Here is short but interesting book about the story behind the story. We sell it through our on-line stores, or you can pick out a copy using the little picture-link on Amazon below. We are My-Lynx Associates, and we have a copy for sale there as well. The title is "The Psychological Meaning of Redemption Motifs in Fairy Tales"

Everyone has fairy tales read to them as children. Now chances are, they are filtered through some corporate entity that seeks to market some move, DVD, action toy, or even a television show that stands to profit from using impressionable young minds to convince their parents to buy merchandise.

But in times gone by, the motivation behind fairy tales was hidden and somewhat mysterious. The appeal of the story would be passed on in an unbroken lineal heritage, from parent to child, who in turn would become a parent and tell the story to their own child. The motivation that kept the story alive, sometimes for centuries was the hidden, almost encrypted message. In this book, the author,  Marie-Louise Von Franz gives her insights, taken from her experience as a Jungian analyst, and also her deep insight into the diverse field of science, mythology, and dreams. She also provides information from the mysterious world of alchemy, and her knowledge the different versions of fairy tales in Europe, in both the form of local sagas known to the inhabitants of an area, and the historical legends that are more broadly known. The theme in this book is redemption, in this work defined as in the cure to a bewitchment or curse.

The Jungian perspective has to do with the similarity in the treatment of themes in a fairly tale, and the analysis of dreams and their content. The fairy tales appeal has to do with the content of the story - for example, beheading, or dismemberment, or bathing, keeping silent, burning of an animal skin, being beaten, asking questions, and more. While they do not necessarily make sense from the plot of a regular story, their appeal lies beneath the surface in an approach to human figures not as individuals but as archetypal figures which function as an ego-building factor in the child and Franz's insight that the hero of the story is a model for this ego-building process.

If you wish to purchase our copy, click on the Amazon widget below and look for the My-Lynx Associates name in the seller list.