Fairy-Tale Files: Ursa Inertia

East of the Sun, West of the MoonA peasant agrees to give his youngest daughter to a polar bear in exchange for wealth. All goes smoothly until the girl discovers her keeper is actually a prince cursed by his stepmother to spend a year’s worth of daytimes in the form...

Fairy-Tale Files: Once Upon a Microchip

Yes Indeed, We Prefer the RobotIn “A Toy Princess,” a fairy tale from the 1877 collection On a Pincushion by English writer Mary de Morgan, an emotional and expressive princess named Ursula grows up in a kingdom of such incredible politeness that its subjects have...

Fairy-Tale Files: On the Border

Folkloric HomecomingMichael Mejia’s “Coyote Takes Us Home” is a contemporary fairy tale about a group of children traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border who are stowed away in the headlights, radio, and side panels of a Coyote’s Chevy Nova during the drive...

Fairy-Tale Files: Organ Narratives…

The Three Army Surgeons The Brothers Grimm kick things off with this tale about a trio of surgeons gathered at an inn, trying to prove their tolerance for pain. One severs his hand, another cuts out his eyes, while the third extracts his heart, each boasting they’ll...

Fairy-Tale Files: Elfology 101

Not Your Handmaiden’s YodaThe idea of an elf varies greatly across time and culture. Earliest descriptions are found throughout the Scandinavian regions; however, even these disagree. While Old Norse texts associated elves with pagan deities, medieval Germans alluded...