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Evolution of Fairy Tales and Their Changing Influences on Children Essay Example

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Evolution of Fairy Tales and Their Changing Influences on Children Essay Example
EVOLUTION OF FAIRY TALES AND THEIR CHANGING INFLUENCES ON CHILDREN
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Introduction ‘Seas of story’ is how Marina Warner refers to the world of fairy tales. The fairy tales world is a vast field of study which many scholars have tried to exhaust with minimum success. Scholars have spent a lifetime trying to understand the history of fairy tales only to realize they have only dipped their toes in the vast sea. Fairy tales origin dates back to thousands of years ago. Fairy tales have fantasy creatures like fey, goblins, talking animals, trolls, elves, faeries, witches and giants. As the word fairy means in Latin, enchantments and events that are usually farfetched comprise the story. They are not always realistic and are mostly unrealistic. The art of storytelling began long ago and has been passed on since then. As one generation disappears another one appear and retells the fairy tales once told to the previous generations not exactly like they were but versions which have been changed a bit. Fairy tales since their origin have been passed to different generations. In the western civilizations they are almost a rite of passage that every kid/children has to pass. Whether it was during the ancient times where the stories had to be narrated or the modern times where the fairy tales are in Disney versions, not forgetting the Grimm Brothers (Grimm, 1963). In the eighteenth century investigators argued that the fairy tales were derived from India and distributed to Europe. Others claim the source was Babylonia but Greek scholars ruled those arguments out arguing that there was no way all the fairy tales would have come from a single place. Speculation never ended there but with time and the efforts coincided with interests in Aryan culture that was studied at those times. Arguments arise from the fact that many tales appear from areas far beyond Europe. Cinderella seems to have originated from India and China. Scholars tried to decode the

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