<P> In less technical contexts, the term is also used to describe something blessed with unusual happiness, as in "fairy tale ending" (a happy ending) or "fairy tale romance". Colloquially, a "fairy tale" or "fairy story" can also mean any far - fetched story or tall tale; it is used especially of any story that not only is not true, but could not possibly be true . Legends are perceived as real; fairy tales may merge into legends, where the narrative is perceived both by teller and hearers as being grounded in historical truth . However, unlike legends and epics, they usually do not contain more than superficial references to religion and actual places, people, and events; they take place once upon a time rather than in actual times . </P> <P> Fairy tales are found in oral and in literary form; the name "fairy tale" was first ascribed to them by Madame d'Aulnoy in the late 17th century . Many of today's fairy tales have evolved from centuries - old stories that have appeared, with variations, in multiple cultures around the world . The history of the fairy tale is particularly difficult to trace because only the literary forms can survive . Still, according to researchers at universities in Durham and Lisbon, such stories may date back thousands of years, some to the Bronze Age more than 6,000 years ago . Fairy tales, and works derived from fairy tales, are still written today . </P> <P> Folklorists have classified fairy tales in various ways . The Aarne - Thompson classification system and the morphological analysis of Vladimir Propp are among the most notable . Other folklorists have interpreted the tales' significance, but no school has been definitively established for the meaning of the tales . </P> <P> Some folklorists prefer to use the German term Märchen or "wonder tale" to refer to the genre over fairy tale, a practice given weight by the definition of Thompson in his 1977 (1946) edition of The Folktale: "a tale of some length involving a succession of motifs or episodes . It moves in an unreal world without definite locality or definite creatures and is filled with the marvellous . In this never - never land, humble heroes kill adversaries, succeed to kingdoms and marry princesses ." The characters and motifs of fairy tales are simple and archetypal: princesses and goose - girls; youngest sons and gallant princes; ogres, giants, dragons, and trolls; wicked stepmothers and false heroes; fairy godmothers and other magical helpers, often talking horses, or foxes, or birds; glass mountains; and prohibitions and breaking of prohibitions . </P>

The person who is considered to be the first author of the modern fairy tale is