The SurLaLune Fairy Tales Database collects thousands of tales from hundreds of folklore collections. Whenever possible, a country of origin and classification has been assigned to the tale. The default classification system used is the Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) but other systems are also represented such as the Perry classification system for fables and Reidar Thoralf Christiansen’s Migratory Legends (ML) system for legends.

Most of the tales entered into this database are in the public domain in the United States. Please research the copyright laws of your own country before using the tales by consulting the provided bibliographic information and judging a tale’s copyright status according to your country’s laws. Other tales under copyright are used with permission of the copyright owner. They are marked as under copyright and should NOT be reprinted elsewhere without permission of the copyright owner. SurLaLune cannot provide that permission since it is not the copyright holder of those tales, so do not ask for permission to reprint, publish or re-use copyrighted tales found in the database.

If you see a classification error or want to provide classification services for the database, please email Heidi Anne Heiner. Tale type classification is as much art as science. This database is always seeking ways to improve and provide the best tale resources information available and welcomes contributions from readers.