Hello, and welcome to the Folklore & Fiction newsletter. In this edition, I'm writing about the märchen genre with help from scholars Christine A. Jones, Jennifer Schacker, Jack Zipes, and others, helping you analyze a märchen, and discussing ways to bring märchen to your story craft.
Folkloric Definition of Märchen
The German word "märchen" and the phrases "fairy tale" and "wonder tale" all refer to the same genre of short prose narratives, in which supernatural beings and other storytelling elements intervene in the everyday lives of people and in which the good are rewarded while the wicked are punished. Folklore scholars sometimes prefer the word "märchen" to its alternatives for the sake of precision; after all, fairy tales don't always contain fairies, and there are many natural wonders worthy of tales. Märchen have also been called "folktales," but this phrase is used in reference to a wide variety of traditional narratives, so it's even less precise than the others.
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