top twenty tales

[marycatelli]

The muse was playing with some fairy tale concepts, trying to turn them into a tale of my own.  And one consequence thereof was that I was pondering which tales hit the Top Twenty (or thereabouts).

The tales that everyone knows, the tales that one can allude to in safety, the tales one can warp confident that your readers will recognize the original -- tales that one has to warp somehow to keep the readers awake unless you are writing for children.

Which I am far from the best person to consider, having been raised on Andrew Lang's books and knowing scads and scads that are not common knowledge.

Still, I tried to make a list and surprised myself with the number that I would put on it (out of all the hundreds of thousands of fairy tales that have been collected):

1. Snow White


2. Cinderella


3. Rapunzel


4. Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves


5. Aladdin


6. Sleeping Beauty


7. Goldilocks and the Three Bears


8. Jack and the Beanstalk


9. Three Billy Goats Gruff


10. Beauty and the Beast


11. Bluebeard


12. Frog King


13. Little Red Riding Hood


14. The Princess and the Pea


15. Rumpelstiltskin


16. Emperor's New Clothes


17. Puss in Boots


18. Pied Piper


19. Hansel and Gretel

Are there any you would not rely on someone knowing?  Are there any you think should be added?

Comments

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

Ugly Duckling?

[marycatelli]

hmmm. . . yeah, that's another.

bringing it to actually twenty.