What Is A Fairy Tale?

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Fairy Tale Castle, looking enchanted

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / by any other word would smell as sweet…”

I’ve been thinking of the term “fairy tale” in the last little while – partially inspired by William’s and Kyomi’s recent articles on the topic. They have both made an attempt to define “fairy tale”, as well as the related terms “legend”, “myth”, “fable”, and even the overarching “folklore”. I’m not going to bother with the latter here—you can go to their articles and r...