Friday, June 7, 2024

Miserably Ever After: Fairy Tales with Sad Endings

 


"Happily ever after" is the most famous closing formula for fairy tales in the Anglosphere. But plenty of folktales, even traditional fairy tales, end on a real down note. It's not be a pleasant aspect of the genre (naturally), but it adds dynamism to it.

The Fisherman and His Wife

The Adventure of Cherry of Zennor

The Angel of Death

The Story of the Man Who Went to Wake His Luck

Yallery Brown

There's even a book about narratives, old and new, that upend our expectations: Anti-Tales: The Uses of Disenchantment by Catriona McAra.

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