bserved
those principles which should guide the teacher in choosing and in
interpreting a tale, and have stated those rules which should govern
the story-teller in the telling of the tale, we may well ask a few
further questions concerning the nature of these fairy tales. What is
a fairy tale and whence did it come, and how are we to find its
beginning? Having found it, how are we to follow it down through the
ages? How shall it be classed, what are the available types which seek
to include it and show its nature? And lastly, what are the books
which are to be the main practical sources of fairy tales for the
teacher of little children? The remaining pages attempt to give some
help to the teacher who wishes to increase her resources with an
intelligent knowledge of the material she is handling.

Many times the question, "What is a fairy tale?" has been asked. One
has said: "The fairy tale is a poetic presentation of a spiritual
truth." George MacDonald has answered: "_Undine_ is a fairy tale." Mr.
G.K. Chesterton has said: "A fairy tale is a tale told in a morbid age
to the only remaining sane person, a child. A legend is a fairy tale
told to men when men were sane." Some, scorning to reply, have treated
the question as one similar to, "What poem do you consider best in the
English language?" As there are many tales included here which do not
contain a fairy, fairy tales here are taken to include tales which
contain something fairy or extraordinary, the magic or the
marvelous--fairies, elves, or trolls, speaking animals, trees, or a
talkative Tin Soldier. The Myth proper and the Fable are both excluded
here, while the _pourquois_ tale, a myth development, and the Beast
tale, a short-story fable development, are both included.

The origin of the word "fairy," as given by Thomas Keightley in his
_Fairy Mythology_, and later in the Appendix of his _Tales and Popular
Fictions_, is the Latin _fatum_, "to enchant." The word was derived
directly from the French form of the root. The various forms of the
root were:--

Latin _fatum_, "to enchant."
French _fee, feerie_, "illusion."
Italian _fata_.
Provencal _fada_.

In old French romance, _fee_ was a "woman skilled in magic." "All
those women were called Fays who had to do with enchantment and charms
and knew the power and virtue of words, of stones, and of herbs, by
which they were kept in youth and in great beauty and in great
riches." This was true a