About Fairytales and Folk Lore as a Literary Genre.

The originators of most fairytales are unknown, presumably because they weren´t written down before somewhere in our century. It´s also characteristic for fairytales that the same story pops up in different variations from different places in the world with local and national adjustments.

What first and foremost characterises a folktale is, that they were originally told by word of mouth for many generations, and that´s why they´ve changed a bit in relation to the culture they were a part of.

linguistically the folk tale is marked by daily speech, and it has a rather simple composition of sentences and the expressions are usually very concrete. It´s also from the fairytales that most clichés comes from, and still comes from.

There are certain very prominent characteristica which are common in most fairytales.

• introduction: "Once upon a time..."
• only the essential events are in the fairytales.
• The story is usually concentrated about a single person, also known as the hero.
• Oppositions and inequalities are accentuated-
• The number three goes again many times. The three brothers, princess, roads etc.
• There´s always a happy ending. All conflicts resolved.
• The fairytale genre can be split into three main groups.

1. Folk Tales.
This is the largest group of all, and it can be split up in several undercategories. Myths, legends, and tales. What´s characteristic about them are that they are relatively lang, and split up in several episodes.

2. Fables
Rather short tales where the main character is a personficated animal. Aesops Fables is an excellent example of this genre.

3. Jesting stories.
Stories where there´s made fun of persons and quality...Erotic fairytales and tall stories also belong here.

Besides from that, there´s also artictic fairytales, and they basically use the same material as the folk tales. The big difference is just, that the author is known, and one of the most famous fairytale writers is probably H.C.Andersen. He also wrote in all the three before mentioned genres.

The folk tale was originally told for all age groups, and its first in our time that fairytales more are considered for kids, either as pure entertainment or as a way of telling them in a symbolic form about the difference of good and evil. The Fairytale lives on in within the adults still though, often as horrorstories from deserted highways, or empty houses. Stephen King anybody? But also TV-shows which people follow have strong characteristics from the fairytales.

The fairytale tradition also reflects our cultures norms and morals in a high degree, in the society they´re created in without too much wind talk, and its not just the moral and the contents which changes. It´s also the shape. The fairytale genre is becoming more and more comprehensive. I can mention Tolkiens "The Lord of the Rings" here, or "The 10th Kingdom" as a more classical example - along with the whole fantasy genre.

Fairytales are first and foremost entertainment, but they also have a deeper meaning because they tell something basic about human needs, reason and emotions, and how humans in a more or less degree is in the middle of its own fairytale - because the fairytale reflects the reality humans are placed in. It´s just a 50/50 with the happy endings in reality.