Fairy Tales

Once upon a time before the Internet existed, stories were passed down from generation to generation. However, like the Internet, the audience was international, and these stories, now called Fairy Stories, all have similarities that extend beyond national borders. The different versions give us an insight into the universal themes which have occupied the minds of story-tellers and story-writers across time and across continents. Cinderella, for example, is a classic tale of 'rags to riches' and the story is found world-wide from China to Africa, Java to Japan, and all across Europe. The best-known versions of the story in Europe appeared in Charles Perrault's Histoire ou contes du temps passé (1697) and Willhelm and Jacob Grimm's Kinder- und Hausmärchen (1812-15).

Cinderella has a range of names, mostly associated with the fact that as a skivvy she has to sleep by, and clean out, the hearth. She is variously known as Aschenputtel, Ashypet, Cendrillon, and Cenerentola. But while the segments of the story are recognisably the same from nation to nation, the individual elements vary. In most versions, Cinderella is aided by a magical helper but this can be anything from a Fairy Godmother to an enchanted cow or a fish (who to muddy the waters further, might also be Cinder’s real mother in some stories). Likewise, the slipper that forms the basis of the Prince’s test is made out of a range of materials depending on which version you read. According to some the slipper is glass, in others fur, gold or silk. Even the endings of the story differ, the sisters either have their eyes pecked out by birds or are advantageously married off.

The story of Beauty and the Beast perhaps has its roots in classical literature as its plot is similar to that of Apuleius' 2nd-century Latin Cupid and Psyche and the motif is also found in the tale of The Girl who Married a Snake in the Panchatantra. The story is found in several versions before finding its most familiar expression in Madame Leprince de Beaumont's 1757 Magasin des enfants. Giovanni Francesco Straparola's version, Re Porco, or King Pig, however, was rather less sanitary than Madame Beaumont's. It involves a swinish husband who spends his days up to his eyebrows in mud and filth, before climbing into bed with each of three successive wives. When wife one expresses her revulsion she is rewarded with death, and when wife two turns her nose up, she too meets her maker. Wife three however clearly has better sense and smilingly endures her husband’s unsanitary habits, and is rewarded by being made his Queen. The morality of the tale was underlined by Charles Perrault whose Riquet à la Houppe left it unclear whether the beast actually becomes handsome or merely appears so when viewed with love. The celebrated French film-maker and writer, Jean Cocteau, explored the concept of beauty in his 1946 film, La Belle et la Bête, while remaining faithful to the version by Madame Beaumont.

The story most commonly known in England through the Grimms' tale Rapunzel (which refers to rampion or lamb’s lettuce) was the descendent of a French tale called Persinette (Parsley). The story goes: A king climbs into the garden of a witch to steal some of the salad leaves his pregnant wife craves. Unfortunately, the king is caught by the witch and promises to give the witch his first born. The child is then locked in a tower. One day a prince observes the witch climbing up the girl’s long blonde hair and decides to try his luck. And as luck would have it the girl falls pregnant and the tightness of her clothes gives the game away. The witch banishes the princess to a far away desert but not before she has cut off all her hair. The witch ties the hair to a hook and the prince climbs up and promptly gets his eyes plucked out and is sent to wander the world. Finally one day he stumbles across the princess and her twins and her tears heal his eyes, and guess what, they live happily ever after. But this written tradition diverges from oral traditions where the lovers escape the witch through the girl's magical powers. For example, in one version the girl throws three oak-galls behind her which turn into a dog, a lion, and a wolf which destroy the witch. In a Catalan version the girl throws white and red roses into the path of the pursuing giant where they turn into a stream and fire.

Tracing the development of fairy stories from their ancient and oral roots to their first appearance in literature and their consequent use in film, drama, and music raises many interesting questions about language, society, folklore, superstition, and morality. Fairy tales seem to reveal the differences between national imaginations while highlighting the universal themes that occupy the human mind.