Click the play button at the website below to hear why National Day Calendar® celebrates National Tell A Fairy Tale Day.
What were once oral histories, myths, and legends retold around the fire or by traveling storytellers, have been written down and become known the world over as fairy tales.
The origins of most fairy tales were unseemly and would not be approved or rated as appropriate for children by the Association of Fairy Tales by today’s standards. Most were told as a way to make children behave, teach a lesson or pass the time much like ghost stories around a campfire today.
Many of the stories have some basis in truth. For example, some believe the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is inspired by the real-life of Margaretha von Waldeck, the daughter of Philip IV, the 16th century Count of Waldeck-Wildungen.
The area of Germany where the royal family lived was known for mining. Some of the tunnels were so tight they had to use children – or small people such as dwarfs – to work the mines.
Margaretha’s beauty is well documented, and she had a stepmother who sent her away. She fell in love with a prince but mysteriously died at around twenty or twenty-one before she could have her happily ever after. In Waldeck chronicles, it was suggested that she had been poisoned.
As the stories evolved, they took on a more magical quality with fictional characters such as fairies, giants, mermaids and gnomes, and sometimes gruesome story plots.
Toes cut off to fit into a glass slipper, a wooden marionette killing his cricket with a mallet or instead of kissing that frog prince he must be decapitated...but those are the unrated versions.
Obviously, Uncle Walt would have none of that.
German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers and authors Jacob Ludwig Karl and Wilhelm Car (beast known as The Brothers Grimm) collected and published some of the more well-known tales of folklore we are familiar with today during the 19th century.
Jakob and his brother Wilhelm together set out on a quest to preserve these tales at a time in history when a tradition of oral storytelling was fading. Published between 1812–1858, they compiled their first volume of stories.
These were called Grimm's Fairy Tales (originally known as the Children's and Household Tales). Their stories had a darker quality and were clearly meant for an adult audience.
Rumpelstiltskin is one of the tales they collected. There were several versions, and the little man went by many names in different parts of Europe. From Trit-a-trot in Ireland to Whuppity Stoorie in Scotland, Rumplestiltskin was one difficult man to identify.
While some storytellers have a long and sometimes ancient history such as the Greek fabulist and storyteller Aesop (The Fox and the Goose, The Ant and the Grasshopper), others are more recent like the Brothers Grimm.
Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, first published in 1829, brought to us written versions of The Princess and the Pea (1835), Thumbelina (1835), The Little Mermaid (1837),The Ugly Duckling (1843), The Snow Queen (1844) and many more.
Where the Brothers Grimm’s tales could take on a darker cast and unmistakably written with adults in mind, Andersen’s stories are sweet and warm.
HOW TO OBSERVE
How to Tell a Great Story:
- • Engage your audience. Children like to participate. Have them quack every time the Ugly Duckling is mentioned, or make the motions of climbing Jack’s beanstalk.
- • Use repetition. Repeated stanzas, syllables or movements will keep the kids engaged. It not only helps them to remember the story but sets them up for the next round of the repeated phrase or stanza.
- • Give your characters a voice. Nobody likes a monotone storyteller. Buehler, Buehler, Buehler. No, not even children like the monotone. Varying your voice for each character and inflecting excitement, sadness and disappointment will create drama and stimulate the imaginations of the little minds listening to you.
- • Ask questions as you go. It’s an excellent way to keep your story flowing and to gauge the children’s listening skills.
- • Find out if someone has a story of their own. You might be in the presence of a great storyteller!
Share your favorite fairy tale with friends and family. Try relating them from memory as this has long been a tradition. Visit a library or local bookstore for storytime. Use #TellAFairyTaleDay to post on social media.
HISTORY
Within the research of National Day Calendar®, they were unable to find the creator or the origin of National Tell A Fairy Tale Day.
What is your favorite fairy tale?
#TellAFairyTaleDay
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