From rags to riches and beasts to beanstalks, these are the popular fairy tales that shape our happily ever afters
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20 Most Popular Fairy Tales and Folktales of All Time
Updated Sep. 21, 2024
Famous fairy tales and folktales from around the world
Fairy tale stories are part and parcel of childhood. Endlessly retellable (and spoofable—we’re looking at you, Shrek) and filled with sometimes-questionable life lessons, popular fairy tales and folktales have evolved through the years thanks to children’s books, movies and, in no small part, Disney adaptations.
We’ve rounded up some of the most popular fairy tales and folktales that have captured the hearts of children and adults alike. You’re probably familiar with many of them, but there’s plenty you may not know about their fascinating origins and evolution. Keep reading to learn more about these timeless stories—and to find our recommendations for the best books inspired by tales as old as time.
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Cinderella
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Beauty and the Beast
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Little Red Riding Hood
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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
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The Legend of the Moon Goddess Chang’e
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Jack and the Beanstalk
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Sleeping Beauty
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Puss in Boots
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Hansel and Gretel
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Rapunzel
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Rumpelstiltskin
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East of the Sun and West of the Moon
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The Little Mermaid
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Anansi
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How Raven Brought Light to the World
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The Selkie and the Fisherman
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The Naughty Frog
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The Snow Queen
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Tristan and Isolde
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Aladdin
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VIA MERCHANT
Cinderella
Once there was a hardworking girl with a wicked stepmother and a heart of gold. She got a makeover from a fairy godmother, scored a dance with a prince and snagged a happily ever after in a pretty sweet castle. One of the most famous fairy tales ever, this story crossed the globe for thousands of years, winning hearts wherever it went.
Although the most familiar version of Cinderella was recorded by 17th-century French writer Charles Perrault, the well-respected scholarly website Sur La Lune Fairy Tales estimates there may be as many as 1,500 traditional variants of the tale around the world. (Many short versions of this tale are even available to read for free online.) Those include The Girl with the Rose Red Slippers from ancient Egypt and a ninth-century Chinese version.
The story has inspired countless modern retellings, including Walt Disney’s iconic 1950 animation, the blockbuster film Pretty Woman, the novel and movie Ella Enchanted and too many others to name.Â
Read the children’s fairy tale: Cinderella Stories Around the World by Cari Meister
Read the adult adaptation: If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy
VIA MERCHANT
Beauty and the Beast
When kind and virtuous Beauty falls in love with the beast despite his outward appearance, he’s transformed back into a handsome prince. Who among us has not felt unworthy of a lover yet longed to have our inner value recognized? Who has not dreamed of romantic love with the power to redeem and transform?
No wonder Beauty and the Beast, originally a French story, is the second most frequently visited fairy tale for kids on Sur La Lune Fairy Tales. It’s also one of the most popular fairy tales when it comes to modern adaptations, which is why you’ll find it in so many of today’s fantasy romance books. Of all the many retellings, our favorite is probably French director Jean Cocteau’s surreal 1945 film version, La Belle et la Bête, but Disney’s versions are certainly the most famous (and lucrative). So far, Beauty and the Beast has rung the company’s cash register as an animated film, a Broadway musical, a soundtrack album and a live-action adaptation starring Emma Watson.
Read the children’s fairy tale: Beauty and the Beast Stories Around the World by Cari Meister
Read the adult adaptation: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
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Little Red Riding Hood
In one of the most famous fairy tales—probably intended as a warning to follow directions—Red sets off alone to visit her grandmother with instructions to stay on the forest path. The rebellious Red promptly disregards this advice, attracting the attention of a talking wolf who sets out to eat and impersonate Grandma.
What happens next depends on which version you read. In the 17th-century French version recorded by Perrault, Red gets gobbled up by the wolf. The End. In other tellings across Europe, North America, China, Japan and Ghana, she’s saved at the last minute by a guy with an axe or the wolf chokes on her hood or he eats both Grandma and Red but is forced to vomit them up unharmed.
Of the many recent retellings, our favorite is the animated film Hoodwinked! with Anne Hathaway voicing a wonderfully sassy Red, though science fiction fans will want to pick up Marissa Meyer’s Scarlet for an out-of-this-world (literally) retelling.
Read the children’s fairy tale: Little Red Riding Hood Stories Around the World by Jessica Gunderson
Read the adult adaptation: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
VIA MERCHANT
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first animated full-length Disney film, setting the stage for all those to come. According to Film Site, the 1937 movie “took almost four years and an astronomical (at the time) $1.7 million to create,” and its soundtrack was the first from a film to be released separately as an album. Though still low-key terrifying, Disney’s version did spare its evil queen her original Grimm fairy tale punishment of being forced to dance to her death in red-hot shoes.
Despite ample criticism of the less-than-active main character—feminist critics Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar put it this way in The Madwoman in the Attic: She is “an object to be displayed and desired … patriarchy’s ideal woman, the perfect candidate for queen”—Snow White remains a massively popular fairy tale. Modern film and TV adaptations, like Snow White and the Huntsman; Mirror, Mirror; and Once Upon a Time have provided much-needed updates to the character, and BookTok favorite The Shadow Queen proves that fairy tales still have a place in feminist books.
Read the children’s fairy tale: Snow White Stories Around the World by Jessica Gunderson
Read the YA adaptation: The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine
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The Legend of the Moon Goddess Chang’e
The legend of Chang’e, the lady (and cute rabbit ) of the moon, traces back to preserved texts from the Zhou dynasty in China. There are various versions of the tale in which a beautiful mortal woman takes an immortality elixir and ascends to the heavens with her pet rabbit, otherwise known as the jade rabbit.
The Lord Archer Hou Yi shoots down nine of the 10 suns to save the Earth and receives the elixir as a reward. In some versions, his wife, Chang’e, steals the elixir to escape from him and flees to the moon. In more romantic versions, Chang’e is forced to take both doses of the potion to prevent it from getting into the wrong hands, and she chooses to live on the moon instead of heaven so that she can be closer to Hou Yi. Heartbroken, Hou Yi starts the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, in her honor—the festival is still celebrated in China and across the Chinese diaspora to this day.
Global audiences were introduced to this legend in 2020’s hit Netflix animated movie Over the Moon, and the tale continues to inspire Asian and Asian American books.
Read the children’s folktale: Chang’e on the Moon by Katrina Moore
Read the adult adaptation: Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan
VIA MERCHANT
Jack and the Beanstalk
Young Jack trades the family’s only cow for a handful of magic beans. When a giant beanstalk sprouts overnight, Jack seizes the chance to climb to a giant’s castle and steal all of his magical possessions. The story we know is from England, and Jack himself is English. (Need proof? Consider the famous line “fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman.”) But as Sur La Lune Fairy Tales points out, there are fairy tale stories based on this tale found among Europeans, Scandinavians and Indigenous groups across Canada. And don’t forget Asia’s tale of the branch of the Bodhi of Buddha, which quickly grows skyward once planted.
As for modern versions, Jack (along with some of these other fairy tale characters) has a major role in the musical and movie Into the Woods and has had his story told through the live-action film adaptations Jack and the Beanstalk (2010) and Jack the Giant Slayer (2013). But unlike other popular fairy tales that have been told and retold (and retold again), this one still poses an exciting action-adventure opportunity for filmmakers and writers alike.
Read the children’s fairy tale: Jack and the Beanstalk by Carol Ottolenghi
Read the YA adaptation: The World Above by Cameron Dokey
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Sleeping Beauty
If you found Snow White annoyingly passive, meet Sleeping Beauty, whose main claim to fame is, obviously, her century-long snooze. According to Sur La Lune Fairy Tales, this story dates to the Volsunga Saga from 13th-century Iceland but is found all across Europe, especially France, Italy and Germany. It even appears in The Arabian Nights.
In 1890, Russian composer Tchaikovsky wrote the musical score for a much-loved Sleeping Beauty ballet, and years later, the folks at Disney borrowed some of his music for their 1959 animated film version. Here’s a piece of Disney trivia you probably don’t know:Â Sleeping Beauty originally underwhelmed at the box office, and Disney achieved much greater success with 2014’s Maleficent, which retold Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of the vengeful fairy.
Read the children’s fairy tale: Sleeping Beauty by Michael Teitelbaum
Read the YA adaptation: The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman
VIA MERCHANT
Puss in Boots
Plenty of fairy tale stories have animal helpers, but in this one, the animal is the star. Puss is a bold, swaggering trickster who masquerades as the servant of a great nobleman. The story was probably first recorded in 16th-century Italy, but Puss seems to have acquired his swashbuckling boots about 100 years later in France, in the same book of stories that features Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast, and he’s been rocking them ever since. In an age when the poor mostly went barefoot, shoes were an important status symbol, and clearly, those boots were made for walking because Puss has managed to travel astonishingly far around the world. Scholars say the story “has been found in all parts of Europe, across Siberia [and] onward to India, Indonesia and the Philippines.”
More recently, the irrepressible Puss found new fans and stole the show in 2004’s Shrek 2. Voiced by Antonio Banderas, he became instantly recognizable with an introduction worthy of James Bond: “Puss … in Boots.” The character was so beloved that he got his own spinoff movie, the 2012 flick Puss in Boots. If you have young kids, pick up one of the fiction books based on the lovable feline.
Read the children’s fairy tale: Puss in Boots by Jerry Pinkney
Read the adult adaptation: Reserved for the Cat by Mercedes Lackey
VIA MERCHANT
Hansel and Gretel
In a time of famine, Hansel and Gretel are abandoned in a great forest by their wicked stepmother. Unable to resist eating pieces of a real gingerbread cottage, the hungry children are captured by the cannibal witch who lives there; in the end, they must shove her into her own fiery oven to escape. This narrative about the dangers of unwholesome appetite and children’s drive for survival is one of the most frequently visited fairy tale stories on Sur La Lune Fairy Tales—even without any publicity from Disney.
Some scholars believe that the Great Famine of 14th-century Europe inspired the familiar German version of Hansel and Gretel, recorded by the famous Brothers Grimm some 500 years later. Regardless, this gruesome story about a witch and lost children is one of the most widely told around the world; variants include The Story of the Bird That Made Milk in southern Africa, the southern Indian tale Kadar and the Cannibals and the Russian folktales of Baba Yaga.
Read the children’s fairy tale: Hansel and Gretel Stories Around the World by Cari Meister
Read the adult adaptation: The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: A Novel of War and Survival by Louise Murphy
VIA MERCHANT
Rapunzel
Whether from Disney’s 2010 hit Tangled or 2002’s Barbie as Rapunzel from Mattel, you know the story: The girl with the climbable curls is isolated in a tower by a wicked witch. But as many fairy tale stories go, a handsome prince soon arrives to save the day.
The original Grimm version of Rapunzel is grimmer (naturally) than the banter-filled animated film (though fans of Into the Woods will be familiar with it): Rapunzel winds up in the witch’s clutches in the first place because her pregnant mother couldn’t stop stealing magical herbs from the old crone’s garden. Later, using Rapunzel’s hair as a lure, the witch catches the prince and throws him to the ground, where thorns pierce his eyes. She leaves him to wander alone for years in the wilderness. But it is a fairy tale, so eventually, Rapunzel runs into him by chance; her tears fall onto his face, miraculously restoring his vision and leading the couple to their belated happily ever after.
Read the children’s fairy tale: Rapunzel Stories Around the World by Cari Meister
Read the adult adaptation: Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth
VIA MERCHANT
Rumpelstiltskin
Another fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in 1812, Rumpelstiltskin isn’t unique to the Grimms’ native Germany. Versions of the tale go back centuries and exist all over Europe with different names for the imp. In the Grimm version, a poor miller boasts that his daughter can spin straw into gold, and the king threatens to kill her if she cannot prove it by dawn. Suddenly, a tiny man appears and offers to do it for her in exchange for her firstborn child. Out of desperation, she agrees, but when he comes to collect his debt a year later, she begs for an alternative, to which he says the only way for her to keep her child is to guess his name.
While various film and media adaptations have—for obvious reasons—painted Rumpelstiltskin as a villain, the complex character gets a full backstory and redemptive arc in the ABC television series Once Upon a Time. For more well-drawn characters (and a world that feels lived in), pick up Naomi Novik’s fantasy novel Spinning Silver, a wonderfully rich take on the tale.
Read the children’s fairy tale: Rumpelstiltskin by Paul O. Zelinsky
Read the adult adaptation: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
VIA MERCHANT
East of the Sun and West of the Moon
While scholars believe both Beauty and the Beast and East of the Sun and West of the Moon can trace their roots to the ancient Greek story of Cupid and Psyche, the Scandinavian version has beautiful elements that make it one of the most popular fairy tales in its own right. East of the Sun and West of the Moon was first collected and published in 1845 by Norwegian folklorists Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe.
The story tells of a White Bear who steals away a beautiful girl to his palace, but he can only become a man at night due to a curse by his evil stepmother. Filled with doubt, the girl betrays his trust by lighting a candle at night to look at his face, and the White Bear is doomed to go to his stepmother’s castle, which lies east of the sun and west of the moon. The girl goes on an epic journey, aided by the four winds, to prove her love and devotion to the White Bear by saving him and breaking his curse. Unlike many other fairy tale princesses of the time, gender roles are flipped, and we love that this heroine is not the damsel in distress.
Read the children’s fairy tale: East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe
Read the YA adaptation:Â East by Edith Pattou
VIA MERCHANT
The Little Mermaid
You already know the romantic tale of the little mermaid from “under the sea” who falls in love with a mortal man and sells her voice to the sea witch in exchange for human legs. But did you know the original version of this story ends in tears and heartbreak?
Unlike the 1989 Disney animated version, or its 2023 live-action remake, the 1837 fairy tale written by Hans Christian Anderson does not end with the mermaid marrying the prince. Instead, the prince falls in love with another princess, and because the mute mermaid did not succeed in winning his heart (or alternatively, killing him) before dawn, she cannot get her tail back. Her body turns to foam, and she becomes a daughter of the air. Fortunately, plenty of writers have adapted the story into feel-good books that give the little mermaid a much-deserved happy ending.
Read the children’s fairy tale: The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson
Read the YA adaptation: To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo
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Anansi
Sometimes protagonist, sometimes antagonist, Anansi the spider trickster god is beloved for his cunning schemes that help him outwit his typically more powerful opponents, like Tiger, Lion and even Death. These lighthearted, popular fables originated in West Africa and spread throughout the African diaspora in the Caribbean and Americas via oral tradition. In fact, being able to weave these fables skillfully in an entertaining way was to emulate Anansi himself.
Some Anansi stories serve to explain natural phenomena, like why spiders weave webs, or to teach children how being smart can be more useful than being strong. But most important, Anansi was celebrated as a symbol of resistance against slavery and oppression. There are many Anansi books out there, and luckily for you, they’re often very funny books.
Read the children’s folktale: The Pot of Wisdom: Ananse stories by Adwoa Badoe
Read the adult adaptation:Â Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
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How Raven Brought Light to the World
Various indigenous tribes of North America believe the trickster god Raven brought light to the world. In the version passed down orally by Pacific Northwest tribes such as the Haida and Tlingit people, the world was completely dark, and the Old Fisherman held the sun in a box. Clever and rebellious, Raven took on the form of a human child to trick the old man, then stole the sun and flew it up into the sky.
Raven’s story is a creation myth that still inspires today, emphasizing the importance of indigenous voices and Native American storytelling.
Read the children’s folktale: Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest by Gerald McDermott
Read the adult adaptation:Â Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson
VIA MERCHANT
The Selkie and the Fisherman
Like The Little Mermaid, the ancient Celtic legend of the selkie, also known as seal folk, has the underwater creature gaining two legs on land because of a mortal man. There are various versions of this folktale across Scotland, Ireland and Iceland, but most agree on this basic setup: One day, a fisherman fell in love with a selkie when she took off her seal skin and took on a human form. He stole and hid her seal skin, and without it, she could not return to the sea, so she married and stayed with the fisherman. Longing for the sea, the selkie woman usually finds her skin and leaves the fisherman.
You’ll find similar tales of magical beings trapped by mortal men around the world, such as the Korean folktale of the celestial maiden whose robes are hidden by a smitten woodcutter so that she cannot return to the heavens. Selkies, in particular, continue to mystify audiences. Take, for instance, the 2014 Oscar-nominated Irish film Song of the Sea; the gorgeous animated movie tells the tale of the half-human children of a selkie after she returns to the sea.
Read the children’s folktale: The Selkie Girl by Janis Mackay
Read the adult adaptation:Â The Hidden by Melanie Golding
VIA MERCHANT
The Naughty Frog
Ever wondered why frogs croak when it rains? There once was a naughty green tree frog who always did the opposite of what he was told and exasperated his mother to no end. When his mother was about to die, she tricked her son by requesting to be buried by the river because she believed that the naughty frog would disobey her and bury her in the mountains—which is what she actually wanted. However, the frog unexpectedly decided to obey his mother’s dying wishes at the last minute, and to his lament, his mother’s body was swept away by the river current.
Passed down orally through generations to teach children to listen to their elders, this story is believed to have originated in China and remains one of the most popular folktales in Korea. In fact, Korean parents still tease their kids by calling them “green frog” when they’re being naughty!
Read the children’s folktale: The Green Frogs: A Korean Folktale by Yumi Heo
Read the short story adaptation: Green Frog: Stories by Gina Chung
VIA MERCHANT
The Snow Queen
One of Hans Christian Anderson’s most popular fairy tales, The Snow Queen was written in 1844 and still provides inspiration for storytellers. When the devil’s mirror breaks, splinters fly all around the world, and one splinter gets lodged in little Kai’s heart, causing Kai to become naughty and run away with the evil Snow Queen. His friend Gerda must then travel north to the Snow Queen’s palace to save Kai with the power of love.
Not only can you see elements from this story in classic books like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, but you’ll also find hints of the folktale in movies like the 2013 Academy Award–winning Disney animated film Frozen, which highlights the perspective of the Snow Queen.
Read the children’s fairy tale: The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen
Read the adult adaptation:Â The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman
VIA MERCHANT
Tristan and Isolde
Before Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, there was the Celtic legend of Tristan and Isolde. This medieval tale of forbidden love and chivalry takes place during the time of King Arthur, with the earliest versions recorded by 12th-century French poets Thomas of Britain and Béroul. While the knight Tristan escorts Princess Isolde (sometimes spelled Iseult) from Ireland to marry his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall, Tristan and Isolde unintentionally ingest a love potion. The most popular version of the love story is Richard Wagner’s 1865 opera, Tristan und Isolde, which is still performed (and still triggers tears) to this day.
Read the children’s folktale: The Legends of King Arthur: Tristan and Isolde by Tracey Mayhew
Read the adult adaptation: Isolde, Queen of the Western Isle by Rosalind Miles
VIA MERCHANT
Aladdin
You may have been introduced to “a whole new world” of folklore through Disney’s 1992 Academy Award–winning film adaptation of Aladdin, in which a poor street urchin finds a magic lamp with a genie and later becomes a rich and powerful sultan. The animated movie has been rightfully criticized for its stereotypical and racist depictions of the Middle East, but there’s no denying that the magical tale has enthralled global audiences for centuries. The tale of Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp is actually an Arabic folktale that Syrian writer Hanna Diyab told to Antoine Galland, who then added it to his French translation of One Thousand and One Nights in 1710.
Since then, there have been demands for more thoughtful and accurate representations of different cultures in the media, and there are many more amazing children’s books about diversity these days. With its diverse cast and edited lyrics, Disney’s 2019 live-action adaptation of Aladdin was definitely a step in the right direction.
Read the children’s folktale: Aladdin and Other Tales from the Arabian Nights retold by N.J. Dawood
Read the YA adaptation: The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury
FAQs
What’s the difference between a fairy tale and folktale?
Usually created or collected and recorded by known writers, fairy tales take place in magical worlds and have magical elements such as fairies, witches and gods. They often serve as entertainment and have happy endings, although this is not always true.
Compare that to folktales, which usually take place in the real world and have been passed down orally by everyday people (folk) through generations. The original creators of these folktales are typically anonymous or unknown. Folktales do not usually prioritize a happy ending but rather serve to explain a natural phenomenon or relay a lesson.
It’s important to note, however, that scholars debate the differences, and some stories can be considered both a fairy tale and folktale.
What’s the difference between a fairy tale and fable?
Fairy tales typically involve love, magic and happy endings. Fables, on the other hand, are usually very simple stories told to instill lessons in morality, often with animals as humanlike characters.
Is Shrek a fairy tale?
Many people don’t realize that the 2001 DreamWorks animated film Shrek was actually based on a humorous 1990 picture book by William Steig, in which a grumpy green monster battles a knight and happily marries a princess who is even uglier than him. While both the book and film turn the fairy tale genre on its head with their antihero narrative, questioning the concept that beauty always equals goodness, the film version of Shrek became both an homage to and a parody of fairy tales by incorporating many of the classic fairy tale characters above.
Additional reporting by Ariel Zeitlin.
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Sources:
- Sur La Lune Fairy Tales
- Kid World Citizen: “Little Red Riding Hood: 3 Multicultural Versions”
- Filmsite: “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)”
- The Madwoman in the Attic by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar
- D23: “11 Royal Facts You Might Not Know About Sleeping Beauty“
- Pook Press: “Hansel and Gretel”
- Sacred Texts: “Story of the Bird That Made Milk”
- Mythopedia: “Chang’e”
- Accokeek Foundation: “Library Favorites: Anansi Stories”
- Canadian Museum of History: “Raven Bringing Light to the World”
- Korea.net: “The naughty frog: For once, a mischievous frog actually does as he is told with tragic results”
- Britannica: “Tristan and Isolde”
- Project Gutenberg: “The Romance of Tristan and Iseult”
- Time: “Was Aladdin Based on a Real Person? Here’s Why Scholars Are Starting to Think So”
Originally Published: January 11, 2022
