Paul's Politics
I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it.
Fairy Tales
Grandma's are wise people!
A fairy tale or fairy story is a fictional story that may feature
folkloric characters (such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, witches,
giants, and talking animals) and enchantments, often involving a
far-fetched sequence of events. In modern-day parlance, the term is also
used to describe something blessed with unusual happiness, as in "fairy
tale ending" (a happy ending)[1] or "fairy tale romance", though not all
fairy tales end happily. Colloquially, a "fairy tale" or "fairy story"
can also mean any far-fetched story.
In cultures where demons and witches are perceived as real, and the
teller and thaere of a tale see it as having historical actuality, fairy
tales may merge into legendary narratives. However, unlike legends and
epics, they usually do not contain more than superficial references to
religion and actual places, persons, and events; they take place "once
upon a time" rather than in actual times.
The history of the fairy tale is particularly difficult to trace,
because only the literary forms can survive. Still, folklorists have
found these forms from every culture over many centuries. Thus the oral
fairy tale may have existed for at least that long, although not perhaps
recognized as a genre. The name "fairy tale" was first ascribed to them
by Madame d'Aulnoy. Fairy tales, and works derived from fairy tales, are
still written today.
The older fairy tales were intended for an audience of adults as well as
children, but they were associated with children as early as the
writings of the précieuses; the Brothers Grimm titled their collection
Children's and Household Tales, and the link with children has only
grown stronger with time.
Folklorists have classified fairy tales in various ways. Among the most
notable are the Aarne-Thompson classification system , and the
morphological analysis of Vladimir Propp. Other folklorists have
interpreted the tales' significance, but no school has been definitively
established for the meaning of the tales.