I tend to reuse legends and myths in my stories and create new races loosely based on a legend because it saves me trouble. And that way I can use vampires or elves without actually using them...

Anyway, I got an idea for children's tales in my world, but I don't know if it would work.

Would it be alright to take various Grimm's Fairy Tales-obviously not any of the Tales Disney has used-and rewrite them into my story as children's tales? Changing the humans to other races and bending the situation to fit the world's culture...

The fairy tales started out as folklore, and the Grimm's brothers didn't copyright them, would this idea be possible?

I can't claim to have any answers for the more technical aspects of this, but I can say this - I think that would be an awesome idea, and I'd definitely find it fascinating. I'd love to see how it turns out.

Copyrights and such, however... well, I have no answers for you. I hope someone who knows a bit more about the subject comes along and helps with that.

Writers reuse fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and the like all the time. I have a couple of recommendations:

• Don't just read "Grimm's Fairy Tales," which are comparatively limited; find the collections put out by Andrew Lang ("Green Fairy Book," "Scarlet Fairy Book," "Rose Fairy Book," etc.), which are much more extensive. (I think he was pretty good about noting the copyright status of the original stories, and some of his collections are out of copyright by now, by the way.)
• Don't just make fairly-straightforward adaptations; they were all the rage (or so I hear) a few book-generations back, and became "overdone," so make some sort of (or, better yet, several) twist, inversion, or unexpected change.

Limited? Thanks for telling me-I always thought they were diverse, seeing as I hadn't seen them anywhere else. Redundant, yes...

Thanks for that suggestion! I'll look into it. These stories wouldn't be entire plotlines, only bedtime stories for children. I finally remembered what they're called...

Good advice. I'll remember. And to keep the story up with the culture of the peoples, I'd have to change things anyway.




Well, if you read my Fantasy world series, you would get to read the rewrites of these stories. And, once again, I'd be happy to let you!

I have read up on copyright laws and know that after at least two hundred years-if not renewed-the copyright goes out; and sometimes earlier, depending on a million loopholes that I can't remember right now.

But thank you both for your help again!

I'd like that; thank you! Though, again, take your time. I can wait until you've gotten the story finished, at least some of the way.

*groans* I need to decide which story I want to dedicate myself to for a while... But I enjoy both so much!

I will take my time-my stories turn out horrid otherwise!

"Grimm's Fairy Tales" are (as I understand it) the tales commonly told in Germany (and maybe even one particular area of Germany). Lang drew first from them and other related sources, but then went on to find stories from all around the world.


Even so, because your books aren't set on Earth, there's no reason to expect that the bedtime stories there would be essentially the same ones as would be told on Earth with a few racial substitutions.


Almost anything published 1922 (plus or minus a year or two, I think) or earlier is in the public domain. (To check, you can search Project Gutenberg; if they don't have it, that doesn't necessarily prove anything, but if they do it's almost certainly public-domain.) For anything later, it's indeed somewhat complicated because the laws have changed several times, but see this helpful and comprehensive chart.

Thanks for the chart! That made tons more sense than what I read!

And good points on the 'not-on-Earth' point...I didn't think of that at all.