Which fairy tale do you find to be the most emotionally moving?

I find none of them emotionally moving.

My favorite childrens story is Pinnochio, but I don’t see that listed, and it may not qualify as a fairy tale, so I will go with the Tale of the Three Brothers and the Deathly Hallows.

I don’t know why Pinocchio isn’t on that list. It’s not a folktale or traditional tale, but neither are many of the others listed. Pinocchio is a children’s novel written by an Italian author named Carlo Collodi in 1883.

The stories of Hans Christian Andersen are likewise the compositions of a single known author and not traditional stories, but many of them are looked upon as fairy tales now. His story “The Little Sea Maid” (“The Little Mermaid”) was always a special favorite of mine, from early childhood—the way he wrote it, that is, and not the way Disney bastardized it. I also loved “The Wild Swans” and “The Snow Queen.” They all have strong emotional content, in my opinion.

I’m tempted to say Cinderella because it’s playing on ABC Family right now, but I’d say the Frog Prince. In the original story it’s not just about a girl kissing a frog and him turning into a prince, but it’s also about keeping promises. It has a kind of double lesson, don’t judge and keep your promises.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
Probably because of the song Death Bed, by Relient K. It says “You cried wolf. The tears they soaked your fur. The blood dripped from your fangs. You said ‘what have I done?’
You loved that lamb. With every sinful bone. And there you wept alone.”

The Ugly Duckling.

To feel so rejected for one’s appearance as a child, then growing to become a being of such great beauty, and then flying through the skies on the wings of who you really are.

@PhiNotPi, I am not really answering your question, but if you are interested in fairy tales and folklore and have time for a bit of summer reading, I highly recommend The Great Cat Massacre by Robert Darnton. It’s one of the foundational texts of European cultural history. The book analyzes several episodes in pre-Revolutionary France that allow us to get some of the common people’s mindset, but the first few chapters have an excellent discussion of fairy tales and oral culture. Darnton argues that they did not have a moral (these were added by 19th century compilers later on), but that fairy tales were a reflection of the harsh social realities that peasants were likely to encounter (for instance: peasants lived constantly on the brink of starvation, so when they received wishes from supernatural beings in fairy tales, they always wished for a full belly, you know, a loaf of white bread, and maybe some meat). Just like our television shows may not have a lesson or social commentary, but they reflect our world and some of the assumptions necessary for navigating it.

I love anything by Hans Christian Andersen. Saw the old movie with Danny Kaye recently and enjoyed it as much as when I was a child.

Stone Soup. Initially, it is a story of trickery and selfishness, but I view it as a lesson of “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” and like to think of how the experience may have changed the town for the better.

The Little Match Girl

@bkcunningham : Oh that’s a sad one alright O_O I think I read it once as a little kid and could never bear to read it again.

I always cry when I read the story.

I also like Bearskin. Another very emotional fairytale. Would you consider The Gift of the Magi a fairytale?

@bkcunningham, the O. Henry story? I wouldn’t. It’s a short story, a richly ironic one, but I don’t think it has any of the elements that make for a fairy tale.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room, if I’m not mistaken, that was the first movie I ever saw in a theater. I loved it and remembered much of the music from that single viewing—most of which I never heard again until I owned a VHS player 30 years later.

You mentioned deepest meaning, and on that front, given today’s right wing push to do just that (deconstruct the middle class) in order to better feed billionaires and multinational corporations, I’ll go with one of Aesop’s fables: The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs.

The Ugly Duckling. It is easily understood by very young children and has a powerful and far-reaching moral, valid more than ever today.

I had the fortune of growing up with no tv but this book and All of these‘s_Fairy_Books

Lang didn’t skimp on the terror and gore. It was not PC fairy tales.

My favorite was The Twelve Dancing Princesses

I’m aware there’s an excessive apostrophe -s in the above. I can’t remove it. It’s the way the link came down.

I read fair tails voraciously when I was little. I loved them all, but the two that stand out are the Emperors New Clothes, because I couldn’t believe everybody would be that stupid, and the Fisherman and his wife, because I liked the lesson that if you want too much you could end up with nothing.

Yep, the “Ugly Duckling” that morphed into a Swan. Otherwise I do not do the whole prince and princess crap. Bad programming, baaad! lol

I’m also going for The Little Match Girl. I still can’t believe it. It’s fucking Winter, and people just ignored her, and let her die in the snow? And even if someone was nice enough to buy a match, how much money do you get for one match? But I guess back then you could buy more with a small amount…eh, I just think that story is horribly sad, and offers a frighteningly accurate view of society’s neglect of the homeless, young or old. The saddest part though wasn’t so much when she died…but when she kept lighting matches and peering into the fire and remembering memories, or imagining better times. I forgot. Been so long…but it’s still the saddest part.

Her grandmother. She thought she saw her grandmother reaching out her arms to her. That story always choked me up, too, when I was a child.

Good grief, I spelled voraciously and missed fairy and tales. How embarrassing.

The Little Match Girl.

I answered before reading the previous posts. Such a sad story.

The bible, it cracks me up.

I’m drawn to Beauty and the Beast, although I think she should love and accept him as the beast – the transformation to handsome prince kind of ruins it for me.

I forget in that story, and I only really saw the Disney movie…but like in the original story, was the beast always a beast, or was he human before?

@Symbeline Usually it’s a prince who has somehow wronged a witch or wizard and is being punished for his hubris by being given the “impossible” challenge of being loved in spite of his beastly appearance and nature. (Robin McKinley has actually written two versions of the story, both fantastic.)

I like Cinderella. Everyone treated her like I crap and she finally, through her own sweetness, came into her own. Didn’t necessarily need the prince to SAVE her, would have preferred female empowerment all on her own, but it is what it is.

Thinking further about it, there is a modern fairy tale that is moderately moving:
A little english film called Thunderpants.

Just read some of that Wiki entry. Born with two stomachs? what the hell lol

I find Oscar Wilde’s, The Nightingale and the Rose quite sad.

Brothers Grimm stuff is usually pretty touching. Poor Rapunzel stuck all alone up in that tower. Somehow, I always imagine Jack Nicholson showing up at the bottom and shouting:

“Rapunzel…..Rapunzel !!.......Let down your freakin’ hair !!”
.

That reminds me of that one sketch where the prince said “let down your hair”, he starts climbing up, and then it cuts to Rapunzel where it is revealed that it was her armpit hair.

I saw something similar in Cyanide and Happiness, but it was her crotch hair lol.