What is a Fairy Tale, anyway?

What is a Fairy tale? What defines a Fairy tale? The short, concise answer is: No one can decide. 

As human beings, we feel the need to catalog and categorize everything, to sit in a room and label things. The truth is, things exist the way they do, and they don’t fit into the groups we have picked for them as nicely as we would like, so we are stuck with deciding which group they fit into better, as though that affects the object itself. People marvel at the fact that a platypus is a mammal that lays eggs, but a platypus has always been a platypus, doing what a platypus is created to do. We, as humans, felt the need to create definitions and groups. The platypus happens to be an animal that fits multiple definitions of what humans created.

The Fairy Tale is the same way. No one seems to be able to come up with a concrete definition, and if they do, there is someone else who has come up with a concrete definition that completely counteracts the first definition.  The Fairy Tale overlaps with oral storytelling and folk stories, so where does one begin and the other end? The result is that almost every story not grounded completely in reality can be considered a Fairy Tale in one school of thought or another. There are the iconic Fairy Tales, such as Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and Tom Thumb. Others that some consider to be Fairy Tales are The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, the works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, Star Wars, Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  I do not agree with what some consider to be Fairy Tales, but I also have a hard time coming up with a simple, clear definition.

Below is a tiny smattering of a few peoples’ thoughts on the definition of a Fairy Tale. Please do not hesitate to post or comment if you have any additional research on the topic or wish to share your personal definition.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a “Fairy Tale” as:

1:             a: a story (as for children) involving fantastic forces and beings (as fairies, wizards,  

                    and goblins) —called also fairy story

    b: a story in which improbable events lead to a happy ending

            2:                a made-up story usually designed to mislead

There are multiple things wrong with this definition. First of all, Fairy Tales were originally for adults as well as children. Some fairy tales do not involve the fantastic or the supernatural, such as The Emperor’s New Suit, by Hans Christian Anderson.  Some Fairy Tales do not have happy endings.  (See the original The Little Mermaid.) Also, I do not believe the word “mislead” is appropriate, as Fairy Tales are often cautionary tales to warn others of the dangers of the world around them, and stress the importance of the choices that they make. The end result is to lead others to the safe and right path. However, as the story itself treats the unreal as real, it fits the word “mislead” at the end of the day.

One of the people to sit down and define fairy tales in the recent past is Jens Tismar of Germany. In 1977, he wrote a piece which outlined four requirements for a story to be considered a fairy tale. In brief summary: The story must be written down by an “identifiable author” (this includes Oral Folk Stories previously not documented), they must be more complex than Folk Tales, which are simpler (according to Tismar), written Fairy Tales and Folk Tales are separate but equal, and (last but not least) Literary Fairy Tales and Oral Tales must be studied in the context of their relationship.

Many do not have a firm outline of what is and is not a Fairy Tale. Heidi Anne Heiner, researcher and former librarian, who holds a Masters in Information Science, describes what makes a Fairy Tale on her website, www.surlalunefairytales.com: “…fairy tales do not have to be stories about fairies…fairy tales are part of folklore, but folk tales are not necessarily fairy tales. The simplest way to explain this is to think of fairy tales as a subgenre of folklore along with myths and legends. If that is enough to answer your questions, stop here. It is as simple as this exercise is going to get.”

I’ve always thought of a Fairy Tale as having a certain feel, where one intuitively “knows” that they are reading/hearing/seeing a Fairy Tale. J.R.R. Tolkien describes Fairy Tales in a similar manner. “The definition of a fairy-story…does not, then, depend on any definition or historical account of elf or fairy, but upon the nature of Faërie…Faërie  cannot be caught in a net of words; for it is one of its qualities to be indescribable, though not imperceptible…For the moment I will say only this: a "fairy-story" is one which touches on or uses Faërie...Faërie itself may perhaps most nearly be translated by Magic - but it is magic of a peculiar mood and power, at the furthest pole from the vulgar devices of the laborious, scientific, magician…if there is any satire present in the tale, one thing must not be made fun of, the magic itself. That must in that story be taken seriously, neither laughed at nor explained away." (From the book On Fairy Stories.)

That seems like a good note to end on. Once again, I realize that this is an incredibly brief and shallow piece of writing on an expansive and bottomless topic. Please let me know if you have anything to add by posting a comment.

Next, let's dive into our first tale, The Robber Bridegroom!

Let's get this show on the road!

In this blog I hope to discuss some of the history behind fairy tales, the authors of the fairy tales, and the tales themselves. In my next post, I will be discussing what is considered a fairy tale, and what stories fall under the fairy tale umbrella. However, I thought we would start with something lighter. That is why I am choosing to discuss the TV show Grimm, on NBC.

(For those of you who have not seen the show and are planning to, I am going to try to avoid mentioning too many spoilers or the details of any of the episodes, just the general tone and growth of the show and the characters.  However, if you truly do not want to know anything about the show before you see it, you should not read on.)

I am someone who is a literary purist. I loathe movies that change books that they are adapted from in the slightest way. If a conversation takes place with certain dialogue, those are the exact words in the script. You do not cut scenes unless absolutely necessary, and you certainly do not add scenes. You don’t change the nature of the character, or the nature of the relationships between characters. (Do not get me started on the recent film adaptation of Prince Caspian.) You do not combine or cut characters. YOU DO NOT CHANGE THE STORY.

For some reason, this does not bother me at all when it comes to fairy tales. Perhaps it is because they are so well known; I do not feel like we are being lied to about the “real” story. We all know what the real story is. We know it is being changed, and exactly where and how it is being changed. Perhaps it is because many fairy tales have been around for so long that no one quite knows what the original version is. Perhaps it is because fairy tales have always been retold with different agendas and tweaked to suit to teller. Whatever the reason, I absolutely love fairy tales with a new twist or a new perspective, especially if there is some darkness involved.  Grimm is right up my alley, so please take my review with a grain of salt. However, I truly do think it is worth watching an episode or two to check it out.

Grimm is not groundbreaking television, or the next “Lost”.  It is a fantasy procedural.  While I would not classify it as a light show to watch with your bridge club on a Friday night, it is a fun escape from reality. The first few episodes of the show are enjoyable. While they do go for the easy joke or pun a little more than they have to, I appreciate the fact that they do not use the easy, sexual jokes, or use a naked woman in the first five minutes to catch viewers and encourage them to watch the rest of the episode. (Apparently younger heterosexual men are the only viewers worth getting. Probably older men as well, though I would prefer not to think about that.) I think easy sex jokes are used as a crutch by a lot of writers, as well as vulgar, so I will take a couple of puns over overused innuendo any day.

After the first few episodes, which are good episodes, the writers move away from making literal modernizations of fairy tales, and instead use the tales as a springboard for writing episode plots. If you want pure unadulterated fairy tales, you will be disappointed. Many of the monsters are not in the original tales; they are created from themes/events of the story. For some reason, this does not bother me. First of all, in the show’s early days, on NBC’s website one could look up the show and read about the fairy tale it was based on. When I looked at some of the episodes, they let the reader know when the monster on the episode was created for the show, if that monster did not exist in the original tale. I appreciate that honesty. Also, the premise of the show is that those fairy tales happened in the past, and to have the exact same events happen in exactly the same way does not seem to fit with the show.

For awhile, Nick seemed like the “insert protagonist here” here of the show. Not completely bland or flat, but not too much of a personality aside from the being the main character. However, he has begun to show some very subtle behaviors that indicate he might be letting out a darker side. I hope this is true, and that this character continues to grow in this direction as the show continues.

As for the character of Hank, I love that he is the “NHB” (Normal Human Being) that grounds the show. He is fine with the traditional horror of homicide, but the bizarre and gruesome world of the fantastical freaks him out and makes him want to vomit. While other characters are running around the world of monsters and the fantastic, taking it all in stride, he is the one who responds the way the audience does. “This is really gross, freaky, and weird”. I feel that that is really important for a show like this. It grounds the show, gives it depth, and raises the stakes for the characters in the fantastical world, because they might be discovered.

It would be easy to say that the character of Juliette also falls in the category of the “NHB”. However, I have two issues with that. For one thing, I feel her character is weak. Not the actual personality of the character, but the depth of the character. I feel that for the most part, she has simply been the “fill in girlfriend” character, who doesn’t really bring much to the show, even in screen time.  In the last couple of episodes, there have been some interesting developments in her character, and if the writers continue to follow that path, she could become a very central part of the show.  I dislike when characters are surrounded by obvious things going on, yet they remain completely oblivious.  Juliette shows signs of becoming inquisitive about a few of the odd things happening, and I hope her character continues to get more screen time and depth.

Now to my favorite part: The character of Monroe.  While his character and the actor who plays him may be a bit quirky in a way that wears some of the audience thin, I love him. I love the way his character was introduced, and I feel that he is a big part of the “glue” that holds the show together. I think the concept of his character is interesting, and what they are choosing to do with him as well. At first I was afraid that he was going to be the character that rattles off exposition at the beginning of the episode, and then has five minutes later with the main character to help solve the mystery. Thankfully, his character has been broadened and developed, and become an integral part of the show. As I said before, some of you may not be as excited about these turn of events as I am, but I am thrilled.

What do you think? Do you like what the writers of Grimm are doing? Do you completely disagree with me? Post and let me know! 

Also, I have not been following Once Upon A Time.  Does anyone have an opinion on that show, good or bad?

 Let the discussion begin!