Fairy Tales

Fairy Tales — Free to Read Online: A Guide to Where to Start

Fairy tales have been told for generations as part of an oral tradition, full of magic, wonder and memorable characters. They draw children in, help them relax at bedtime and give them a safe way to explore new ideas. The mission of Ririro is to create the ultimate free collection of fairy tales with beautiful illustrations.

The most popular fairy tales

Based on Google search data and what readers open most on Ririro, these fifteen are the most popular fairy tales in English:

1. The Sleeping Beauty
A frog promises a queen a daughter, and the princess grows up under a curse that puts her to sleep for a hundred years. When a prince wakes her, the whole palace stirs too, right down to the cook’s unfinished meal.

2. Goldilocks and the Three Bears
A girl with hair like spun gold wanders into a house in the woods and tries out the three beds. When the bears come home she leaps out of the window, and Baby Bear cries because he wanted to play with her.

3. Rumpelstiltskin
A miller boasts that his daughter can spin straw into gold, and a strange little man does the spinning for a price: her first child. She can keep her baby only by guessing his name, and his temper does the rest.

4. Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood, named for the red velvet hat her grandmother gave her, carries wine and biscuits through the forest to her sick grandmother. A wolf has got there first, and a hunter must save the day.

5. The Three Little Pigs
Their mother cannot feed them, so three pigs set out to build houses of straw, sticks and bricks. The wolf blows down the first two but cannot move the brick house, and he never comes back.

6. Hansel and Gretel
Two hungry children are left deep in the forest and find a house of bread, with sugar windows and a pancake roof. The witch inside means to keep them, but Gretel outwits her, and they carry her pearls and gems home.

7. Thumbelina
A woman plants a barley grain from a witch, and out of its flower steps a girl no bigger than a thumb. A toad, a field mouse and a mole all want her, until a swallow carries her to a home of her own.

8. Jack and the Beanstalk
Jack trades his cow for magic beans, and the beanstalk that grows overnight leads to a giant’s castle, where the giant’s wife hides him in a cupboard. In this telling, the giant has also stolen Jack’s family castle, and Jack wins it back.

9. Three Billy Goats Gruff
Three goats must cross a bridge to reach the green meadow, and a hungry troll waits underneath. The two smaller goats talk their way past, and the biggest sends the troll into the rushing river, never to be seen again.

10. Snow White
Snow White, born with skin as white as snow and hair as black as ebony, hides with seven dwarfs from her stepmother’s poisoned apple. A jolt to her glass coffin, not a kiss, brings her back. The stepmother’s fate is left a mystery.

11. Cinderella
After her mother dies, a kind girl is left with the chores by her stepmother and half-sisters. A hazel twig she plants on her mother’s grave helps her reach the prince’s ball, and a lost shoe does the rest.

12. Beauty and the Beast
A merchant picks a single rose for his youngest daughter, and the Beast who owns the garden demands a life in return. Beauty takes her father’s place, and her kindness breaks the spell an evil fairy cast on the Beast.

13. The Little Mermaid
The Sea King’s youngest daughter longs for a prince she has glimpsed above the waves and bargains with the sea witch to join him. A trick nearly costs her everything, but this gentler retelling ends with a wedding her whole family attends.

14. The Snow Queen
A troll’s cursed mirror shatters, and a splinter turns a boy named Kay cold as the Snow Queen carries him north. Gerda follows, helped by pigeons, a robber girl and a reindeer, and the pair come home grown up but still children at heart.

15. Puss in Boots
A miller’s son inherits only a cat, but the cat has a plan: gifts for the king, a made-up title (the Marquis of Carabas) and a giant’s castle. By the end, his master is a marquis and married to the princess.

These fifteen are classics for a reason, and each is worth reading at least once. They are only the beginning, though. The ten tales below are ones you have probably never heard of, and we think you will love them.

Lesser-Known Fairy Tales

1. The Adventures of Florian
Raised to ride, swim and fence like a son, Isabella sets out as a boy named Florian with three gifts: a charm that sings near danger, a key that opens any door and a sphere that finds the way. A witch’s garden waits at the end.

2. The Kite That Went to the Moon
Tom boasts that the enormous kite Anna painted with a moon and stars will fly all the way to the moon. When it does, an elf calls a comet to carry the two friends after it, and they sail home by morning.

3. The Wonderful Dog and the Miraculous Cat
An old wizard banished from his school by the boastful head wizard Zidoc has only a dog and a cat on his side. Soon both animals are hiding in Zidoc’s castle, hunted by two wizards, with an enchanted king’s fate at stake.

4. The Laughing Prince
Bored by the old courtiers’ dull stories, a tsar’s daughter demands that someone make her laugh. Stefan, a farmer’s youngest son with no talent except stories, takes up the challenge for the sake of his little sister.

5. How the Bluebird Was Chosen Herald
Arthur, a boy who never stops asking questions, learns from the spirit of the woods how the birds once argued over who should announce spring. An owl’s judgment, a comet and a little blue singer settle the matter.

6. The Good Little Mouse
A queen widowed by a jealous neighbor refuses to hand over her tiny mouse, and that choice sets her daughter’s story in motion. The princess ends up minding turkeys, until a prince with a heart of gold arrives.

7. The Queen of Lanternland
A wandering prince is welcomed to Lanternland by a young queen who has not seen a stranger in a thousand years. A deadly whirlpool guards the island, and only a talisman can control it.

8. Kate Crackernuts
When a jealous queen turns on her stepdaughter Anne, Kate takes her sister away to seek their fortune. At a castle where a sick prince rides off to a fairy ball every midnight, Kate follows him, gathering nuts along the way.

9. The Origin of Rubies
A spoiled young prince steers his ship into a whirlpool and finds a palace at the bottom of the sea, where the god Shiva sits with closed eyes. The ruby he brings home catches a princess’s eye, and a wedding follows.

10. How Old Witch Neda Stole the Moon and the Sun
Old Witch Neda flies about the sky with her broom, sweeping away cobwebs, until she steals the moon and the sun. The stars twinkle on, confused, and the smallest star must set them free, earning a brighter shine for good.

Authors to explore