Here is an assortment of questions, essays, guides, links, and even a short story that will hopefully enlighten and inspire, or at least help you along the way.
On this page, I have listed and annotated some of the best sites on the web directly related to fairy tales. This is my short list of favorite sites. They are pertinent, full of information, reliable, and well-maintained. Excepting a few that are archival, most of these sites are regularly updated.
Fairy Tale Studies
Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts
compiled by D. L. Ashliman
Ashliman has gathered hundreds of tales and grouped them by their Aarne-Thompson tale type. This site is the best place on the web to find tales with related themes across different cultures all in one place. You'll find more than the tales here with biographies of fairy tale writers and links to fairy tale texts all over the web. Don't miss his Grimm's Brothers Home Page.
Kay Vandergrift's Snow White
One of the most engrossing and largest sites on the web devoted to a single fairy tale, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Professor Vandergrift compares 36 versions of the single tale and includes thoughts and criticism on the illustrations, media, issues, and bibliography for studying the tale.
Terri Windling's site is a wonderful place to visit on a regular basis. In The Forum you will find essays on fairy tales, myths, and folklore. This is simply the best place for quality essays about folklore available for free on the web. The Coffee House features poetry, often with fairy tale themes. There are my two favorite areas if I am forced to pick. But all of it, especially The Gallery, are not far behind.
The Cinderella Bibliography by Russell A. Peck
The scope of this site is amazing. It is impossible to read it all in one sitting. Peck has written a bibliography of stories, illustrations, plays, music, novels, poetry, just about anything and everything related to Cinderella. There is also a generous section devoted to Beauty and the Beast.
Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies
The name says it all. While the articles are not available online, the contents of all issues--past, present and future--are available. Some articles are available to read now through a Project Muse link on the site if you have access to Project Muse through your local school or library. This is a top-notch academic journal focusing on fairy tales.
Applit
Applit features Appalachian literature with a healthy dose of regional folklore and fairy tales. Be sure to look at the subpages listed here:
Applit Index by Genre: Folklore
Applit Index by Genre: Folklore Texts
Fairy Tale Illustrations
Bud Plant Illustrated Books
A rare bookseller and illustration specialist, Bud Plant Illustrated Books presents the biographies and artwork samples of numerous Golden Age Illustrators, many who are well-known for their fairy tale work.
Women Children's Book Illustrators
Denise Ortakales, a gifted illustrated, shares an extensive website focusing on women illustrators. Many of these women illustrated fairy tale collections. Their biographies and samples of their work are presented on this site.
University of Southern Mississippi's Fairy Tale Projects
The following three sites are archival and no longer updated. They are text and image archives of antique picture books and fairy tale collections prepared as student projects under the supervision of Michael N. Salda. Built while the web was much younger, the sites are simple but filled with great images from rare books.
The Jack and the Beanstalk and Jack the Giant-Killer Project
The Little Red Riding Hood Project
E-Text Collections
Andrew Lang's Colored Fairy Books