Once Upon a Time…
Think back to when you were young. What were some of the first stories that your parents and grandparents told you? I bet some of them were fairy tales – Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs…
Tell a Fairy Tale Day is on 26 February. It’s the perfect day for you to read fairy tales to your children or enjoy your favourite childhood tales yourself – there are plenty of fairy tales for adults to enjoy as well.
But what are fairy tales? They are stories featuring fantasy characters (talking animals, pixies, ogres) and magic (fairy godmothers, turning straw into gold). Fairy tales can be set anywhere, from a castle (Sleeping Beauty) to a pond (The Ugly Duckling). Most fairy tales have a moral lesson too: hard work is important (The Three Little Pigs) or slow and steady wins the race (The Tortoise and the Hare). In them, evil characters are punished and good characters live happily ever after.
Researchers at universities in Durham and Lisbon have been studying fairy tales, and they found that Beauty and the Beast and Rumpelstiltskin are about 4,000 years old. Can you imagine our Bronze Age ancestors sitting around a camp fire telling these stories? That’s how fairy tales have been passed down – by word of mouth. Today, there are more than 500 versions of Cinderella alone. Find out where fairy tales came from here.
Fairy tales are told all around the world, from Australia to Zambia. Some of our favourites are Tiddalick the Frog, an Aboriginal story about a frog who drank all the water in Australia, and Farmer Jack and the Leprechaun, an Irish story about a farmer who is tricked by a leprechaun. If you’re looking for more fairy tales from around the world, read this.
Fairy tales are important because they spark the imagination. They make children think. What if Goldilocks hadn’t stopped in the Three Bears’ Cottage? What if Little Red Riding Hood had gone straight to her grandma’s house? Why not get your children to write an alternative ending to their favourite fairy tale, or a brand-new fairy tale of their own?
What are some of your favourite tales?
Fairy Tales For Younger Children
Some fairy tales can be scary! Tales that are ideal for younger children include The Ugly Duckling, The Gingerbread Man, Jack and the Beanstalk and The Hare and the Tortoise. If you’re looking for more fairy tales for younger children, see here.
Have you ever wanted to star in your own fairy tale? Find out how here!
Or you could download the British Library’s free Once upon an adventure activity pack and go on a thrilling adventure with Little Red Riding Hood and the big bad wolf.
Our last blog was about the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch – did you get out there and count the birds in your garden or green space? Keep an eye out for our next blog, about the life cycle of a frog. Wait a minute, can you think of a fairy tale featuring a frog? How about The Frog Prince? In it, a princess loses her golden ball in a pond. A frog pops up and offers to fetch it for her. The princess agrees, and in return the frog asks for a kiss. She agrees – but when the frog brings her ball, she refuses to kiss him and runs away. In the end, she finally kisses the frog, as she had promised to do – and he turns into a handsome prince! The moral of the story? Always keep your promises.
And the prince and the princess lived happily ever after.