All About Fairy Tales
What is a fairy tale? That's a hard question to answer. Hans Christian Anderson, Jan Brett and John Ruskin all used inspiration from traditional folktales to write fairytales. In fact, folktales and fairy tales are very similar.
Folktales grow out of the oral tradition of storytelling. They are not the work of a single author but rather the work of many cumulative authors. Each teller makes personal changes to suit his personality and audience.
Just to complicate matters, a folktale containing fairies, elves, trolls, dwarfs, giants, and other imaginary creatures is usually called a fairytale. A fairytale is often a story about royalty, rather than common folk. Thus fairytales can be considered a sub-category of folktales, but the name is often used interchangeably.
Folktales grow out of the oral tradition of storytelling. They are not the work of a single author but rather the work of many cumulative authors. Each teller makes personal changes to suit his personality and audience.
Just to complicate matters, a folktale containing fairies, elves, trolls, dwarfs, giants, and other imaginary creatures is usually called a fairytale. A fairytale is often a story about royalty, rather than common folk. Thus fairytales can be considered a sub-category of folktales, but the name is often used interchangeably.