How does a Fairy Tale end in Your Language?

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MoonyMina's avatar
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Having grown up between North-American and Swiss Cultures, I've heard fairy tales both in French and English... but, for some reason, I hadn't noticed something...

Yesterday, my husband and I were watching Beauty and the Beast and we ended up with a huge question:
in English, fairy tales generally end with "and they lived happily ever after"
in French, they end with "ils vécurent heureux et eurent beaucoup d'enfants", which means "they lived happily and had many children"

why? why this difference? it may seem silly, but when you take into account that fairy tales are fundamental in our societies, that they are the reflection of a culture, of its trends, hopes and fears, it seems less futile...
I mean... why does the French culture make happiness and children go together for a happy ending, while English Culture (blessed it! ;) ) seems to think that Happiness on its own is sufficient? has it something to do with Latin vs Anglo-Germano-Scandinavian usual oppositions, or is it purely random??

that's why I'm asking every one who reads this to help us: how do we end fairy tales in other languages? I'm really curious, and interested in what would come out of this... and if you can ask people who speak other languages to come and answer this question, too, I'd be really glad :)

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bluebran's avatar
Such a fun topic :D Great idea!

In Argentina, we have two common endings:
"Y vivieron felices para siempre" --> and they lived happily ever after. This one's more like a translation form stories written in english... It's one of the most typical endings, but it doesn't sound too "Argentinian"... it's like we imported the expression :P
"Y vivieron felices y comieron perdices" --> It rhymes, so it's fun for the kids, and it means "And they lived happily and ate partridges"... It sounds odd in english, and if you look "perdiz" up, this turns uo in the dictionary "y fueron felices y comieron perdices (fr hecha) and they lived happily ever after" So I guess this is the one which represents the most our fairy tale endings :D