This course takes a brief look at a big subject. Where do Fairy Tales come from? We survey the work of the most famous of the collectors: the Brothers Grimm. How did they set about their task? Who did they collect from? How did they present their findings? Can we rely on what they tell us? We move on to genuine historic fairy belief in traditional Celtic societies, before turning to the structure of Fairy Tales, and the seminal work of Vladimir Propp on their roots in oral tradition. Next we consider what Fairy Tales might mean. Are they just for children, or do they have some deeper, perhaps darker, meaning? We consider a range of Freudian and other psychological interpretations focusing on Bruno Bettelheim and his book The Uses of Enchantment. Then follow two case studies of the abuse of Fairy Tales: firstly by the Nazis in 1930s Germany; secondly, by Walt Disney in the famous series of animated movies starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in 1937. The course is completed with detailed study of selected modern literary fairy tales beginning with Hans Christian Andersen and ending with the poem sequence “The Grimm Sisters” (1981) by Liz Lochhead and short stories by Angela Carter from The Bloody Chamber and other stories (1979).