Meet the Middle Ages
BackFairy-tales
Fairy-tales have always been told. They told them in the Middle Ages as well.
A fairy-tale is the tale of a remarkable event. You don ´t have to believe what it says, it is just supposed to be entertaining. Fairy-tales often have a happy ending and tell us about a world where anything might happen. In these tales, we are told of the adventures of the hero or heroine amongst wizards and supernatural beings. Often something is repeated three times in a fairy-tale. For example, there are three tasks which the hero or heroine have to accomplish. In the fairy-tale we learn that it is important to do the right thing. If you do good, all will be well, but if you do wrong, something bad will happen. The fable is a kind of fairy-tale, but all the characters in it are animals
In the Middle Ages, people told each other stories of trolls, giants, dragon, fairies and elves. There were stories about Näcken, the were-wolf or old witches. In the medieval stories, there were also two characters connected to the Christian faith. They were the Devil, and the "myling", dead children who had not been christened and therefore could not rest in peace. On the coast, people told stories of supernatural sea-creatures which sailors and merchants had seen at sea.