Talk:Fairy tale

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 28 January 2019 and 17 May 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Lorgarlar02.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 21:08, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Inconsistent formatting of fairy tale titles
Wikipedia's articles about fairy tales don't seem to have a consistent practice as far as italicizing titles or putting them in quotation marks. My understanding of the standard rule of titles is that a short story's title (e.g. "Little Red Riding Hood") should be put in quotation marks, and longer works (e.g., collections of fairy tales) should be italicized. Is there some reason this rule is being broken by this article and some of the other articles relating to fairy tales? AtticusX (talk) 05:19, 19 February 2010 (UTC)


 * this bugs me to a ridiculous extent. can't do it right when i don't know what's wrong! k kisses 17:05, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

WorldCat Genres
Maximilianklein (talk) 23:12, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

Pronunciation guide
Why is there an IPA pronunciation guide for this entry? Is anyone struggling to pronounce these two common English words? What's more, the pronunciation given is a rather strange one. Chalkieperfect (talk) 17:47, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

"Сказка" term and links with Russian Wikipedia
Currently the Russian Wikipedia page for Сказка links to Fairy Tale, but there is also a Skazka page on the English Wikipedia. The Skazka is a specific subtype, and should really be linked to it's direct parallel page on the ru.wiki, but can't because of the linking here. I see the following possible solutions but does anyone else have any input?

1. Break the link here to Сказка and add it to the Skazka page - leave this page without a general link though because there isn't really an overarching term that I can think of that is used in the same way as "Fairy Tale" is. Skazka will need some material translated from Сказка but I'm happy to do that bit. 2. Link Fairy Tale to the Волшебная Сказка subsection of Сказка (assuming this is possible), as that is the "magical" subsection of tale that equates closest to the English term. 3. Merge Skazka into Fairy Tale - I see this as the least sensible option since the Сказка concept covers more than the aspects set out in the first paragraph of this article.

Opinions and input of other editors greatly appreciated here! EmyP (talk) 17:09, 10 December 2013 (UTC)


 * To clarify, is Skazka the transliteration of Сказка? Also, is there any Russian research on Western European fairy tales/Märchen (see the Terminology section of this article)? If so, what is the term used there? Have you double-checked with a Russian thesaurus for a more closely aligned word? Perhaps the Волшебная Сказка subsection should be broken out to a full article comparing & contrasting that "magical" sense with the Western European fairy tales/Märchen concept.


 * (To give you a comparison, the Japanese WP link is to their pronunciation of Märchen—メルヘン、メルヒェン（独: Märchen）, or meruhen—even though their native otogibanashi is often translated as "fairy tale." Their article that mentions otogibanashi links back to its own transliteration: Setsuwa. And both Japanese articles mention the English term "fairy tales" as the less precise & scholarly but often preferred English phrase compared to the English use of marchen. Such slippery little concepts!)


 * You raise good points and offer great options. Thanks for your hard work! Sorry that this reply is all I can do to help. Regardless of what gets linked, I think that improving the Skazka article with the Russian info would be wonderful for you to do.
 * Thanks, --Geekdiva (talk) 23:21, 22 January 2014 (UTC)

Evidence of Faeries
The paragraph at the end of History, Later Works seems 1) out of place and 2) based on original research. It was added May 18, 2014. Here it is: "Although many mainstream biologists contend that fairies may well be evidenced by the existence of the stick mantis (brunneria borealis), the existence of fairies could also be evidenced by fireflies." Since this is an article about fairy tales (which are rarely about fairies), a statement about the existence of fairies seems inappropriate. 2601:9:4500:BB:0:0:0:9F2 (talk) 06:23, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Fairy tale. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110613213236/http://libcudl.colorado.edu:8180/luna/servlet/UCBOULDERCB1~53~53 to http://libcudl.colorado.edu:8180/luna/servlet/UCBOULDERCB1~53~53

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 19:03, 27 September 2017 (UTC)

the French "contest"
"The French contest". I suppose this must be a typo for "contes"?. I'll correct it. If anyone objects I'll move it back. METRANGOLO1 (talk) 11:50, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

Unsorted list
§ Compilations is currently unsorted. Names are sometimes displayed given name first, sometimes surname first, with no apparent alphabetical sorting. While I believe a bold editor can alphabetize the list, how should the names be displayed: surname first, or given name first? I assume the list will be sorted alphabetically by surname regardless of how it is displayed. &mdash;&#160;CJDOS,&#160;Sheridan,&#160;OR&#160;(talk) 21:48, 26 August 2021 (UTC)

Fairy Tale vs fantasy
Are there any sources that try to draw distinction between fantasy and fairy tale genres? - Altenmann >talk 15:34, 1 April 2024 (UTC)

Article split
The article is very large. I suggest to split a separate page, List of collections of fairy tales. - Altenmann >talk 15:57, 10 April 2024 (UTC)