1

Fairy tales and Traditional Tales

Fairy tale distinguishes itself from the oral folk tale. It is written by a single
identifiable author. It elaborates the oral folk tale, and both should not be compared in
any merits. It can be described in relation to other literary genres on which they are
based.
During the 15th -17th centuries in Europe, the oral wonder tale was written in
Latin. The fairy tale was formed and developed from this tale by the elite group—the
aristocracy, the clergymen, and the middle-classes.
Fundamental components of fairy tales were established around customs, morals,
beliefs and literary traditions.

Components of fairy tales

1. Characters- protagonist
 simple names, naïve/ controlled by fate or others
 connected to settings and assignments
 often the youngest is the protagonist
 rises to a better social status or more gifted
2. Assigned identity, task, destiny
3. Prohibition or warning
4. Gifts, animals, helpers, villain
5. Wonder or miracle
6. Goal, reward, success >> marriage and wealth
7. Hope for change, a didactic point
8. Motifs and settings
 predictable patterns of characters, events and objects such as a giant slayer, a
witch, and a magical animal.
 timeless
 places related to cultural settings and beliefs
 2

Fairy tale motifs

Character Motifs
Characters in fairy tales are stereotypes—that is they are patterns rather than fully
developed persons. One prince is the same as another. In fact the essence of the fairy tale
is predictable pattern, or motif, where the predictability is comforting but the details of
plot and particulars make it interesting. There are seven character types in fairy tales. A
story may not have all seven, but every character in the story may be classified as one of
these types.

A. Elder

1. Usually a king or a father

2. Stationary (Stays home. The hero does the adventuring)

3. Sometimes disabled (Can be sick, impoverished, or have a rotten kid)

B. Hero (Male or Female)

1. Person who gets the most out of the story (This is the most difficult concept to get
across. Kids will argue that Cinderella is not heroic, she is weak, but when asked who is
better off at the end of the story than at the beginning, the answer is clearly Cinderella.)

2. Moves, often vertically (This is meant very literally. The hero is the one who climbs
glass mountains, goes down into wells and caverns, etc.)

C. True Love (Male or Female)

1. Object of hero's affections

2. Hero often does battle for his/her True Love

D. Villain (Evil deeds can be done before the story opens, as in Frog Prince, Beauty and
the Beast, etc.)

1. Opposes hero

2. Force of evil (can be a traditionally evil creature such as a witch, giant, gnome, etc.)

E. Helper

1. Often a powerful, magical person (Cinderella's Fairy Godmother)

2. Gives advice or a valuable gift to the hero (Manniken, Grimm #91)

3. Often tests the hero (and others - Manniken, Grimm; Old man in the Fool of the World
and the Flying Ship, a Russian story. See Remarkable Servants page for bibliographic
information.
 3

F. Friend (Sometimes difficult to say if character is helper or friend, such as the

Woodsman in Snow White. The important thing is for the student to use reasons that fit
this outline in determining where to classify the character)

1. Friend or companion of the hero, often of lower social class, a servant

2. Binding/unbinding relationship with the hero (Again, very literal. Snow White is freed
by the dwarves from the comb which binds her hair and the girdle which is laced too
tight.)

G. Messenger

1. Brings news (Messenger in Rumplestilskin, also the Mirror in Snow White, which
while not human, behaves like a character)

II. Place Motifs (These are less definite than characters because places are not always
discreet)

A. Home (The hero's home. Mention Home Adventure Home pattern- good example
Where the Wilds Things Are by Sendak)

1. An ordinary place, not magical

2. Often the starting or ending place of the story

B. Paradise

1. Where the hero gets his/her heart's desire

2. Often a monster here to overcome first (For example, in Hansel and Gretel, to hungry
children the gingerbread house is paradise, but they must first overcome the witch)

C. Bad Place

1. Escape desired (The oven in Hansel & Gretel)

D. Limbo (very often a forest - very Germanic and Romantic)

1. Seems dangerous, but isn't

2. Shadowy, mysterious

3.Transitions occur, deals are made (Hansel and Gretel are frightened in the forest, but
they are not in danger there. Cinderella is transformed in the garden)

III. Motifs of Objects (Good stories to use: Molly Whuppie (Jacobs) or The Nixie in the
Pond (Grimm #181). The fun of looking at objects is to discern the pattern. In cases like
the Nixie the pattern is absolutely elegant.)

A. Objects in groups usually make a pattern. Patterns can be of:

 4

1. Size - Increasing or decreasing (Molly: sword, purse, ring. also in proximity to the
giant)

2. Material (Everything is gold, for example, as in Nixie; comb/head, flute/ torso,

spinning wheel/ whole body)

3. Power (each object has some kind of magical or symbolic power. In Molly the sword
could be seen as force, the purse, wealth, the ring, authority. Since Molly calls the giant's
house "Spain" the story could refer to England's conflict with Spain and Molly (Elizabeth
I?) outwits the giant and takes his treasures. Just a hypothesis)

B. Ordinary objects with magical powers such as objects of:

1. Transportation (seven league boots, horseless saddle, traveling cloak Grimm #122)

2. Weapons ("All heads off but mine" Grimm #92)

3. Supply "Table be set" Grimm #36, bottomless purses)

4. Medicine (elixir, a medicine that restore life, Snake's Three Leaves, Grimm #16)

C. Objects that serve a special function in the story

1. Token of Recognition - by which the hero/true love recognize each other (Cinderella's
slipper)

a. Often has some relationship to water or liquid (ring in cup Bearskin, Grimm #101, also
ring in gruel, Cap O'Rushes, Jacobs)

IV. Motifs of Action

A. Actions of the Hero

1. Quest (The Water of Life, Grimm #97)

2. Endurance test (girl can't speak until task done or time is up)

3. Tasks to perform, usually 3, involving

a. food or water

b. wood

c. fire or stone

B. Means of success for Hero

1. Cleverness or wit

2. Virtue
 5

3. Courage and strength

C. Rewards of the Hero

1. Wealth

2. Love

3. Status

V. Motifs of Style

A. Use of numbers: 3, 7, 12

B. Opening and closing lines ("Once upon a time, ...happily every after" Other cultures
have different patterns.

C. Chante Fable, the inclusion of a song, change, incantation, etc. in story (i..e. "Mirror,
mirror on the wall," "I'll huff and I'll puff, etc.")

References:

A first Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Our Children Need to Know, ed. by E.D.
Hirsch Jr. Houghton Mifflin 1989

Cook, Elizabeth. The Ordinary and the Fabulous. Cambridge University Press 1969.

Yolen, Jane. Touch Magic; Faerie and Folklore in the Literature of Childhood. Philomel,
1981.

The Gingerbread Man

Once upon a time there was a big old farm. Horses, pigs, and chickens lived on this
big old farm, and they were well looked after by an old man and an old woman who
lived in the farmhouse.

Every morning the old man gave some carrots, lettuce and hay to the horses, pigs,
and chickens and they were very happy.
On this particular morning, as the old man went outside to give the horses, pigs and
chickens their carrots, lettuce and hay, while the old woman went to the kitchen to
look in her very special and magic cook book.
Up, up, up she stretched to get the book down from the shelf and put it on the
kitchen table. The old book belonged to her mum, and her mum’s mum before that,
 6

and her mum’s, mum’s mum before her, and her mum’s, mum’s, mum’s mum a
long, long time ago.
She decided to open the book and slowly turned the pages. Page one, jumping
bananas. Page two, flying pizzas. Page three, super spaghetti! What a crazy cook
book.
Stopping on page 4 she read the title, “running biscuits” and smiled. Running
biscuits she laughed. They look great. I like biscuits. No, I love biscuits!
Mix, mix, mixing, the old woman started to cook. Stir, stir stirring, she added sugar
and flour and continued cooking. Mix, mix, mixing, stir, stir stirring. The old
woman didn’t stop. She added some butter and one large egg before mixing in
some special ginger.
The old woman took a handful of dough to make a little gingerbread man. She
made a leg, then two legs, a tummy, two arms and a head. She made a little nose,
an eye, then two eyes and a mouth, a big smiling mouth.
Then from a sweet jar she took a red sweet, a blue sweet and a yellow sweet and
placed them on the gingerbread man’s tummy to make colourful buttons for him.
She pushed the yellow sweet into place and put everything into a hot oven, and
waited.
When the old woman opened the oven door the gingerbread man jumped out and
ran across to the magic cook book. He started dancing on page 4, just below the
title “running biscuits” and laughed at the old woman. “I’m a running biscuit and
you won’t eat me because you can’t catch me” he laughed.
“Stop, stop little gingerbread man!” cried the old woman.
The old woman tried to stop the gingerbread man but he could run very fast. He ran
under the table, over the chairs and out of the kitchen door before the old woman
could catch him. The gingerbread man stopped at the door and sang to the old
woman “run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread man!”
By this time the old man was coming back to the house after feeding the horses,
pigs, and chickens and could see the gingerbread man running around the garden.
“Catch the gingerbread man” shouted the old woman to the old man, “run and
catch him, run and catch him”.
“Catch me?! Ha, ha, ha” laughed the gingerbread man “the old man has got two old
legs, I’ve got two new young legs look!” The gingerbread man started to shake his
right leg and then his left leg while he ran around and around the old man singing
his taunt “run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread
man!”
When he finished singing his song the gingerbread man ran under the old man’s
legs and out into the farmyard.
“Catch the gingerbread man” shouted the old man to the pigs. “You’ve all got four
legs and can run fast! Run and catch him, run and catch him”.
The pigs saw the gingerbread man and tried to eat him. “oink, oink. Stop little
gingerbread man, I want to eat you” said one pig but the gingerbread man simply
 7

jumped on the pig’s back and ran from his head to his tail singing, “run, run as fast
as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread man!” while all the other pigs
just ran around and around squealing and oinking.
The gingerbread man ran into the chicken coop where the chickens began to fly
about above the gingerbread man looking down on him as he ran through the eggs
on the floor below.
“Catch the gingerbread man” shouted the old man to the chickens. “You’ve all got
two wings and can fly. Fly down and catch him, fly down and catch the
gingerbread man”.
But the gingerbread man laughed as the chickens tried to fly down and catch him.
“cluck, cluck” they said “stop little gingerbread man, we want to eat you”.
Jumping over, under, around and between the big eggs the gingerbread man sang
“fly, fly as fast as you can you can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man” and he
was right. The chickens couldn’t catch the gingerbread man.
The gingerbread man was now running past the horses. “Neigh, stop little
gingerbread man” said a big brown horse “I want to eat you”. But the gingerbread
man didn’t stop running and the horse couldn’t catch him.
All the old woman, the old man, the pigs, the chickens and the horses could do was
watch as the gingerbread man ran out of the farm singing “run, run as fast as you
can, you can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread man!”
A police officer was walking past the farm and stopped to listen. He could hear the
horses neighing, the chickens clucking, the pigs oinking and the old woman and old
man shouting.
The police officer went to look what was going on but he too was also hungry and
when he saw the gingerbread man running towards him he put his whistle in his
mouth and blew. “WHEWWW, WHEWWW. Stop little gingerbread man” he said
“I want to eat you”.
“Sorry Mr Police Officer, I will not stop for you to eat me!” said the gingerbread
man “so run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread man!”
Away from the farm the ginger bread man was about to run past an office worker,
who was eating a sandwich. The office worker look at the gingerbread man and
said “Hello, hello. Stop little gingerbread man, I want to eat you”.
Again the gingerbread man didn’t stop, he just looked over his shoulder and sang
“run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread man!”
And so the gingerbread man continued to run, run, run until he arrived at a river.
A fox came out from behind a tree and smiled at the gingerbread man. He wanted
to eat the gingerbread man but had a clever plan.
“Hello little gingerbread man, you’ve stopped running. Can you swim across the
river?” asked to fox.
“No, I can’t swim” said the gingerbread man “I can run very fast. I can run faster
than the old woman, I can run faster than the old man, I can run faster than the pigs,
 8

the chickens and the horses, I can run faster than the police officer and the office
worker, but I can’t swim”.
“I don’t want to eat you but I can help you” said the fox “climb onto my tail and we
can swim across the river together” and so the gingerbread man did what the fox
wanted.
“Oh no” said the fox “the water is deep. I think it’s a good idea if you climb onto
my back”. So the ginger bread man climbed onto the fox’s back.
“Oh no” said the fox “the water is very deep. I think it’s a good idea if you climb
onto my nose”. So the ginger bread man climbed onto the fox’s nose.
The gingerbread man’s legs were now nearly in the fox’s mouth and the fox could
almost taste the lovely gingerbread. He liked gingerbread very much.
He was about to take a bite when the old woman pulled the fox’s tail from behind
him! The fox cried out “ou-ou-ouch” and threw gingerbread man up into the air.
The gingerbread man was flying through the air up, up, up then... down, down,
down he fell and waited to splash into the cold water of the river.
But the splash didn’t come. Instead he felt 5 fingers around his tummy and before
long he was looking into the eyes of the old woman.
“Don’t eat me. Don’t eat me!” the gingerbread man cried, as he got closer and
closer to the old woman’s mouth.
The old woman closed her mouth and put her lips together and gave the
gingerbread man a kiss on his forehead, moi.
You see the pigs, the chickens, the horses, the police officer, the office worker and
especially the fox all wanted to eat the gingerbread man but little old lady didn’t.
“No, no, no” she said. “I don’t want to eat you. I made you because I wanted a
baby. I wanted a fast and strong baby boy like you” and she kissed him again.
The fox ran back behind the tree and the old woman and the gingerbread man went
back to the kitchen in the big old farmhouse.
The old woman started to cook again and as she was cooking she sang, louder and
louder, over and over the same song,
“I’m making a gingerbread house,
With a gingerbread floor and a gingerbread door,
Gingerbread stairs and gingerbread chairs,
A gingerbread toy for my gingerbread boy.”
In a short time the old lady had made a beautiful little gingerbread house with four
windows, two doors, a bedroom and a living room. Inside the house there were
tables and chairs, and a big soft sofa.
And in this gingerbread house the little gingerbread man lived happily ever after.
 9

Activity Find the following common components found in the tale. Write N/A if
you think there is no such component in the tale.

Components Evidence from the tale

 Characters- protagonist

 Assigned identity, task, destiny

 Prohibition or warning

 gifts, animals, helpers, villain

 wonder or miracle

 goal, reward, success

 hope for change,

 a didactic point or moral lesson

10
11
 12

Activity

1) What happened to the peoples' wings?

a) melted b) molted c) shed d) shrunk

2) Why is this story considered a folktale?

a) It is a highly exaggerated story.
b) It is the life story of Sarah and Tony.
c) It is written by slaves as they were taken into slavery.
d) It is a story told around the tradition of the American Black culture.

3) Which detail tells the reader that Sarah is weary?

a) Sarah flew over the fences.
b) Sarah hoed and chopped the row.
c) Sarah couldn't stand up straight any longer.
d) The driver's whip snarled around Sarah's leg.

4) In paragraph six, what figurative language is "Say he [Master] was a hard lump of
clay. A hard, glinty coal."?
a) simile b) idiom c) metaphor d) personification

5) In paragraph six, what is the meaning of the phrase, "Say he was a hard lump of clay.
A hard, glinty coal."?
a) The Master felt pity for the slaves.
b) The Master felt kindness for the slaves.
c) The Master felt sympathy for the slaves.
d) The Master felt no kindness or pity for the slaves.

6) What type of figurative language is in the sentence, “And they flew like blackbirds
over the fields” in paragraph one?
a) irony b) simile c) allusion d) metaphor