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When the first volume of their extraordinary collection of German Märchen, or fairy tales, appeared in 1812 as Kinder- und Hausmärchen (revised 1815; German Popular Stories, 1823-1826), the Grimm brothers were not yet well known. They would not begin work on their famous dictionary for another quarter century, and the first edition of Jacob’s groundbreaking Deutsche Grammatik (German grammar), which introduced Grimm’s law, would not appear until 1819. Their only publication before the fairy tales was a collection of Danish hero-songs by Wilhelm and an essay on old German songs by Jacob, both published only a year earlier (1811).

Perrault’s Fairy Tales consists of eight short stories, modeled on French folktales, with morals appended to each. Five of the tales are almost universally familiar to English readers: “Sleeping Beauty” (“La Belle au bois dormant”), “Little Red Riding Hood” (“Le Petit chaperon rouge”), “Puss in Boots” (“Le Maître Chat: Ou, Le Chat botté”), “Cinderella” (“Cendrillon: Ou, La petite pantoufle de verre”), and “Tom Thumb,” sometimes called “Hop o’ My Thumb” (“Le Petit Poucet”). The others, “Blue Beard” (“La Barbe bleue”), “The Fairies” (“Les Fées”), and “Riquet with the Tuft” (“Riquet à la houppe”), are not as widely known in English.

Sleeping Beauty is a popular fairy tale that generally follows the story of a beautiful princess caught in a sleeping enchantment who can only be awakened by a kiss from a handsome prince. With a history that dates back to at least the fourteenth century, Sleeping Beauty is a beloved literary classic that has been written and rewritten by many authors over time. As a result, there are many versions of Sleeping Beauty that feature unique variations on the basic tale. Perhaps the most well-known iteration of Sleeping Beauty is the version penned by French author Charles Perrault in 1697. Most modern retellings of Sleeping Beauty, including Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s famed 1890 ballet The Sleeping Beauty and the classic Disney animated film Sleeping Beauty (1959), are based on Perrault’s take on the tale. Thanks to these and other works, Sleeping Beauty remains one of the best-known and most beloved fairy tales of its kind.

Jack and the Beanstalk is a well-known English fairy tale that has been retold in various iterations since at least the eighteenth century. It is one of the many so-called “Jack tales” featuring a heroic stock character called Jack. Traditionally, “Jack and the Beanstalk” tells the story of a poor boy named Jack who lives with his widowed mother and chooses to sell his family’s prized cow for a few magic beans. Soon after his mother throws the beans out of a window in a fit of rage, Jack is surprised to find that they have sprouted into a massive beanstalk that reaches into the clouds. Jack climbs the beanstalk and discovers a magical world where he encounters a giant. He also finds several enchanted items that he steals to save himself and his mother from poverty. In addition to the different literary versions of the story, “Jack and the Beanstalk” has been adapted for film, television, and the stage on numerous occasions.Work Projects Administration illustration of Jack and the Beanstalk.Work Projects Administration Poster Collection [Public domain] Jack & the Beanstalk exhibitChristopher Wood [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

“The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy” is an intriguing fairy tale about a girl who cross-dresses in order to embark on a heroic quest. With the help of her faithful magic horse, the brave Fet-Fruners dresses and acts like a man to achieve astonishing deeds. Part of a long tradition of stories with cross-dressing women, this extraordinary Romanian tale nonetheless raises questions about gender that readers have only begun to explore in recent decades.

Rumpelstiltskin is a folk tale about a creature, usually a short, human-like being similar to a goblin, who offers to give up collecting on a debt if the debtor discovers his name. The story is found in many cultures and under a variety of character names. The most well-known versions are those published by the Brothers Grimm in the early nineteenth century.

A fairy tale is a kind of short folktale narrative typically of European origin. Most fairy tales contain folkloric fantasy characters such as elves, mermaids, trolls, giants, goblins, witches, and more, as well as magical elements. What makes fairy tales distinguishable from other folk narratives is that unlike animal fables, fairy tales do not serve as overt morality tales, and they are not usually based on some historical event or character, such as embellished legends of heroic deeds and great battles. Fairy tales are also different from myths, which characteristically find their basis in religion and a need to explain how the natural world works.

“The Daughter of the Skies” was recorded by John Francis Campbell in his four-volume collection Popular Tales of the West Highlands (1860–62), but the fairy tale was preserved before that by a long oral history, and its original author is unknown. Campbell recorded the tale in its original Gaelic and also translated it into English. Classified as a type 425 fairy tale (the search for the lost husband) in the Aarne-Thompson tale-classification system used by folklorists to organize stories by motif, “The Daughter of the Skies” tells the story of a husband who goes missing and the wife who endures various trials as she searches for him. She did as he asked her; she was not long at her father’s house when she fell ill, and a child was born. That night men were together at the fire to watch. There came the very prettiest music that ever was heard about the town; and every one within slept but she. He came in and he took the child from her. He took himself out, and he went away. The music stopped, and each one awoke; and there was no knowing to what side the child had gone. “The Daughter of the Skies” These trials and other events in the story are mysterious and mystical in nature. Curses are pronounced and lifted seemingly without cause or explanation. Deep in an unspecified rural region of the Highlands, fields of sheep and cattle vanish without notice, never to be recovered. Children are conceived and then stolen late in the night while mystical music forces everyone to sleep. Various magical tokens are shared in the tale: shears that can cut on their own, a needle that sews by itself, and of course string that magically threads the needle. There is also an enigmatic horse that is summoned by the shaking of a bridle. Throughout the story, a pervasive sense that everyone has and knows secrets leaves many questions unanswered. All of the characters remain nameless, shrouded even further in mystery.

The titular character of the fairy tale the Sleep of Ondine derives her name from German mythological figures called ondines (or undines), otherwise known as elemental water nymphs or spirits. These water nymphs were perceived as magical figures that could usually be found in ponds or waterfalls. The beautiful creatures were thought to have enchanting voices and skin the color of the sea. Capable of breathing under water and on land, the nymphs were known to join townspeople at dances and festivals and were thought to be harmless as long as they were left alone. Ondines were immortal creatures that were born without souls, but according to legend, if they married a human man and had his child, they could acquire a human soul, but also the human fate of death. Ondine’s sacrifice of her immortality for this man, who had now betrayed her, demanded retribution. Still retaining enough magic to achieve her vengeance, Ondine kicked her husband awake, pointed her finger at him, and uttered her curse: “You swore faithfulness to me with every waking breath, and I accepted your oath. So be it. As long as you are awake, you shall have your breath, but should you ever fall asleep, then that breath will be taken from you, and you will die!” “Ondine’s Curse” In the popular fairy tale based on the water-nymph figures, the drama centers on Ondine’s marriage with a handsome knight, an act that enables her to acquire a soul. Unlike most fairy-tale love stories, the Sleep of Ondine forgoes a happily-ever-after ending for a less assuring conclusion: “And so it was” (Coren 142). Indeed, Ondine’s sacrifice of her immortality is tragically betrayed by her husband’s lack of fidelity, resulting in Ondine’s curse on her husband, which effectively seals both of their unfortunate fates. At the time that Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué wrote his well-known novella Undine (1811) about the tale, the moralizing impulses of contemporary audiences were fond of reading the fairy tale as Christian allegory for the taming of the erratic female sprite through marriage.

Fans of Madame de Villeneuve’s fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast” will likely enjoy its earthy Norwegian cousin, “East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon.” Like the more popular tale of the girl Beauty who accepts the love of a beast, thereby restoring his princely status, the Norwegian tale tells of a young girl given to a bear whose love she loses and regains. Before she recovers his love, however, this girl must undertake a long quest to restore the enchanted bear to human form. First published by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in 1845, “East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon” was translated into English by George Webbe Dasent in 1859 and has since become one of the most popular Norse fairy tales. With its strong female heroine, down-to-earth tone, and humorous touches, the story continues to inspire new versions.

Oscar Wilde’s “The Nightingale and the Rose” first appeared in his 1888 collection of stories entitled The Happy Prince and Other Tales. In this tragic tale, a young student lies on the grass in a garden and laments aloud about love. A nightingale overhears the young man and imagines him to be the epitome of true love. Sacrificing her life so that he might have a single red rose to give to his love, win her heart, and thus achieve true love, the nightingale thrusts herself against a thorn and sings to the moon and the garden until she dies. The student does not understand her song or her sacrifice, however, and though he takes the rose, he tosses it carelessly in a gutter after the woman rejects it and him. The student thus dismisses his hope for love and, unknowingly, dismisses the nightingale’s sacrifice and her life as well. He then returns to his studies of logic, metaphysics, and philosophy.

“The Prince and the Tortoise” is a tale of unexpected love that could never have taken place without a leap of faith from one of its principle characters, the young prince Muhammad. As is the case with many stories in Arabian Nights, the primary origin for the tale is somewhat obscure, though it is likely that the story was known and told by people in ancient and medieval India, Persia, Arabia, and the Middle East. One of the most widely celebrated features of Arabian Nights is the use of a frame story that describes the plight of Scheherazade. As the story goes, Scheherazade is the daughter of a vizier (or “wazir”) to the sultan Shahryar, who has recently executed his wife after discovering that she was having an adulterous affair. Losing his faith in womankind, the sultan has decided to marry a new virgin every day and have her executed the following morning so that she may not have the opportunity to break his heart. Scheherazade bravely volunteers to marry the king, hoping that she can rely on her storytelling abilities to stay alive. Each night, she tells a new story and manages to capture the king’s imagination, leaving him always in suspense for the stories’ conclusions. In this way, she compels him to keep her alive for 1,001 days.

Foxes have been part of Japanese fairy tales since the emergence of the oldest known stories, some of which were likely based on the shamanistic rituals and folktales of the Ainu, the aboriginal people of Japan. One of the oldest Japanese fox fairy tales is “On Taking a Fox as a Wife and Bringing Forth a Child.” This fairy tale, which likely developed out of an oral storytelling tradition, was first recorded by Japanese monk Kyokai in his Nihon ryoiki, a collection of folklore written between 787 and 824 CE. Kyokai presents the tale as a historical event that occurred during the reign of Emperor Kinmei (539–571 CE), while later scholars termed it a fairy tale. In English, this tale is often referred to as “Kitsune: Come and Sleep,” or simply “Kitsune”; kitsune is the Japanese word for “fox.”

Cinderella stories abound in the world of fairy tales, and there are numerous versions in which the main female character is forced to flee her home covered in the skin of an animal that has been important to her father’s kingdom. The reason for flight in most of these stories is a sexual pursuit of the daughter by her father. These stories fit into the Aarne-Thompson tale type 510B: “The Father Who Wanted to Marry His Daughter” (also titled “Unnatural Love” or “The Dress of Gold, of Silver, and of Stars,” depending on the source). The plotline of the tale often has the story starting with the girl’s mother on her deathbed making her husband promise to marry only someone as beautiful and intelligent as she. When a period of time has passed after the queen’s death, the king realizes that the only woman who can fulfill this promise is his daughter, and he begins to pursue her hand in marriage. The princess makes four demands of her father in attempt to avoid the incestuous relationship: three of the requests are for gowns that reflect the heavens, and one request is for the skin of the animal that provides her father’s riches. When the king produces all of these items, the princess flees to another country, where she works as a servant until she is discovered by the prince of the land and rescued from her lowly position. “Take heart,” she said, “all will now go well! Wrap yourself in this skin, and leave the palace and go as far as you can. I will look after you. Your dresses and jewels shall follow you underground, and if you strike the earth whenever you need anything, you will have it at once. But go quickly: you have no time to lose.” So the princess clothed herself in the ass’s skin and slipped from the palace without being seen by anyone. “Donkey Skin” Charles Perrault’s story “Peau d’Âne” (“Donkey Skin”), first published as a poetic piece in 1694, is one of the best known of the animal skin variations of the Cinderella tale. Several years after its first publication in Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec moralités (Stories or tales from times past, with morals) in 1694, the verse was rewritten as a tale, with Robert Sampler attributed with being the first to translate Perrault’s work into English in 1729.

“The Fire-Fly’s Lovers” is a fairy tale about an imperious firefly princess who creates havoc among her insect suitors before marrying a firefly prince. Set in Japan, the story was published in its final form by its creator, American educator, author, and minister William Elliot Griffis, in 1908. Griffis published an earlier form of the fairy tale under the same title, but with an introduction and some minor textual differences, in his 1880 anthology Japanese Fairy World.

Thomas Frederick Crane was a respected professor of Romance languages at Cornell University during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. His specialties included Spanish and Italian, and his scholarship included publications on medieval literature and folklore. His book Italian Popular Tales (1885) contains a variety of stories translated from Italian, as well as informational commentary about each tale. The book is dedicated to Giuseppe Pitrè, an Italian contemporary of Crane from whose collections the stories in the compilation are translated. “The King of Love” is the first tale in the first chapter of stories in Italian Popular Tales.

“The Fair Angiola” is a traditional Italian tale not clearly attributable to any specific author, but a translation of the story can be found in American folklorist Thomas Frederick Crane’s Italian Popular Tales (1885); Crane ascribes his translation to a story collected by Swiss folklorist Laura Gozenbach (Crane 24). There are versions of the story from all over the world, with Italy, France, Germany, and England providing the most popular variations, and with the Grimm brothers’ “Rapunzel” as the story most often repeated. In the Aarne-Thompson folktale classification system, the story is identified as tale type 310, the maiden in the tower.

“Black Bull of Norroway” is an intriguing nineteenth-century English version of a popular European marriage tale that mythologizes a girl’s psychological and physical passage into womanhood. Based on “Beauty and the Beast,” this and similar marriage tales feature brave female protagonists who rescue animal-princes from evil spells and then marry them. Joseph Jacobs adapted the language of “Black Bull of Norroway,” originally a Scottish tale, and included it in his 1894 volume More English Fairy Tales. His inclusion of the story affirms and qualifies the nineteenth-century European fascination with stories of heroic girls who civilize their partners and secure their own marriages.

The Faithful Prince celebrates the power of romantic love to overcome the separation of two young lovers. It is a dramatic fairy tale that seeks to dispel any fear of abandonment, a worry shared by many children. As such, The Faithful Prince is a popular children’s tale from the Punjab, a South Asian region now split between Pakistan and India. For centuries, the tale existed in the oral tradition as part of the repertoire of Punjabi storytellers. It was transcribed first and translated from Punjabi into English in 1884 by English writer Flora Annie Steel, who spoke Punjabi and collected folktales from local storytellers. In 1894, “The Faithful Prince” was part of Steel’s anthology Tales of the Punjab published in London. But the great demon Safed shook his head, saying, “You will never reach the Emerald Mountain alive, my son. Be guided by me,—forget all that has passed, and begin a new life.” Still the faithful Prince gave the same answer, “I have but one life, and that is gone if I lose my dearest Princess! If I must die, let me die seeking her.” “The Faithful Prince” In the fairy tale, the first passion of Prince Bahrâmgor is hunting. He is named after a historical Persian king who ruled the Sassanid Empire from about 421 to 438 CE, before the advent of Islam. There are many folktales and myths about this historical person, and “The Faithful Prince” features him as its protagonist. In this fairy tale, much is made of his youth and beauty. One day, the prince sets free his prey of a golden deer in exchange for a magical journey. At his final destination in Demonland, the fairy princess Shâhpasand spots the sleeping prince from above while coursing through the air as a pigeon. Descending to earth, Shâhpasand returns to her natural human form, which, as the fairy tale informs, is “as fairies always do when they touch ground” (28). She falls instantly in love with the sleeping prince and kisses him. Awakening, Bahrâmgor returns the fairy’s deep love and the two marry.

Childe Rowland, Burd Ellen, and their two brothers play ball outside of a church. As they run back and forth, Childe Rowland kicks the ball so hard that it flies over the building and Burd Ellen goes racing off to fetch it. When their sister fails to return, the brothers go searching for her, but Burd Ellen is nowhere to be found.

In feudal Korea, a childless old husband and wife long to have a child. One day, a daughter is born to the old couple, and the father plants a pear tree in front of their home to celebrate her birth. The mother names the child Pear Blossom. As Pear Blossom grows up into a beautiful girl, her mother lovingly raises her. Sadly, one day, Pear Blossom’s mother dies.

On May 8, 1835, Hans Christian Andersen published his first volume of fairy tales, Eventyr, fortalte for børn (1835; tales, told for children). This small collection arguably represented the first time in a modern Western nation that stories had been composed, printed, and published especially for children. Children’s literature had been rare during the Enlightenment period, and what stories existed were meant to educate children on proper morality. Informed by a staunch religious belief that children could save their “damned” souls only through piety, such stories had been based on the holy lives and heroic deaths of historic figures. Children had also been able to listen to some tales told to adults, but as a general rule the language and intent of such tales was not geared to children.