Once Upon a Time by Max Lüthi

The fairy tale takes its heroes from the remotest branches of society: the prince and the young swine herd, the despised youngest son or the clumsy boy; and the girl who watches the hearth or tends the geese and the princess. The fairy tale is also fond of other extremes and contrasts: dreadful punishments and splendid rewards, giants and dwarfs, mangy skull and golden hair, good and evil, handsome and ugly, black and white. Thus the fairy tale portrays a clearly and neatly fashioned world.

I went up to Texas Tech to visit my brother this weekend and one of the first places we stopped was the library (of course). Texas Tech has a rather large library, which was quite exciting for me. I immediately grabbed about six books off the shelves, but this was the one I begged my brother to check out for me. He did and I managed to finish it before the end of the weekend.

Once Upon a Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales was quite an interesting read. Published in the early seventies, it is a lovely text concerning what constitutes a fairy tale and why they are so important to us now.

Each chapter takes aside one or more fairy tales with similar thematic content and analyzes what sets it apart from other stories, such as local legend and saints' stories. This book covered everything from Sleeping Beauty to Repunzel, including plenty of stories I hadn't heard of before and even uncovering alternate versions that surfaces before the Grimm brothers or others like them.

I found every bit of this book fascinating. I will definitely be adding my brother's collection of Grimm fairy tales to my list of books to read and can hardly wait to get my hands on it. Fairy tales are timeless and classic. I would suggest this book to anyone who would like to see a little bit more into the creation of a fairy tale and the lessons we can learn through these stories.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

But what, one may ask, does a child learn from being told such fairy tales? Should one really fill their minds with stories about witches? Yes, indeed, one must. The witches, devils, and villains of fairy tales are for children symbols of evil, and the child experiences through them the danger of evil but also learns that evil can be conquered or perhaps even transformed.