Your favourite Fairytales

[Thesleepypencil]

that story sounds super fun i need to look it up.

also i think the seven swans is verry similar to the seven ravens and both are super fun

[Thesleepypencil]

Hans christian anderson also wrote thumbelina and while the whole story is a little sketchy in some points, it ends on a good note.

also he wrote the little mermaid with a ending that is both sad but he perseived as good. The little mermaid had while wanting and loosing the prince, also was in want of a soul which mermaids didn't have. So once he broke her heart and she chose to kill herself. she was turned into what could be concidered an angel and was given the quest of being able to do a certain amount of good deeds she would be granted the soul she wanted.

[NickRowler]

My favorite it probably Godfather Death. It's sort of obscure.

I also like The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was. (My sister also likes this one)

When it comes to well know ones, my favorite is The Tin Soldier

[Thesleepypencil]

I've never heard Godfather death it sounds interesting???

I HAVE heard the story of the youth who went for to learn what fear was. I like it. It slightly reminded me of the boy who drew cats. though be are fairly different.

The tin soldier is more like the more known of the lesser known than a well known one. kinda like the little matchstick girl. known but not largely.
but the rin soldier is adorable <3

[bakasama25]

I'm not sure if Frankenstein is a fairy tale, it seems to me like an early sci fi story.

The Oz books, are fairy tales but more modern, more American. Still, Oz has some things you wouldn't usually find in fairy tales like history of it's kingdom, a map of a kingdom, a really large cast of characters and a series of sequels..

[demthorshie]

Oh! The little match girl is heart wrenching yet beautiful! I remember being sad all day the first time I ready this :S!

[noctuidae]

Bluebeard is less of a favorite and more of something that terrified me as a child, but if it sticks out in my mind that much then it's worth mentioning haha. The mental image of the room filled with wives still gives me shivers.

[timinabox24]

the girl with matches ;-;
i cri evritiem ;-;

[phen]

It totally etched into my memory like that, too! I asked my mom about it because I thought maybe I misunderstood the story (I was like, "SHE FROZE TO DEATH AND THIS IS HAPPY??") and she explained to me it's actually about how the little girl was so caught up in her dreams, she didn't feel any pain/wasn't actually lonely when she died.

SO YEAH, that pretty much shaped how important I feel like chasing your dream is -- it's just a dream of your own, but even once you reach the end, you won't be sad and alone~

[AnnaLandin]

Oooh, I have a bunch! Fairytales are fun!

I always liked the Swedish fairytale Prins Hatt under jorden, or Prince Hat underground.

A king who is on his way home stumbles upon a bunch of enchanted leaves that he wants to give to his youngest daughter. The enchanted leaves belongs to Prince Hat, who says the king can have them, if in exchange Prince Hat is given the first living creature the king encounters when he returns home.

Because you all know how fairytales work, of course the first person the king encounter is his daughter, so she goes to Prince Hat. The quirk here is that a.) prince Hat is under a spell that means he cannot allow anyone to see him, so he comes to see her only at night, in the dark. In some versions of the fairytale they have a bunch of kids, in some they don't, but one night the curiosity overwhelms her and she gets a candle and lights it after he has fallen asleep to see what he looks like. Unfortunately, she spills a bit of wax on him, waking him up, and Prince Hat is distraught as his curse takes effect - he is a.) captured by a nasty witch and sometimes b.) blinded. The princess then has to go rescue him by breaking his curse.

It's pretty unusual in that it is a fairytale in which a princess has to rescue a prince, rather than the other way around. It's been a favourite of mine since I was a kid, and read a version of the story in which Prince Hat is a giant bear-like monster most of the time, except for that time when she lights the candle and sees that he is actually a man. It's kinda like Beauty and the Beast, except Prince Hat is never a grumpy-pants to the princess, and she gets to go on a quest and rescue him at the end.

I also like the Russian fairytales of the beautiful Vasilissa, and the one about Ivan Tzarevitch, the Firebird and the Grey Wolf. Russian fairytales tend to be quite... dark? The story of Ivan and the Firebird, at least in the version I read it, contained some quite gruesome dismemberment, and the story of Vasilissa involves her finding her way through the woods with the help of a torch made of a skull with glowing eye-holes on a stick, IIRC.

[heyitsnessa]

omg I thought I was the only one that loves fairy tales! XD

My favorite fairy tale is The Little Mermaid (Hans Christian Anderson's version), mostly because I love mermaids ;w; but also because I find the story more touching than Disney's version.
I also like The Snow Queen (another Hans Christian Anderson tale XD), Beauty and the Beast, and The Nightingale ^u^

[maximumthemokona]

My favorite fairy tale... I actually didn't know the title for the longest time, I just referred to it as "Molly's story" because that's the protagonist's name and I begged my mom to recite it for me every night since before I can remember. When I asked my mother about it she said she'd heard it on some radio program, but she'd been telling it over and over to me for so long she changed and added a few details.
Now that Google exists I can actually look it up, it's a Scottish fairy tale entitled "Molly Whuppie" (Wikipedia entry here). I think I liked it so much because it's a story similar to Jack and the Beanstalk, but with a female protagonist. And she's such a total daredevil that she challenges the giant MULTIPLE TIMES, rather than just settling in with a prince and a reward after the first run. I think Molly might be one of the few girls in fairy tales who's genuinely hungry for adventure rather than just trying to survive misfortune. (And after all is said and done, she got married to the king's youngest, so she doesn't even have to be queen! Molly had it all figured out!)

[Thesleepypencil]

I've read a couple similar to Prince hat! I read one where the prince is a bear, and where the prince is a pig! never actual prince hat though.

I also really enjoy Russian fairytales. when i was little i had the animated movie for the magic pony. which i think involves Ivan and the firebird? and i LOVE LOVE LOVE it. since it is about Ivan who had been given a gift of a magic pony from a magical stallion. and the pony helps him capturing a fire bird, and a maiden of the sea, and a ring at the bottom of the sea. the story had a good ending though, he jumped into a vat of boiling oil and popped back out a prince.

[AnnaLandin]

@Thesleepypencil The version of Ivan and the Firebird that I've read goes a little something like this (summarised):

There's a king who has a lovely garden with walls all around it. In the garden is a tree with golden apples - and every morning, one more apple is missing. The king, wanting to find out who is stealing from him, sets his three sons the task of taking turns guarding the tree. Ivan's two older brothers fall asleep on the job and miss the thief, but each night an apple goes missing. Ivan manages to stay awake and finds out that it is a firebird who is stealing the apples.

He grabs the firebird's tailfeather and brings to his father as evidence. The king tells his three sons to go out and find the firebird and bring it back to him - firebirds are way cooler than golden apples! The three brothers set off, and split up at a crossroads. Ivan goes his own way and makes friends with a wolf, accidentally finds a cool horse, and with the help of the wolf manages to a.) save a princess, and b.) find the firebird. He heads back, triumphant, to the crossroads to meet up with his brothers.

His brothers, seeing their dumb baby brother turn up with a cool wolf, a cooler horse, a very pretty princess AND the firebird, decide that that is SO not fair - those things were clearly meant for them to have, because they're older.

So, uh.

So, they knock Ivan unconscious, drag his body out into the woods, and cut it to pieces. As you do.

They leave him to rot, take his cool new stuff, and go home to their father the king - but they leave the wolf behind. So the wolf runs off (versions differ - one says to a magic island that floats/sinks in the sea, others say to Baba Yaga the witch) and finds a magic potion that can ressurrect the dead, and uses it on Ivan. Ivan thanks the wolf, and they go back to the king's castle - just in time for Ivan to tell the truth to his father, and marry the princess before his oldest brother does.

... Russian fairytales - they just wouldn't be the same without the copious amount of violence.

[ashriott]

I agree with @phenylketonurics definitely the Little Match Girl! It's a real bawl fest : (

Some of my others favorites - Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling.

Another really lovely fairytale is The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde. It's about a gold statue of a prince wanting to help the poor. With the help of a robin, the prince sacrifices his beauty by stripping himself of his gold and sapphire eyes and giving them to those in need. Since he was no longer beautiful, he was torn down and melted.

[Thesleepypencil]

alot more violent but definetly has some elements of the magic pony <3 I love.

I definetly recomend IF you can find it watching the animated movie because not only is it such a similar story. but it's that classical russian animation like the snow queen so backgrounds and artistic style are really nice.

[niinasalmelin]

Grimm brothers

YES.

Also I love these old fairytales with animals. Like the one about Fox trying to lure the Crow to open it's mouth, so that it'd drop the cheese it's holding. Fox was always smart but cunning, bear and wolf were a bit more dumb and so on. BFG (Big Friendly Giant) is also one of my favourite books when I was growing up, and I'm excited over the movie that's coming out this summer!

Also they are more of folktales than fairytales but I absolutely love finnish national-epic Kalevala.

[bakasama25]

Well, I do find many fairy tales do have earlier versions that are pretty violent or messed up. Like the original version of Sleeping Beauty, "Talia, Sun, and Moon".

I've been a while since I read that in a while but I do remember, a wandering king, rape, bastard children, and a very pissed off wife.

[Thesleepypencil]

I remember reading somewhere, and this was only for the grimm brothers. So the grimm brothers original ORIGINAL versions of the stories weren't as violent as people thought. Instead they were extremely sexual in their telling. But when people commented on the stories they said they wanted it less sexual. So in spit of everyone they made it less sexy times and more voilent bad times.

((It's been years since i read this and sometimes i wonder if it's true or not but it in itself makes me laugh))

[bakasama25]

Yeah, some of those stories were changed to make them less sexual. Like how Cinderella got her glass shoes. In one version, I think the French version, had "fur slippers" but since they seemed to refer to a female body part, it was changed to glass.