The First Fairy Tales
Cinderella; Snow White; Beauty And The Beast. Before Disney got their hands on these stories and turned them into animated film classics to be enjoyed by children around the world, they Cwere some of the first stories to be written down and ascribed to the fairy tale genre of storytelling. Even before they were written down however, stories of mystical beasts, princesses locked in towers and wicked stepmothers were circulating in different parts of the world, and told by a variety of narrators in an oral tradition. Passed down through the generations, the stories were subject to embellishment and change as each culture, society and individual shaped and tailored the tales to their own preferences and circumstances. By the time these stories began to be written down, those that committed them to paper were merely collectors, rather than creators, of the tales and their extensive heritage.
With the term ‘fairy tale’ a 17th century invention, it is possible to trace the development of the fairy tale genre through the core elements that are fundamental to a story of this kind. In identifying tales from history that feature components of magic, myth and morality, along with the entertaining inclusion of folkloric creatures (fairies, goblins, giants) and conversational animals, we can see how these fairy tales began, developed, and how they remain perpetually relevant and popular.
