How the Literary Fairy Tale Got its Start*
Once upon a time there were two brothers that were born in Germany. These brothers wanted to demonstrate how cultivated literature in Germany evolved out of traditional folk material. They went out in search of old German tales, songs, poems, legends and literature and developed several collections, the most well-known being Children’s and Household Tales (Kinder- und Hausmarchen) by the brothers Grimm.
Jacob Ludwig Grimm (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Carl Grimm (1786-1859) were the eldest of six siblings. Their research in philology and literature was geared towards informing and teaching Germans of the influence that old Germanic folklore had during that era. Beginning 1806, the Grimms set about collecting a variety of folktales. Between 1809 and 1813 the Grimm brothers began to publish their research as several different books. In 1810, Jacob and Wilhelm agreed to collect folktales for German poet and novelist Clemens Brentano, who hoped to publish these tales in an anthology. The Grimms sent forty-nine texts to Brentano, having kept copies of each tale for themselves. They feared Brentano would turn them into substantially different tales, whereas they were intent on keeping them in their original condition in order to properly document the customs and traditions of the Germans.[i] Brentano at the time however was dealing with personal difficulties and was not organized enough to work on the tales himself, leading the brothers to publish the tales themselves.
In 1812, the brothers Grimm published Children’s and Household Tales (Kinder -und Hausmarchen), which was the book that would establish their international fame. In 1815, they went on to publish a second volume of the original book, adding more tales to the original collection. In 1819, they published yet a third, revised version of all the stories. By this time, the brothers agreed that they wanted all their tales to follow a specific format and went forth editing the tales to fit within their model narrative guidelines. Jacob set the tone, while Wilhelm worked to edit the tales.
The editing of Jacob and Wilhelm exhibits the same tendencies from the beginning to the end of their project: the endeavor to make the tales stylistically smoother; the concern for clear sequential structure; the desire to make the stories more lively and pictorial by adding adjectives, old proverbs, and direct dialogue; the reinforcement of motives for action in the plot; the infusion of psychological motifs; and the elimination of elements that might detract from a rustic tone.[ii]
The specific way in which they edited their tales is what created their fame and recognition worldwide: by creating a distinct style of presentation, they set the standard for all future fairy tale authors.
Fairy tales have developed into a unique literary art form. Scholars and critics have had a difficult time categorizing fairy tales as a genre.[iii] Although readers may be curious about the magic contained within fairy tales, they are not aware of the differences nor do most of them care. The fairy tale’s magic is ultimately what sets it apart from other literary genres and places it in a genre of its own. One might even expect that some readers would be concerned that by analyzing and dissecting fairy tales they will lose their enchanting qualities; fairy tales in certain cultures, specifically the West, are considered sacred material and by tampering with them, the tales are stripped of their innocence and enchantment. In an essay titled “On Fairy Stories,” J.R.R. Tolkien claims that fairy tales are not particularly about fairies but rather, they are about Faerie, which he determines to be “the realm or state in which fairies have their being.” This other realm he discusses accommodates not only fairies, elves, dwarves and witches but it also contains the moon, sun, stars, water and earth; it is an enchanted and magical world. Tolkien argues that fairy tales must not be limited to just tales about fairies; a fairy tale is about the perilous journey that a hero must endure.
The magic contained in fairy tales leaves some readers wishing to know more about why fairy tales have a mysterious hold on them. For this reason, scholars and critics focus on distinguishing the oral folk tale from the literary fairy tale. Literary critics often confuse the oral folk tale with the literary fairy tale. In order to avoid such confusions, and in order to properly understand fairy tales, we must define them clearly. German scholar Jens Tismar, was the first to define the literary fairy tale as separate from the oral folk tale using four principles:
(1) it distinguishes itself from the oral folk tale in so far as it is written by a single identifiable author; (2) it is thus synthetic artificial, and elaborate in comparison to the indigenous formation of the folk tale that emanates from communities and tends to be simple and anonymous; (3) the differences between the literary fairy tale and the oral folk tale do not imply that one genre is better than the other; (4) in fact, the literary fairy tale is not an independent genre but can only be understood and defined by its relationship to the oral tales as well as to the legend, novella, novel, and other literary fairy tales that it uses, adapts, and remodels during the narrative conception of the author.[iv]
These principles serve as a guideline for making the distinction however, they do not accurately define the literary fairy tale and all of its features.
Following Tismar’s principles, the literary fairy tale can be further differentiated from other folkloric genres which are considered to comply primarily to the oral tradition. First and foremost, the fairy tale differs greatly from the myth and legend. The term myth generally refers to narratives about gods and supernatural beings which are believed to be true. Legends are traditional stories of extraordinary events happening to ordinary humans some of which are also believed to have happened historically. Myths and legends are grandiose and insinuate that such events will never occur in the life of a mortal. Fairy tales differ from these genres in the sense that they are narratives of magic and fantasy and are in no way tied to reality. Although it is quite clear that fairy tales are unrealistic, the events that occur are presented as ordinary events that could happen to just about anyone.[v] Let’s take for example the tale “Little Red Riding Hood.” Little Red Riding Hood meets a wolf while on her way to grandmother’s house. The wolf speaks to her, then runs off to grandmother’s house where he devours grandmother and then devours Little Red Riding Hood when she shows up. It is unrealistic that a wolf will speak to a little girl, yet it is realistic that a little girl will encounter a stranger who will harm her. The fairy tale therefore, portrays a realistic event with unrealistic details.
Distinctions must also be made between the folktale and fairy tale which are often used interchangeably. A folktale is an oral narrative that circulated amongst folk of a specific culture. Oral narratives were transmitted by means of verbal communication. Additionally, tales from the oral tradition “exhibit patterns of stability and variation over time and space.”[vi] Each culture subsequently, had its own well-known folktales that were passed around. Folktales primarily take place in a realistic setting with naturalistic details which allow for them to exist within reality. Folklorists have argued that the fairy tale label “has been associated with both oral and literary traditions but is above all reserved for narratives set in a fictional world where preternatural events and supernatural intervention are taken wholly for granted.”[vii] The distinguishing feature which sets fairy tales apart from any other type of folklore is the fact that they are completely detached from reality and exist within a time period that is beyond reach.
Folklore scholars have had a difficult time categorizing Grimms’ tales and determining if they belong to the oral or literary tradition. The Grimms’ tales were said to have been collected orally however, critics argue that some of the tales were altered by the authors which would lead to them being categorized as literary fairy tales. “Literary fairy tales were defined as the conscious creations of a single author of middle- or upper-class background, as opposed to fairy tales from oral tradition, which were considered to be the natural and spontaneous expression of illiterate or semi-literate peasants.”[viii] For the purpose of this thesis, I have combined the different traditions and will refer to the Grimms’ tales as literary fairy tales. Considering that the tales were circulated and promoted after they were written down in a book, they should not be categorized as belonging to the oral tradition.[ix] Furthermore, even though the majority of the tales do not mention fairies per se, they do still prove to belong in the Fairie realm that Tolkien defines. Distinguishing between the literary and oral traditions is not the only problem scholars have encountered; there has also been debate over which approach is the right approach to analyzing fairy tales. In my thesis, I give an overview of the most relevant approaches used by scholars to explore the fairy tale. As I will show, each approach reveals a different aspect of the genre, while obscuring others. A full understanding of the fairy tale requires that we make use of several perspectives, each complementing the others.
Scholars began to study the fairy tale as part of a nationalist and cultural project to preserve and revive the German national spirit.[x] As fairy tale research began to expand, folklorists and theorists each developed their own definition of the fairy tale. The structuralist and literary approaches have proved to be two of the most dominant approaches to studying and analyzing fairy tales. Structuralists focus on analyzing the underlying structural components of fairy tales while literary theorists focus on analyzing the formal stylistic features which characterize the genre and allow for it to function thematically. Structuralist Vladimir Propp and author of Morphology of the Folktale, breaks down fairy tales and defines the tale’s motifs in terms of their functions. Propp argues that the functions remain more or less the same despite the content of the tale. Structuralists however, tend to ignore the content of the tales; structuralist analysis, simply put, is an empirical description of a tale. Paired with literary research, these two approaches seek to analyze the tale further. Literary scholar Max Lüthi, wrote several books including The European Folktale: Form and Nature and Once Upon a Time on the Nature of Fairy Tales. Similar to the functions that remain the same in most tales, there are elements and motifs that remain stable despite the various updates and retellings. Both approaches avoid imposing specific meanings to individual tales. This allows for the tale to remain “timeless.”
Psychoanalysts study fairy tales using a very different approach. Unlike the structuralist and literary approaches, the psychoanalytic approach is occupied with each fairy tale’s morals and meanings which can only be derived from a close reading. Fairy tales have led to many psychological studies and have proven to influence young children drastically. Freudian psychologist Bruno Bettelheim, in his book titled The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, argues that fairy tales are important in understanding childhood development. The fantastical, cruel but always significant narratives can help one find meaning in their lives. The psychological meanings of the tales also exist independently of their form and structure. Jungian psychologist Marie-Louise von Franz in her book The Interpretation of Fairy Tales, argues that fairy tales help people achieve a personal wholeness.
One of the main criticisms of the structuralist, literary and psychoanalytic approaches to studying the literary fairy tale is their lack of acknowledging the social and historical contexts in which the tales exist. Historicist scholars and cultural sociologists argue that fairy tales reflect historical and social conditions. John M. Ellis author of One Fairy Story Too Many and Ruth B. Bottigheimer author of Fairy Tales: A New History, discuss the social upbringing of the Grimm brothers and the conditions from which the stories were derived. Jack Zipes, historicist and author of The Brothers Grimm, The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, Why Fairy Tales Stick and When Dreams Come True, argues that fairy tales “preserve traces of vanished forms of social life.” The meanings of the tales have been re-shaped depending on which culture and social institution was analyzing and recreating them at the time. Zipes argues that tales have a formative socializing function within each society. In Why Fairy Tales Stick, he writes about why and how fairy tales have survived and evolved. Zipes introduces the study of memetics (a meme is an informational pattern similar to the gene) and proves that this is a solid, empirical explanation for why fairy tales have such an extreme hold on their readers.
Folklorists and scholars have broken down the Grimm’s fairy tales in an attempt to find out why they have developed, evolved and remained such integral parts of society. The structuralist, literary, psychoanalytic and socio-historical approaches present four various ways of analyzing literary fairy tales. Studied alone, each approach does not provide enough reason as to why they have been appreciated and loved for countless years. However when paired together, these approaches explain why fairy tales have had such a mysterious and enchanting hold on us.
[i] Jack Zipes, When Dreams Came True (New York: Routledge, 2007).
[ii] Jack Zipes, When Dreams Came True (New York: Routledge, 2007), 75.
[iii] Jack Zipes, The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).
[iv] Jack Zipes, The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000) xv.
[v] Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (New York: Vintage, 1989).
[vi] Jack Zipes, The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 369.
[vii] Maria Tatar, The Hard Facts of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales (New Jersey: Princeton, 1987).
[viii] Jack Zipes, The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 369.
[ix] Ruth B. Bottigheimer states, “literary fairy tales came to be seen as contaminations of what was considered to have been a pure oral tradition.” Fairy Tales: A New History (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2009), 42.
[x] Jack Zipes, The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).
*This was the introduction to my Literature MA thesis.
