Fairytale Beasts

Guest: Jill Terry Rudy, PhD, Professor of English and Folklore, BYU; Jennifer Schacker, PhD, Professor of English and Folklore, University of Guelph; Christine A. Jones, PhD, Professor of French Literature and Fairytales, University of Utah There’s the Frog Prince, the Big Bad Wolf, and of course, Belle and her Beast. The fairytale beasts that come most quickly to mind tend to be those in need of conquering, taming or transforming. But if we look back further to the origins of some of our favorite fairytale stories involving animals – like Goldilocks and the Three Bears – we find some surprises. In these vintage tales, beasts were more ambiguous – and occasionally even better than their human counterparts.