219 Fun Facts About Fairy Tales

The Brothers Grimm published the first volume of their Children's and Household Tales in which year?

The collection grew from 86 stories to more than 200 across seven editions; the last, in 1857, is the version most people know.

Which massive scholarly project did the Grimms begin in 1838 and leave unfinished at their deaths?

The Deutsches Wörterbuch was completed by other scholars only in 1961; Jacob also gave his name to Grimm's law in linguistics.

Charles Perrault's 1697 collection of Cinderella, Puss in Boots and Sleeping Beauty carried what subtitle?

The full title was Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités; Perrault was a member of the Académie française.

Hans Christian Andersen was born in 1805 in which Danish city?

He moved to Copenhagen at 14 to try acting; his 156 fairy tales have been translated into more than 125 languages.

The term 'fairy tale' (conte de fées) was coined in the late 17th century by which French writer?

She first used it in her 1697 collection; the genre itself had been marked out earlier by the Italians Straparola and Basile.

Cinderella is tale type 510A in which standard folk-tale catalogue, named for three scholars?

Finnish folklorist Antti Aarne published it in 1910; Stith Thompson expanded it in English and Hans-Jörg Uther revised it in 2004.

What steals the sandal of Rhodopis in Strabo's tale, the earliest known Cinderella story?

The bird drops it in the lap of the king of Egypt, who searches the country for its owner; her name means 'rosy-cheeks'.

Which three elements did Perrault add to Cinderella that were not in earlier versions?

Basile's 1634 Cenerentola already had the stepmother, stepsisters and missing slipper; the Grimms' Aschenputtel has a hazel tree and helpful birds instead of a godmother.

In the Grimms' 1812 first edition of Snow White, who was the villain who wanted the girl dead?

Later editions softened it to a stepmother; the huntsman is told to bring back the girl's lungs and liver as proof.

How is the wicked queen punished at the end of the Grimms' Snow White?

The punishment takes place at Snow White's wedding; Disney's 1937 film, the studio's first feature, dropped it.

The seven dwarfs were first given individual names in what?

Disney gave them different names again for the film; the Grimm tale, number 53 in the collection, leaves them anonymous.

In Basile's 'Sun, Moon, and Talia' (1634), the first literary Sleeping Beauty, what makes the heroine sleep?

Perrault and the Grimms switched it to a spindle; in the Grimm version the fairies are 'wise women' and the sleep lasts a hundred years.

In Perrault's original Little Red Riding Hood, what happens after the wolf eats the girl?

The Grimms added the huntsman who cuts the wolf open and fills its belly with stones.

In the Grimms' Little Red Riding Hood, how does the wolf finally die?

The same trick ends 'The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids'; in traditional German tellings the stones simply make him collapse.

The witch's house in Hansel and Gretel is described in the Grimm tale as made of what?

Gretel pushes the witch into her own oven; the tale was set to opera by Engelbert Humperdinck in 1893.

How did the Grimms change who abandons Hansel and Gretel between 1810 and 1850?

The brothers probably heard the story in 1809 from the family of Wilhelm's future wife Dortchen Wild.

In the Grimms' revised 1857 ending, how does Rumpelstiltskin meet his end after his name is guessed?

He drives his right foot into the ground up to his waist and rips himself apart pulling on the left; researchers trace the tale back some 4,000 years.

The English cousin of Rumpelstiltskin, collected by Joseph Jacobs in 1890, is called what?

Whuppity Stoorie is the Scottish version and Gilitrutt the Icelandic one; all share the guess-my-name plot.

In the Grimms' Rapunzel, the pregnant wife craves which plant from the witch's garden, the source of the name?

The Grimms' tale descends from the French 'Persinette' (parsley) and the Italian 'Petrosinella'; all three heroines are named after garden greens.

In the Grimms' 'The Frog King, or Iron Henry', how does the princess break the spell?

The kiss is a later invention; the tale's full title is 'The Frog King, or Iron Henry' after the prince's faithful servant.

In Puss in Boots, the cat claims his master, a miller's youngest son, is a nobleman with what title?

The eldest brother got the mill, the middle one the donkey and the youngest only the cat; Antonio Banderas voices him in the Shrek films.

Perrault's Bluebeard is a wealthy man with what habit?

His latest wife is saved by her brothers after her sister Anne watches from the tower; the forbidden room and bloodstained key are the tale's famous motifs.

Which French novelist first wrote down Beauty and the Beast in 1740?

Beaumont's 1756 version cut the cast down and became the standard; the design of Cocteau's 1946 Beast was inspired by the hairy courtier Petrus Gonsalvus.

The ogre's cry 'Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman' comes from which tale?

Jack trades the family cow for the beans; researchers trace the story type back more than five thousand years.

In Robert Southey's original 1837 'Story of the Three Bears', who breaks into the bears' house?

The bears were three bachelors; the intruder later became a girl called Silver-Hair and only in the 20th century Goldilocks.

'Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin' first appeared in print in 1886 in whose collection?

Joseph Jacobs' 1890 English Fairy Tales, crediting Halliwell, gave the story its best-known form; an earlier Dartmoor version starred pixies and a fox.

According to the Hamelin chronicle, how many children followed the Pied Piper out of the town in 1284?

The account was written on the last page of a Latin chronicle; music and dancing are still forbidden on the street they left by.

Antoine Galland added Aladdin to the Arabian Nights after hearing it from a storyteller from which city?

Hanna Diyab, a Maronite Syrian, met Galland in Paris in 1709; Aladdin and Ali Baba are known as the 'orphan tales'.

In Andersen's original mermaid tale, what does the sea witch take in exchange for giving her legs?

Every step feels like walking on knives, and when the prince marries another she dissolves into sea foam rather than killing him.

At what age is a mermaid in Andersen's tale first allowed to swim to the surface?

Her grandmother explains that mermaids live about 300 years but have no immortal soul, which is what the heroine really wants.

The Ugly Duckling turns out to be what kind of bird?

Published in 1843, the tale is often read as Andersen's account of his own awkward youth.

In The Emperor's New Clothes, who finally says out loud that the emperor is wearing nothing?

Andersen adapted a medieval Spanish tale in which the invisible cloth exposed men who were not their fathers' true sons.

Andersen's princess proves herself by feeling a pea through how many mattresses and featherbeds?

It appeared in Andersen's very first booklet of tales in May 1835 and became the 1959 Broadway musical Once Upon a Mattress with Carol Burnett.

In Andersen's The Snow Queen, what does the troll's magic mirror do?

When it shatters, splinters lodge in Kai's eye and heart; his friend Gerda's rescue journey is one of Andersen's longest stories, published in 1844.

Besides The Tinderbox and The Princess and the Pea, which tale was in Andersen's first 1835 fairy-tale booklet?

The booklet was 61 unbound pages; The Little Mermaid and The Emperor's New Clothes followed in the third instalment in 1837.

Which Neapolitan writer's 1634 collection contains 'La Gatta Cenerentola', the first Western Cinderella?

His Pentamerone also holds the first full Sleeping Beauty and a Rapunzel ancestor; 'Cenerentola' comes from the Italian for ash or cinder.

The Chinese Cinderella tale of Ye Xian was written down by Duan Chengshi around which year?

It appears in Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang and predates every European version by centuries.

The Grimm brothers, who grew up in Hanau, studied at which university?

Jacob was born in 1785 and Wilhelm in 1786; both later worked as librarians and professors at Göttingen and Berlin.

Where did the Grimms mostly gather their tales, despite the image of them roaming peasant villages?

The Wild family and other middle-class friends in Kassel supplied many; Dortchen Wild, whom Wilhelm married, contributed to Hansel and Gretel.

According to researchers at Durham University and NOVA University Lisbon, some fairy tales such as Rumpelstiltskin may date back to which era?

By tracing story types across Indo-European languages they estimated ages of 4,000 to 5,000 years for several tale types.

In the Grimms' Aschenputtel, which birds blind the stepsisters at the wedding in a coda added in 1819?

The same white doves had helped her sort lentils; the sisters had already cut off a toe and a heel to fit the slipper.

Perrault's Sleeping Beauty was later retold by the Grimms under what German title?

The Grimm version added the thorny rose hedge; a precursor appears in the 14th-century French romance Perceforest.

Andersen's tale in which a one-legged tin figure loves a paper ballerina is called what?

It is among his most famous alongside The Red Shoes and The Little Match Girl; his tales inspired ballets, plays and films.

The word 'fairy' ultimately derives from fata, a Latin word meaning what?

It came into English via Old French faerie, and the same root gives us 'fay'.

In folklore, which metal is traditionally a charm against fairies?

Open iron scissors left by a cradle were thought to stop fairies swapping the baby.

In fairy lore, what is a changeling?

The 1895 killing of Bridget Cleary in Ireland followed accusations that she was one.

The wings on fairies in Victorian paintings are actually what, according to folklorists?

The tiny, winged, flower-dwelling fairy is largely a 19th-century artistic creation.

The 1917 Cottingley Fairies photographs were taken by two cousins near which English city?

Elsie Wright was 16 and Frances Griffiths was 9; they finally admitted the fakery in 1983.

Which author used the Cottingley photographs in a 1920 Strand Magazine article on fairies?

The creator of Sherlock Holmes was a committed spiritualist and believed the pictures were genuine.

How did the Cottingley girls create their fairies?

Elsie copied the dancing fairies from illustrations in Princess Mary's Gift Book.

Tinker Bell first appeared in which J. M. Barrie play?

The 1904 play was novelised in 1911 as Peter and Wendy.

Why is Tinker Bell called 'Tinker'?

Barrie made her 'an actual tinker of the fairy folk'; her speech is the sound of a tinkling bell.

In the original stage productions of Peter Pan, how was Tinker Bell represented?

A small mirror off-stage reflected a circle of light from a powerful lamp.

In Spain and Hispanic America, the tooth fairy's job is done by what kind of animal?

El Ratoncito Pérez has a French cousin, La Petite Souris.

According to Delta Dental, the average US tooth-fairy payout per tooth in 2023 was about how much?

It had been $1.30 back in 1998, so the fairy has outpaced inflation.

Fairy rings in grass, said in folklore to be left by dancing fairies, are actually caused by what?

One ring near Belfort in France is thought to be about 300 metres across and 700 years old.

The Sugar Plum Fairy rules the Land of Sweets in which 1892 ballet?

Her dance is famous for Tchaikovsky's use of the celesta.

The aos sí, a supernatural race comparable to fairies, belong to the folklore of which country?

They are said to live in the mounds and forts that dot the Irish landscape.

Which Finnish folklorist first published the folktale type index in 1910?

Stith Thompson and Hans-Jörg Uther later expanded it into the ATU Index.

Aladdin and Ali Baba are known as the Arabian Nights' what, because no Arabic source exists?

Both came from Syrian storyteller Hanna Diyab via Antoine Galland.

Which lyricist pitched the idea of Disney's Aladdin to Jeffrey Katzenberg?

The screenplay went through three drafts before approval.

Who directed the 2019 live-action Aladdin?

Will Smith was the first cast member signed, as the Genie.

Alexander Afanasyev, the 'Russian Grimm', published roughly how many folk tales?

His collection came out in eight volumes from 1855 to 1867.

What is the name of Ali Baba's greedy brother?

Ali Baba's clever slave-girl Morgiana foils the thieves' plots.

How many 'Coloured' Fairy Books did Andrew Lang and his wife publish?

The full series ran to 25 collections with 798 stories in all.

Baba Yaga is famous for flying around in what?

She wields a pestle and lives in a hut on chicken legs.

The Irish banshee heralds what event?

Her name means 'woman of the fairy mound'.

Whose 1756 abridgement of Beauty and the Beast became the standard retelling?

Villeneuve's 1740 original was much longer.

Beauty and the Beast was influenced by which real hairy man's story?

Cupid and Psyche from The Golden Ass was another source.

Who wrote the screenplay for Disney's 1991 Beauty and the Beast?

She later wrote Maleficent too.

Who played the Beast opposite Emma Watson in 2017?

The budget was around $255 million.

Perrault's Bluebeard was first published in Paris in which year?

Merriam-Webster defines a Bluebeard as a man who marries and kills one wife after another.

The Brothers Grimm were born in which German town?

They were raised in Steinau and educated in Kassel and Marburg.

The Scottish brownie is a household spirit that expects what offering by the hearth?

Insult a brownie and it leaves the house forever.

A changeling in folklore is what?

Some scholars link the belief to explanations for autism.

Charles Perrault led which faction in the 17th-century French literary quarrel?

He was a member of the Académie Française.

Strabo's Rhodopis, the earliest Cinderella, marries the king of which country?

She was a Greek slave girl.

Disney's 1950 Cinderella followed which string of commercial failures?

World War II had cut the studio off from European markets.

Who played Cinderella in Kenneth Branagh's 2015 film?

Cate Blanchett was cast first, as the stepmother.

How old were Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths when the first Cottingley photos were taken?

Interest in the photos faded after 1921.

The Slavic household spirit Domovoy has been compared to which Roman deities?

The Penates were guardians of the Roman household.

Storyteller Dorothea Viehmann, a key Grimm source, learned many tales where?

Her ancestors were Huguenots who fled France.

'East of the Sun and West of the Moon' was collected by which Norwegian pair?

It is a 'Search for the Lost Husband' tale, ATU 425A.

In Ella Enchanted, what 'gift' curses Ella at birth?

The 1997 novel by Gail Carson Levine won a Newbery Honor.

In Enchanted (2007), Giselle falls in love with a man of what profession?

Amy Adams played the exiled princess.

Ever After (1998) sets Cinderella in which era?

Drew Barrymore starred with Anjelica Huston as the stepmother.

In Bill Willingham's comic Fables, the exiled characters live in which New York community?

Bigby Wolf serves as their sheriff.

As of 1991, roughly how many fairy forts survived in Ireland's countryside?

They are the remains of ringforts and other prehistoric dwellings.

The fairy godmother figure has roots in which mythological beings?

In Sleeping Beauty they decree her destiny and are linked to spinning.

Fairy rings can grow to more than what diameter?

They are seen as either the Devil's work or good fortune, depending on region.

Which glowing bird of Slavic folklore is both a blessing and a harbinger of doom?

One feather can light a large room.

'Fractured Fairy Tales' was a segment of which cartoon show?

It ran alongside Dudley Do-Right and Peabody's Improbable History.

Disney's Frozen was loosely inspired by which Andersen tale?

Elsa's kingdom of Arendelle is trapped in eternal winter.

Which Victorian fantasy pioneer mentored the author of Alice in Wonderland?

He was also a Congregational minister.

Straparola's collection with some of Europe's first printed fairy tales is called what?

He published it in Venice in the 1550s.

Which huntress was distracted by golden apples during a footrace?

Melanion dropped them to win her hand.

In the earliest version of the Goldilocks tale, what kind of bears live in the house?

The family version came third.

In the TV series Grimm, what are the mythological creatures called?

Portland detective Nick Burkhardt is the Grimm.

How many tales did the 1857 seventh edition of Grimms' Fairy Tales contain?

Plus ten 'Children's Legends'.

Grimms' Fairy Tales is listed by UNESCO in what register?

The first volume contained 86 stories.

Which composer's opera Hänsel und Gretel premiered in 1893?

The tale is KHM 15 in the Grimm collection.

Who played Hansel in the 2013 film Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters?

Gemma Arterton played Gretel.

Andersen's fairy tales have been translated into more than how many languages?

He wrote 156 stories across nine volumes.

What falls on Henny Penny's head, convincing her the sky is falling?

The story is known in the US as Chicken Little.

Hoodwinked! (2005) retells Little Red Riding Hood in what style?

Anne Hathaway voiced Red.

Perrault's tiny hero Le Petit Poucet is known in English as what?

He defeats an ogre and steals his seven-league boots.

The seductive Scandinavian huldra hides which tell-tale feature?

Some versions give her a back like a hollowed-out tree.

Which musical, opened on Broadway in 1987, weaves together several Grimm tales?

Sondheim and Lapine tied it together with a childless baker and his wife.

Robert Bly's 1990s book Iron John, based on the Grimm tale, inspired what?

It spent 62 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list.

Italo Calvino's 1956 collection Italian Folktales contains how many tales?

He was influenced by Propp's Morphology of the Folktale.

The 1734 version of Jack and the Beanstalk was titled 'The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted' what?

Joseph Jacobs's 1890 retelling is the one usually reprinted today.

Who directed the 2013 film Jack the Giant Slayer?

Nicholas Hoult starred as Jack.

Which linguistic sound-shift law is named after Jacob, the elder of the two brothers?

He also wrote Deutsche Mythologie.

Where was folklorist Joseph Jacobs, who popularised English fairy tales, born?

He published English Fairy Tales in 1890.

The Scottish kelpie is a shape-shifting spirit that usually appears as what?

Loch Ness has the most-reported kelpie story.

In King Thrushbeard, why does the princess mock the young king?

She ends up married to a beggar-minstrel who is the king in disguise.

Which Monty Python member wrote the screenplay for Labyrinth (1986)?

David Bowie played Jareth the Goblin King.

In later Irish folklore, leprechauns took up what trade?

They also gained a hidden pot of gold at the rainbow's end.

What number is Little Red Riding Hood in the Aarne–Thompson classification?

Its German title is Rotkäppchen, Little Red Cap.

Which German collector, born in Weimar in 1801, rivalled the Grimms with his own tale books?

He trained as a pharmacist before becoming a librarian.

In the Arabian Nights, Prince Husain buys a magic carpet in which Indian city?

The carpet transports its rider anywhere in the twinkling of an eye.

Who was originally attached to direct Maleficent before Robert Stromberg?

Angelina Jolie signed on in January 2012.

Melusine, the water spirit, is usually a serpent or fish from where down?

Several royal houses claimed descent from her.

Morgan le Fay is an enchantress from which legendary cycle?

She is often depicted as Arthur's sister or half-sister.

Perrault's Contes de ma Mère l'Oye was first translated into English under what title?

Mother Goose's Melody was a later collection of nursery rhymes.

Frau Holle, from the Grimm tale, is also known in English as what?

Jacob Grimm tried to establish her as a Germanic goddess.

The Nordic nisse or tomte expects which favourite food each yuletide?

It wears a red cap and does house and stable chores.

Oberon first appears as a fairy king in a chanson de geste about which hero?

That fairy king is dwarfish but very handsome.

Tolkien's essay 'On Fairy-Stories' began as a 1939 lecture at which university?

It was the Andrew Lang lecture.

In Once Upon a Time, the fairy-tale characters live in which fictional Maine town?

Emma Swan's son Henry discovers their secret.

What is the literal meaning of the German fairy-tale opening 'es war einmal'?

'Once upon a time' has been used in English since at least 1380.

The Arabian Nights' frame story probably comes from which Persian work?

The title means 'A Thousand Tales'.

Pan's Labyrinth is set in Francoist Spain in the summer of which year?

Ofelia's stepfather Captain Vidal hunts the Maquis resistance.

The Panchatantra's title means what in Sanskrit?

It is the most frequently translated literary product of India.

Which Norwegian collector, Jørgen Moe's partner, was born in Christiania (now Oslo)?

He walked the length of Norway collecting tales with Jørgen Moe.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin appears in the writings of which poet, besides Goethe and the Grimms?

Hamelin lies in Lower Saxony.

The name Pinocchio may derive from a Tuscan word for what?

Collodi wrote in Tuscan dialect.

In Disney's Pinocchio, what three qualities must Pinocchio prove to become a real boy?

Jiminy Cricket serves as his conscience.

Pixies are thought to be concentrated in the moorlands of which two English counties?

They love dancing and wrestling outdoors at night.

How do revisionist fairy tales usually portray Prince Charming?

He becomes a foil to the heroine or her true love.

Puck's most famous prank in A Midsummer Night's Dream gives Nick Bottom the head of what?

He is also called Robin Goodfellow.

In Straparola's version of Puss in Boots, the cat is secretly what?

The boy she helps is named Costantino, from Bohemia.

Shrek's Puss in Boots was partly inspired by which swashbuckling characters?

Antonio Banderas voices him in English, Spanish and Italian.

The Grimms' Rapunzel developed from Persinette, a 1698 tale by whom?

Basile's earlier Italian version was Petrosinella.

Who directed the 2011 film Red Riding Hood starring Amanda Seyfried?

Leonardo DiCaprio produced it.

What does the miller's daughter first give the imp for spinning straw into gold?

On the second night she gives a glass ring.

The rusalka of Slavic folklore is usually associated with what?

She resembles the mermaid in modern pop culture.

Selkies shapeshift between human form and what animal?

The word comes from the Scots for seal.

Shrek was loosely based on a 1990 picture book by whom?

Steven Spielberg bought the rights in 1991.

How many voyages does Sinbad the Sailor make?

He hails from Baghdad in the early Abbasid era.

A precursor to Sleeping Beauty appears in which 14th-century French romance?

Basile's Sun, Moon and Talia is the first full literary version.

Disney's 1959 Sleeping Beauty cost about how much, a record for the studio then?

It took nearly a decade to make.

Snow-White and Rose-Red derives from an older tale called what?

Caroline Stahl wrote that version.

The 1823 first English translation of the Grimms' Sneewittchen used what title?

The Grimm original title was Sneewittchen.

Who plays the Evil Queen in Disney's 2025 Snow White?

Marc Webb directed.

What is the name of the evil queen in Snow White & the Huntsman?

Charlize Theron played her.

Where did Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiere in December 1937?

It cost $1.5 million and earned over $8 million.

Stardust (2007) is based on a novel by which author?

Tristan crosses the wall into Stormhold to catch a fallen star.

At its 2010 release, what did Tangled's estimated $260 million cost make it?

Glen Keane first proposed it in 2001; the $260 million budget made it the most expensive animated film ever at the time.

The Bloody Chamber, a 1979 collection of reworked fairy tales, contains how many stories?

It won the Cheltenham Festival Literary Prize in 1979.

Which four animals set out to become the Town Musicians of Bremen?

They never actually reach Bremen.

Which director made 2005's The Brothers Grimm with Matt Damon and Heath Ledger?

It reimagines the brothers as travelling con artists.

The Company of Wolves (1984) was adapted from a story by which writer?

Neil Jordan directed it.

How many elves help the shoemaker in the Grimm tale?

The German title is Die Wichtelmänner.

The Emperor's New Clothes closed which series of Andersen booklets in April 1837?

It appeared alongside The Little Mermaid.

Edmund Spenser invented which verse form in The Faerie Queene?

The poem runs to nearly 35,000 lines.

What are the names of Timmy Turner's fairy godparents?

The Fairly OddParents ran 172 episodes.

The Grimms got The Fisherman and His Wife from which painter?

He supplied the manuscript in 1809.

Which tale is traditionally number 1 in the Grimm collection?

Its full title is The Frog King, or Iron Henry.

The Gingerbread Man first appeared in print in 1875 in which American publication?

A girl from Maine told it to the reteller's children.

In The Golden Goose, what is the youngest son called?

He shares his burned biscuit and sour beer with a little gray man.

What is the name of the talking horse in The Goose Girl?

The tale came to the Grimms from Dorothea Viehmann.

Which Oscar Wilde story collection contains The Selfish Giant?

It was first published in May 1888.

Von dem Machandelboom, one of the Grimms' darkest tales, is also known by what alternative name?

It features murder, cannibalism and biblical symbolism.

On what night is The Little Match Girl set?

She sees visions of a stove, a goose and a Christmas tree in the flames.

Who voiced Ursula in Disney's 1989 The Little Mermaid?

Jodi Benson voiced Ariel.

Who plays Ariel in the 2023 live-action The Little Mermaid?

Melissa McCarthy plays Ursula.

Who sculpted Copenhagen's Little Mermaid statue, unveiled in 1913?

It stands just 1.25 metres tall.

Andersen's The Nightingale is set in which country?

A jewelled mechanical bird nearly replaces the real one.

In The Princess Bride, what is the villainous prince's name?

Westley must rescue Buttercup from him.

The Princess and the Frog is set in which city?

Tiana dreams of opening her own restaurant.

What ATU type number is The Princess and the Pea?

It was published in a cheap booklet in 1835.

What is the name of the vain girl in Andersen's The Red Shoes?

She is forced to dance continually in the shoes.

In Andersen's The Shadow, what does the learned man's self-aware shadow finally do?

Some read it as revenge on Edvard Collin, who had rejected Andersen.

In The Six Swans, the princess must stay silent for how many years?

She sews star-flower shirts for her brothers meanwhile.

Tchaikovsky's ballet The Sleeping Beauty premiered in 1890 at which theatre?

Marius Petipa was its first choreographer.

How many chapters is Andersen's tale of Gerda and Kai unusually divided into?

The story follows Gerda's search for her friend Kai.

In the Grimms' The Star Money, what do the falling stars turn into?

The orphan girl had given away all her clothes.

Why does the Steadfast Tin Soldier have only one leg?

He was the last of 25 soldiers cast from one spoon.

In The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, Princess Kaguya comes from where?

It is the oldest surviving monogatari.

The earliest Three Little Pigs version, set on Dartmoor, featured what instead of pigs and a wolf?

Jacobs's 1890 version is the best known.

In The Tinderbox, how many magic dogs does the soldier command?

The first has eyes the size of teacups.

The Twelve Dancing Princesses' closest analogue is which Scottish tale?

There it is a prince who must dance every night.

The Valiant Little Tailor boasts of killing how many with one blow?

They were flies on his jam.

In Andersen's The Wild Swans, how many brothers does the princess rescue?

Their stepmother the queen turned them into swans.

How can the seven young goats recognise their real mother?

The wolf disguises his voice and paws.

The Norwegian goats' name 'Bruse' was rendered into English as what?

George Webbe Dasent translated the tale in 1859.

Thumbelina is born from what?

She sleeps in a walnut-shell cradle.

The History of Tom Thumb, published in 1621, was notable for what?

Tattershall in Lincolnshire claims his grave.

The earliest known record of the tooth fairy tradition appeared in which newspaper in 1908?

It was a 'Household Hints' item.

In Scandinavian folklore, some trolls are said to turn to stone when exposed to what?

Landmarks are sometimes explained this way.

What secret helper does Vasilisa the Beautiful receive from her dying mother?

Feed the doll and it does Vasilisa's chores.

Vladimir Propp's Morphology of the Folktale was first published in Russian in which year?

It later influenced Lévi-Strauss and Barthes.

Wilhelm Grimm married Dortchen Wild in 1825. What was her father's trade?

The brothers went on living under one roof.

What is the Latin name for the will-o'-the-wisp?

It means 'foolish flame'.

In Disney's Wish (2023), what is the name of the kingdom's sorcerer-ruler?

Chris Pine voices him.

Momotarō, the Japanese folk hero, was born from what?

His name translates as Peach Boy.

Urashima Tarō is carried to the Dragon Palace on the back of what?

He returns to find at least 100 years have passed.

Bruno Bettelheim, who wrote on the psychology of fairy tales, taught at which university after 1973?

He earlier ran the Orthogenic School in Chicago.

Which fairy tale is the source of the idiom 'to spin straw into gold'?

An imp does the spinning for the miller's daughter.

The trickster Anansi's name comes from the word for 'spider' in which language?

The tales spread from Ghana to the Caribbean and Suriname via the slave trade, where he is sometimes called 'Aunt Nancy'.

Jamaican Maroons introduced Anansi stories to which West African country?

The spider tales also took root in Suriname, Curaçao and Aruba under names such as Kompa Nanzi.

Who invented the ex-slave narrator Uncle Remus to retell Br'er Rabbit stories for white readers?

Florence Baer traced 140 of his stories to African origins, 27 to Europe and 5 to Native American sources.

According to Aristotle and Herodotus, Aesop was a slave on which Greek island?

His masters were Xanthus and then Iadmon; he was later freed and, per tradition, met his end at Delphi.

Scholar Ben Edwin Perry, compiler of the Perry Index, called Aesop's link to which king 'literary fiction'?

Plutarch had claimed Aesop came to Delphi on a diplomatic mission for Croesus, but the dates do not reconcile.

Fabulist Jean de La Fontaine was born in 1621 in which French town?

His father was a deputy-ranger of the duchy; at 26 Jean inherited the post and was married to 14-year-old Marie Héricart.

Which tale joins White Snake, Butterfly Lovers and Lady Meng Jiang as China's Four Great Folktales?

The tale of Xu Xian and snake spirit Bai Suzhen began as a horror story about a demon eating men's hearts and livers.

How many Jātaka tales of the Buddha's past lives are in the Theravada collection gathered around 500 CE?

Part of the Pāli Canon's Khuddaka Nikāya, the stories were also carved on the railings of stupas.

Elias Lönnrot compiled Finland's Kalevala while working as what in the Kainuu region?

The 1849 version runs to 22,795 verses in fifty runos and helped inspire Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium.