ABSTRACT
Wonder tales are what people usually imagine when they hear the wotd folktale. These are the most familiar folktales, including tales of magic, strange beings, and enchanted transformations. Cinderella is a wonder tale, as is Beauty and the Beast, as are tales of dragonslayers and lands that lie east o the sun and west o the moon. Beauty and the Beast is one of the most popular of archetype folktales that is, a folktale that appears in every culture in some form or another, and is always greeted with delight. The transformed female, unlike the transformed male, usually is a free shapeshifter, often a magical animal who can transform into a human female. Sometimes, this is a voluntary shift on her part, although in certain cases, such as the tales of swan maidens, it is the theft by a human man of her magical garb that holds her in human form.
