Introduction
A fairy tale is a fictitious type of folklore that deals with mystical beings and magical realms. In many of the modern versions, you will find that fairy tales will have happy endings. Most of the originals, however, contain stories that are—yes, prepare your tissues—downright depressing. For those willing to do their research, they will find that a majority of old folklore in the Eastern parts of Europe and Asia have stories that incite horrific and disturbing events, containing macabre details that would make it questionable material to tell chidlren. We will be looking at a few of these tales in later lessons. We will also be delving into old fairy tales from different cultures, certain types of stories with recurring themes, and move on to modern retellings.

What are characteristics of fairy tales?
Contrary to their namesake, these tales don’t all contain the creatures that are now called "fairies." In fact, many fairy tales lack the presence of these magical, pixie-like creatures; instead, fairies are more prevalent in legends, where the stories are set to have taken place during the course of history. Fairy tales, on the other hand, take place in an ancient world, whether that world is fictional or not. Sometimes fairy tales can take place in a lowly village in China, other times in a castle on some mountain of some unnamed kingdom. The point is that legends are historically-based and are usually inspired by real people (King Arthur or Beowulf or Joan of Arc).

Classification
There are many ways that fairy tales are classified and organized. Three major figures have contributed to the study and classification of fairy tales: Antti Aarne, Stith Thompson, and Vladimir Propp.

Aarne and Thompson grouped fairy tales with respect to their plot device. This Aarne-Thompson classification system separates fairy tales in certain categories: animal stories, ordinary tales (which include magical, religious, and romantic types), and funny anecdotes (contains stories about married couples and unlucky/stupid boys), among some others. Many of the fairy tales are categorized under the ‘ordinary’ category, so we shall be dealing mostly with that section in the class (though we will dabble a bit in some of the others).

Under ordinary tales, a number of stories include a beautiful maiden down on her luck and oppressed by many for her poor appearance. In the end, the wretched maiden finds a way to reveal her beauty through a number of obstacles and marries the prince of her dreams. Some of these tales even include—surprise surprise!—a fairy godmother. Charles Perrault’s ‘Donkey Skin’ and ‘Cinderella’ are basic examples of this type of classification. There are also many different versions of Perrault’s stories; in fact, his stories are merely adaptations of tales orally passed down from generation to generation. The Brothers Grimm also has a tale fitting to the category of the beautiful maiden and her obstacles: ‘The Goose Girl.’

The second type of classification comes from Propp, who found it more useful to classify fairy tales by the function of the character and the elements around the story. For example, there is that animal that helps the hero or heroine in gaining fame or fortune (a good example is ‘Puss in Boots,’ another Charles Perrault adaptation). Or it can be about a manipulative individual that talks the main character into foolish deeds (the story of Aladdin and the Brothers Grimm’s ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ come to mind here). As one more example, there are also tales that contain a story of siblings (‘The Five Chinese Brothers,’ an old Chinese folklore retold by Claire Bishop and ‘The Twelve Dancing Princesses’ by the Brothers Grimm).

Where did they originate?
The term "fairie" actually originates from Middle English, which is borrowed from the French "faie." In most cases, we can see this term creep up within legends and refers to a witch or sorcerer (Morgan Le Fay). In folklore, the term "fairy" or "fairie" does not necessarily describe the winged creature we associate with; sometimes the term actually encompasses a wide array of magical beings: gnomes, sprites, pixies, goblins, etc. It was only due to Madame D'Aulnoy that the term "fairy tale" came to being in 1697, and from there we've been using the term ever since!

Fairy tales have been orally passed down by many generations, so retrieving the original version of each tale proves to be quite difficult. The first signs of written fairy tales actually came from ancient Egypt, though not much else can be said about the beginnings of fairy tales—there have been so many original adaptations of the same story that the actual versions are difficult to obtain.

In any case, across time, fairy tales have appeared in forms of literature around the world. Whether the tale was to teach a moral (‘Beauty and the Beast’) or an allusion in various literary works (Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream), these stories have become a major part of the world today.