fairy tales:

• short story, found in oral or literary form
• histories of most fairy tales are hard to trace
• some have existed for thousands of years
• many exist in variations in multiple cultures
• many have been adapted to make them less gruesome than the original versions
  • new ones continue to be written today

common elements:

• good character (hero/heroine) and evil character
• royalty/wealth and poverty
• magic and enchantments
• plants and animals- sometimes speak or have human traits
• fantasy characters- fairies, elves, giants, dragons, mermaids etc
• usually take place “once upon a time” rather than an actual time
• usually take place in “a far away land” rather than an actual place

brothers grimm:

• german brothers jacob and wilhem grimm were among first collectors to try and preserve and transcribe oral fairy tales
• collected german fair tales primarily
• influenced and inspired others to collect fairy tales as well