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That fact that fairy tales and folktales are produced in a certain time and space and intended for a specific audience has, until now, often been neglected. In the past they performed specific social or political functions, such as for instance, being a part of nation building, they were meant to discipline a certain population or educate. The author claims that fairy tales and folktales arise from social needs and tell of imagined societies. Their social and political functions can be analyzed through the relation between the structural features and the specificities of individual versions, considered in regard to social needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the fairy tale collection Croatian Tales of Long Ago by the Croatian author Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, interpreting its social functions. Several important social functions are considered in fairy tales: national and supranational (Slavic) imaginary, Christian values, and patriarchal order. These social functions are analyzed in individual fairy tales, considering the thesis of Dutch scientist André Jolles that the primary social function of fairy tales is to express the community's idea of justice and injustice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article the author examines how the matrix of the dragon killer appeared in different social contexts and its formation as a fairy tale matrix. She traces the genealogy of the dragon slayer matrix back to ancient mythologies, paying regard to Babylonian, Greek, Celtic, and Slavic mythologies, as well as to the Christian codes and appearances in (particularly Slovenian) folklore, and discusses the variations that occur with different uses of the matrix, in different historical moments and epistemes. Special attention is devoted to studying the social and political functions the tales about the dragon killer had in the contexts in which they appeared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]