Fairy godmother

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For other uses, see Fairy godmother (disambiguation)

In fairy tales, a fairy godmother is a fairy or person with magical powers who acts as a mentor or parent to someone.

[edit] In Fairytale and Legend

Vladimir Propp identified this role as the donor and listed it as one of the eight roles found in fairy tales. Before giving the hero magical support or advice, the donor may also test the hero, by questioning them or by setting them tasks.

Typically, the fairy godmother's protègé is a prince or princess and the hero of the story, and the godparent uses her magic to help or otherwise support them. The most well-known example is probably the fairy godmother in Charles Perrault's Cinderella. Multiple fairy goodmothers appear in Sleeping Beauty, in both Charles Perrault's and the Grimm Brothers's variants, including one evil, offended one. The popularity of these versions of these tales led to this being widely regarded as a common fairy-tale motif, although they are less common in other tales.

Indeed, the fairy godmothers were added to Sleeping Beauty by Perrault, no such figures appearing in his source, "Sole, Luna, e Talia" by Giambattista Basile. In the Grimm Brothers' variant of Cinderella, Aschenputtel is aided not by her fairy godmother but by her dead mother, as is the heroine of the Finnish variant, The Wonderful Birch. A great variety of other figures may also take this place. In Vasilissa the Beautiful, the heroine is aided by a wooden doll that her dying mother gave her; in Rushen Coatie, by a red calf sent to her by her dead mother, a calf that can continue to aid her after its death; in Katie Woodencloak by a mysterious dun bull; in Tattercoats, by a gooseherd who is her friend for a long time before his mysterious powers are revealed. Heroes seldom have actual fairy godmothers, but similar figures are common: in The Golden Bird, the hero is aided by a fox whose advice he took; in The Red Ettin, by a fairy not his godmother; in Puddocky, by an enchanted frog that took pity on him; in Prince Ring, by an enchanted dog; in Fair Brow and The Bird 'Grip', by a dead man whom he had aided; in The Horse Gullfaxi and the Sword Gunnfoder, in an unusual reversal, by his stepmother.

Madame d'Aulnoy created a fairy godmother for the evil stepsister in her fairy tale The Blue Bird; in this position, the fairy godmother's attempts to bring about the marriage of her goddaughter and the hero are evil attempts to impede his marriage with the heroine. Likewise, in her The White Doe, the fairy godmother helps the evil princess get revenge on the heroine.

[edit] In Fiction

Fairy godmothers appear frequently in fairytale fantasy, especially comic versions and retellings of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.

In C. S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew, when Uncle Andrew explains how he made the magical rings from dust left to him by his godmother, he points out that she may have had fairy blood, and so he might have been the last man to have a fairy godmother.

The Fairly OddParents is a humorous cartoon where the fairies Cosmo and Wanda are (rather incompetent) godparents.

In Shrek 2, the fairy godmother turns out to be a conniving, crooked businesswoman (with a personality rather like that of the Stepmother in Cinderella), who is quite willing to resort to blackmail and/or murder to further her own interests.

The Discworld novel Witches Abroad also features a plotting fairy godmother, Lady Lilith de Tempscire, who uses the power of stories to control the city of Genua. During the book Magrat Garlick also takes on the role, but throws away the magic wand at the end.

In "The Dresden Files" novels (primarily "Grave Peril" and "Summer Knight"), the main character, a modern wizard named Harry Dresden is revealed to have a faerie godmother by the name of Leanansidhe who enjoys ensnaring Harry in one-sided deals.

The first King's Quest game features a fairy godmother of the main character Graham who can grant him invincibility.