The Green Knight (fairy tale) The Green Knight (fairy tale) The Green Knight is a Danish fairy tale, collected by Svend Grundtvig (1824-1883) in "Danish Fairy Tales" (18??) and by Evald Tang Kristensen (1843-1929) in "Eventyr fra Jylland" (1881). Andrew Lang included a translation of Kristensen's version in "The Olive Fairy Book" (1907). This tale combines Aarne-Thompson type 510A with type 425N, the bird husband, and type 432, the prince as bird. Others of the first type include "Cinderella", The Sharp Grey Sheep, The Golden Slipper, The Story of Tam and Cam, Rushen Coatie, Fair, Brown and Trembling, and Katie Woodencloak; of the second two,
Fairy tale analysis does not lend itself easily to tales that do not involve a quest, and furthermore, the same plot elements are found in non-fairy tale works. As Stith Thompson points out, talking animals and the presence of magic seem to be more common to the fairy tale than fairies themselves. However, the mere presence of animals that talk does not make a tale a fairy tale, especially when the animal is clearly a mask on a human face, as in fables. In his essay "On Fairy-Stories", J. R. R. Tolkien agreed with the exclusion of "fairies" from the definition, defining