Some fascinating aspects of their origins are:
a] that many of them have similarities in various countries and across cultures throughout the entire world, poss due to cross-border trading, intermarriage, conquest, or intercontinental and international travels,
b] that their interconnectivity can sometimes transcend languages and even transcend written form due to being passed through the generations in oral tradition,
c] that even though they go back several centuries, even into ancient times, they still survive today,
d] that some have connections to real-world current events at the time of their telling, as opposed to merely being innocent child’s play, to include natural and man-made disasters, war, famine, drought, etc.,
e] that all but a very few employ some type of magic or science fiction,
f] that some of the characters are the vilest, the most evil, the most cruel representations of human and animal beings.
~
