Remembering Favorite Fairy Tales

Remembering Favorite Fairy Tales
Wednesday, October 30, 2024 by Susan Lyttek

I couldn’t figure out what I was going to write this week’s blog post about. Initially, I thought about All Saints Day, which is Friday this week. Or Reformation Day (aka All Hallows’ Eve that we call Halloween) which is Thursday. But I’m currently working on a massive rewrite and expansion of A Very Grimm Christmas, which, based on the title does refer to and allude to a few fairy tales within the pages of this sci-fi romance. I’m also editing the book about Hortense, yet again, with plans to submit it by the end of the year. And that book’s tag line is, “What if every fairy tale ever told was influenced by just one person?”

Yes, I have fairy tales on the brain. Truthfully, though, I always have.

First of all, I like the moral lessons they contain. While some only apply to the world of yesteryear, many of them hold timeless truths. Sometimes the lessons are obvious, other times you have to dig to find them. One thing I know for sure, if the people are too beautiful (fairies) or if you’re tempted to avoid work by their actions (leprechauns for instance), run in the other direction.

It never ceases to amaze me how many of the fairy tales, particularly those of European origin, are Bible lessons in miniature. Most Prince Charmings typify Christ. Most helpless princesses are human beings prior to salvation. We can do nothing to enact our own rescue. We have to wait for Jesus to swoop in and save the day. And He loves us for reasons we cannot fathom. The intensity of that love and the total inability of man to reciprocate it in kind prompted the magical element of the tales. To people of the Middle Ages, what they understood of the Mass they attended weekly was indeed magical. And since they couldn’t read or write, they invented tales they would remember, often with refrains to keep the story going, to both share the divine truths and to revel in their incredible glory.

But that still isn’t what I love the most.

If I can’t sleep, if I am stressed out, I often reread or replay the stories in my head. I always have a book (or two) of fairy tales on my Kindle. Even the tales I don’t know have common threads. The familiarity of the tales reassures me so much that I read an assortment of retellings as well. The fairy tale format always reminds me that God will use whatever He needs to in order to communicate His love to people. So savoring any one of these tales feels like a hug when I need it most.

But that still isn’t why I absolutely adore fairy tales, even though all of those things definitely play into it.

Fairy tales take me back to what was best about being a child. They remind me of possibilities and potential. They make dreams real and fantasies true. Fairy tales, as well as the portions of God’s word that they often imitate, say that your adventure, the one designed just for you, is around the next bend. Tomorrow is beautiful; today is filled with opportunity; I still have lots of growing up to do. These traditional stories help me remember that as long as we have breath, we have purpose. As long as we walk upon this earthly soil, we have the potential to tap into miracle that is today and try something new.

The following poem kind of ties it all together.

Dangle my Feet

Somewhere,

in the constant drive to be a child,

lurks the need

to sit on a too-big chair

or ledge

and let my calves and feet

dribble over the sides;

Moving in the remembered music

of grand ambitions,

magical plans