Il etais une fois...

Welcome to the Fairy Tale Project! This is a collection of images, sound bytes, videos, questions, and more pertaining to a whole world of legends, myths, folklore, and fairy tales. Feel free to suggest your favorite tales!

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Just a heads up

I'm actually moving uh, today, so we'll have some intermittent A-T 480's and will move on when I get settled tomorrow.

Thanks for your patience folks! 

And as always, feel free to request a fairy tale! If  I haven't answered or queued some for ya, please ask again. My inbox has been eating messages like there's no tomorrow.

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“Mother Hulda” by fundervogel

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Hermann Vogel- Mother Hulda

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“Mother Hulda” by Natalia Pierandrei

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I just made that because i wanted to

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by Frankly 

his illustrations are SO INTERESTING, I may queue some up later...

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“Mother Hulda” by Jana Schirmer

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Mother Hulda / Frau Holle - the Brother's Grimm

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Aarne-Thompson Index 480

The Brothers Grimm first collected the story as "Frau Holle" or Mother Hulde in 1812.

Charles Perrault wrote "Diamonds and Toads" or  "Les Fées" in 1697.

Antti Aarne classified it as "The Spinning-Women by the Spring" in 1910.

  More commonly, these tales are known as "the Kind and Unkind Girls."

Over 900 unique versions of this tale have been collected world wide and at least one intrepid folklorist decided to write them all down.

Location and society where the tale is told causes certain aspects to change, but enough remains the same that it is recognizable across the globe. 

  There are two girls, one is "good" and one is "bad."

The "good" girl goes on a journey and respectfully assists those who ask her (usually three).

At the end of her journey, she meets a magical being.

She assists this being even at great difficulty or cost to herself.

She is rewarded for her "goodness" and work by this magical being- most commonly in gold- and sent home.

When she returns, the "bad" girl is jealous of her wealth and sets out to recreate the results.

However, the "bad" girl fails the tests and usually is only nice to the being at the end.

The being sees through her rouse and punishes her, usually quite horrendously.

  I'm going to queue up some of these variants (not all 900, but some!) and y'all can tell me what your favorites are or what you notice about them (if you feel so moved).

  Shout out to Sephirose for requesting "Diamonds and Toads"! Thanks for sparking this on!

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Aarne-Thompson Index Adventure

TL;DR - still accepting requests, fairy tales now accompanied by snippets of the fairy tale pokedex

Preface/Explanation under the cut

First off- I am not a folklorist. I am not even studying anthropology, I simply love fairy tales. I especially love how a fairy tale can travel and change across the globe, and yet maintain its poignancy and meaning.

If I make an error or misstep in some way- feel free to let me know. I don't bite and honestly am flying by the seat of my pants here. I'm doing this out of interest and am not hip to all the typical folklorist resources. If you find something relevant or just plain nifty- I want to know!

That being said.. I've wanted to explore the Aarne-Thompson classification system in more depth for a while and by for a while I mean since I was 8. 

So from here on, I'll be queuing fairy tales as they pertain to that system. I won't go in order and some tales may get more in depth postings than others, and I'll still be accepting encouraging requests.

I just want to see where this goes, haha. 

Feedback is welcome, as is discussion- I'm up for anything! So far ye folk who remain seem content with what I've posted, soooo I'll just keep going for now. 

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Jennifer Murdley's Toad by Bruce Coville is an adaptation of the fairy tale Diamonds and Toads by Charles Perrault

I haven't read it in AGES, but what I remember is that it's wonderful and unexpected.

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Margaret Evans Price, “Diamonds and Toads”, 1921

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Diamonds and Toads by Malisasuchanya 

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Diamonds and Toads by Ewaludwi 

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The Effects of a Sweet Nature by ~hannahbird

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Mother Hulda by ~asiapasek

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Queen of Toads and Vipers by Punchinella-Punch on deviantArt,