” Then she gave each of them

A FAIRYTALE LANGUAGE

RAPUNZEL VERSION Original 1812 Once upon a time there was a man and a woman who had long wished for a child but had never received one. Finally, however, the woman came to be with child. Through the small rear window of these people's house they could see into a fairy's garden that was filled with flowers and herbs of all kinds. No one dared enter this garden. One day the woman was standing at this window, and she saw the most beautiful rapunzel in a bed. She longed for some, but not knowing how to get any, she became miserably ill. Her husband was frightened, and asked her why she was doing so poorly. "Oh, if I do not get some rapunzel from the garden behind our house, I shall surely die," she said. The man, who loved her dearly, decided to get her some, whatever the cost. One evening he climbed over the high wall, hastily dug up a handful of rapunzel, and took it to his wife. She immediately made a salad from it, which she devoured greedily. It tasted so very good to her that by the next day her desire for more had grown threefold. The man saw that there would be no peace, so once again he climbed into the garden. To his horror, the fairy was standing there. She scolded him fiercely for daring to enter and steal from her garden. He excused himself as best he could with his wife's pregnancy, and how it would be dangerous to deny her anything.

REVISIONS AND TRANSLATION

RAPUNZEL VERSION Revised 1857 Once upon a time there was a man and a woman who had long, but to no avail, wished for a child. Finally the woman came to believe that the good Lord would fulfill her wish. Through the small rear window of these people's house they could see into a splendid garden that was filled with the most beautiful flowers and herbs. The garden was surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared enter, because it belonged to a sorceress who possessed great power and was feared by everyone. One day the woman was standing at this window, and she saw a bed planted with the most beautiful rapunzel. It looked so fresh and green that she longed for some. It was her greatest desire to eat some of the rapunzel. This desire increased with every day, and not knowing how to get any, she became miserably ill. Her husband was frightened, and asked her, "What ails you, dear wife?" "Oh," she answered, " if I do not get some rapunzel from the garden behind our house, I shall die." The man, who loved her dearly, thought, "Before you let your wife die, you must get her some of the rapunzel, whatever the cost." So just as it was getting dark he climbed over the high wall into the sorceress's garden, hastily dug up a handful of rapunzel, and took it to his wife. She immediately made a salad from it, which she devoured eagerly. It tasted so very good to her that by the next day her desire for more had grown threefold. If she were to have any peace, the man would have to climb into the garden once again. Thus he set forth once again just as it was getting dark. But no sooner than he had climbed over the wall than, to his horror, he saw the sorceress standing there before him.

A DISNEY ADAPTATION

" Fantasyland is dedicated to the young-in-heart, to those who that when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true" WALT DISNEY

CHAPTER THREE

A DISNEY ADAPTATION

From realism to romantics, how Disney and contemporary writers modernised the fairytale.

A DISNEY ADAPTATION

BY WALT DISNEY Notes on the final Cinderella Script

A DISNEY BEGINNING

A DISNEY BEGINNING Writers Marina Warner Jamie Tehrani

Disney unlike the Grimm brothers were romantics over realists. Instead of taking on the dark stories of the original stories Disney began romanticising folklore into stories of fairy and princesses. Walt Disney began their interesting Grimm Story adaptations with their first Little Red Riding hood laugh-O-gram in 1922. Disney quickly adapted visual movie techniques to book versions of Snow White in standard, "Big Golden Book:' and pop-up formats. The drastic change in the text of Snow White announced that the film would provide a radically different experience of the fairy tale. In the passage of Snow White's awakening, one reads: "Wh-wat is it?" whispered one. "It's might purty:' said another. "Why, bless my soul, I think it's a girl!" said a third. And then Snow White woke up. "Why, you're not children," she exclaimed. "You're little men. Let me see if I can guess your names." And she didDoc and Bashful, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy, and last of all Dopey and Grumpy, too. "Supper is not quite ready:' said Snow White. "You'll have just time to wash." "Wash!" cried the little men with horror in their tones. They hadn't washed for oh, it seemed hundreds of years. But out they marched, when Snow White insisted. And it was worth it in the end. For such a supper they had never tasted. Nor had they ever had such an evening of fun. All the forest folk gathered around the cottage windows to watch them play and dance and sing. With dialogue mimicking American vernacular delivered by recontextualized characters in technicolor wizardry, Disney had created a fairy tale he would call his, and America's own. He gave the impression of a folktale without reference to the folk. It became Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Disney made a short animated film of the fairy tale Three Little Pigs in 1933 and, buoyed by its tremendous success, applied a fantasy formula of brilliant color and kinetic motion to an adaptation of Snow White in three years of production from 1934 to 1937. He held to his faith in the appeal of a Grimm tale as a feature-length feature despite the skepticism of his advisers. Following Tradition Scene from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, produced by Walt Disney. Three Little Pigs and The Big Bad Wolf that immediately followed, he recalled fairytale adaptations of several Grimm tales including Cinderella, Little Red Riding

A DISNEY ADAPTATION

CHANGING THE PLOT ARTICLE BY Rachel Allen

Disney’s adaptations of fairy tales and stories have been casting a little bit of magic over our childhoods since their original animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in 1937. From Cinderella’s stepsisters in the Brothers Grimm tale to Snow white, the stories that inspired the films are often much darker than our favourite childhood films. Here, we take a look at the dark and disturbing stories and fairy tales that inspired Disney’s classics.

SNOW WHITE Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was Disney’s first animated feature film and has become an undisputed classic since its release in 1937. The film is a fairly faithful retelling of the fairy tale that appears in the Brothers Grimm collection, with one exception. While the film ends with the prince awakening Snow White with a kiss and taking her to his castle, the original story sees the evil queen attend the subsequent wedding where she is recognised by the prince and made to dance, quite literally until she drops, in a pair of red-hot iron slippers.

CINDERELLA Disney’s animated classic is fun for all the family complete with singing mice, a kindly fairy godmother and a new dress. In the Brothers Grimm version, Cinderella still gets her happily ever after, but her evil stepsisters get a much gorier comeuppance. After one sister tries to trick the prince into believing she’s his true love by cutting off her toe to fit into Cinderella’s shoe, and the other tries the same trick by cutting off a part of her heel, Cinderella and the prince are reunited and happily wed, with Cinderella’s pigeon pals plucking out her stepsisters’ eyes as the post-wedding entertainment.

SLEEPING BEAUTY The tale of Aurora in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty closely follows the story included by the Brothers Grimm in their collection, a story that in turn was based on French author Charles Perrault’s version. However, the first version to be published, by Giambattista Basile, takes a much darker turn. A king is walking past the home of the sleeping beauty, here

CHANGING THE PLOT A DISNEY ADAPTATION Language English to German

Snow White Schneewittchen Cinderella Aschenputtel Sleeping Beauty Dornröschen Rapunzel Rapunzel Rumpelstiltskin Rumpelstilzchen Little Red Riding Hood Rotkäppchen The Frog Prince Der Froschkönig Hansel and Gretel Hänsel und Gretel Hexe Witch

A king is walking past the home of the sleeping beauty, here named Talia, when his falcon flies into the house. Entering the house to retrieve the bird he comes across the unconscious woman and ‘gathers the first fruits of love’, leaving her still unconscious and pregnant with twins

RAPUNZEL Rapunzel, in Disney’s Tangled, is a modern-day heroine, breaking out of her tower to explore the outside world and getting into a lot of trouble along the way. In the original story, she has an even tougher time of it, shorn of her hair and cast out into the wilderness when the witch holding her captive learns that a prince has been visiting her nightly. When the prince visits again, the witch tricks him into climbing the tower using Rapunzel’s cut off hair, only to push him from the tower. He is blinded in the fall, and wanders the wilderness until he is reunited with Rapunzel and the twins she has given birth to, guided back to her by her beautiful singing voice. The tears of happiness that Rapunzel cries restore the prince’s sight, and they all live happily ever after. These endless alteration to fairytale plotlines has been a tradition for Disney. It can be seen in the numerous new film adaptations being released today.

A DISNEY ADAPTATION

WALT DISNEY TIMELINE Release date of Disney Fairytales over time.

1922

199 Little Red Riding Hood Laugh-OGram released The Four Musicians of Bremen Film Released.

1932

Babes in the Woods Laugh-O-Gram

1934

The Big Bad Wolf Silly Symphony Released.

1937 1938

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Animation released.

199

Mickey Mouse short - Brave Little Tailor

1950

Cinderella Animation Released

A DISNEY TIMELINE

Totally Twisted Fairy Tales Riding Hood

Mickey Mouse Works- Hansel and Gretel

2009

Princess and the frog released based off the frong prince.

2010

Tangled Animation is released

2014

Maleficent live action film. Based off Sleeping Beauty. Into the Woods Live action film. Based off Little Red

Riding Hood, Cinderella, and Rapunzel

2015

Cinderella live action film released.

A DISNEY ADAPTATION

A VISUAL ARCHIVE TIMELINE 1909 – 2020

This is a visual archive of the transition from Grimm Fairytales to the contemporary adaptation of Disney and modern-day fairytale animation. By tracing the extravagant detailing of illustrations by Arthur Rackham in the original Grimm tales, to the dark and twisted stroke of Lorenzo Mattotti in Hansel and Gretel, a visual transition can be shown. In his timeless meditation on fantasy and the psychology of fairy tales, J.R.R. Tolkien asserted that there is no such thing as writing “for children.” The sentiment has since been echoed by generations of beloved storytellers: “Anyone who writes down to children is simply wasting his time,” E.B. White told The Paris Review. “You have to write up, not down.” Neil Gaiman argued that protecting children from the dark does them a grave disservice. “I don’t write for children,” Maurice Sendak told Stephen Colbert in his final interview. “I write — and somebody says, ‘That’s for children!’” Perhaps more than anything else, this respect for children’s inherent intelligence and their ability to sit with difficult emotions is what makes the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm so enduringly enchanting. In their original conception, they broke with convention in other ways as well — rather than moralistic or didactic, they were beautifully blunt and unaffected, celebratory of poetry’s ennobling effect on the spirit. The brothers wrote in the preface to the first edition in 1812 that the storytelling between the covers was intended “to give pleasure to anyone who could take pleasure in it.” Their beloved stories have pleasured the popular imagination for two centuries and have inspired generations of artists to continually reinterpret and reimagine them. Gathered here — after similar collections of the world’s most beautiful illustrations for Alice in Wonderland and The Hobbit — are the finest and most culturally notable such Grimm reimaginings of which I’m aware.

VISUAL ARCHIVE

This visual archive show how fairytales have adapted from dark realism, to romantic animated and finally back fully to the grim illustration of the past.

List of Illustrators: Arthur Rackham 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Little brother and Little Sister The Old Woman in the Wood The Gnomes The True Sweetheart Wishing-Table and the Gold Snow-white and Rose-red Fitcher’s Bird The Little People’s Presents

Edward Gorey 9. Little Red Riding Hood 10. " Walt Disney 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

Little Red Riding Hood " Snow White and the seven Dwarfs " " Cinderella " Rapunzel (Tangled) " "

Lisbeth Zwerger 21. The Bremen Town Musicians 22. The Frog King 23. The Brave Little Tailor Neil Gaiman 24. Hansel and Gretel 25. "

A DISNEY ADAPTATION

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A DISNEY ADAPTATION

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A FAIRYTALE PSYCHOLOGY

"Fairytales are the foremost form by which the child learns to read his mind with the language of the images-symbols" VIOLETTA EIRINI

CHAPTER FOUR

A FAIRYTALE PSYCHOLOGY

How fairytales became a global phenomenon, incorporating cultural changes along the way.

A FAIRYTALE PSYCHOLOGY

WHAT IS THE EFFECT? ESSAY BY Violetta-Eirini

When assessing a fairytales effects on children it is important to first understand their existance and by extension, how they help form children identities through integrating their unique, personal family histories with the legends of the culture. Because fairy tales and myths follow the heroine or hero as they go through periods of darkness to transformation, these classic stories may be said to encode patterns that enable the restoration of vibrant functioning. This article major purpose is to provide the reader with vital information as far as the significance of fairy tales is concerned and show the impact of fairy tales through the lens of psychology.

DEFINITION AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FAIRY TALES It is true that at times there have been attempts to define children's literature, a branch of literature, which now has a separate existence, despite the reciprocity pointed out between adult literature and literature for children. Fairytales are important to children’s Each definition takes into consideration the special characteristics of childhood. lives. They gain a sense of who they Rebecca J. Lukens, starting from the are through narratives, the telling principle that children differ in terms of their of stories to themselves and others experiences and not in form, concludes that about what has happened to them. the difference is based on the degree and not in kind. This is the reason that literature for children differs from the literature for adults in terms of the degree and not in kind. Besides, children's literature offers the same pleasure as that of adult’s literature. Given that their experience is more limited, since children fail to understand some concepts because of their complexity.For this reason, the expressions should be simpler, both in language and format. The stories have an immediacy, much of the digressions are avoided and the relationship governing the acting persons with the action is quite evident. The relationships that govern the acting persons, whether these are the acting or situational subjects or values are also more distinct. Children prefer the literal discourse more than adults, while they are more receptive and prone to imaginary situations. Having found that there are distinctive features in books for children, Peter Hunt concludes that textual features are unreliable In fact he believes that children's literature is

WHAT IS THE EFFECT

inferior to adult literature. It has been certainly clarified that, when we talk about children's literature, we do not mean the total number of books that are marketed for kids, because Para literature or texts of low or of questionable aesthetic value, can also be included in these. These texts have presumably a meager vocabulary In other words, it is the aesthetically and no specific purpose, apart from the justified texts, which can contribute fact that they intend to please and to both children's entertainment incidentally to have a kind of an emerging and spiritual cultivation, i.e. the didacticism. They are often fond of development of the ability to perceive profanity. On the contrary, it is the art beauty, the maturation of personality of writing, which is cultivated by adults and shaping the freedom of thought. and aims principally at children-whether this is something being consciously sought by its creators or not. Besides, children's literature includes a) Texts of origi nal production, b) Critical texts, which are part of the wider field of literary theory and criticism and c) Tasks, which are interpretatively and instructively close to the original production of children's literature. This special branch of literature has seen a significant growth over the last years on a global scale, either as an original production or as a study of this production. The term inevitably leads to a partition of literature. Thus, on the one hand, its two sections seem to be independent: Children's literature or better Literature for children, as it is preferred, and Literature for adults. On the other hand, however, it seems that these two areas are in constant communication and close relationship, because children's literature is also read by adults, who often act as censors and they accordingly allow or prohibit children from a particular reading and they feed into one another to establish a reciprocal relationship, since texts that are written for children can be transformed into texts for adults and vice versa, texts for adults can be adapted for children. At least most scholars, in their efforts to define the term Children's Literature, follow the same path. They initially identify the general term of Literature, they continue in exploring the question “What is a child” and, finally, they attempt to define children's literature. In the second question, they attempt to detect childhood characteristics, which are long-standing and intercultural. Therefore, according to Isabelle, literature for children exists only from the moment that the child. – adult distinction has been made. According to this practice, Hunt detects some distinctive features such as spontaneity, acceptance of intellectual excellence, psychological compulsions, emotional attachment to mature persons, inability to abstract thinking, the degree of distraction that differs from the adult counterpart.

A FAIRYTALE PSYCHOLOGY

These features make children more easily adaptable than adults. In fact, McDowell Miles resorts to the features of a children's book, as he attempts to define children's literature. In particular, he writes "children's books are generally shorter and tend to favour active rather than passive behavior with dialogues in episodes rather than in descriptions and introspections. children's literature, is simple, focuses The child-protagonist is the norm. on action, addresses childhood, expresses Conventions are greatly used. The story develops in clear (= strictly the views of the child, is optimistic, defined) ethical formations that many tends to be imaginary, is a form of a sacred romance, involves innocence, adults are unaware of. Children's books tend to be optimistic rather than is instructive, is repetitive, tends to balance the ideal and instructive. discouraging. The language is child oriented. The plot is shaped under a distinct order and the probability is often rejected. Finally, one could talk about a magical and imaginary atmosphere, as well as simplicity and an adventure".

THE IMPORTANCE OF TRADITIONAL LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN Traditional children's literature (legends, myths and tale) offer children a better understand the world. Each story is based on a culture and the world of the culture is unlimited. The narration or reading of legends, myths, and fairy tales is a way of nurturing the child’s soul and humanism. The understanding of the world grows as children understand the early cultural traditions, learn about the culture and read a variety of myths, learn to appreciate the culture and art of other people, according to Donna Norton. Without spiritual knowledge, children-readers may not realize the dissemination of the culture. The similarities found in texts of traditional children's literature indicate movements of people (migration and conquest). They even show that all people have the same needs and the same problems. In fact, some tales are almost the same. At the same time, traditional myths encourage children to imagine that people from all over the world care about the good, the courage, the benefaction and the industry. In his book “The Magic of Fairy Tales” (“The meaning and importance of fairy tales”) Bruno Bettelheim strongly argues about the use of traditional myths by children. In his psychoanalytical approach to myths, Bettelheim argues that nothing provides greater wealth to children as traditional children's literature. To support his view, he argues that traditional children's literature help children learn about human progress and possible problem solving. This is because myths undoubtedly

WHAT IS THE EFFECT

moral behavior of heroes. Thus, children can learn that it is inevitable for one to fight against the difficulties of life and that these can be overcome. Traditional children's literature also includes characters that The child sympathizes with the are good and bad. Simple and good deserving characters, "participates" characters allow the child to identify in his fights, learning that while he with the good and reject the bad. she may encounter difficulties or be Traditional children's literature, tales rejected by someone, he/she would in particular, which are rapidly developed be helped and guided when needed. and include a dramatic plot and an easy identification with the good character, belongs to the type of literature that "speaks" more to listeners or readers and gives pleasure. They believe that the environment of this literature’s heroes/heroines is similar to their own environment.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FAIRY TALE It is true that children, particularly those of younger ages prefer to read folktales. This is due to the fact that, They cultivate the imagination, They bring the child in contact with folk tradition, From a pedagogical point of view, the tale is suitable for the education of children, because primitive people’s way of thinking, as it has been proven by anthropological studies, is very close to the introductory thought of children, The tales The tale nurtures both the national consist of universal truths and reflect the as well as the global and, universal values thought. These are supported of the time periods and societies from by the distinctive features of which they are derived. Many of these have superlocalization and continuity. still have a significant value, even nowadays. The characters, their actions and their reward lead to the development of moral issues. The good defeats the evil, justice triumphs, the non-arrogant is lucky in love, intelligence overcomes physical strength, while kindness, diligence and hard work leads to reward.

A FAIRYTALE PSYCHOLOGY

THE STATISTICS OF A FAIRYTALE STUDY BY Fathu Rahman, Department of English Language Studies

This research aimed to a) explain the role of fairy tales in developing and fostering children’s personality; b) reveal aspects and functions of fairy tales in fostering children’s language acquisition; and c) explore their role in fostering intimate communication with children. Overall, the study aims to explain the reduction in the use of storytelling (fairy tales) to entertain and educate children since this medium has been increasingly replaced by TV serials and gadgets that offer children’s stories online. The first objective was achieved through interviews and filling in questionnaires with mothers who tell fairy tales their children. The second goal was achieved through the way in which mothers choose

THE STATISTICS OF A FAIRYTALE

appropriate fairy tales to fulfil children’s need to develop their imaginations, and the third objective was achieved through studying the methods and strategies of mothers in telling fairy tales to their children. It is important to know that fairy tales must be told at the right time. In traditional societies, for example in many rural societies, people tell fairy tales to their children as bedtime stories. The strategies used by mothers in telling fairy tales to their children it prehaps the most important aspects, furthermore, it is vital to know that fairy tales must be told at the right time. In traditional societies, for example in many rural societies, people tell fairy tales to their children as bedtime stories. It was assumed that children in pre-school or kindergarten are able to speak and they are learning to read. Here the task of parents is to read fairy tales to children. Children this age love to listen to stories, try to imitate what they are able to understand and assumed are able to speak.

of mothers still tell their children fairy tales before putting them to bed.

A FAIRYTALE PSYCHOLOGY

QUESTION: DO YOU ENJOY FAIRYTALES? CONTROL

Sample of 217 mothers of children of pre-school to junior high school age (3 to 15 years old)

OTHER ' I ONLY ENJOY SOME FAIRYTALES'

48% 44%

NO ' FAIRYTALES SEEM TOO UNREALISTICS'

YES ' FAIRYTALES SEEM VERY EXCITING'

THE STATISTICS OF A FAIRYTALE

QUESTION: HOW OFTEN DO YOU TELL YOUR CHILDREN STORIES?

51% 32% 17%

' ONLY IF THERE IS SPARE TIME AT NIGHT' ' ONLY SOMETIMES AT NIGHT' ' ALMOST EVERY SINGLE NIGHT OF THE WEEK'

QUESTION: DO YOUR CHILDREN FEEL ENTHUSED WHEN LISTENING TO FAIRYTALES?

62% 20% 10%

'VERY ENTHUSASTIC'

'DEPENDENT ON THE MOOD OF THE CHILD' 'CANNOT BE CERTAIN'

A FAIRYTALE PSYCHOLOGY

CONCLUSION The majority of fairy tales deals with a series of recurring concerns, such as socialization, emotional independence and the problematic relationships each child faces in the environment during his/her psychosocial development. According to the psychoanalytic approach, the thematic areas, which most fairy tales deal with by using a symbolic language and transfer are the following: − Fear of being abandoned by parents − Conflicts within the family, sibling rivalries − Social maturity, process towards autonomy Acceptance of negative and positive traits of self and parents − Acquisition of gender identity-problems in puberty − Parent-child relationships – (mother-daughter, father-son, daughter- father) − Emotional integration All good tales are meaningful on many levels and help the child build his/her internal and external reality. Without the need of rendering a moral lesson or interpretation, the child intuitively discovers the hidden meanings of the fairy tale on his/her own, which are meaningful to him/her at a given moment, depending on the stage of his/her psycho-emotional As the fairy tales deal with key issues development. In an almost magical way, and emotional childhood experiences, we dare say, fairy tales identify the they easily stimulate the mechanisms maturational processes in the individual development of each child and provide of projection and identification. a fertile ground that allows the connection with the facilitative environment of the child. These emotional processes, operating at a symbolic-imaginary level, play an important International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, Vol. 2, No. 4, December 2016 216 role in the structuring of the child’s psycho-emotional experience. The stories of fairy tales expressed through language by transfer and symbolic representations, facilitate the development of symbolic thought, the representative abilities and the mental processing of life events at a fantasy-level, which form the basis for the development of creative thought and emotional intelligence ESSAY BY Violetta-Eirini

POSITIVE EFFECTS OF NARRATIVE FAIRY TALES The different narrative means such as stories, metaphors, myths and fairy tales have a significant psycho-educational effect in child development. The storytelling techniques can contribute by activating a variety of psychological

CONCLUSION

of listener’s active socio-moral receptivity. Egan argues that the classic fairy tales have an important effect on engaging the imagination of young children in the classroom, while the dramatization of stories can function as an early form of teaching and learning within the school context. If we review the overall history of oral storytelling, in a broader perspective, we will see that two kinds of storytelling emerge, with the purpose of mental health: one that seeks to maintain mental health and acts in a preventive level-and a second that aims at restoring mental health and functions as a therapeutic mean.

CONCLUSION Summing up, we would say that the fairy tale is the foremost form by which the child learns to read his mind with the language of the images-symbols which is the only language that allow the understanding before mental maturity is achieved. As reported by Campbell, the folktale is the primer of the image of the soul. Difficulties, often unexpected and unfair, inevitably accompany the human path but if one could face them with courage, then he dominates the obstacles and is declared a winner. Understanding the dynamics occurs in the fairy tale her or heroine’s journey, The special contribution of fairy which typically leads from misery to the tales in the psychosocial development highest development, could reveal to us of children is seen in the timeless as therapists and youth workers, some message they convey. ways to help children but also help adults, in their uphill path of their life. However, it is very necessary to remember that no technique or method can fully answer he multidimensional needs of children whether these are social, educational, emotional, cognitive or biological needs. Hence, fairy tales are supplementary to the range of methods used in psycho-educational or therapy intervention framework. At this point, it should be mentioned that the above study is part of a research on storytelling/fairy tales and its benefits in changing unhealthy eating habits in children. In fairy tales there is rich information on food which can help parents control themselves as well as finding ways to bond positively with their children through food practices.

LIST OF PLATES

LIST OF PLATES AKNOWLEDGMENTS

"Little Red Riding Hood". Disney Wiki, 2022 www.disney.fandom.com wiki/Little_Red_Riding_Hood. Popova, Maria. "Arthur Rackham’S Rare And Revolutionary 1917 Illustrations For The Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales". The Marginalian, 2022, www.themarginalian.org/2016/02/29/arthur-rackhambrothers-grimm Popova, Maria. "The Most Beautiful Illustrations From 200 Years Of Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales". The Marginalian, 2022, www.themarginalian.org/2015/07/20/best-brothers-grimm-illustrations/.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY AKNOWLEDGMENTS Many Thanks to Allen, Rachel. "The Dark And Disturbing Original Stories Behind Your Favourite Disney Films". Ashliman, D. L. "Rapunzel By The Grimm Brothers: A Comparison Of The Versions Of1 812 And 1857". Sites.Pitt.Edu, 2022, www.sites.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm012a.html. Bronner, Simon J. “The Americanization of the Brothers Grimm.” Following Tradition, University Press of Colorado, 1998, pp. 184–236, www.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt46nqtf.9. "Brothers Grimm - The Göttingen Years”. Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/biography/Brothers-Grimm/The-Gottingen-years. 'Fairy Tale Origins Thousands Of Years Old, Researchers Say”. BBC News, www.bbc.com/news/uk-35358487. Keyser, Hannah. "5 Ways Grimm's Fairy Tales Changed After The First Edition". Mentalfloss.Com, 2022, www.mentalfloss.com/article/63113/5-ways-grimms fairy-tales-changed-after-first-edition. Obscura, Lingua. "The Fairytale Language Of The Brothers Grimm". JSTOR Daily, 2022, www.daily.jstor.org/the-fairytale-language-of-the-brothers-grimm/. Panmacmillan.Com, 2022, https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/general/ original-disney-stories-films. Stastiics: Rahman, Fathu. “The revival of local fairy tales for children education.” Theory and Practice in language Studies 7.5 (2017): 336. "The Language Of Fairy Tales And What They Tell Us”. Booktrust.Org.Uk, 2022, www.booktrust.org.uk/news-and-features/features/2020/january/the-language of-fairy-tales-and-what-they-tell-us/.