Maybe the Grimm brothers didn’t set out to kill women’s stories, but they did. Here’s what happened: Rumpenstünzchen was a spinning tale, part of a large number of spinning tales that European women shared while spinning and weaving flax into cloth, an arduous task that was usually done in the evening after all the other tasks were completed (children cared for, meals fixed, animals fed, eggs sold, laundry washed—you get the...

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Learned today that some scholars think the Panchatantra is the origin of all fairy tales. That’s probably not entirely true, but it is one of the oldest sources. It was written in Sanskrit in the 3rd Century BCE by Vishna Sharma who gathered his material from even older versions. Tales from the Panchatantra have spread widely. Today they can be found from Java to Iceland. The enduring/endearing power of folk tales is the subject of a...

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I’ve just finished a book I’m calling PAY ATTENTION TO THE FAIRY GODMOTHER. Title comes from a twist my grandmother gave the ending of the  Cinderella story. At the end of that classic tale, she would sit back and say, “The prince is nice. Nothing better than a fine, handsome prince. But YOU pay attention to the fairy godmother; she’s the one who got things done.” Here’s the thing. She was my fairy godmother....

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A couple of local gents are drinking a pint in a pub near Cushendall, County Antrim, one evening when a redhead comes through the door. “Ah, there’s that Liz Weir who believes in fairies,” one says. Weir, an Irish storyteller with an international reputation, stops. “And you don’t?” He smiles and shakes his head. “So now, tell me, will you be cutting down that fairy tree on your place any time soon?” She means an old Hawthorne...

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Don’t be fooled. The little folk of fairytale and fable are the keepers of the wisdom. What’s more, they’re not stuffy about it. Worldwide, no matter the tradition, folk tales challenge the norm, encourage creative problem-solving, even question who you are in order for you to grow into someone else. We need these stories. Proof is in the fact that if our families don’t provide, we will look elsewhere for them. I have a...

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“All of the great mythologies and much of the mythic story-telling of the world are from the male point of view. When I was writing The Hero with a Thousand Faces and wanted to bring female heroes in, I had to go to the fairy tales. These were told by women to children, you know, and you get a different perspective. It was the men who got involved in spinning most of the great myths. The women were too busy; they had too damn much to...

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