Fairy Tales
Many European fairy tales begin when golden apples are stolen from a king, usually by a bird:
- Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Gray Wolf, Russian
- The Golden Bird, German
- The Golden Mermaid, German
- The Nine Peahens and the Golden Apples, Serbian/Bulgarian
- Prâslea the Brave and the Golden Apples, Romanian, where the thief is not a bird but a zmeu
- The Three Brothers and the Golden Apple, Bulgarian, where the thief is not a bird but a zmey
- The White Snake, German
Read more about this topic: Golden Apple
Famous quotes related to fairy tales:
“What is a novel? I say: an invented story. At the same time a story which, though invented has the power to ring true. True to what? True to life as the reader knows life to be or, it may be, feels life to be. And I mean the adult, the grown-up reader. Such a reader has outgrown fairy tales, and we do not want the fantastic and the impossible. So I say to you that a novel must stand up to the adult tests of reality.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)
“A parent who from his own childhood experience is convinced of the value of fairy tales will have no difficulty in answering his child’s questions; but an adult who thinks these tales are only a bunch of lies had better not try telling them; he won’t be able to related them in a way which would enrich the child’s life.”
—Bruno Bettelheim (20th century)