Breaking The Magic Spell: An Analysis Of Fairy Tales

There is an anecdote about Albert Einstein, recounted by Jack Zipes in Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales, in which a mother asks him what books she should read to her son so that he might grow up to be a scientist. His answer was “Fairy tales.” When asked what her son should read after that, he replied, “More fairy tales.” (Maria Popova

Fairy tales are a genre that is well known and well loved, through all walks of life and across the globe. More than any other form of literature, fairy tales have been studied, analyzed, interpreted for their symbolism and psychological significance, used as a tool of psycho therapy, and have been purported to be a means of developing a personality and of finding meaning in

Out of the first tales ever told rose the myths, legends and folklore of cultures. Tales were told and retold, shared and changed throughout the centuries, but common themes and universal ideas remained within them. Recognizable fairy tales of today are possibly thousands of years old. In 2009 a group of anthropologists, led by Dr. Jamie Tehrani of Durham University, applied taxonomy similar to that used by scientists to classify organisms, to the tale of Little Red Riding Hood. They found variations of the story in 35 cultures around the world. The variations share a common ancestor tale that was traced back 2,600 years. They speculate that the stories migrated along trade routes and the movements of people. Dr. Tehrani says, “Over time these folk tales have been subtly changed and have evolved just like a biological organism. Because many of them were not written down until much later, they have been misremembered or reinvented through hundreds of generations. By looking at how these folk tales have spread and changed it tells us something about human psychology and what sort of things we find memorable.”

(oxford, p219) Originally the collections were not meant for children, but as a means to preserve German culture. The first volume of their Kinder- und Hausmärchen (‘Children’s and Household Tales’), published in 1812, included 86 stories. The second volume came out in 1814 with 70 more tales added. Many later additions were published, with some stories removed and others added, including some of Perrault’s, and became known since then, in English, as Grimm’s Fairy Tales. At this point the Grimms were starting to edit the stories to do away with the violence and sexuality that was part of the original tales. For example, in the original version of Rapunzel, an evil witch holds Rapunzel captive in a tower. One day, a prince visits her in secret. He later escapes without alerting the witch, but Rapunzel reveals the secret when she innocently asks why her dress doesn't fit anymore. For some reason, it's now too tight around the belly. It didn't take long for the witch to realize that Rapunzel was now pregnant. (By Chris Gaylord, Staff writer DECEMBER 20, 2012 csmonitor.com) Today, the