A fairy tale is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cultures, there is no clear line separating myth from folk or fairy tale; all these together form the literature of preliterate societies. Fairy tales may be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends and explicit moral tales, including beast fables. Prevalent elements include dragons, dwarfs, elves, fairies, giants, gnomes, goblins, griffins, merfolk, monsters, monarchy, pixies, talking animals, trolls, unicorns, witches, wizards, magic, and enchantments.
A riddle is a statement, question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: enigmas, which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or allegorical language that require ingenuity and careful thinking for their solution, and conundra, which are questions relying for their effects on punning in either the question or the answer.
Apollonius of Tyre is the hero of a short ancient novel, popular in the Middle Ages. Existing in numerous forms in many languages, all are thought to derive from an ancient Greek version now lost.
The Cherufe is a large man-eating mythical creature found in the Mapuche religion of the indigenous Mapuche people of south-central Chile.
Juan Bautista Rael was an American ethnographer, linguist, and folklorist who was a pioneer in the study of the people, stories, and language of Northern New Mexico and southern Colorado in the Southwestern United States. Rael was a professor at Stanford University. He donated his considerable collection of ethnographic materials to the Library of Congress.
Cuento is a Spanish word meaning literally "story" or "tale". Cuento may specifically refer to folk tales, a category of folklore that includes stories passed down through oral tradition. The word cuento may also be used as a verb to say "tell", as if you are "telling" a story ("Cuento").
Jean de l'Ours or John the Bear, John of the Bear, John-of-the-Bear, John Bear, is the leading character in the French folktale Jean de l'Ours classed as Type 301B in the Aarne–Thompson system; it can also denote any tale of this type.
"The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. It falls under Aarne–Thompson classification types 461, and 930.
The Vain Little Mouse is a folktale about a little mouse and her many suitors.
The Bird of Truth is a Spanish fairy tale collected by Cecilia Böhl de Faber in her Cuentos de encantamiento. Andrew Lang included it in The Orange Fairy Book.
What the Rose did to the Cypress is a Persian fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Brown Fairy Book (1904), with the note "Translated from two Persian MSS. in the possession of the British Museum and the India Office, and adapted, with some reservations, by Annette S. Beveridge."
"The Peasant's Wise Daughter", "The Peasant's Clever Daughter" or "The Clever Lass" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's Fairy Tales as tale number 94. It has also spread into Bohemia and Božena Němcová included it into her collection of Czech national folk tales in 1846.
Grateful dead is both a motif and a group of related folktales present in many cultures throughout the world.
El Ratoncito Pérez or Ratón Pérez is a fantasy figure of early childhood in Spanish and Hispanic American cultures. The folklore states that when children lose one of their milk teeth, they should place it underneath their pillow or on their bedside table and he will visit while they sleep, replacing the lost tooth with a small payment or gift, as does the Tooth Fairy in other cultures. Although he first appeared in oral tradition folktales such as The Vain Little Mouse, it was Luis Coloma who in 1894 turned him into a tooth dealer in a tale written for an eight-year-old King Alfonso XIII.
Juan Bobo is a folkloric character on the island of Puerto Rico. For nearly two centuries a collection of books, songs, riddles and folktales have developed around him. Hundreds of children's books have been written about Juan Bobo in English and Spanish. Juan Bobo stories are used as instructional models in public school districts and libraries throughout the United States and on PBS Television.
Aurelio Macedonio Espinosa Sr., was an American author and professor of Mexican heritage. He was a professor at Stanford University. He was known for his promotion of the study of the Spanish language and literature.
Riddle-tales are traditional stories featuring riddle-contests. They frequently provide the context for the preservation of ancient riddles for posterity, and as such have both been studied as a narrative form in their own right, and for the riddles they contain. Such contests are a subset of wisdom contests more generally. They tend to fall into two groups: testing the wisdom of a king or other aristocrat; and testing the suitability of a suitor. Correspondingly, the Aarne–Thompson classification systems catalogue two main folktale-types including riddle-contests: AT 927, Outriddling the Judge, and AT 851, The Princess Who Can Not Solve the Riddle. Such stories invariably include answers to the riddles posed: 'the audience cannot be left dangling'.
La Fada Morgana is a Catalan fairy tale or rondalla, first collected by Majorcan priest and author Antoni Maria Alcover. It is related to the cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom and distantly related to the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche, in that the heroine is forced to perform difficult tasks for a witch.
Las barbas de plata is a Spanish fairy tale from Cádiz, published by Spanish scholars Julio Camarena and Maxime Chevalier. It is about the marriage between a human maiden and the Devil disguised as a suitor, but a talking mule rescues the maiden to another kingdom, where she marries a human prince. Spanish and Portuguese scholars locate similar tales in Iberian Peninsula.
