English Fairy Tales — Story, Setting & Ideas

Rhythmic Commands and Magical Assistance

Across several tales, Steel employs a distinctive device: the protagonist or a helper recites a rhyming command to summon aid. In the excerpt from 'Nix Naught Nothing,' the giant's daughter claps her hands and calls, 'Beasts and birds o' each degree, / Clean me this stable for love o' me.' The same structure appears for draining a lake and climbing a tree. These incantations are not elaborate spells but simple, rhythmic couplets that mirror folk-song cadences. The repetition of 'for love of me' emphasizes the personal bond between the helper and the one in need. This pattern gives the collection a cohesive oral quality, as if each tale were meant to be spoken aloud.

Pacing Through Impossible Tasks

Steel structures many of her tales around a series of escalating, seemingly impossible tasks—cleaning a stable seven miles long, draining a lake seven miles deep, or retrieving eggs from a tree seven miles high. Each task is introduced with a threat ('or I will have you for my supper'), creating a rhythm of tension and relief. The hero's initial failure is described with physical detail: 'as fast as he cleared the muck, it just fell back again.' The arrival of magical help is abrupt and economical, often signaled by a single line of dialogue. This pattern accelerates the narrative, allowing the story to cover large spans of time and action in a few paragraphs.

Voice and Colloquial Flavor

Steel's narrator adopts a conversational tone that includes direct addresses to the reader and idiomatic expressions. In the excerpt, phrases like 'in a terrible sweat,' 'clean as a new pin,' and 'as angry as angry' give the prose a homely, oral quality. The giant's dialogue is marked by exaggerated threats and boasts: 'I've got the right one at last.' The narrator also uses repetition for emphasis, as in 'she sate and thought, and thought, and thought.' This colloquial voice contrasts with the more formal language of the frame narrative or the moralizing conclusions found in some earlier collections, making Steel's retellings feel immediate and folk-inflected.

Illustrations and Textual Rhythm

Arthur Rackham's illustrations, listed in the contents with captions that often quote the text, create a visual counterpart to Steel's pacing. The captions themselves—such as 'Somebody has been at my porridge, and has eaten it all up!'—capture key moments of dialogue or action. The placement of illustrations at intervals (e.g., after a task is completed or a transformation occurs) reinforces the episodic structure of the tales. Readers may notice how the images freeze moments of high tension or magical intervention, complementing Steel's swift narrative transitions.

Readers approaching this collection may find it useful to note how Steel balances repetition and variation: the same structural patterns recur, but each tale introduces new details of setting or character. Pay attention to the rhythm of the dialogue and the way commands are phrased—they often reveal the power dynamics between characters. The illustrations by Arthur Rackham, with their muted colors and intricate linework, offer a visual interpretation that aligns with the text's blend of the homely and the fantastical.

Rereading these fairy tales, I remembered my mother’s low voice telling of impossible tasks, and how English Fairy Tales made me feel both safe and uneasy—much like the lush, thorny beauty of A House of Pomegranates — Background and Themes once did, where every jeweled phrase hid something dark and tender underneath.