Retelling The Tales: All About Fairytale, Myth, & Legend Retellings

 Retelling The Tales: All About Fairytale, Myth, & Legend Retellings

Hello my fellow readers and writers! Today this blogpost is all about fairytales, myths, and legends. Depending on the genre you read, and what kind of stuff you like, you may or may not have heard about these. 

What Are Retellings? 

Retellings in their essence are: telling a story in a different way. Now, this is not taking a book that you’ve read and essentially copying it. This is taking oral stories, myths, and tales and twisting them.

Retellings can be very similar to the original version, with nearly everything being the same, just told as a full story. Or, more commonly, the retelling is based off of the tale.

 Some prime examples would be Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan, with the Greek gods and mythology being accurate, but twisted about to fit the narrative, and Cinder by Marissa Meyer, with the original fairytale elements staying the same, but with several things very different. 

Are Retellings Only In Fantasy?

While fantasy is the most common genre for retellings to be in, with their propensity for magic, gods, and mythological creatures, retellings can be placed into any genre.

Science fiction and romance are also two common genres for retellings, with a prime example of a sci-fi retelling would be Cinder by Marissa Meyer, since it takes place in the future with the main character, Cinder, being a cyborg(Cinder is a Cinderella retelling). 

Now while I personally don’t know of any retellings that are mystery, thriller, or horror, there are some that include elements of them, but are not actually in that genre. Remember, retellings just have to stick to the core aspects, and even then…

What Defines A Retelling?

Okay, so this is going to come down to, ultimately, you. There are several different ‘tiers’ of retellings, from strict retellings to very loose retellings, and while I classify a great deal of very loose retellings to be retellings, you may think differently.

There are some retellings that have only aspects of its original tale. For example, Hunting Sirens by Mary Mecham is about a Deaf blacksmith that becomes a siren hunter. It is a Little Mermaid retelling, and while the main character ends up with a mute siren, it has very few things in common with Hans Christian Andersen’s original work.

The Levels Of Retellings

There are several ‘levels’ of retellings. For the sake of keeping everything simple, I’ll do five levels(I could have done three, but that feels a little too restricting): Strict, Similar(but different), Different POV, Major Key Differences, and Very Loose.

Strict

Retellings that are strict follow all the core principles, keep the characters virtually the same, and possibly change up a couple of aspects to make the story fresher/more engaging.

These ones are less common, just because of the fact that it shares so many similarities with what it is retelling that it makes it a little less intriguing.

Similar(but different)

These types of retellings follow all the key aspects and keep most of the same characters, but change it up to the point where you can still tell it’s a retelling, but feels different.

These ones would be something similar to taking Cinderella and placing the story in a different area– like making the whole thing take place in Mexico instead of where the fairytale is originally from.

Different POV

A retelling with a different POV then its original version is different but also the same. It follows the key aspect and main story, but is twisted into another character’s view, making the story entirely different from what it was based off of.

A very common type of different POV retellings are villain ones. Stuff like making the Queen of Hearts the main character instead of Alice, or making the story to be in Zeus’ POV instead of Pandora’s when she opens the box.

Major Key Differences

This type of retelling keeps the very core of the myth/fairytale/legend, but changes up a lot about it. The big things that define the myth/fairytale/legend are the only things kept, and I would say a lot of gender-swapped retellings fall into this category as well.

For reference, think Cinder by Marissa Meyer level changes, where it’s far into the future, Cinder is a cyborg, and it takes place in the Eastern Commonwealth… and there are several other things that are different about this world. However, she still loses her ‘slipper’, falls in love with a prince, and her stepfamily(except for one sister) are controlling. 

Very Loose

These types of retellings are the kind that sometimes don’t even keep the same characters. Or, they keep the same characters(kind of) and swap just about everything else around. If you aren’t super familiar with the tale they are basing their retelling off of, you would think it is no retelling at all.

For example, a Robin Hood retelling where the only similar thing is that the main character’s a lawbreaker and has a group of like-minded people, or, as I previously mentioned, Hunting Sirens by Mary Mecham, where the only things that are similar is that there’s sirens and one of them chooses to give up their tail to be human.

…and there it is! All about retellings! If you have a favorite retelling, make sure to comment it below. 

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