Happily ever after...

February 26 is Tell a Fairy Tale Day! Let your favourite fantasy characters surround you as you rediscover these much-loved tales.

February 19, 2015 04:59 pm | Updated 04:59 pm IST

Puss in Boots

Puss in Boots

The big bad wolf chasing Red Riding Hood came to a screeching halt, while Hansel and Gretel stopped panicking that they were lost. Rapunzel forgot to be dismayed that she no longer had long hair and Snow White awoke from what seemed like a never-ending slumber, even before Prince Charming made an appearance. Elves, pixies and fairies came scurrying out of their homes, chattering excitedly, throwing stardust along the way, with Sleepy and Dopey.

“What’s happening?” Baby Bear asked Mama and Papa Bears. Goldilocks, of the golden tresses and sunny smile, beamed, “It’s our day today, and all those humans out there will make a big deal about us, much more than usual. Today, we don’t come alive just at night, instead we have the whole day for ourselves. The world will acknowledge our greatness this day.”

“How come?” interjected the Piper from Hamelin.

“Well silly, today is February 26 — Tell a Fairy Tale Day,” said Goldilocks excitedly even as a cloud of pixie dust engulfed them.

Tales to cherish

According to J.R.R Tolkien, author of Lord of the Rings and other books, “The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all manner of beasts and birds are found there; shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment…” A long time ago, people sat around the fire, warming their hands and exchanging stories that were mysterious and magical.

Tales were told of sleeping princesses, cottages made of candy, wicked witches, elves, giants, and other enchanting creatures that roamed the land. In time, these stories were compiled. They held young, restless children in thrall, helping them visualise dark and dreary times when evil almost seemed to prevail, before the tables were turned and the righteous emerged victorious.

Fairy tales have been criticised for violence, cruel stepmothers, wild animals that manipulated little girls (the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood), attempts at breaking-in to homes, and promises that were broken by people in power like Hamelin’s mayor. Nonetheless, they continue to have an inexorable hold over readers across the world.

Their typical beginning — “once upon a time” — makes us believe that such evil existed in a forgotten era far away from the present. The take-away from the tales is that truth always prevails. No matter how many evil people existed, goodness could always be found. Indeed, for every evil stepmother, there were friendly dwarves and the tale always ends "happily ever after..."

Despite criticism, what fetched brownie points for these stories was how the protagonists, mostly children, demonstrated courage in the face of adversity and triumphed over evil. Indeed, whether it is Jack or Hansel and Gretel, all of them are heroes.

On Tell a Fairy Tale Day, re-read your fairy tales. Allow yourself to be drawn back to the magical past, revel in the joy of re-discovering the magic genie’s wishes, watch the ugly duckling transform, enter Peter Pan’s magical world and stay young, forever.

Once upon a time...

Many of the fairy tales were written by French writer Charles Perrault in the late 1600s. Perrault’s Mother Goose Tales was published in Paris and some of the tales in this collection were Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, and Puss in Boots . Many like Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, Snow White, The Frog Prince and Rumpelstiltskin were introduced by the Grimm Brothers, Wilhelm and Jacob, in the early 1800s. From Hans Christian Anderson, we have The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling and more.

Did you know?

> Fairy tales were originally written as much for adults as they were for children.

> More than 700 versions of Cinderella have been collected from around the world in almost every language. It is also the most popular pantomime on the British stage.

> Two early versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears had three good-natured and trusting male bears, but over the years these have changed to a father bear, a mother bear and a baby bear.

> The dwarves in Snow White had no names till Disney came along. Awful, Baldy, Dirty, Dumpy, Shifty and Scruffy were some of the names that were rejected.

A few for you

> The Adventures of Pinocchio

> The Emperor's New Clothes

> Beauty and the Beast

> The Little Match Girl

> Three Billy Goats Gruff

Chicken Little

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.