An anti-fairy tale, also
called anti-tale, is a fairy tale which, unlike an ordinary one, has a
tragic, rather than a happy ending, with the antagonists winning and the
protagonists losing at the end of the story. Whereas fairy tales paint a
magical, utopian world, anti-fairy tales paint a dark world of nastiness and
cruelty. Such stories incorporate horror, black comedy, mean-spirited practical
jokes on innocent characters, sudden and often cruel plot twists, and biting satire.
The term (German: Antimärchen) was introduced by Andrè Jolles in his Einfache Formen (1930).
Examples of anti-fairy tales include "The Fisherman and His Wife" and "The Swineherd". The term is also used to refer to remakes of traditional "happy" fairy tales into "unhappy" ones. The Shrek film series, which parodies and satirises fairy tales, includes several elements of anti-fairy tales such as the deaths of heroic characters and scatalogical humour.
There is a poor fisherman who lives with his wife in a hovel by the sea. One day the fisherman catches a golden flounder, which claims to be an enchanted prince, and begs to be set free. The fisherman kindly releases it. When his wife hears the story, she says he ought to have had the flounder grant him a wish, and insists that he go back and ask the flounder to grant her wish for a nice house.
The fisherman returns to the shore but is uneasy when he finds that the sea seems to becoming turbid, as it was so clear before. He makes up a rhyme to summon the flounder, and it grants the wife's wish. The fisherman is pleased with his new wealth, but the wife is not and demands more -- that her husband go back and wish that he be made a king. Reluctantly, he does, and gets his wish. But again and again, his wife sends him back to ask for more and more. The fisherman knows this is wrong but there is no reasoning with his wife. He says they should not annoy the flounder, and be content with what they have been given, but his wife is not content. Each time, the flounder grants the wishes, but each time the sea grows more and more fierce.
Eventually, the wife goes too far when she wishes to command the sun, moon and heavens, and become equal to God. When that final wish is made, the flounder undoes all the wishes, and returns the fisherman and his wife to their hovel. And with that, the sea becomes calm once more.
A willful little girl will not obey her parents and, having taken it into her head that she wants to see Frau Trude, goes in spite of all their warnings. She arrives terrified, and Frau Trude questions her. She tells of seeing a black man on her steps (a collier, says Frau Trude), a green man (a huntsman), a red man (a butcher), and, looking through her window, the devil instead of Frau Trude.
Frau Trude says she saw the witch in her proper attire, and that she had been waiting for the girl. She turned her into a block of wood and threw her onto the fire, and then warmed herself by it, commenting on how bright the block made the fire.
Examples of anti-fairy tales include "The Fisherman and His Wife" and "The Swineherd". The term is also used to refer to remakes of traditional "happy" fairy tales into "unhappy" ones. The Shrek film series, which parodies and satirises fairy tales, includes several elements of anti-fairy tales such as the deaths of heroic characters and scatalogical humour.
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Example: The Fisherman and
his Wife
Synopsis
There is a poor fisherman who lives with his wife in a hovel by the sea. One day the fisherman catches a golden flounder, which claims to be an enchanted prince, and begs to be set free. The fisherman kindly releases it. When his wife hears the story, she says he ought to have had the flounder grant him a wish, and insists that he go back and ask the flounder to grant her wish for a nice house.
The fisherman returns to the shore but is uneasy when he finds that the sea seems to becoming turbid, as it was so clear before. He makes up a rhyme to summon the flounder, and it grants the wife's wish. The fisherman is pleased with his new wealth, but the wife is not and demands more -- that her husband go back and wish that he be made a king. Reluctantly, he does, and gets his wish. But again and again, his wife sends him back to ask for more and more. The fisherman knows this is wrong but there is no reasoning with his wife. He says they should not annoy the flounder, and be content with what they have been given, but his wife is not content. Each time, the flounder grants the wishes, but each time the sea grows more and more fierce.
Eventually, the wife goes too far when she wishes to command the sun, moon and heavens, and become equal to God. When that final wish is made, the flounder undoes all the wishes, and returns the fisherman and his wife to their hovel. And with that, the sea becomes calm once more.
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Example: The Willful Child
Synopsis
Once upon a time
there was a child who was willful and would not do what her mother wished. For
this reason, God had no pleasure in her, and let her become ill. No doctor
could do her any good, and in a short time the child lay on her deathbed. When
she had been lowered into her grave, and the earth was spread over her, all at
once her little arm came out again and reached upward. And when they had pushed
it back in the ground and spread fresh earth over it, it was all to no purpose,
for the arm always came out again. Then the mother herself was obliged to go to
the grave and strike the arm with a rod. When she had done that, the arm was
drawn in, and at last the child had to rest beneath the ground. And everything
went back to normal.
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Example: Frau Trude
Synopsis
A willful little girl will not obey her parents and, having taken it into her head that she wants to see Frau Trude, goes in spite of all their warnings. She arrives terrified, and Frau Trude questions her. She tells of seeing a black man on her steps (a collier, says Frau Trude), a green man (a huntsman), a red man (a butcher), and, looking through her window, the devil instead of Frau Trude.
Frau Trude says she saw the witch in her proper attire, and that she had been waiting for the girl. She turned her into a block of wood and threw her onto the fire, and then warmed herself by it, commenting on how bright the block made the fire.
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