Fairy tales

A fairy tale is a fictional story that may feature folkloric characters such as fairies,
goblins, elves, trolls, giants, and talking animals, and usually enchantments, often
involving a far-fetched sequence of events. In modern-day parlance, the term is also
used to describe something blessed with princesses, as in "fairy tale ending" (a happy
ending) or "fairy tale romance", though not all fairy tales end happily. Colloquially, a
"fairy tale" or "fairy story" can also mean any far-fetched story. Fairy tales commonly
attract young children since they easily understand the archetypal characters in the
story.
In cultures where demons and witches are perceived as real, fairy tales may merge
into legendary narratives, where the context is perceived by teller and hearers as
having historical actuality. However, unlike legends and epics they usually do not
contain more than superficial references to religion and actual places, persons, and
events; they take place once upon a time rather than in actual times.
Fairy tales are found in oral folktales and in literary form. The history of the fairy
tale is particularly difficult to trace, because only the literary forms can survive. Still,
the evidence of literary works at least indicates that fairy tales have existed for
thousands of years, although not perhaps recognized as a genre; the name "fairy tale"
was first ascribed to them by Madame d'Aulnoy. Literary fairy tales are found over
the centuries all over the world, and when they collected them, folklorists found fairy
tales in every culture. Fairy tales, and works derived from fairy tales, are still written
today.
The older fairy tales were intended for an audience of adults as well as children, but
they were associated with children as early as the writings of the précieuses; the
Brothers Grimm titled their collection, Children's and Household Tales, and the link
with children has only grown stronger with time.
Folklorists have classified fairy tales in various ways. Among the most notable are
the Aarne-Thompson classification system and the morphological analysis of
Vladimir Propp. Other folklorists have interpreted the tales' significance, but no
school has been definitively established for the meaning of the tales.

Legendary creatures
Some creatures, such as the dragon or the griffin, have their origin in traditional
mythology and have been believed to be real creatures. Others were based on real
creatures, originating in garbled accounts of travelers' tales; such as the Vegetable
Lamb of Tartary, which supposedly grew tethered to the earth (and was actually a type
of fern). The traditional unicorn may have come from garbled stories about the
rhinoceros and/or narwhal. Examples of the legendary creatures can be found in
medieval bestiaries.
Conversely, some creatures downplayed as just storytelling, have been rediscovered
and found to be real in recent books, such as the giant squid (the Kraken). In Africa,
Natives of the Congo told European visitors of an animal that looked like a cross
between a zebra and a giraffe. While the visitors assumed the stories were just folk
tales, in 1901, Sir Harry Johnston brought back pelts that proved the creature, which
we now call the okapi, was real.
Often mythical creatures are hybrids, a combination of two or more animals. For
example, a centaur is a combination of a man and horse, a minotaur of a man and bull,
and the mermaid, half woman and half fish. These were not always intended to be
understood as literal juxtapositions of parts from disparate species. Lacking a
common morphological vocabulary, classical and medieval scholars and travelers
would attempt to describe unusual animals by comparing them point-for-point with
familiar: the giraffe, for example, was called cameleopard, and thought of as a
creature half-camel, and half-leopard. The leopard itself was so named as it was
historically believed to be a half-lion (Latin: "leo") and half-panther (Latin: "pardus").
This etymology has been kept until the present day, despite its zoological
inaccuracies.
Many legendary creatures appear prominently in fantasy fiction. These creatures
are often claimed to have supernatural powers or knowledge or to guard some object
of great value, which becomes critical to the plot of the story in which it is found.
Dragons, for instance, are commonly depicted as perched on a gleaming hoard of gold
which becomes the target of adventurers.
Other legendary creatures are thought to exist even today, (these monsters are called
modern monsters or monsters that are supposed to exist) including Chupacabras,
Bigfoot, Yeti, the Loch Ness Monster, the Jersey Devil, Mothman, Yowie, Yeren,
Pukwudgie, and even Space aliens. These are often called cryptids and are studied in
modern times by cryptozoologists, who working from the example of legendary
creatures rooted in reality like the Vegetable Lamb mentioned above, attempt to
discover what, if anything, is the real-life inspiration for these animals. Some, like the
aforementioned giraffe and, much more recently, the giant squid, have been proven to
be real creatures.
Media monsters are monsters from books and movies. These include Dracula,
Frankenstein's Monster, Werewolves, Godzilla, King Kong and Mothra among others.
Throughout history legendary creatures have been incorporated into heraldry and
architectural decoration. Legendary creatures have also been accepted into many
facets of popular culture most notably in fantasy role playing games such as
Dungeons & Dragons or Everquest, video games, and Hollywood movies.

The explanations of the underlined words in the article:

1. Aarne-Thompson classification system: a system for classifying folktales
2. Griffin: a fantasy creature with the body of a lion and the head and often wings of
an eagle.
3. Vegetable Lamb of Tartary: A kind of plant that grows sheep as its fruits.
4. Giant squid: a deep-ocean dwelling squid
5. Okapi: an kind of giraffe with dark body and zebra stripes across its legs.

Discussions:

1. What is your favorite fairy tale? Tell us about it.

2. Are there any kinds of legendary creatures that you believe in? If yes,
tell us about the creature you believe in; if no, why don’t you believe
in legendary creatures?
3. Why do you think these fairy tales and creatures are told in our daily
lives? What are the significances inside?
4. Almost all fairy tales have a “happily ever after “ending, do you
believe in so-called “happily ever after”?
5. If you get to choose to be a character from any fairy tale, who would
you like to be? Why?