Retellings Of Little Known Fairy Tales

Would you appreciate more takes on lesser-known fairytale stories?
Behold the list of retellings of Tam Lin, Donkeyskin, King Thrushbeard, Kate Crackernuts, The Six Swans, East of the Sun and West of the Moon and many others!

Feel free to vote and add books to the list but please avoid the popular tales like Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, The Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, The Little Mermaid or Rumpelstiltskin.

Please add only fairytale retellings not fairytale-like fantasy books and similar.

E.g.: Wicked is a great book but it's based on a children's book The Wizard of Oz (not a fairytale) and the original is a widely popular story - hardly a "little known" one.

Then there are books like Enchanted or Howl's Moving Castle that make use of fairytale elements but they are not retellings. Please avoid books like this as well on this list.
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98 books · 55 voters · list created September 17th, 2015 by Ela (votes) .
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Comments Showing 1-6 of 6 (6 new)

dateDown arrow    newest »

message 1: by Amy (Other Amy) (last edited Oct 16, 2015 12:09PM) (new)

Amy (Other Amy) Deleted Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West as the list creator specifically asks that it not be added in the list description.


message 2: by Ela (new)

Ela Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "Deleted Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West as the list creator specifically asks that it not be added in the list description."

Sorry for a late response. Thank you for removing Wicked from the list. When I was creating this list I did not realize that many people have different ideas about what a fairytale is and what is popular and what is "little known". I should have specified in the description. Thanks again :).


message 3: by Laura (new)

Laura Great list! I didn't know I needed this till I saw it. :)


message 4: by Hannah (new)

Hannah McManus By "Enchanted" do you mean "Enchanted" by Alethea Kontis? Because that is a fairy tale retelling... It's just more than one. Do I take that to mean that fairy tale crossovers are not allowed on this list?
Thanks!
~ Hannah


message 5: by Ela (new)

Ela Hannah wrote: "By "Enchanted" do you mean "Enchanted" by Alethea Kontis? Because that is a fairy tale retelling... It's just more than one. Do I take that to mean that fairy tale crossovers are not allowed on thi..."

Hi, Hannah!

Yes, that's the Enchanted I meant. And yes, I want to make this list fairytale-crossovers-free. The reason is simple: it's extremely hard to draw a line with what book actually attempts to retell more than one fairytale and which just uses fairytale elements.

e.g. Enchanted uses elements from The Frog Prince, Cinderella, Snow White, Jack and the Beanstalk and others - but does it actually retell these stories? Well, not really, the story is original and the fairytale elements are mostly just recurring motifs that add to the overall fairytale atmosphere.

I know that this list is gonna have its own life eventually but my intention was to provide a guide to great fairytale retellings that are interestingly retold but the original tales are not widely known - Tamlin, Kate Crackernuts, King Thrushbeard, East of the Sun West of the Moon, Goose Girl, Firebird etc.

I would like to avoid retellings of popular tales like Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White or The Little Red Riding Hood since it's not that hard to find them.

If you are by any chance looking for a list with popular fairytale retellings, this one is great :).


message 6: by Laura (new)

Laura I'm following this thread so just comment and let me know if there's a book you think doesn't fit!


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