Story telling

New Twists on Old Tales


The brothers Grimm wrote over 200 fairy tales and documented more than 500 folklore legends in the 1800's. While many like Cinderella and Rapunzel are well known, quite a few tales are not. Tales like Fitcher's Bird are quite gruesome. The German folklore they recorded are much like today's urban legends. The origin of the term "fairy tales" comes from Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baronne d'Aulnoy, a french writer who termed her work "contes de fée".

Fairy tales and urban legends are told in every part of the world. These stories, told over and over, continue to be inspiration to new authors. William Shakespeare's King Lear and Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales are considered to be variations of old tales. Hans Christian Andersen continued the tradition of drawing on old tales to create something new. George MacDonald also used parts of tales to create his fantasy writing.

So if you're looking for some reading to inspire a new tale from your pen, try reading some fairy tales. But please, read them first before indulging a bedtime story for your children. Or it may be a very long night...