Learn More - Fairy tales

A fairy tale is a make-believe story. That means it is not true. They are also known as folk-tales. Many, many years ago, they were told or acted out because not many people could write. Parents told the stories to their children. And when those children grew up, they told their children. This continued for thousands of years.

Something that is really interesting about these stories is that the same characters and plots are found across many languages and cultures even though most people didn’t travel.

Fairy tales have lots of magical creatures in them.

Lots of them start with ‘Once upon a time’ and end with ‘Happily ever after.’

There is always a problem in the story and it is solved by the end.

There are usually goodies and baddies and it is always the goodies who win.

There is usually a lesson in each story for children to learn. Have you learnt any?

The Brothers Grimm

The Brothers Grimm were famous German brothers who decided to travel all over Germany collecting fairytales. They were called Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.

They were born in Hessen, Germany in around 1785. The family was made of six brothers and sisters and they all lived in the countryside where their father worked for the Prince of Hessen.

While they were growing up, they would play make-believe together.

Unfortunately, their father died when they were boys and the family moved to a small city home. They were quite poor. But the brothers were very clever and they both went to university.

It was actually a friend’s idea to collect fairytales and put them all in a book. The Brothers thought it was a great idea and offered their help. But their friend never really started to do any work.

So the brothers carried on without him. They would travel around Germany hearing stories from peasants and villagers.

It was Jacob who did most of the travelling and collecting. Wilhelm was not very well, so he did most of the writing.

The brothers reprinted their famous book lots of times, each time adding and changing stories. But by the seventh book, they had collected 211 tales!

Joseph Jacobs

Joseph Jacobs was born in Sydney, Australia. He moved to England to go to University and then moved to America. He wrote many books on Jewish history.

But he is best known for his children’s literature. In 1890 he published ‘English Fairy Tales’. He then collected many more fairy tales from all over the world.

Charles Perrault

Charles Perrault was born in Paris, France. His family was rich. He went to the best schools and studied law.

His brother was very famous too; he was the architect of part of the Louvre Museum in Paris.

When he lost his job as secretary to a big Academy, he decided to dedicate his time to his children. This is when he wrote

‘Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals’

What a title! We think ‘Fairy tales’ would have been as good.

He wrote Cinderella which is a famous tale all over the world.

He also wrote Little Red Riding Hood, but we used the Brothers Grimm version, so that’s where you’ll find it!

Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont

Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont was born in Rouen, France. She was a novelist.

She lived in London for a while and worked as a governess. It was in England that she became a successful writer. Then she got married, had lots of children and moved back to France.

She wrote lots of ‘magazines’ for children and also some school books. But she was one of the first people to write fairy tales for children.

We are so glad she did!

Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen was Danish.

When he was young, he had a toy theatre and liked to make clothes for the puppets. He was really clever and creative.

When he was a bit older, he became an actor. Women were not allowed to act, so theatres needed young men with high voices to play the women parts – and this is what Hans did! Then his voice became too deep! But he had already decided to be a writer.

He had his first book published when he was 17 yrs old. In spite of having dyslexia, he learned to speak many languages.

He continued writing and was famous for bringing joy to children across Europe. His fairy tales have been translated into 150 languages!