#aarne-thompson classification

[shallowseeker]

I am at my most nerdy/pedantic/verbose/unhinged prolix when I'm trying to piece together my thoughts about Cas's overcoat as a metaphorical "animal skin," especially the loss/gain of the coat as it relates to: his amnesia, his reclaiming of celestial power, the subsequent loss of sanity, and finally, staying behind in "Enchanted Woods"/Purgatory. But it doesn't even end there... He gets reclaimed and used by Heaven, and when he falls, he casts the coat away until he decides to return home again. It's... HNNNNGH.

ANYWAY. The coat is Cas’s bridge between Heaven and Earth... duty and free will... divine power and human weakness.

[pseuddamntired]

I think it would be fun to challenge people to write stories promoted only by categories in the aarne-thompson-uther index. With the optional additional challenge that the genre/style is NOT folk tale or fable.

Categories such as “war between birds (insects) and quadrupeds” and “which bird is father?” and “innocent slandered maiden” and “suitors at the spinning wheel” and “seemingly dead relatives” and, possibly my favorite, “cases solved in a manner worthy of Solomon”

I’m finding a lot from this table of tale types: https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/c.php?g=1083510

[dimetrodone]

how goes the reading of the andersen tales? also, thoughts on the aarne-thompson-uther index?

I am approximately 2/3rds done, I took a break last week to read something else for a book club I’m in.

I’m not knowledgable enough about fairlytales and folklore to have any strong opinions on the ATU index besides it being interesting and helping me find similar and “related” stories. I imagine there is some controversy and messiness with it as is the case with all classification systems, but I haven’t read into it enough to know about that

[adarkrainbow]

Question: was it a shoe in "vair" or in "verre"?

It was "verre". I talked about this in a post a long time ago: while very popular and quite widespread, the idea that "verre" was meant to be "vair" has been proven by modern and scholarly research to be a misinterpretation, or rather a misconception. It was presented, spread and used by a lot of famous authors and cultural figures of France, from Balzac to André Breton, and so it is part of the "cultural heritage" of the French Cinderella tale, and you can still reference it or make jokes about it. But you can't claim it is an actual real fact. When Perrault wrote the story, he clearly meant the slippers to be a glass, and he might have invented the detail himself (like how he actually seems to have invented the "red" in "little red riding hood", despite people for centuries believing the "red" part was older than Perrault).

Last time I checked this article did not exist, but apparently the French Wikipedia created an ENTIRE article about the controversy of the Cinderella slipper if you are interested:

It is especially funny when you look at how all the "sources" for this claim are all biased but just happened to be popular enough it became accepted. Balzac had the theory being offered by a character in a fictional tale - not just any character, but a fur-seller who OF COURSE is going to have an extravagant story to explain how yes, Cinderella's slipper was made of fur. Later Anatole France also reused it in his dialogues about fairytales, but it is a series of texts meant to literaly mock and have fun at all the strange theories and interpretations of fairytales (he notably has the characters explain how the little dog briefly described by Perrault in Sleeping Beauty's lap is of a "crucial" importance as symbolizing the Sirius star). And from there, authors and theorists had a blast...

But if we trust the Delarue-Ténèze catalogue of French folktales and fairytales (our local Aarne-Thompson classification), the shoes of Cinderella in France were always made of glass (or crystal), or of gold (like in the Grimm version).

[shoezuki]

What's 425c?

425C is the classification for all beauty and the beast-type stories/fairy tales in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) index. basically, the ATU index is basically a way to categorize fairy tales found all across cultures into groups based on prevalent themes, motifs, and plot points. Like, beauty and the beast is ATU 425C, cupid and psyche is 425B, and theyre both subcategories of ATU 425, which is 'enchanted or supernatural husband/wife' more broadly. Cinderella is ATU 510A, Donkeyskin is 510B although sometimes its considered a part of the 510A subcategory (i disagree), three little pigs is 124, red riding hood is i think 333? ya all that

basically its like. tv tropes for academics studying fairytales and folklore. or losers like me

[forevermagik]

Okay so @elizmanderson asked that I talk more about my thesis. So here we are.

I wrote it on the evolution of the fairytale "Beauty and the Beast" which makes me even more annoyed that I did not know about the 1740 version as referenced in this post. Because I would have had a lot to say about things getting cut between the 1740 version and the 1756 version.

At the time I was writing my thesis, I was tracking down every version of AT-425C - Aarne Thompson classification for Beauty and the Beast. Additionally, I discussed several modern retellings. I did not include every version in my thesis because, realistically, I only had ~a year to write it, and I did have a limited thing called... time.

THAT SAID I'm still mad that nowhere was I able to find the 1740 version. To be honest, given the resources I was using, I had a hard time finding anything before the 1800's... so, there's also that. No offense to my thesis advisor, but he was not the most qualified to help me. He was just the most qualified professor who could help me who I could also tolerate. (The most qualified professor and I did not get along because drama in academia is a thing.)

Some more facts about my thesis, I was talking about how various retellings over time changed how the characters of Beauty and the Beast were given agency (or agency was taken from them) and their overall characterization. I also discussed the roles of supporting characters (should there be any) or villains. I also talked about magic's role in general, and, of course, the role of "true love".

It would have been really cool to discuss more about fae and their role in Beauty and the Beast.

Though, I mean, I haven't not been thinking about eventually writing my own retelling anyway so there's that.

[unfavorableinstigation]

I somehow feel like there should be a subset of Aarne-Thompson classifications for fairy tales in which the primary moral good rewarded is 'obliviously yet doggedly minding your own fucking business'. The corollary 'your disproportionately appalling punishment for minor meddling shall be an Example To All' exists in spades, as does 'disproportionate rewards for sort of absentmindedly doing small services'. But I feel that there must he a category for the Joshua Gillespies of the world.

[rapha-reads]

So I'm reading Echo North by Joanna Ruth Meyer, and I absolutely adore how it's a mix of all these tales I spent five months studying for my thesis. It's the entire ATU 425 tale type category at once*. A bit of Beauty and the Beast, a bit of Cupid and Psyche, a bit of East of the Sun and West of the Moon... When you know what you're looking at, it's so interesting to analyse it all.

*ATU= Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, a classification of as many of the folktales and fairytales indexed around the world and the centuries, catalogued after their structures (their type). ATU 425: "The Search for the Lost Husband". ATU 425A: "Animal as Bridegroom" -> East of the Sun and West of the Moon (and The Serpent Prince, the Pig King...). ATU 425B: "Son of the Witch" -> Cupid and Psyche (also The Son of the Ogress, Tale of Baba Yaga...). ATU 425C: "Beauty and the Beast". There are a few more types (it goes to 425E), but these three are the main ones.

[ondessiderales]

La Belle et la Bête

« La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast) est le 39e long-métrage d'animation et le 30e « Classique d'animation » des studios Disney. Sorti en 1991 et réalisé par Gary Trousdale et Kirk Wise, c'est le troisième film du « Second âge d'or » des studios Disney.

Inspiré du conte éponyme de Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont publié en 1757 tout en reprenant les idées du film français du même nom de Jean Cocteau, La Belle et la Bête mélange les genres de la comédie musicale et du fantastique. »

« Doté d'un budget de 25 000 000 dollars, La Belle et la Bête en rapporte 331 907 151 à travers le monde, dont 4,1 millions d'entrées en France. Il devient le troisième plus gros succès de l'année au box-office américain en 1991 avec des recettes de 145 millions de dollar et le troisième plus gros succès de l'année au box-office français en 1992. Acclamé de façon unanime par la critique professionnelle du monde entier ainsi que par le public, le film est récompensé de la statuette du meilleur film musical ou de comédie aux Golden Globes, devenant le tout premier film d'animation à être récompensé dans cette catégorie. Il est ensuite nommé pour l'Oscar du meilleur film et devient le premier film d'animation à être nommé dans cette catégorie avant la création de l'Oscar du meilleur film d'animation. Il obtient à cette même cérémonie l'Oscar de la meilleure musique de film et l'Oscar de la meilleure chanson originale pour Histoire éternelle, alors qu'il concourt également dans cette même catégorie pour les chansons C'est la fête et Belle. »

« Il était une fois, dans un pays lointain, un jeune prince qui vivait dans un somptueux château. Bien que la vie l’ait comblé de tous ses bienfaits, le prince était un homme capricieux, égoïste et insensible.

Un soir d’hiver, une vieille mendiante se présenta au château et lui offrit une rose en échange d’un abri contre le froid qui faisait rage. Saisi de répulsion devant sa misérable apparence, le prince ricana de son modeste présent et chassa la vieille femme. Elle tenta de lui faire entendre qu’il ne fallait jamais se fier aux apparences, et que la vraie beauté venait du cœur. Lorsqu’il la repoussa pour la seconde fois, la hideuse apparition se métamorphosa sous ses yeux en une créature enchanteresse. Le prince essaya de se faire pardonner, mais il était trop tard car elle avait compris la sécheresse de ce cœur déserté par l’amour. En punition, elle le transforma en une bête monstrueuse et jeta un sort sur le château ainsi que sur tous ses occupants.

Horrifiée par son aspect effroyable, la Bête se terra au fond de son château, avec pour seule fenêtre sur le monde extérieur un miroir magique. La rose qui lui avait été offerte était une rose enchantée qui ne se flétrirait qu’au jour de son vingt-et-unième anniversaire. Avant la chute du dernier pétale de la fleur magique, le prince devrait aimer une femme et s’en faire aimer en retour pour briser le charme. Dans le cas contraire, il se verrait condamné à garder l’apparence d’un monstre pour l’éternité. Plus les années passaient et plus le prince perdait tout espoir d’échapper à cette malédiction ; car en réalité, qui pourrait un jour aimer… une bête ? »

— Prologue du film. Texte français de Claude Rigal-Ansous.

« La Belle et la Bête est un conte-type, identifiable dans le monde entier en dépit de variantes locales (numéro 425 C dans la classification Aarne-Thompson), contenant des thèmes ayant trait à l'amour et la rédemption.

Une jeune fille que l’on appelle « la belle » se sacrifie pour sauver son père, condamné à mort pour avoir cueilli une rose dans le domaine d'un terrible monstre. Contre toute attente, la Bête épargne la Belle et lui permet de vivre dans son château. Elle s'aperçoit que, derrière les traits de l'animal, souffre un homme victime d'un sortilège. Le conte a fait l'objet de nombreuses adaptations au cinéma, au théâtre et à la télévision au cours du XXe siècle, notamment un long-métrage de Jean Cocteau et deux adaptations, l'une d'animation, l'autre en prise de vue réelle, par les studios Disney. »

« [Ce conte] apprend aux enfants à distinguer la laideur morale de la laideur physique, à favoriser le rayonnement d’une intelligence, d’un cœur, d’une âme que rend timide un extérieur ingrat. […] Les deux sœurs de la Belle ont épousé deux gentilshommes dont l’un symbolise la beauté et l’autre l’intelligence ; ce n’est pas là le vrai fondement d’un amour solide, mais la bonté. Ainsi la Belle ne peut se défendre d’aimer la Bête à cause des attentions inlassables dont celle-ci l’entoure. Le don de soi est justifié par l’estime des bonnes qualités de la personne à laquelle on veut unir sa vie ; ainsi les jeunes filles apprennent l’usage du véritable amour. La Belle, voyant à quelle extrémité elle réduit par ses refus la pauvre Bête, passe sous l’impulsion de la compassion unie à l’estime, de l’amitié à l’amour. Des sentiments purs, estime, délicatesse, élégance morale, reconnaissance en sont les motifs. On trouve ici la justification des mariages fréquents à cette époque, entre hommes mûrs, souvent veufs, et filles très jeunes. Il ne restait à ces maris âgés qu’à entourer leur jeune épouse de tous les égards, et aux jeunes femmes à respecter la situation mondaine et la valeur des quadragénaires. »

— Marie-Antoinette Reynaud, Madame Leprince de Beaumont, vie et œuvre d'une éducatrice, 1971

La Belle et la Bête - Histoire éternelle

Histoire éternelle Qu'on ne croit jamais De deux inconnus Qu'un geste imprévu Rapproche en secret

Et soudain se pose Sur leur cœur en fête Un papillon rose Un rien, pas grand chose Une fleur offerte

Rien ne se ressemble Rien n'est plus pareil Mais comment savoir La peur envolée Que l'on s'est trompé ?

Chanson éternelle Aux refrains fanés C'est vrai, c'est étrange De voir comme on change Sans même y penser

Tout comme les étoiles S'éteignent en cachette L'histoire éternelle Touche de son aile La Belle et la Bête

L'histoire éternelle Touche de son aile La Belle et la Bête

[cosmicgoods]

RARE: Antique, circa 1920s-1930s Little Red Riding Hood Wooden Jig Saw Puzzle

Rare

Circa 1920s-30s.

Measures approximately 10.5" T x 8.75" W and just shy of .75" thick.

Someone's prior cherished possession as it is tapped together on the back to ensure it doesn't loose a piece.

The face of the puzzle has lovely patina, artfully worn edges etc. Its a lovely piece that just exudes the feeling of the time period. I absolutely adore how the wolf, bunny and owl are caricatured.

I package well and ship out daily!

Wikipedia about the Origins of "Little Red Riding Hood":

"Little Red Riding Hood" is a European fairy tale about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf.[1] Its origins can be traced back to the 17th century to several European folk tales, including one from Italy called The False Grandmother. The two best known versions were written by Charles Perrault[2] and the Brothers Grimm.

The story has been changed considerably in various retellings and subjected to numerous modern adaptations and readings. Other names for the story are: "Little Red Cap" or simply "Red Riding Hood". It is number 333 in the Aarne–Thompson classification system for folktales.[3]

Contents

1Tale

2History

2.1Relationship to other tales

2.2Earliest versions

2.3Charles Perrault

2.4The Brothers Grimm

2.5Later versions

3Interpretations

3.1Natural cycles

3.2Rite

3.3Rebirth

3.4Norse myth

3.5Erotic, romantic, or rape connotations

4In popular culture

4.1Animation and film

4.2Television

4.3Literature

4.4Music

4.5Games

4.6Musicals

5See also

6References

7External links

Tale[edit]

"Little Red Riding Hood", illustrated in a 1927 story anthology

The story revolves around a girl called Little Red Riding Hood. In Perrault's versions of the tale, she is named after her red hooded cape/cloak that she wears. The girl walks through the woods to deliver food to her sickly grandmother (wine and cake depending on the translation). In the Grimms' version, her mother had ordered her to stay strictly on the path.

A Big Bad Wolf wants to eat the girl and the food in the basket. He secretly stalks her behind trees, bushes, shrubs, and patches of little and tall grass. He approaches Little Red Riding Hood, who naively tells him where she is going. He suggests that the girl pick some flowers as a present for her grandmother, which she does. In the meantime, he goes to the grandmother's house and gains entry by pretending to be her. He swallows the grandmother whole (in some stories, he locks her in the closet) and waits for the girl, disguised as the grandmother.

Gustave Doré's engraving of the scene: "She was astonished to see how her grandmother looked."

When the girl arrives, she notices that her grandmother looks very strange. Little Red then says, "What a deep voice you have!" ("The better to greet you with", responds the wolf), "Goodness, what big eyes you have!" ("The better to see you with", responds the wolf), "And what big hands you have!" ("The better to embrace you with", responds the wolf), and lastly, "What a big mouth you have" ("The better to eat you with!", responds the wolf), at which point the wolf jumps out of the bed and eats her, too. Then he falls asleep. In Charles Perrault's version of the story (the first version to be published), the tale ends here. However, in later versions, the story continues generally as follows:

A woodcutter in the French version, but a hunter in the Brothers Grimm and traditional German versions, comes to the rescue with an axe, and cuts open the sleeping wolf. Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother emerge shaken, but unharmed. Then they fill the wolf's body with heavy stones. The wolf awakens and attempts to flee, but the stones cause him to collapse and die. In Grimm's version, the wolf leaves the house and tries to drink out of a well, but the stones in his stomach cause him to fall in and drown. Sanitized versions of the story have the grandmother locked in the closet instead of being eaten and some have Little Red Riding Hood saved by the lumberjack as the wolf advances on her rather than after she is eaten, where the woodcutter kills the wolf with his axe.[4]

"Little Red Riding Hood" illustration by Arthur Rackham.[5]

The tale makes the clearest contrast between the safe world of the village and the dangers of the forest, conventional antitheses that are essentially medieval, though no written versions are as old as that.[citation needed] It also warns about the dangers of not obeying one's mother (at least in Grimms' version).[citation needed]

History[edit]

Relationship to other tales[edit]

The story displays many similarities to stories from classical Greece and Rome. Scholar Graham Anderson has compared the story to a local legend recounted by Pausanias in which, each year, a virgin girl was offered to a malevolent spirit dressed in the skin of a wolf, who raped the girl. Then, one year, the boxer Euthymos came along, slew the spirit, and married the girl who had been offered as a sacrifice.[6] There are also a number of different stories recounted by Greek authors involving a woman named Pyrrha (literally "fire") and a man with some name meaning "wolf".[7] The Roman poet Horace alludes to a tale in which a male child is rescued alive from the belly of Lamia, an ogress in classical mythology.[8]

The dialogue between the Big Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood has its analogies to the Norse Þrymskviða from the Elder Edda; the giant Þrymr had stolen Mjölnir, Thor's hammer, and demanded Freyja as his bride for its return. Instead, the gods dressed Thor as a bride and sent him. When the giants note Thor's unladylike eyes, eating, and drinking, Loki explains them as Freyja's not having slept, eaten, or drunk, out of longing for the wedding.[9] A parallel to another Norse myth, the chase and eventual murder of the sun goddess by the wolf Sköll, has also been drawn.[10]

A similar story also belongs to the North African tradition, namely in Kabylia, where a number of versions are attested.[11] The theme of the little girl who visits her (grand)dad in his cabin and is recognized by the sound of her bracelets constitutes the refrain of a well-known song by the modern singer Idir, "A Vava Inouva":

‘I beseech you, open the door for me, father.

Jingle your bracelets, oh my daughter Ghriba.

I'm afraid of the monster in the forest, father.

I, too, am afraid, oh my daughter Ghriba.’[12]

The theme of the ravening wolf and of the creature released unharmed from its belly is also reflected in the Russian tale Peter and the Wolf and another Grimm tale The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids, but its general theme of restoration is at least as old as the biblical story, Jonah and the Whale. The theme also appears in the story of the life of Saint Margaret, wherein the saint emerges unharmed from the belly of a dragon, and in the epic "The Red Path" by Jim C. Hines.

A Taiwanese story from the 16th century, known as Grandaunt Tiger bears several striking similarities. When the girl's mother goes out, the tigress comes to the girl's house and pretends to be their aunt, asking to come in. The girl says that her voice does not sound right, so the tigress attempts to disguise her voice. Then, the girl says that her hands feel too coarse, so the tigress attempts to make them smoother. When finally, the tigress gains entry, she eats the girl's sister's hand. The girl comes up with a ruse to go outside and fetch some food for her aunt. Grandaunt Tiger, suspicious of the girl, ties a rope to her leg. The girl ties a bucket to the rope to fool her, but Grandaunt Tiger realises this and chases after her, whereupon she climbs into a tree. The girl tells the tigress that she will let her eat her, but first she would like to feed her some fruit from the tree. The tigress comes closer to eat the food, whereupon, the girl pours boiling hot oil down her throat, killing her.[13]

Earliest versions[edit]

"The better to see you with": woodcut by Walter Crane

The origins of the Little Red Riding Hood story can be traced to several likely pre-17th century versions from various European countries. Some of these are significantly different from the currently known, Grimms-inspired version. It was told by French peasants in the 10th century[1] and recorded by the cathedral schoolmaster Egbert of Liège.[14] In Italy, Little Red Riding Hood was told by peasants in the fourteenth century, where a number of versions exist, including La finta nonna (The False Grandmother), written among others by Italo Calvino in the Italian Folktales collection.[15] It has also been called "The Story of Grandmother". It is also possible that this early tale has roots in very similar East Asian tales (e.g. "Grandaunt Tiger").[16]

These early variations of the tale, do differ from the currently known version in several ways. The antagonist is not always a wolf, but sometimes a 'bzou' (werewolf), making these tales relevant to the werewolf trials (similar to witch trials) of the time (e.g. the trial of Peter Stumpp).[17] The wolf usually leaves the grandmother's blood and flesh for the girl to eat, who then unwittingly cannibalizes her own grandmother. Furthermore, the wolf was also known to ask her to remove her clothing and toss it into the fire.[18] In some versions, the wolf eats the girl after she gets into bed with him, and the story ends there.[19] In others, she sees through his disguise and tries to escape, complaining to her "grandmother" that she needs to defecate and would not wish to do so in the bed. The wolf reluctantly lets her go, tied to a piece of string so she does not get away. However, the girl slips the string over something else and runs off. In these stories she escapes with no help from any male or older female figure, instead using her own cunning, or in some versions the help of a younger boy who she happens to run into.[20] Sometimes, though more rarely, the red hood is even non-existent.[19]

In other tellings of the story, the wolf chases after Little Red Riding Hood. She escapes with the help of some laundresses, who spread a sheet taut over a river so she may escape. When the wolf follows Red over the bridge of cloth, the sheet is released and the wolf drowns in the river.[21] And in another version the wolf is pushed into the fire, while he is preparing the flesh of the grandmother to be eaten by the girl.[19]

Charles Perrault[edit]

The earliest known printed version[22] was known as Le Petit Chaperon Rouge and may have had its origins in 17th-century French folklore. It was included in the collection Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals. Tales of Mother Goose (Histoires et contes du temps passé, avec des moralités. Contes de ma mère l'Oye), in 1697, by Charles Perrault. As the title implies, this version[23] is both more sinister and more overtly moralized than the later ones. The redness of the hood, which has been given symbolic significance in many interpretations of the tale, was a detail introduced by Perrault.[24]

French images, like this 19th-century painting, show the much shorter red chaperon being worn

The story had as its subject an "attractive, well-bred young lady", a village girl of the country being deceived into giving a wolf she encountered the information he needed to find her grandmother's house successfully and eat the old woman while at the same time avoiding being noticed by woodcutters working in the nearby forest. Then he proceeded to lay a trap for Red Riding Hood. Little Red Riding Hood ends up being asked to climb into the bed before being eaten by the wolf, where the story ends. The wolf emerges the victor of the encounter and there is no happy ending.

Charles Perrault explained the 'moral' at the end of the tale[25] so that no doubt is left to his intended meaning:

From this story one learns that children, especially young lasses, pretty, courteous and well-bred, do very wrong to listen to strangers, And it is not an unheard thing if the Wolf is thereby provided with his dinner. I say Wolf, for all wolves are not of the same sort; there is one kind with an amenable disposition – neither noisy, nor hateful, nor angry, but tame, obliging and gentle, following the young maids in the streets, even into their homes. Alas! Who does not know that these gentle wolves are of all such creatures the most dangerous!

This, the presumed original version of the tale was written for the late seventeenth-century French court of King Louis XIV. This audience, whom the King entertained with extravagant parties, presumably would take from the story the intended meaning.

The Brothers Grimm[edit]

Wilhelm (left) and Jacob Grimm, from an 1855 painting by Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann

In the 19th century two separate German versions were retold to Jacob Grimm and his younger brother Wilhelm Grimm, known as the Brothers Grimm, the first by Jeanette Hassenpflug (1791–1860) and the second by Marie Hassenpflug (1788–1856). The brothers turned the first version to the main body of the story and the second into a sequel of it. The story as Rotkäppchen was included in the first edition of their collection Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children's and Household Tales (1812) - KHM 26).[26]

The earlier parts of the tale agree so closely with Perrault's variant that it is almost certainly the source of the tale.[27] However, they modified the ending; this version had the little girl and her grandmother saved by a huntsman who was after the wolf's skin; this ending is identical to that in the tale "The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids", which appears to be the source.[28] The second part featured the girl and her grandmother trapping and killing another wolf, this time anticipating his moves based on their experience with the previous one. The girl did not leave the path when the wolf spoke to her, her grandmother locked the door to keep it out, and when the wolf lurked, the grandmother had Little Red Riding Hood put a trough under the chimney and fill it with water that sausages had been cooked in; the smell lured the wolf down, and it drowned.[29]

The Brothers further revised the story in later editions and it reached the above-mentioned final and better-known version in the 1857 edition of their work.[30] It is notably tamer than the older stories which contained darker themes.

Later versions[edit]

An engraving from the Cyclopedia of Wit and Humor.

Numerous authors have rewritten or adapted this tale.

Charles Marelle in his version of the fairy tale called "The True History of Little Goldenhood" (1888) gives the girl a real name - Blanchette.

Andrew Lang included a variant called "The True History of Little Goldenhood"[31] in The Red Fairy Book (1890). He derived it from the works of Charles Marelles,[32] in Contes of Charles Marelles. This version explicitly states that the story had been mistold earlier. The girl is saved, but not by the huntsman; when the wolf tries to eat her, its mouth is burned by the golden hood she wears, which is enchanted.

James N. Barker wrote a variation of Little Red Riding Hood in 1827 as an approximately 1000-word story. It was later reprinted in 1858 in a book of collected stories edited by William E Burton, called the Cyclopedia of Wit and Humor. The reprint also features a wood engraving of a clothed wolf on a bended knee holding Little Red Riding Hood's hand.

In the 20th century, the popularity of the tale appeared to snowball, with many new versions being written and produced, especially in the wake of Freudian analysis, deconstruction and feminist critical theory. (See "Modern uses and adaptations" below.) This trend has also led to a number of academic texts being written that focus on Little Red Riding Hood, including works by Alan Dundes and Jack Zipes.

Interpretations[edit]

A depiction by Gustave Doré, 1883.

Apart from the overt warning about talking to strangers, there are many interpretations of the classic fairy tale, many of them sexual.[33] Some are listed below.

Natural cycles[edit]

Folklorists and cultural anthropologists, such as P. Saintyves and Edward Burnett Tylor, saw "Little Red Riding Hood" in terms of solar myths and other naturally occurring cycles. Her red hood could represent the bright sun which is ultimately swallowed by the terrible night (the wolf), and the variations in which she is cut out of the wolf's belly represent the dawn.[34] In this interpretation, there is a connection between the wolf of this tale and Sköll, the wolf in Norse mythology that will swallow the personified Sun at Ragnarök, or Fenrir.[35] Alternatively, the tale could be about the season of spring or the month of May, escaping the winter.[36]

Red Riding Hood by George Frederic Watts

Rite[edit]

The tale has been interpreted as a puberty rite, stemming from a prehistoric origin (sometimes an origin stemming from a previous matriarchal era).[37] The girl, leaving home, enters a liminal state and by going through the acts of the tale, is transformed into an adult woman by the act of coming out of the wolf's stomach.[38]

Rebirth[edit]

Bruno Bettelheim, in The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (1976), recast the Little Red Riding Hood motif in terms of classic Freudian analysis, that shows how fairy tales educate, support, and liberate children's emotions. The motif of the huntsman cutting open the wolf he interpreted as a "rebirth"; the girl who foolishly listened to the wolf has been reborn as a new person.[39]

Norse myth[edit]

The poem "Þrymskviða" from the Poetic Edda mirrors some elements of Red Riding Hood. Loki's explanations for the strange behavior of "Freyja" (actually Thor disguised as Freyja) mirror the wolf's explanations for his strange appearance. The red hood has often been given great importance in many interpretations, with a significance from the dawn to blood.[40]

Erotic, romantic, or rape connotations[edit]

A sexual analysis of the tale may also include negative connotations in terms of rape or abduction. In Against Our Will, Susan Brownmiller describes the fairy tale as a description of rape.[41] However, many revisionist retellings choose to focus on empowerment, and depict Little Red Riding Hood or the grandmother successfully defending herself against the wolf.[42]

Such tellings bear some similarity to the "animal bridegroom" tales, such as Beauty and the Beast or The Frog Prince, but where the heroines of those tales revert the hero to a prince, these tellings of Little Red Riding Hood reveal to the heroine that she has a wild nature like the hero's.[43] These interpretations refuse to characterize Little Red Riding Hood as a victim; these are tales of female empowerment.

The gender role varies according to the professional level and gender of the artist that illustrates these characters. Female artists tend to reflect a stereotypic aggressive male role on the wolf, while amateur male artists were more likely to eroticize the characters. In general, professional artists do not imply sexual intent between the characters, and produce family-friendly illustrations.[44][45]

In popular culture[edit]

Works Progress Administration poster by Kenneth Whitley, 1939

Main article: Adaptations of Little Red Riding Hood

Animation and film[edit]

In Tex Avery's short animated cartoon, Red Hot Riding Hood (1943), the story is recast in an adult-oriented urban setting, with the suave, sharp-dressed Wolf howling after the nightclub singer Red. Avery used the same cast and themes in a subsequent series of cartoons.[46]

Neil Jordan directed a film version of The Company of Wolves (1984) based on the short story by Angela Carter. The wolf in this version of the tale is in fact a werewolf, which comes to the newly-menstruating Red Riding Hood in the forest, in the form of a charming hunter. The hunter turns into a wolf and eats her grandmother, and is about to devour Red Riding Hood as well, but she is equally seductive and ends up lying with the wolf man.[47] This version may be interpreted as a young girl's journey into womanhood, both with regard to menstruation and sexual awakening.

Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf is a 1937 adaptation of the story by the German state which had a deep interest in the stories of the Brothers Grimm and saw them as useful for teaching ideology. This version has been suppressed but has been seen by academics.[48]

Soyuzmultfilm (1937) is a Soviet black-and-white animated film by the sisters Brumberg (the so-called "grandmothers of the Russian animation"). Its plot differs slightly from the original fairy tale. It was issued on videotapes in various collections in the 1980s, via the SECAM system, and in the 1990s, via the PAL system, in collections of animated films of a video studio "Soyuz" (since 1994 and 1995 respectively).

The Big Bad Wolf is an animated short released on 13 April 1934 by United Artists, produced by Walt Disney and directed by Burt Gillett as part of the Silly Symphony series. In the film, the Big Bad Wolf from 1933's Three Little Pigs is the adversary of Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother.

In the Soviet Russian animated film Petya and Little Red Riding Hood (1958), directed by Boris Stepantsev and Evgeny Raykovsky, the main character (a boy named Petya Ivanov) witnesses the Grey Wolf deceiving a trusting girl and risks his life to rescue her and her grandmother. The animated movie is considered a cult film, with many of its lines having become catch-phrases in popular culture. In 1959 and 1960, the film received awards[which?] at festivals in Kyiv, Ukraine and Ansi, Estonia.[citation needed]

The 1996 movie Freeway is a crime drama loosely adapted from the Riding Hood story, with Riding Hood (Reese Witherspoon) recast as an abused, illiterate teenager and the wolf (Kiefer Sutherland) portrayed as a serial killer named Bob Wolverton. The film had one straight-to-video sequel.

Hoodwinked! (2005) is a retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood" as a police investigation.

The film Red Riding Hood (2006) is a musical based upon the tale.

The film Red Riding Hood (2011) is loosely based upon the tale.[49]

The wolf appears in the Shrek franchise of films. He is wearing the grandmother's clothing as in the fairy tale, though the films imply that the gown is merely a personal style choice and that the wolf is not dangerous.[50]

Red Riding Hood briefly appears in the film Shrek 2 (2004), wherein she is frightened by Shrek and Fiona and runs off.

Red Riding Hood is one of the main characters in the 2014 film adaptation of the 1987 musical Into the Woods, and is portrayed by Lilla Crawford.

Little Red Riding Hood is parodied in the Warner Bros. cartoons Little Red Riding Rabbit (1944, Merrie Melodies) and The Windblown Hare (1949, Looney Tunes), with Bugs Bunny, and Red Riding Hoodwinked (1955, Looney Tunes) with Tweety and Sylvester.

Little Red Riding Hood is parodied in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episode, "Little Red Riding Princess" with Princess Toadstool in the role of 'Red Riding Hood' and King Koopa in the role of the Big Bad Wolf.

Children at Play (2010) is a short film written and directed by Lexan Rosser, starring Bryan Dechart. The film can be interpreted as a reimagining of the classic fairy tale due to its number of overt/subtle parallels and references.

The character Ruby Rose in the popular internet series RWBY is based on "Little Red Riding Hood".

Television[edit]

In the pilot episode "Wolf Moon" of the MTV hit series Teen Wolf the protagonist Scott McCall wears a red hoody, when he gets attacked by an alpha werewolf in the woods in the night of a full moon.

The pilot episode of NBC's TV series Grimm reveals that the Red Riding Hood stories were inspired by the fabled attacks of Blutbaden, lycanthropic beings who have a deeply ingrained bloodlust and a weakness for victims wearing red.

Red Riding Hood is a character in ABC's Once Upon a Time (2011) TV series. In this version of the tale, Red (portrayed by Meghan Ory) is a werewolf, and her cape is the only thing that can prevent her from metamorphosing during a full moon. Her Storybrooke persona is Ruby.[51]

The story was retold as part of the episode "Grimm Job" of the American animated TV series Family Guy (season 12, episode 10), with Stewie playing Little Red Riding Hood and Brian the Big Bad Wolf. Additionally, both Red Hiding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf appeared briefly in a clip in the season one episode The Son Also Draws.

In the TV series Goldie & Bear Red is a little girl who delivers muffins to her granny and likes to keep her hood clean and tidy.

Literature[edit]

Little Red Riding Hood in an illustration by Otto Kubel (1930).

Charles Perrault's "Le Petit Chaperon rouge" ("Little Red Riding Hood") is centered on an erotic metaphor.[52]

Gabriela Mistral, the Chilean Nobel Prize-winning poet, told the story as a short poem as part of her 1924 book, Ternura[53]

Little Red Riding Hood appears in Angela Carter's short story "The Company of Wolves", published in The Bloody Chamber (1979), her collection of "dark, feminist fables" filled with "bestial and ferocious" heroines.[54] Carter's rewriting of the tale-- both her 1979 story and its 1984 film adaptation, the screenplay of which Carter co-wrote with director Neil Jordan-- examines female lust, which according to author Catherine Orenstein is "healthy, but also challenging and sometimes disturbing, unbridled and feral lust that delivers up contradictions."[55] As Orenstein points out, the film version does this by unravelling the original tale's "underlying sexual currents" and by investing Rosaleen (the Little Red Riding Hood character, played by Sarah Patterson) with "animal instincts" that lead to her transformation.[55]

In the manga Tokyo Akazukin the protagonist is an 11-year-old girl nicknamed "Red Riding Hood" or "Red Hood". Akazukin means "red hood" in Japanese.

Jerry Pinkney adapted the story for a children's picture book of the same name (2007).

The American writer James Thurber wrote a satirical short story called "The Little Girl and the Wolf", based on Little Red Riding Hood.

Anne Sexton wrote an adaptation as a poem called "Red Riding Hood" in her collection Transformations (1971), a book in which she re-envisions 16 of the Grimm's Fairy tales.[56]

James Finn Garner wrote an adaptation in his book Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: Modern Tales for Our Life and Times, a book in which thirteen fairy tales were rewritten. Garner's adaptation of "Little Red Riding Hood" brings up topics like feminism and gender norms.[57]

Michael Buckley's children's series The Sisters Grimm includes characters drawn from the fairy tale.

Dark & Darker Faerie Tales by Two Sisters is a collection of dark fairy tales which features Little Red Riding Hood, revealing what happened to her after her encounter with the wolf.

Singaporean artist Casey Chen re-wrote the story with a Singlish accent and published it as The Red Riding Hood Lah!. The storyline largely remains the same, but is set in Singapore and comes with visual hints of the country placed subtly in the illustrations throughout the book. The book is written as an expression of Singaporean identity.

Scarlet is a 2013 novel written by Marissa Meyer that was loosely based on the fairy tale. In the story, a girl named Scarlet tries to find her missing grandmother with the help of a mysterious street fighter called Wolf. It is the second book of The Lunar Chronicles.

The Land of Stories is a series written by Chris Colfer. In it, Red Riding Hood is the queen of the Red Riding Hood Kingdom, whose citizens are called “Hoodians”. She is one of the main characters and helps her friends fight dangerous intruders. She is narcissistic and self-absorbed, but can be useful at times. It is said that she and Goldilocks were good friends, but they both had a crush on Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk, and Red, in vain, misled Goldilocks to the Three Bears House, where she became an outlaw.

Nikita Gill's 2018 poetry collection "Fierce Fairytales: & Other Stories to Stir Your Soul" alludes to Little Red Riding Hood in the poem "The Red Wolf."[58]

In Rosamund Hodge's 2015 novel, Crimson Bound, a girl named Rachelle is forced to serve the realm after meeting dark forces in the woods.

In Lois Lowry's historical novel "Number the Stars", the protagonist Annemarie runs through the woods while fleeing Nazis, reciting the story of Little Red Riding Hood to calm herself down.

The Kentucky writer Cordellya Smith wrote the first Native American version of Little Red Riding Hood, called Kawoni's Journey Across the Mountain: A Cherokee Little Red Riding Hood. It introduces some basic Cherokee words and phrases while drawing Cherokee legends into the children's story.

Music[edit]

A.P. Randolph's 1925 "How Could Red Riding Hood (Have Been So Very Good)?" was the first song known to be banned from radio because of its sexual suggestiveness.[citation needed]

Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs's hit song, "Li'l Red Riding Hood" (1966), take Wolf's point of view, implying that he wants love rather than blood. Here, the Wolf befriends Little Red Riding Hood disguised as a sheep and offers to protect her on her journey through the woods.

The Kelly Family's "The Wolf" (1994) is inspired by the tale, warning the children that there's a Wolf out there. During the instrumental bridge in live shows, the song's lead singer, Joey, does both Little Red Riding Hood's and Wolf's part, where the child asks her grandmother about the big eyes, ears and mouth.

"Little Red Riding Hood" is a rawstyle song by Da Tweekaz, which was later remixed by Ecstatic.[59]

Sunny's concept photo for Girls' Generation's third studio album The Boys was inspired by "Little Red Riding Hood".

Lana Del Rey has an unreleased song called Big Bad Wolf that was inspired by "Little Red Riding Hood".[citation needed]

The music videos of the songs Call Me When You're Sober from American rock band Evanescence and The Hunted from Canadian supergroup Saint Asonia featuring Sully Erna from American heavy metal band Godsmack were inspired by "Little Red Riding Hood".

Rachmaninoff's Op. 39 No. 6 (Études-Tableaux) is nicknamed 'Little Red Riding Hood' for its dark theme and the wolf-like connotations of the piece.

Games[edit]

In the Shrek 2 (2004) video game, she is playable and appears as a friend of Shrek's. She joins him, Fiona, and Donkey on their journey to Far Far Away, despite not knowing Shrek or his friends in the film.

In the computer game Dark Parables: The Red Riding Hood Sisters (2013), the original Red Riding Hood was orphaned when a wolf killed her grandma. A hunter killed the wolf before it could kill her. He took her in as his own out of pity. The Red Riding Hood of this story convinced the hunter to teach her how to fight. They protected the forest together until the hunter was killed during a wolf attack. The Red Riding Hood continued on protecting the forest and took in other orphaned girls and taught them to fight too. They take up wearing a red riding hood and cape to honor their teacher. Even after the death of the original Red Riding Hood the girls continue doing what she did in life.

In the fighting game Darkstalkers 3 (1997), the character Baby Bonnie Hood (known in the Japanese release as Bulleta) is a parody of Little Red Riding Hood, complete with a childish look, red hood and picnic basket. But instead of food, her basket is full of guns and grenades. Her personality is somewhat psychotic, guerrilla-crazy. During the fights, a small dog named Harry watches the action from the sidelines and reacts to her taking damage in battle. Two rifle-wielding huntsmen named John and Arthur briefly appear alongside her in a special power-up move titled "Beautiful Hunting" that inflicts extra damage on opponents. The character may be based on the James Thurber or Roald Dahl versions of the story, where Red pulls a gun from her basket and shoots the wolf, and the idea behind her character was to show that at their worst, humans are scarier than any imaginary monster.

In the free-to-play mobile game Minimon: Adventure of Minions (2016), Luna is a wolflike minion and agent of a secret society with humanlike physical characteristics who wears a red hood when awakened, which references both the Big Bad Wolf and Red Riding Hood.

SINoALICE (2017) is a mobile Gacha game which features Red Riding Hood as one of the main player controlled characters and features in her own dark story-line which features her as a brutally violent girl whose main desire is to inflict violence, pain and death upon her enemies as well as the other fairy-tale characters featured in the game.

Country/Region of Manufacture: United States Year: 1930 Vintage: Yes Character Family: little red riding hood Age Level: 1-2 Years,3-4 Years,4-7 Brand: Unbranded https://www.etsy.com/listing/1053461969

[fredersen]

what is the aarne-thompson-uther index classification for “italian food goes on journey”?

i like to think that the meatball from “on top of spaghetti” went on to do great things but ultimately returned to the one who loved it. like the can from that old chef boyardee commercial

[softlytowardthesun]

Curious: what are your favorite type of fairy stories listed in the Aarne-Thompson enciclopedia classification?

First off, it's nice to meet you and thank you for asking! Secondly, I want to preface this: I'm not a student or a scholar of folklore as a genre, and my knowledge of ATU is limited to what I've managed to find online over the years. More often than not, it's either something I've found on JStor in college, something in a Maria Tatar book, or this website.

Still, I love seeing these stories and all their variations across times and places. Without further ado:

306: The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes: I love the mystery element of this story, and I'm forever intrigued by all the variations of the other world the women travel to, whether it's the palace of Indra, the court of Satan, or something else entirely. Many versions attribute their actions to some curse that must be broken to achieve a heterosexual happy ending, but it's in the in-between that this story really sings to me. And a not-quite-variant of it, "Kate Crackernuts", may just be my favorite fairy tale of all time; how often is the ugly (or at least, "less bonny") stepsister the hero of her own story?

310: The Maiden in the Tower: I'm a sucker for a magical chase, and Rapunzel's relatives absolutely provide. My favorites include "Snow-White-Fire-Red", "The Canary Prince", and "Louliyya, Daughter of Morgan".

311: Magic Flight: Stories of magical escapes from dire situations, like "Sweetheart Roland", "The White Dove", "The Fox Sister", and "The Tail of the Princess Elephant".

407: The Flower Girl: Plants who become women or vice versa, often coupled with an escape from an abusive romance. I love these stories purely for the folkloric weirdness factor: "A Riddling Tale" (shout-out to Erstwhile for introducing me to this one), "The Gold-Spinners", "The Girl in the Bay Tree", and "Pretty Maid Ibronka".

451: Brothers as Birds: This one's purely on my love for the Grimms' "Six Swans" and "Seven Ravens". I love a resilient heroine who draws her strength from her family. I admittedly haven't read many others, but these two mean so much to me they get a place here entirely on the strength of these two.

510B: All-Kinds-Of-Fur: The story of a woman's escape from her incestuous father who then gets a Cinderella ending. I admire the heroine's courage in face of an all too real type of monster. Grimms' is a favorite, as is "Florinda" (which could also qualify as 514), "Princess in a Leather Burqa", "The She-Bear", and "Nya-Nya Bulembu".

514: The Shift of Sex: I first came across this story when I stumbled on Psyche Z. Ready's terrific thesis some years ago and I haven't been able to get it out of my mind since. All of these variations from all over the world -- I find it cathartic to know that we've been asking these questions about gender and sexuality forever, and a happy ending is an imaginative possibility.

709: Fairest of Them All: This I owe squarely to Maria Tatar's anthology from a few years ago. Unfortunately, this also means that there are several I can't find online, including "Kohava the Wonder Child" (a rare Jewish heroine in a genre infamous for how it absorbs anti-Semitism) and "King Peacock" (one of the few African American fairy tales I know, also included in Tatar's collaboration with Henry Louis Gates). I love "Princess Aubergine", "Little Toute-Belle", and especially "Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree" - my little bi self was elated to stumble across a princess who lives happily ever after with her kind and gentle limbo husband and her cunning and resourceful wife.

Even as a hobbyist, I love folklore and fairy tales. I love these little glimpses into other cultures, and I love the way these story structures act as magnets for so many nuances of people's lives across history. Still, I hope this answers your question, gives a glimpse into my experience with fairy tales as a genre, or (at the very least) gives you some new and interesting stories to read!

[adarkrainbow]

The fairytale world of The Witcher

The Witcher is first and foremost a work of fantasy and as such, of course, when looking at the inspirations of Sapkowski, we have to look at fantasy works. For example the early worldbuilding and characters of The Witcher world bear the heavy mark of D&D (Jaskier is a cliche D&D Bard, the classification of elemental genies is traight out of D&D, there's the handlings of "druids", etc...), while the main character clearly has parallels with Moorcock's Elric (white-haired wanderer-warrior who knows magic and uses elixirs, drugs to maintain his fighting abilities, philosophizes a lot about the ending of an age and the future of humanity and the doom he is condemned to). However, The Witcher is also, primarily, a fairytale work.

[EDIT: So I am used to call Jaskier "Jaskier" but in English he is called Dandelion apparently... So know that when I talk of Jaskier, I'm talking about Dandelion]

And I am not just saying that in the way that almost all major fantasy works are inspired by fairytales, no. It tends to be lost on people due to how they usually know derived incarnations of this series, but The Witcher stories started out as full on fairytale rewrites. More precisely: subversives parodies of fairytales using dark humor, a gritty tone proper to dark fantasy, and fantasy tropes in general mixed with some folklore sprinkled here and there.

Of all the Witcher books, the first two are the ones where this logic is on full display, forming the core of each tale. If you ever missed it, here is a little list of the fairytale references in them. [Note: I am using the French translation so I might miss some stuff or write them strangely for those used to the English translations or the original Polish]

Book 1: The Last Wish

Many people might be surprised to learn that the first story, "The Witcher", is actually the parody of a specific fairytale. It might seem to be just a take on the vampire as it appears in Eastern European folklore, but in truth Sapkowski rewrote a tale that you probably do not know. Why? Because none of the "great" collectors or writers have it: it doesn't appear in Andersen, Grimm, Perrault, Aulnoy, Basile, Straparola, or whoever else you might name. It is however a fully classified fairytale-type that is VERY present and popular in Eastern Europe, hence why it appears in The Witcher: the Aarne-Thompson classified it as type 307, "The Princess in the Shroud/The Princess in the Coffin". The closest thing you'll find to a version of this in the "classical" corpus is a Danish fairytale that Andrew Lang placed in his Pink Fairy Book: The Princess in the Chest (and Paul Delarue centered his own French-specific classification of this type around the story "La Ramée and the Phantom"). In interviews the author explained he took "a Polish fairytale" where "the royal daughter transformed into a monster because of the incest of her parents, as a punishment", but I don't known which story prcisely he used.

The second story, A Grain of Truth, is much more obvious, as it is a farcical take on Beauty and the Beast (with some flavors of Undine in it).

The third story, The Lesser Evil, introduces the Curse of the Black Sun, which is the in-universe existence for the "maidens in the tower" and all these princesses that princes have to rescue from doorless buildings (interwoven with the figure of Lilith). The cases of Fialka and Bernika are obviously inspired by the tale of Rapunzel. However the real character of the story, Renfri, is The Witcher's dark take on Snow-White.

A Question of Price is a large mix. The storyline is actually a retelling of Hans My Hedgehog, but exploring the fairytale trope that in Witcher terms is called "the law of surprise" - the episode of someone in need striking a deal with a supernatural being for help, and unwillingly selling away their children (it is most famously illustrated by Grimm's "The Girl without Hands"). One of the "historical" illustrations of this trope in the Witcher universe is a version of Rumplestiltskin (queen Metinna and Rumplestelt). There's also references to great heroes that served as an example of such "fate-striken children" sold to a mysterious stranger - but if there's a cultural nod there, I didn't get it. Finally several fairytales are referred during the discussions: Baba-Yaga and Cinderella are briefly said to exist while "A Question of Price" takes place. And Pavetta's magic is not related to fairytales, but rather to the strange cultural motif of "puberty-induced or virginity-linked psychic powers" found from poltergeists to Carrie.

The fifth story, The Edge of the World, is the only one of the collection not dealing with fairytales. It is rather a tale mixing on one side rural folklore, farming superstitions, field spirits and harvest gods, with on the other an exploration of the fantasy trope of "disappearing elves".

The sixth story, The Last Wish, is all about wish-granting genies, with a strong influence from the tale "The Fisherman and the Jinni".

Book 2: Sword of Destiny

The first story, The Bounds of Reason, is not deconstructing a fairytale per se, but rather the entire myth of the dragon-slaying. You find references to many elements of said myth: "You must kill the dragon to claim the princess", the saint-knight figure interpreting dragons as pure evil, the band of dwarves famed for slaying a dragon seem to me a nod to The Hobbit. But mainly, we see that the tale begins as a subversion/expansion on the legend of Smok Wawelski, the Dragon of Wawel, known to some as the Dragon of Cracovia. There's also a mention of bridge-trolls (The Three Billy Goats Gruff).

The second story, A Shard of Ice, is not linked to fairytales per se, but uses a motif taken directly from The Snow Queen (and in-universe, the fairytale of the Snow Queen is said to be an embellished version of the Wild Hunt).

The third story, Eternal Flame, has no fairytale theme, it is just a pure fantasy story.

The fourth story, A Little Sacrifice, opens and closes on the in-universe love story that caused the story of The Little Mermaid to exist (turns out it is a ballad by Jaskier, the actual romance went much happier, though not smoother). Also, the under-sea city is explicitely compared to the city of Ys, which is a big legend of France.

With the fifth story, Sword of Destiny, we go back into a lot of fairytale nods (it helps that it is a direct sequel to "A Question of Price"). The "Last Forest" of Brokelion is a nod to Brocéliande, the legendary forest of Arthurian legends. Geralt tells Ciri the fable of the Fox and the Cat. Freixenet turns out to have been the inspiration for the fairytale of "The Wild Swans", which in-universe is a ridiculous exaggeration and mistelling of what truly happened.

The sixth story, "Something More", only is "fairytale-y" as it reuses the saw "surprise-child/law of destiny" elements already prepared and presented by A Question of Price and Sword of Destiny.

Afterward, from what I understood (I haven't read the third book onward), the fairytale elements are dropped to rather put focus on the exploration of the fantasy and folkloric elements - but it is always useful to know that it started out as basically a dark humor /dark fantasy take on fairytales.

[what-even-is-thiss]

Hi there! I was just wondering, since you seem to know a lot about mythology and folklore, if you had any way to access the Aarne-Thompson-Uther index online? Thanks a bunch!

[tlaquetzqui]

“The Disney movie marketed as a fairy tale adaptation was never intended to be a fairy tale adaptation” is, I admit, a hot take.

But Cinderella can’t be a whitewashing of its Chinese equivalent because they aren’t actually connected. They just coincidentally have the same structure: they share the same Aarne-Thompson-Uther classification.

The Western European fairy tale whose specific title they used is ATU 440 and is related to Beauty and the Beast. But the Eastern European fairy tale they actually made a movie of is ATU 402, and related to Swan Lake.

Fandom Problem #6505:

People treating the new Little Mermaid as a holy grail. I've seen people praising it before it's even come out, telling people that they're going to bring their kids to it all because the Little Mermaid is now black and FINALLY they have a black princess!

Meanwhile we've had the Princess and the Frog (something new rather than blackwashing a princess) for a decade and people seem to be forgetting that. It's frustrating because it's been proven that we don't have to blackwash characters to have a new, original, and successful princess. But naw, screw original works. Racebend an old popular thing instead of making a new popular thing.

[lowkeynando]

The Bear is a fairy tale collected by Andrew

Lang in The Grey Fairy Book. [1] It is Aarne-Thompson classification system type 510B, unnatural love. Others of this type include Cap O' Rushes, Catskin, Little Cat Skin, Allerleirauh, The King who Wished to Marry His Daughter, The She-Bear, Tattercoats, Mossycoat, The Princess That Wore A Rabbit-Skin Dress, and Donkeyskin, or the legend of Saint Dymphna. [2]

[3 A king loved his daughter so much that he kept her in her rooms for fear harm would come to her. She complained to her nurse; unbeknownst to her, the nurse was a witch. She told her to get a wheelbarrow and a bearskin from the king. The king gave them to her, the nurse enchanted them, and when the princess put on the skin, it disguised her, and when she got into the wheelbarrow, it took her wherever she wanted to go. She had it take her to a forest.

A prince hunted her, but when she called to him to call off his dogs, he was so astounded that he asked her to come home with him. She agreed and went in the wheelbarrow. His mother was surprised, and more when the bear began to do housework as well as any servant. One day, the prince had to go to a ball given by a neighbouring prince. The bear wanted to go, and he kicked it. When he left, she implored his mother for leave to just go and watch. With it, she went to her wheelbarrow and used the wands CLONES