1. What is the collective unconscious?
         The "collective unconscious" is Carl Jung's term for the collection of images and symbols that all people carry with them in their subconscious mind.  We respond to these images (called "archetypes") when we see them in folktales and literature, whether or nor we are aware of them, and they seem to have a general uniformity of meaning across cultures and individuals..

2. Why did Wilhelm Grimm frequently change mothers to stepmothers in the tales he collected?
        Both of the brothers were very closely attached to their own mother, and they also responded to a tendency in their society to romanticize mothers, so that it seems they were unable to imagine biological mothers abusing their children as they do in the fairy tales.  The change also divides the psychological relationship to "mother" into the "good mother" (kind, nurturing, and in the fairy tales usually dead) and the "bad mother" (abusive, demanding).

3. Why does Basile include allusions to sexual relations in his tales? Why do the Grimms not do so?
         Basile was writing for an older audience - his readers were members of the Italian court and other adults who were accustomed to reading somewhat bawdy tales such as those written by Boccaccio in the Decameron.  The Grimms, especially after the first edition of the tales, were consciously addressing their stories to children and so tended to desexualize them.

4. How is "One Eye, Two-Eyes and Three-eyes" not typical of most fairy tales?
         In most fairy tales, if there are three siblings, you know that it is the youngest one who will be the hero(ine) and succeed in the quest.  In "One-Eye, Two-Eyes, and Three-Eyes," it is the middle child (Two-Eyes) who is the heroine.

5. According to sociocultural theorists of fairy tales, what functions must a tale perform to remain current in a society? How do "The Brave Little Tailor," "Puss in Boots," "Clever Gretel," or " A Tale of a Boy who set out to Learn Fear" fullfill these functions?
     Sociocultural theory, as developed by J.L. Fischer, says that tales to remain current in society must fulfill both individual psychological needs and social needs - they must either uphold social and cultural norms or provide a release for tensions.  (For example, class tensions caused by the inability to move up in society may be eased by tales that describe a poor hero getting the better of his social superiors, possibly even marrying the princess and moving into the upper classes.)  These tales all feature lower-class characters who outwit their social superiors, thus providing an outlet for frustrated social aspirations.

6. Why do the Grimms discard the second part of " Sleeping Beauty" tale that was found in Basile and Perrault?
    Both Basile and Perrault include a story about an ogre (the wife in Basile, the mother in Perrault) who tries to destroy the children of the sleeping beauty, out of jealousy or general monstrous hunger.  Insofar as this subplot takes place after the marriage, it may be of less interest to the children that the Grimms saw as their audience; further, eliminating the secondary story eliminates the sexuality both Basile and Perrault include.  (Basile's subplot connects the issue of the sleeping beauty's children to the problem of succession within the court.  Perrault had already begun moving away from this completely adult concern by changing the villain from a scorned wife to a non-human mother.)

7. What is a spinning tale? What is the significance of spinning and spindles?

       There is a set of tales associated with spinning, of which "Rumplestiltskin" is the primary example.  These tales were evidently told by women when they would get together to spin (an essential but comparatively boring task that benefited from the women being able to socialize as they worked); often, the stories themselves would foreground spinning, as in "Rumplestiltskin."  Spinning and spindles are associated with domestic activity general, and may indicate the heroine's femininity in certain folk tales; in some cultures, spinning was a kind of bridal test, to make sure the prospective mate was trained in her domestic responsibilities.

8. From a psychoanalytic perspective, what is the significance of the sleeping beauty's long "nap"?

        The nap may signify a socially mandated period of sexual latency.  The sleeping beauty typically falls asleep at about the age of 16, when she is physically capable of engaging in adult sexual activity but discouraged by society from doing so.  When she wakes up, she is ready to be an adult - as is clearly seen in the Basile and Perrault versions, where her awakening is connected to greater or lesser extent to her motherhood.  In Basile's story,  she actually becomes pregnant while still asleep, and is directly awakened by her son's sucking the splinter from her finger; in Perrault's story, she secretly marries the prince and bears children before being revealed at court.

9. What is the Romantic Movement and how does it relate to fairy-tale studies?

        The Romantic movement was a literary and cultural movement that emphasized the imagination over the intellect, and tended to favor nature over culture.  This means that they were particularly interested both in children (since children were seen as more moved by emotion than by thought) and folklore (since the "folk" were similarly more emotional, and also - since at this time "folk" pretty much meant "peasants" - were closer to nature).

10.  What is a eucatastrophe?

     "Eucatastrophe" is Tolkien's term for what we call the "happy ending" - it is the opposite of a catastrophe, which is a disastrous event.  Tolkien said the greatest eucatastrophe of all is the Resurrection.
 

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