What's your favourite fairy tale?

[slimmmeiske2]

Started in my status feed, but there were so many interesting and great replies, I couldn't answer to them all. Alkorri gave me the idea of starting a topic therefore.

Question's pretty simple, what's your favourite fairy tale? (Unless we start defining what a fairy tale is, in which case things start to get complicated.)

My favourite fairy tale actually is not Little Red Riding Hood (gah, don't kill me D: ), but The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde, one of my favourite writers. It's a beautiful and very emotional fairy tale, with a sad yet happy ending.

I also adore Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, both the Disney versions (Beauty and the Beast is my favourite Disney movie) and the original, though I prefer the former. The Goose Girl and Rumpelstiltskin both hold a special place in my childhood, however weird that may sound. I just have found memories telling those tales to others.

So, what's yours?

 

[Deleted]

Like Dalph said mine is also Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland. But also Red Wall and Beaver Towers 

 

[GrandmaDeb]

You're killing me - I love them all!


Princess and Curdie is special and unique though.


Disney Classics are what I grew up with, and loved.


Tolkien got me reading a more extensive collection of fairy tales, and I really do love them all.


/me nods at Redwall, but wonders if it is a fairy tale. Wonderful nonetheless.

 

[Sharm]

It's really impossible to choose. Cinderella is one of them, I find the non-Perault versions especially interesting. Did you know there's at least one Cinderella type story for every culture in the world? The Egyptian one is fascinating. I do love Beauty and the Beast as well. I love Scheherazade's story in the versions where she actually gets an ending. There was a mini series of Arabian Nights that did a great job with it. Speaking of Arabian Nights one of the first tales is really fun, the one about the jester who dies accidentally and the whole town ends up thinking they killed him. The Boy Who Set Out to Learn About the Shivers is fun, I like how the only thing that ends up scaring him is the idea of getting married. There's a story about a man who marries a Yuki-Onna that's interesting, sad ending though. East of the Sun, West of the Moon is a really great one. The actual story of the Snow Queen is interesting, part of me hopes that Disney does a sequel that uses at least some of the plot of the original. There's a really interesting one about this girl who's born bald and wishes for hair that would grow twice as long every time it's cut, and there's all sorts of troubles that come from it.


I could go on all day like this. I can't choose, why would you make me choose?!

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

My favorite is Red Riding Hood.

Or it used to be, until it recently started to get popular. Not that I hate popular things, it just seems odd. DX

My reasoning for liking it is the hidden meaning behind the whole thing. "Beast chases after girl". Think about that. >>

 

[slimmmeiske2]

@KingDanner: I've never heard of Red Wall or Beaver Towers. Of course, I know The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland, though I've only read the former. I've seen th movies though

@Deb: I don't know Princess and Curdie either. :/ Disney though <3

@Sharm: Wish I could like your post more than once. I haven't heard of the Egyptian Cinderella, but I know there's a Chinese and Ancient Greek version of it. It's definitely one of the most popular stories ever. I have Arabian Nights, but I aven't started reading it yet. That first tale does sound fun. The only Arabian Nights tale that I've read so far is Judar and his brothers, which wasn't a fun tale at all (poor Judar). Oh yeah, The Boy Who Went Forth to Learn Fear. I've always liked that ending a well, makes me giggle every time. We have a children's book around this character called John the Fearless, whose name is taken from a real medieval duke Anyway, the book ends with him learning fear by marrying as well. Yuki Onna is considered a horror story though, but yes Japanese fairy tales are full of enchanted wifes that have to leave their husbands and children when they are discovered. There's tales of foxes, fishes and even a heron in the same tread as Yuki Onna. I don't know east of the Sun, West of the Moon, will have to try it out. (For a second I thought you meant Sun, Moon and Talia, but that's one pretty horrible ) Ah yes, The Snow Queen. I was kind of sad when I first saw the characters in Frozen. No Gerda..., and she's one of the most badass fairy tale heroines there are! It would be nice, but I don't think they will. If they do make a sequel, I don't think it's going to follow the original tale more closely.

@Mellipon: I understand. After a while, certain tales are simply overused. There are many variations though. I think there was an Italian one called Little Golden Hood or something like that. The hidden meaning isn't so hidden in Perrault's version (she underdresses and shares the bed, not to mention the morale is pretty clear about it).

I have this hobby of telling my friends the original tales Disney had movies about. I can say I've apparently ruined a few childhoods

 

[Sharm]

Most Japanese fairy tales are a horror story of some sort. All of their fantastical creatures try to eat you unless you do something special. I am aware that stories with a Yuki Onna in them are horror, it's part of the reason I found that one so interesting. I like the non-horror japanese stories better, but they're a bit rare. MomoTaro and the one about the tiny samurai (it's a Tom Thumb kind of story) are the only ones I can think of.

 

[Palsa]

Ah, that's a tough one. . .
Probably Alice in Wonderland, as it was one of my favorite's of the classic Disney movies growing up.
Another Disney classic would be Sleeping Beauty, as it was full of action, and the prince actually did something (unlike the one in Snow White, who stole the credit from the dwarfs; the lazy bum. ).
There is also the Nibelungenlied, which was a huge influence on the Wild ARMs games.

In reference to Japanese horror stories, definitely Okiku's well.

1. . . 2. . . . . 3. . . . . . .

 

[captainproton]

My favorite fairy tales are probably Mulan and Molly Whoopie. I like the one's where the heroine actually does some butt-kicking and doesn't really have to rely on a prince or godmother to get her happy ending.

I am a huge Disnerd, though, and love all the Disney versions--except The Little Mermaid. The Diz version just makes no sense to me. She knows a guy for ten minutes and is willing to sell her soul for the chance to be with him. And Prince Eric wants to be with this loony girl who doesn't talk and puts forks in her hair. Does he have a Nell fetish? The Anderson original was SO much better. Sleeping Beauty had some of the best art an I thought it was interesting how it didn't even seem to be about Aurora, but rather about Maleficent and the faeries.

 

[Napdevil]

Most Japanese fairy tales are a horror story of some sort. All of their fantastical creatures try to eat you unless you do something special. I am aware that stories with a Yuki Onna in them are horror, it's part of the reason I found that one so interesting. I like the non-horror japanese stories better, but they're a bit rare. MomoTaro and the one about the tiny samurai (it's a Tom Thumb kind of story) are the only ones I can think of.

East Asian fairytales (or folktales to be more accurate) tend to be a bit dark in general. A lot of them involve ghosts and supernatural creatures, hence my fascination with them from a young age.

I remember reading about the Kumiho, the nine-tailed fox, in a children's book as a wee lad and being disturbed by it. Looking back, it's easy to see why: the Kumiho is a demon that kills people and feeds on their livers in order to become human. The version I read had the Kumiho devouring her parents and siblings (she was the only daughter in a human family who were unaware what her true identity was) save for the eldest son who finally kills her; pretty morbid stuff for a story primarily meant for kids.

Interestingly enough, the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans all have their own interpretations of the nine-tailed fox. In some stories, she has a more sympathetic portrayal, while others like the one I'm familiar with depict her as being pure evil.

 

[Dalph]

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Why I like it:

The characters into it are not created randomly, there's a moral and an hidden message behind every single one of them.

The novel is a sort of a teaching of life and behavior, a philosophy which make us believe in ourselves and live better with others.

Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland

Why I like it:

It's a well made story, able to help you understand more easily the characteristics of the world around us.

This thing has captivated so many people for more than a century and seems destined to continue to do so in future.

Also the genre of it...literary nonsense, I love this stuff.

Random curiosity about Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland:

There's a sequel of the novel (but almost nobody knows about it), and it's called:

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There

 

[Dr.Acula]

Jack and the Giant Beanstalk.

moral: To make the most out of life, you must buy and grow a magic beanstalk so you can find a giant castle that somehow floats in the sky. Then go inside to steal a magic harp and a gold-sh*tting goose then escape like a crazy father mucker and kill the giant.

All this,why? Because:

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[Deleted]

@KingDanner: I've never heard of Red Wall or Beaver Towers. Of course, I know The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland, though I've only read the former. I've seen th movies though

You should definitely read those two books, they are two brilliant stories, they're so captivating and filled with rich story. I very first heard them when I was a small child in pre-school. each week the teacher would read us part of these stories, i would be hung on her every word. They always stuck with me. I think that's what first got me interested in story telling from an early age. (That and the Tintin books) 

 

[Sharm]

Something interesting about this, don't know if it's actually true. The writer of Alice in Wonderland was a mathematician and he wrote it around the time when the more abstract math had just gotten some traction. I've heard that the whole book is actually an allegorical way of mocking that type of math as being completely absurd and illogical.

 

[Clee]

Something interesting about this, don't know if it's actually true. The writer of Alice in Wonderland was a mathematician and he wrote it around the time when the more abstract math had just gotten some traction. I've heard that the whole book is actually an allegorical way of mocking that type of math as being completely absurd and illogical.

I have also heard that Charles Dodgson used this story as a way to satirize the War of the Roses.  

 

[Palsa]

Another great classic, which can probably fall under the category or fairy tale, is Charles Dicken's: A Christmas Carol.

It's interesting how he presents each ghost as a reflection of Scrooge's life, and how he kills each aspect of himself during the trial.

The ghost of Christmas past is killed when Scrooge covers the light of truth that is on the ghost's head, snuffing out both Scrooge's past and the truth at the same time.

The ghost of Christmas present ages every time Scrooge fails to learn his lesson, and at the very end of the trial the ghost dies.

The ghost of Christmas future is a reflection of Scrooge's progress with the other two ghosts, and so he is born dead.

 

[Of_Dust]

You're going to hate me, but I care not! It's the little mermaid, from Hans Christian Andersen. 

Why? It's such a dark, sad story. I actually got kind of depressed when I read it for the first time (I was a cute little tiny girl). I think Andersen meant to show love in its purest form, there's why I love this tale...I'm so cheesy. Don't judge me.

But there are so many of those! It's hard to choose just one!  

 

[slimmmeiske2]

You're going to hate me, but I care not! It's the little mermaid, from Hans Christian Andersen. 

Why? It's such a dark, sad story. I actually got kind of depressed when I read it for the first time (I was a cute little tiny girl). I think Andersen meant to show love in its purest form, there's why I love this tale...I'm so cheesy. Don't judge me.

But there are so many of those! It's hard to choose just one!  

Why would we hate you? I think the original Little Mermaid is a beautiful, but sad story.

I've heard (though I'm not 100% certain) that Andersen wrote the Little Mermaid as a love letter to a Lord who was to be married. The Lord was apparantly disgusted by Andersen's affections, though he kept the letter. The Little Mermaid can't be with her prince, because of their differences, just like Andersen couldn't be with whom he loved. As I said, I'm not sure if this is true, but nevertheless it's an interesting story.

The original version of the Little Mermaid ended with her dying, later Andersen added the whole "she turned into foam" scene, so he actually made a bit more happier. 

Most Japanese fairy tales are a horror story of some sort. All of their fantastical creatures try to eat you unless you do something special. I am aware that stories with a Yuki Onna in them are horror, it's part of the reason I found that one so interesting. I like the non-horror japanese stories better, but they're a bit rare. MomoTaro and the one about the tiny samurai (it's a Tom Thumb kind of story) are the only ones I can think of.

They exist though. I've read quite a few and watched several as well. There's anime called Furusato Saisei: Nihon no Mukashibanahi (Folktales from Japan). Every episode has 3 folktales, and most of them are non-horror if I remember correctly. The tiny samurai one is called Issun Bosshi by the way.