Edd.educagri.fr/IMG/pdf/Education_au_developpement_durable_partie2.pdf. Enchanted forest. The forest can feature as a place of threatening danger, or one of refuge, or a chance at adventure. Folktales[edit] Indeed, in Grimm's Fairy Tales, the hero always goes into the forest. It is not itself enchanted, but it contains enchantments and, being outside normal human experience, acts as a place of transformation.[11] The German fairy tale has an unusual tendency to take place in the forest; even such neighboring countries as France or Italy are less like to have fairy tales situated in the forest.[12] At other times, the marvels they meet are beneficial.
The creatures of the forest need not be magical to have much the same effect; Robin Hood, living in the greenwood, has affinities to the enchanted forest.[21] Even in fairy tales, robbers may serve the roles of magical beings; in an Italian variant of Snow White, Bella Venezia, the heroine takes refuge not with dwarfs but with robbers.[22] Mythology[edit] Medieval romance[edit] This forest could easily bewilder the knights.
The Fairytale Forest – a Source of Symbolism. Anyone embarking upon the journey of exploring forest symbolism finds themselves, perhaps like Little Red Riding Hood waving goodbye to her mother at the garden gate, on a vast voyage punctuated with the joys and dangers of the psyche, steeped in ancient myth and legend and infused with spiritual meaning. It is no accident that so many fairytale characters find themselves having to traverse danger-laden tracts of woodland. In a most practical sense, as the ancients dreamed up those stories and even when the oral traditions were finally written down in the middle ages and later, the lands of northern and western Europe were thick with woodland.
The dangers were palpable: from rogues and bandits lying in wait for unsuspecting travellers to opportunistic wolves hungry for the kill. In modern times the fairy tale has provided rich pickings for literary critics looking to plunder the depths of symbolism found there. In many cultures, the forest is dedicated to god or ancestor worship.