Folktale

I begin before books were ever made. I am a whisper around a crackling fire, a story told from a grandparent's memory to a wide-eyed child. I am the reason you know about clever spiders who outsmart tigers, and brave children who find their way home from dark forests. You have met my characters in your imagination: the talking animals, the tricky spirits, the kind-hearted heroes, and the grumpy giants who are not always as mean as they seem. I travel across oceans and deserts on the wind, changing my clothes but never my heart. In one land, a girl might lose a glass slipper at a royal ball; in another, she might lose a fur one in a snowy forest. Can you imagine a world without these stories. I am the magic that connects you to people who lived thousands of years ago, letting you share in their dreams and adventures. I am Folktales.

For most of my life, I lived only in people's voices. I was an oral tradition, passed down from one generation to the next like a precious family treasure. No one knows my exact birthday, because I am as old as human language itself, stretching back thousands and thousands of years into the past. As people traveled on foot, by boat, or on horseback, they carried me with them in their hearts and minds. I would change a little with each telling, like a pebble smoothed by a river, as each storyteller added a tiny bit of their own personality. Then, a time came when people started to worry that I might be forgotten as the world changed. A man in France named Charles Perrault decided he had to write some of my stories down on paper. In 1697, he published a book of tales about characters you might know, like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, for everyone to read. A little over a century later, two brothers in Germany, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, spent years of their lives traveling and listening to storytellers. They carefully wrote down every word, exactly as they heard it. On December 20th, 1812, they published their first collection of stories, saving hundreds of my adventures from being lost forever. They did this because they wanted to preserve the culture, language, and wisdom that I held within me for all the children of the future.

Because of dedicated people like Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, I am stronger and more alive than ever before. I don't just live in old, dusty books on a shelf anymore. You can find me dancing across the big screen in movies, leaping from the pages of colorful graphic novels, and coming to life on stage in plays. I am the story of Anansi the Spider, a famous trickster hero from West Africa who teaches us all that being clever is often more powerful than being strong. I live in the tales of every culture, sharing important lessons about kindness, courage, and why it is so important to be part of a community. I am a mirror that shows you the history of your ancestors, and I am a window that gives you a peek into the lives of people all over the world. I remind you that even though we all live in different places and speak different languages, the same hopes and fears connect us all. So listen closely to the stories your family tells around the dinner table or at bedtime. In them, you will find me, waiting patiently to be shared again. I am Folktales, and my never-ending story continues with you.