Fairy Tales, of which this is the first volume, follows without break
an earlier book, Rhymes and Stories, and is made up chiefly of Märchen,
or nursery tales, with a few drolls, or comic anecdotes. The term
“fairy tale” has been used in its popular sense as including “tales in
which occurs something ‘fairy,’ something extraordinary,—giants,
fairies, dwarfs, speaking animals. It must also be taken to cover tales
in which what is extraordinary is the stupidity of the actors.”
The tales are usually romantic, with a definite plot, but without
emphasis on the point of their being fact or fiction. They do not
locate the hero in history or require a definite time or place, but
begin with “Once upon a time, in a certain town or village,” or with
some equally indefinite introduction. They deal with the supernatural,
and always end well for the hero or heroine. They have usually been
retold from their original traditional form by some skilled
story-teller. Very few are distinctly English, though those from other
lands have been adopted by English-speaking peoples.
Sagas, of which “Jack the Giant Killer” is an example, differ from the
other classes in having definite localities and dates assigned to them.
They have been reserved for Tales of Old England, which immediately
follows in the series. We have been compelled to omit from these
volumes many tales which are worthy favorites, but with at least as
many fairy stories as are here collected every child should be
familiar. The aim has been to give a proportionate representation to
each of the great story-tellers, and to each kind of story, and to
introduce the best examples of the leading motifs of folklore. The
original sources have been sought out in every case,—in English
chapbooks, in collections of 1696 and 1795, in German and Old
French,—and these versions have been carefully and minutely compared
with the best versions of later times and of the present. Besides the
scholarly interest attaching to such research, the practical effect has
been to simplify the stories by dropping off the fanciful additions
made by successive editors and returning to the beautiful simplicity
and the clear, forceful language of these wonderful products of the
story-teller’s art.