What is a fairy tale? Anyone who ventures to write on this rich and complex subject must begin with a definition of the term. This is because it is commonly used so loosely and inconsistently, as Holbek pointed out in his Interpretation of Fairy Tales (1987: 23), that ‘one must sometimes doubt whether the various authors have the same material in mind’. A distinction must be made between the oral fairy tale, recorded with various degrees of accuracy, as delivered by a storyteller to an audience, and the literary fairy tale, the individual creative work of a writer. However, there is no clear-cut division between these two types, which constantly overlap. The Danish writer, Hans Christian Andersen, composed many memorable fairy tales, four of which appear to be popular tales which he heard narrated and retold in his own style (Chapter Nine below). On the other hand, there is no doubt that many features in his own tales were brought in from popular oral tradition. We are fortunate to be able to include here an article by Bengt Holbek, published in 1990, on this aspect of Andersen's work. This study deserves to be more widely known because of the influence of Andersen on the development of the fairy tale and his contribution to its enduring popularity.

Scholars continue to argue as to how far the tales in the Grimm brothers’ collection can fairly be called oral, since they were frequently told directly to them from memory by educated people from varying backgrounds, not narrated by storytellers for entertainment. Moreover, the collection of the Grimms was edited no less than seven times and the differences between these editions are marked, with notable omissions and adaptations to accord better with popular nineteenth-century taste. This material has been studied in detail by Maria Tatar (1987). In Chapter Four David Blamires examines the contribution ofthe Grimms to making fairy tales accessible to both children and scholars. He points out that the fact that the Grimms ‘imposed their own ideas and views on the fairy tales they published is no different from what happens with storytellers of any period’ (see p. 82 below).