Fairy tales about wishes

Some wishes in these tales are spoken in anger and come true on the spot. In The Seven Ravens a father cries out that he wishes his sons were ravens, and seven black birds fly off over the roof. In Hans My Hedgehog a farmer swears he will have a child even if it is a hedgehog, and he gets one.

In The Fisherman and His Wife a talking flounder gives the wife a cottage, then a stone castle, then a crown, and every time she wants something bigger. When she asks to be like God, they are back in their old hut. Children soon start guessing what she will ask for next.

The Little Match Girl takes three minutes and is one of the saddest stories here. Each match she strikes shows her something she longs for: a warm stove, a roast goose, a Christmas tree and at last her grandmother. Look it over on your own beforehand, because she does not live to see the new year.

The Fir Tree never stops wishing it were somewhere else. In the forest it wants to be tall, then to sail as a ship’s mast, then to stand hung with candles in a warm room. Rapunzel also starts with a wish, a couple longing for a child. Which of these wishes would your child take back?