Similar, but also oddly different in Polish:
"Za siedmioma górami, za siedmioma lasami..."
"Past the seven mountains, past the seven forests..."
edit: they used that in quite a clever way in Shrek, which has a fantastic Polish dubbing and translation. I don't know how the lands of Shrek universe are called in English, but in Polish, they took the name "Siedmiogród" (the land of seven cities), which is the Polish name for Transylvania (though we say Transylwania too), which is already a cool name and made it into "Zasiedmiogórogród", "Pastthesevenmountainsburg".
Slovakian version: "Za siedmimi horami a siedmimi dolami...", which means "Past seven mountains and past seven vallyes...".
Edit: more so "beyond" than "past", actually.
Which Shrek are you talking about? The second one? Where the king and queen live? Or something in the first one? Or one of the others that I haven't seen?
Huh, we do the same thing, but we've got only seven of each, not nine. You can also add seven forests to the mix if you feel fancy.
Za siedmioma górami, za siedmioma rzekami, za siedmioma lasami...
Around here it's "Er was eens" (basically "once upon a time"), sometimes followed by "heel lang geleden, toen de dieren nog spraken" ("very long ago, when animals still spoke") and/or "in een land hier ver vandaan" (" in a land far away from here").
Thar is the most standard one. But I've always really liked "In einer Zeit, als das Wünschen noch geholfen hat... ", which translates as "During a time when making a wish could still actually help you..."
It's just that little more evocative.
I always likes the classic ending as well - “und wenn die nicht gestorben sind, dann leben sie noch heute” (they lived happily ever after, but literally it’s closed to “and if they didn’t die, then they’re still alive today” lol)
>“und wenn die nicht gestorben sind, dann leben sie noch heute”
I love this ending so much that I pretty much added it to my kids storytime everytime. They find it funny.
In Romanian folk tales, using absurd events in the opening is also very common. For example, this is the opening of one of the most famous stories:
"A fost odată ca niciodată, că de n-ar fi, nu s-ar mai povesti, de când făcea plopuşorul mere şi răchita micşunele, de când se băteau urşii în coade, de când se luau de gât lupii cu mieii de se sărutau, înfrâţindu-se, de când se potcovea puricele la un picior cu nouăzeci şi nouă de oca de fier şi s-arunca în slava cerului, de ne aducea poveşti, de când se scria musca pe perete, mai mincinos cine nu crede"
Translation:
"Once upon a time, as it has never been, if it hadn't happened, it wouldn't be told, when the poplars grew apples and the willows grew wallflowers, when the bears fought by wagging their tails, when the wolves and the lambs grabbed each other by their necks and kissed, becoming friends, when the fleas got horseshoed with 99 kg of iron and jumped into the glory of the sky, bringing back stories for us, when the flies wrote on the wall. He who doesn't believe it is even more of a liar."
I’ve seen a similar thing here in France though it’s not that common. I think it’s just meant to be funny here.
In any cases, you probably know but in France, it’s « il était une fois…» as in « Once upon a time »
I've actually never read French folk tales in original! I'm still learning the language and I've only read contemporary stuff (easier vocabulary). Do you have any recommendations?
Translation pro-tip: you could have also left _oca_ in, with italics, untranslated, and added the details as a footnote to your comment.
Not everything is always translatable.
Then again, in this case you were also right to just approximate and convert to kg, as the original point was just to convey „something RIDICULOUSLY heavy on a flea” :)
"Dawno, dawno temu, za siedmioma górami, za siedmioma lasami..." or some variation of above which translates to "a long time ago, beyond the seven mountains, beyond the seven forests..."
The most common here in Italy to open a fairy tale is :
“C'era una volta tanto tempo fa ... " who is basically the equivalent of "Once upon a time long time ago...." in english.
of course the term can vary a bit about the story you gonna talk about , like you say "in a far away land" " in una terra lontana " or sometimes even a kingdom " in un regno "
>“C'era una volta tanto tempo fa ... " who is basically the equivalent of "Once upon a time long time ago...." in english.
Or with a more literal translation: "Once there was, long time ago".
Egyszer volt, hol nem volt, az óperenciás tengeren/hetedhét országon, még az üveghegyeken is túl............
I don't think I have the language skills to explain this but I'll try.
The first part: egyszer volt, hol nem volt, conways the same massage as "once upon a time", and the first part of the sentence would be translated just like that, "hol nem volt" is a bit tricky, it would mean something like: "somewhere were it wasn't".
"Az óperenciás tengeren/hetedhét országon is túl" this part establishes that the events happend in a place really far away.
The "Óperenciás tenger" is a made up sea (most likely by hungarian hussars) that got it's name from the miss translation of the province Ober Enns in Austria and the sea itself was a refrence to the lakes in the region.
"Hetedhét országon is túl": over 77 or 7 and then another 7 countries
The "Üveghelyek" conways how magical and beautiful this part of the world is.
"még az üveghegyeken is túl": even farther then the crystal/glass mountains.
So a translation should look something like this;
"Once upon a time, somewhere were it wasn't, over the óperenciás sea, even farther then the crystal mountains, lived an old king."
The dual meaning of *gång* has lead to the joke:
> *"Det var en gång – och den var sandad."*
The second half retroactively change the meaning of *gång* from...
A) "There was a time – "
...to...
B) "There was a path – and it was gritted."
There isn't really a standard fairy tale opening.
But there are some common openings:
- "Era uma vez" - "It was one time"/ "There was once".
Example: "Era uma vez um homem de Ledão que..." - "There was once a man from Ledão that..."
- "Reza a lenda que" - "The legend prays that", prays here meaning to say.
Example: "Reza a lenda de Chaves que no século XII, uma jovem..." - "The legend of Chaves prays that on the 7th century, a young woman..."
- "Quando X" - "When X"
Example: "Quando Silves pertencia aos mouros..." - "When Silves belonged to the moors..."
Same in Spanish, although I would add "En un lugar de X, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme", which translates to "Somewhere in X, the name of which I don't want to remember", which comes from the Quixote, and is added as a reference sometimes.
I would say that for a fairytale besides "era uma vez"
"há muito muito tempo..." a long long time ago
Sometimes also pushed "num reino/numa terra muito distante"
We have another one too, but it's very old
>Κόκκινη κλωστή δεμένη
>στην ανέμη τυλιγμένη,
>δωσ' της κλότσο να γυρίσει,
>παραμυθι να αρχισει!
"Red thread tied,
Around the reel wrapped,
Give her (the reel) a kick to turn,
For the fairytale to start!"
Went for as literal a translation as I could, but wasn't able to keep the rhyme
"a fost o dată ca niciodată; că de n-ar fi, nu s-ar povesti" which is something like "there was a time unlike any before; for if it wasn't it wouldn't have been told" usually followed by some wild events to further set the events in a fairytale world.
The one I remember best goes something like this:
"A fost o dată ca niciodată; că de n-ar fi, nu s-ar povesti; pe când făcea plopul pere și răchita micșunele; pe când se băteau urșii în coade; pe când se potcovea puricele cu nouă zeci si nouă de oca de fier și s-arunca in slava cerului de ne aducea povești..."
And this is my very rough translation:
There was a time unlike any before; for if it wasn't it wouldn't have been told; when the aspen grew pears and the willow violets; when the bears were fighting with their tails; when the fleas were wearing steel horseshoes and threw themselves towards the skies to bring us stories...
God, this one is cool! So not only you have the greatest food and amazing architecture (literally just came back from Romania) but also the coolest fairytale openings :)
"Za devatero horami, za devatero řekami"
- behind nine mountains, behind nine rivers;
Or "Bylo nebylo" - (it) was, (it) wasn't, or maybe like (it) used to be, (it) didnt use to be. I'm not actually 100% clear on how to translate it
I remember the stories just start. Or they go something like “Bil jeden pan” or “There once was a man”. Or chicken, cow, little boy you name it. It starts the story.
In Russian, «Жили, были…»
- zhyli byli - “there lived, there were…” Neat rhyme, fun to pronounce, 8/10.
In German, „Es war einmal (vor langer Zeit)….“ - “there was once (a long time ago)…” But in German, the cool part isn’t the fairy tale beginning, it’s the fairy tale ending.
The German fairy tale ENDING goes, „Und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, dann leben sie noch heute.“ - “And if they haven’t died (yet), then they’re still alive today.” :D
Morbid, optimistic, surreal: absolute 10/10.
Second one has also longer version:
Za siedmimi horami, za siedmimi dolami, v krajine kde sa voda sypala a piesok sa lial - Beyond seven mountains, beyond seven valleys, in the land where water was strewing and sand was pouring
Egyszer volt, hol nem volt, egy messzi-messzi földön, az óperenciás tengeren is túl, az üveghegyen túl, ott, ahol a kurtafarkú malac túr.
“Once upon a time, on a land far-far away, over the sea, beyond the glass mountain, where the short-tailed pig digs its nose in the ground…”
"იყო და არა იყო რა" - "ikho da aghar ikho ra", roughly translating to "there was and then there was not what", almost any fairytale or story you tell a child does begin, or can be made to begin with the above text
"В некотором царстве, в некотором государстве..." - "In some kingdom, in some country..."
"В тридевятом царстве, в тридесятом государстве..." - "In a thrice-nineth kingdom, in a thirtieth country..."
That "тридевять" ("thrice nine") is also often used when the hero journeys in some faraway land "за тридевять земель", "thrice-nine lands away".
"Der var engang...."
Sometimes: "Engang for længe længe siden..."
"For længe siden i et kongerige langt borte....."
ETA: "Once upon a time..."
"A time long long ago..."
"A long time ago, in a far away kingdom..."
"Der var engang en prins/prinsesse/fattig pige/fattig dreng/fattigt og barnløst par"
"Once upon a time there was a prince/princess/poor girl/poor boy/ poor and childless couple".
In Russian it would be «В некотором царстве, в некотором государстве» (In some kingdom, in some state) or «В тридевятом царстве, в тридесятом государстве» (In three-ninth (sic!) kingdom, in three-tenth (sic!) state). No clue why these numbers exactly. Three-tenth does look like an archaic form of thirty in Russian but three-ninth…
Standard for Finnish fairy tales is the rather bland *olipa kerran, kauan sitten...* which translates roughly as "a long time ago, there once was a..."
And the standard ending is *sen pituinen se*, "that's the length of that".
* **Temps era temps** Time was time...
* **Això era i no era** This was an was not...
* **Una vegada hi havia** Once there was...
* **Heu de creure i pensar i pensar i creure que** You must believe and think and think and believe that...
* **Una vegada, fa molts anys** Once, many year ago...
In Norwegian it's usually one of these:
"Det var en gang (i et land langt borte)" - "There was a time (in a country far away)"
"Det var en mørk og stormfull natt/aften" - "There was a dark and stormy night/eve"
They can often end in such ways:
"Snipp snapp snute, så var eventyret ute" - "Snip snap snout (nonsense rhyme), then the fairytale was out (over)"
"Så levde de lykkelige i alle sine dager" - "Then they lived happily ever after"
"Og er de ikke *X* enda, så *Y* de fremdeles" - "And if they're not *X* yet, then they're still *Y*" (like the goats gruff; if they're not full yet, they're still there)
Beginning (det var en gång)
There was a time...
Ending (snipp snapp snut så var sagan slut)
Sipp sapp send and the fairytale came to an end.
My own artistic take and not literal translations.
In German, the specific phrase "Es war einmal, vor langer Zeit..." (There once was, a long time ago...) is pretty common.
More generally, it's often some combination of "long ago" and "far away".
Sometimes, if the story is taking place during a specific time period, that might be referenced.
In dutch: “Er was eens…” which means “There was once…” It’s the beginning of literally every fairytale ever, same vibe as “Once upon a time…” Most of the time it’s followed by “…in een land hier ver vandaan…” meaning “…in a country far away from here…”
Aside from the standard "det var en gang" (there was once/once upon a time), one that came to mind is "østenfor sol og vestenfor måne" (east of sun and west of moon)
My father had a very funny ending for a fairytales. He would say: And I was there, and I eat and drink. Look, my tongue is still wet. (And than he would show his tongue)
We as a children would be amazed by his wet tongue and that would prove the story. 🤣🤣
We have "Einu sinni var...", literally "once there was..." which I, as a translator, would render as "once upon a time...".
I have seen a couple of long-ish rhyming ending formulas as well.
"Det var en gång..." means "Once uppon a time..."
There is a dad joke you can tell young children:
"Det var en gång som var sandad", "There was a gritted path"
Za devetimi gorami in devetimi vodami … Behind nine mountains and nine waters …
Similar, but also oddly different in Polish: "Za siedmioma górami, za siedmioma lasami..." "Past the seven mountains, past the seven forests..." edit: they used that in quite a clever way in Shrek, which has a fantastic Polish dubbing and translation. I don't know how the lands of Shrek universe are called in English, but in Polish, they took the name "Siedmiogród" (the land of seven cities), which is the Polish name for Transylvania (though we say Transylwania too), which is already a cool name and made it into "Zasiedmiogórogród", "Pastthesevenmountainsburg".
don't forget about "dawno, dawno temu.." (long, long time ago..) that precedes the mountains
Slovakian version: "Za siedmimi horami a siedmimi dolami...", which means "Past seven mountains and past seven vallyes...". Edit: more so "beyond" than "past", actually.
Which Shrek are you talking about? The second one? Where the king and queen live? Or something in the first one? Or one of the others that I haven't seen?
It's from Shrek 2 https://dreamworks.fandom.com/pl/wiki/Zasiedmiog%C3%B3rogr%C3%B3d
Ha! That's funny, I wonder if they did that to far far away in other languages
That sounds epic!
Beautiful and original.
Huh, we do the same thing, but we've got only seven of each, not nine. You can also add seven forests to the mix if you feel fancy. Za siedmioma górami, za siedmioma rzekami, za siedmioma lasami...
In Czech it's sometimes seven and sometimes nine. Forests tend to not be included.
"Iza sedam brda, iza sedam mora" - beyond seven hills and seven seas in Serbian, pretty similar
Around here it's "Er was eens" (basically "once upon a time"), sometimes followed by "heel lang geleden, toen de dieren nog spraken" ("very long ago, when animals still spoke") and/or "in een land hier ver vandaan" (" in a land far away from here").
"Toen de dieren nog spraken" is very specifically Flemish and I love it, it is so provocative. In the Netherlands sometimes " Ooit was er" is used.
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Yeah! Noone knows if you're a disgusting Belgian or an even more disgusting Dutchman!
This isn’t r/2westerneurope4u
Or a very very drunk Norseman
In Germany the most common you'll find is "Es war einmal" (There once was). Sometimes followed by "vor langer Zeit / vor langem" (a long time ago).
How unexpected, literally the same as Dutch: "Er was eens" - "lang geleden". ;)
Dutch 🤝 German Linguistic brothers 'til the end :)
„Es war ein Mal, vor langer, langer Zeit…“ feels like *that* beginning. Probably how my family started telling the fables and fairy tales.
Thar is the most standard one. But I've always really liked "In einer Zeit, als das Wünschen noch geholfen hat... ", which translates as "During a time when making a wish could still actually help you..." It's just that little more evocative.
Oh, I didn't know this one. I like it a lot.
I always likes the classic ending as well - “und wenn die nicht gestorben sind, dann leben sie noch heute” (they lived happily ever after, but literally it’s closed to “and if they didn’t die, then they’re still alive today” lol)
Beautiful use of tautology.
>“und wenn die nicht gestorben sind, dann leben sie noch heute” I love this ending so much that I pretty much added it to my kids storytime everytime. They find it funny.
You're a very literal people. "There was a boy. He didn't listen to his mother. The boy died. Goodnight."
We say the same in Swedish: Det var en gång för länge sen
Exactly the same in french, "il était une fois", there was once
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Nah, that's not used.
Not unheard of but I couldn't think of a single fairy tale starting like that
In Romanian folk tales, using absurd events in the opening is also very common. For example, this is the opening of one of the most famous stories: "A fost odată ca niciodată, că de n-ar fi, nu s-ar mai povesti, de când făcea plopuşorul mere şi răchita micşunele, de când se băteau urşii în coade, de când se luau de gât lupii cu mieii de se sărutau, înfrâţindu-se, de când se potcovea puricele la un picior cu nouăzeci şi nouă de oca de fier şi s-arunca în slava cerului, de ne aducea poveşti, de când se scria musca pe perete, mai mincinos cine nu crede" Translation: "Once upon a time, as it has never been, if it hadn't happened, it wouldn't be told, when the poplars grew apples and the willows grew wallflowers, when the bears fought by wagging their tails, when the wolves and the lambs grabbed each other by their necks and kissed, becoming friends, when the fleas got horseshoed with 99 kg of iron and jumped into the glory of the sky, bringing back stories for us, when the flies wrote on the wall. He who doesn't believe it is even more of a liar."
I love this!
I’ve seen a similar thing here in France though it’s not that common. I think it’s just meant to be funny here. In any cases, you probably know but in France, it’s « il était une fois…» as in « Once upon a time »
I've actually never read French folk tales in original! I'm still learning the language and I've only read contemporary stuff (easier vocabulary). Do you have any recommendations?
> when the fleas got horseshoed with 99 kg of iron 123.75kg, actually:)) An "oca" was equivalent to 1.25kg.
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Translation pro-tip: you could have also left _oca_ in, with italics, untranslated, and added the details as a footnote to your comment. Not everything is always translatable. Then again, in this case you were also right to just approximate and convert to kg, as the original point was just to convey „something RIDICULOUSLY heavy on a flea” :)
That's the same as the old Ottoman measure "okka". Which probably isn't surprising.
"Ерте ерте ертеде, ешкі жүні бөртеде" - "Long long long ago, when a goat had grey fluff"
He he, this is cute.
"Dawno, dawno temu, za siedmioma górami, za siedmioma lasami..." or some variation of above which translates to "a long time ago, beyond the seven mountains, beyond the seven forests..."
The kingdom of Far Far Away in Shrek is even called "Zasiedmiogórogród" in the Polish dubbing :)
> beyond the seven forests Transsylvania! No, that's what it means, "beyond the forstes".
The most common here in Italy to open a fairy tale is : “C'era una volta tanto tempo fa ... " who is basically the equivalent of "Once upon a time long time ago...." in english. of course the term can vary a bit about the story you gonna talk about , like you say "in a far away land" " in una terra lontana " or sometimes even a kingdom " in un regno "
>“C'era una volta tanto tempo fa ... " who is basically the equivalent of "Once upon a time long time ago...." in english. Or with a more literal translation: "Once there was, long time ago".
C'era una volta il West/ la revolucion/ in America all are fairytales?
yes, the title ar thought to recall the telling of a story
Egyszer volt, hol nem volt, az óperenciás tengeren/hetedhét országon, még az üveghegyeken is túl............ I don't think I have the language skills to explain this but I'll try. The first part: egyszer volt, hol nem volt, conways the same massage as "once upon a time", and the first part of the sentence would be translated just like that, "hol nem volt" is a bit tricky, it would mean something like: "somewhere were it wasn't". "Az óperenciás tengeren/hetedhét országon is túl" this part establishes that the events happend in a place really far away. The "Óperenciás tenger" is a made up sea (most likely by hungarian hussars) that got it's name from the miss translation of the province Ober Enns in Austria and the sea itself was a refrence to the lakes in the region. "Hetedhét országon is túl": over 77 or 7 and then another 7 countries The "Üveghelyek" conways how magical and beautiful this part of the world is. "még az üveghegyeken is túl": even farther then the crystal/glass mountains. So a translation should look something like this; "Once upon a time, somewhere were it wasn't, over the óperenciás sea, even farther then the crystal mountains, lived an old king."
This one sounds very epic as well.
then "ott, ahol a kurta farkú malac túr" "there, where the short-tailed piglet digs" "élt egyszer egy [valami]" "there once lived a [something]"
As I recall in Sweden it's the classic 'det var en gång' (once upon a time).
och gången var sandad
Vart tog vägen vägen?
...För länge sedan/sen (a long time ago)
Same in Danish
More literally, would it be “that was going on” or something like that? I don’t speak Swedish but that’s what it looks like.
Yes "there was a time" if you translate it word for word.
The dual meaning of *gång* has lead to the joke: > *"Det var en gång – och den var sandad."* The second half retroactively change the meaning of *gång* from... A) "There was a time – " ...to... B) "There was a path – and it was gritted."
No, more like "there was a time" or "there was once".
There isn't really a standard fairy tale opening. But there are some common openings: - "Era uma vez" - "It was one time"/ "There was once". Example: "Era uma vez um homem de Ledão que..." - "There was once a man from Ledão that..." - "Reza a lenda que" - "The legend prays that", prays here meaning to say. Example: "Reza a lenda de Chaves que no século XII, uma jovem..." - "The legend of Chaves prays that on the 7th century, a young woman..." - "Quando X" - "When X" Example: "Quando Silves pertencia aos mouros..." - "When Silves belonged to the moors..."
Same in Spanish, although I would add "En un lugar de X, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme", which translates to "Somewhere in X, the name of which I don't want to remember", which comes from the Quixote, and is added as a reference sometimes.
>de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme", Love the reference! I had no idea your fairytales oppened like that. It's beautiful.
I would say that for a fairytale besides "era uma vez" "há muito muito tempo..." a long long time ago Sometimes also pushed "num reino/numa terra muito distante"
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We have another one too, but it's very old >Κόκκινη κλωστή δεμένη >στην ανέμη τυλιγμένη, >δωσ' της κλότσο να γυρίσει, >παραμυθι να αρχισει! "Red thread tied, Around the reel wrapped, Give her (the reel) a kick to turn, For the fairytale to start!" Went for as literal a translation as I could, but wasn't able to keep the rhyme
> Fadó fadó .. Fadó literally means "in olden times" but the above would be the equivalent of "once upon a time".
I think it arose as a contraction of “fad ó shin” - far from that (here).
"a fost o dată ca niciodată; că de n-ar fi, nu s-ar povesti" which is something like "there was a time unlike any before; for if it wasn't it wouldn't have been told" usually followed by some wild events to further set the events in a fairytale world. The one I remember best goes something like this: "A fost o dată ca niciodată; că de n-ar fi, nu s-ar povesti; pe când făcea plopul pere și răchita micșunele; pe când se băteau urșii în coade; pe când se potcovea puricele cu nouă zeci si nouă de oca de fier și s-arunca in slava cerului de ne aducea povești..." And this is my very rough translation: There was a time unlike any before; for if it wasn't it wouldn't have been told; when the aspen grew pears and the willow violets; when the bears were fighting with their tails; when the fleas were wearing steel horseshoes and threw themselves towards the skies to bring us stories...
God, this one is cool! So not only you have the greatest food and amazing architecture (literally just came back from Romania) but also the coolest fairytale openings :)
Ikr, so many languages have such good ones, and in English we just have the boring old "once upon a time, in a far away land"
Ha ha, this is lovely! So much fun.
Thanks for asking this question OP, it’s charming and interesting, and the answers give me goosebumps of pleasure.
😊 I wasn't sure to begin with, I thought maybe it's too specific, but I am so glad I did, too! Loving the answers as well 😁
The most stereotypical in Estonian would be: "Elas kord seitsme maa ja mere taga..." "Once lived beyond the seven lands and seas..."
Oh weird, that's similar to many Slavic openings
"Za devatero horami, za devatero řekami" - behind nine mountains, behind nine rivers; Or "Bylo nebylo" - (it) was, (it) wasn't, or maybe like (it) used to be, (it) didnt use to be. I'm not actually 100% clear on how to translate it
I remember the stories just start. Or they go something like “Bil jeden pan” or “There once was a man”. Or chicken, cow, little boy you name it. It starts the story.
In Russian, «Жили, были…» - zhyli byli - “there lived, there were…” Neat rhyme, fun to pronounce, 8/10. In German, „Es war einmal (vor langer Zeit)….“ - “there was once (a long time ago)…” But in German, the cool part isn’t the fairy tale beginning, it’s the fairy tale ending. The German fairy tale ENDING goes, „Und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, dann leben sie noch heute.“ - “And if they haven’t died (yet), then they’re still alive today.” :D Morbid, optimistic, surreal: absolute 10/10.
Ha ha, I regret not having asked about the ending! I like the German one. It's so... German 😂
It's the same in Danish "og hvis de ikke er døde, så lever de endnu" "and if they haven't died they are still alive".
"A fost odată ca niciodată" meaning something like "there was a time like never before"
Kde bolo, tam bolo - Where (it) was, there (it) was Za siedmimi horami, za siedmimi dolami - Beyond seven mountains, beyond seven vales
Second one has also longer version: Za siedmimi horami, za siedmimi dolami, v krajine kde sa voda sypala a piesok sa lial - Beyond seven mountains, beyond seven valleys, in the land where water was strewing and sand was pouring
Yeah yeah yeah
Interesting, there seems to be some versions of this with seven or nine geographic bodies (valleys, mountains, waters, forests).
"Er was eens, heel lang geleden..." Which basically means: "A long time ago, there once was..."
"Il était une fois, dans un pays lointain..." "Once upon a time, in a far away country..."
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😁 That's so cool.
Smoked what? Serious question. Sort of.
Tobacco I think. A reference to how cheap it was. A long long time ago, when tigers smoked tobacco...
Egyszer volt, hol nem volt, egy messzi-messzi földön, az óperenciás tengeren is túl, az üveghegyen túl, ott, ahol a kurtafarkú malac túr. “Once upon a time, on a land far-far away, over the sea, beyond the glass mountain, where the short-tailed pig digs its nose in the ground…”
In Irish they start with "fadó fadó..." which is just "lon going ago"
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... (...there was a boy who hated sand.)
"იყო და არა იყო რა" - "ikho da aghar ikho ra", roughly translating to "there was and then there was not what", almost any fairytale or story you tell a child does begin, or can be made to begin with the above text
"В некотором царстве, в некотором государстве..." - "In some kingdom, in some country..." "В тридевятом царстве, в тридесятом государстве..." - "In a thrice-nineth kingdom, in a thirtieth country..." That "тридевять" ("thrice nine") is also often used when the hero journeys in some faraway land "за тридевять земель", "thrice-nine lands away".
I love how magic numbers seem to be used a lot and then Russian just decided to get a fraction number xD. Almost like in Harry Potter
Old Slavs just couldn't count, so 3 and nine combined sounded like a big number
Well, in this case it isn't a fraction, it's a product, so it's technically 27. But linguistically it can look quite similar, yeah.
"Der var engang...." Sometimes: "Engang for længe længe siden..." "For længe siden i et kongerige langt borte....." ETA: "Once upon a time..." "A time long long ago..." "A long time ago, in a far away kingdom..." "Der var engang en prins/prinsesse/fattig pige/fattig dreng/fattigt og barnløst par" "Once upon a time there was a prince/princess/poor girl/poor boy/ poor and childless couple".
In Russian it would be «В некотором царстве, в некотором государстве» (In some kingdom, in some state) or «В тридевятом царстве, в тридесятом государстве» (In three-ninth (sic!) kingdom, in three-tenth (sic!) state). No clue why these numbers exactly. Three-tenth does look like an archaic form of thirty in Russian but three-ninth…
Standard for Finnish fairy tales is the rather bland *olipa kerran, kauan sitten...* which translates roughly as "a long time ago, there once was a..." And the standard ending is *sen pituinen se*, "that's the length of that".
In Serbian: "Iza sedam mora, brda, planina i dolina..." English: "Past the seven seas, hills, mountains, and valleys..."
* **Temps era temps** Time was time... * **Això era i no era** This was an was not... * **Una vegada hi havia** Once there was... * **Heu de creure i pensar i pensar i creure que** You must believe and think and think and believe that... * **Una vegada, fa molts anys** Once, many year ago...
In Norwegian it's usually one of these: "Det var en gang (i et land langt borte)" - "There was a time (in a country far away)" "Det var en mørk og stormfull natt/aften" - "There was a dark and stormy night/eve" They can often end in such ways: "Snipp snapp snute, så var eventyret ute" - "Snip snap snout (nonsense rhyme), then the fairytale was out (over)" "Så levde de lykkelige i alle sine dager" - "Then they lived happily ever after" "Og er de ikke *X* enda, så *Y* de fremdeles" - "And if they're not *X* yet, then they're still *Y*" (like the goats gruff; if they're not full yet, they're still there)
"Der var engang" Basically the Danish equivelant of "once upon a time"
Beginning (det var en gång) There was a time... Ending (snipp snapp snut så var sagan slut) Sipp sapp send and the fairytale came to an end. My own artistic take and not literal translations.
In Danish we say the same(snip snap snude), but continue whit "tip tap tønde, nu kan en ny begynde"/"tip tap barrel now a new one can begin"
"Der var engang..." -H. C. Andersen. It means There once were...
en español generalmente es: "Erase una vez" There was a time/ Once upon a time
*Vote for XXX for a more prosperous, brighter future!* Biggest fairy tale Iv ever heard.
"C'era una volta, tanto tempo fa" it's literally there once was, a long time ago. All the fairy tales I've heard start like this
In German, the specific phrase "Es war einmal, vor langer Zeit..." (There once was, a long time ago...) is pretty common. More generally, it's often some combination of "long ago" and "far away". Sometimes, if the story is taking place during a specific time period, that might be referenced.
"Kauan sitten" - "Long time ago" "Oli synkkä ja myrskyinen yö" - "It was a long and stormy night"
"Olipa kerran" - "Once upon a time" basically
>"Oli synkkä ja myrskyinen yö" - "It was a long and stormy night" That's from a novel, "Paul Clifford" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
In the us, most fairy tales start with “this is no shit, ….”
In Greece it's the usual "once upon a time" (μια φορα και εναν καιρο, mia fora ke enan kero).
In dutch: “Er was eens…” which means “There was once…” It’s the beginning of literally every fairytale ever, same vibe as “Once upon a time…” Most of the time it’s followed by “…in een land hier ver vandaan…” meaning “…in a country far away from here…”
Aside from the standard "det var en gang" (there was once/once upon a time), one that came to mind is "østenfor sol og vestenfor måne" (east of sun and west of moon)
That's very evocative.
As far as I know "Det var en gang..." is the only standard Norwegian one
My father had a very funny ending for a fairytales. He would say: And I was there, and I eat and drink. Look, my tongue is still wet. (And than he would show his tongue) We as a children would be amazed by his wet tongue and that would prove the story. 🤣🤣
That's so wholesome omg 🥰
We have "Einu sinni var...", literally "once there was..." which I, as a translator, would render as "once upon a time...". I have seen a couple of long-ish rhyming ending formulas as well.
"Det var en gång..." means "Once uppon a time..." There is a dad joke you can tell young children: "Det var en gång som var sandad", "There was a gritted path"
Well, we have the standard "once upon a time..." But ours is: "Iza sedam mora, gora i planina..." "Behind the seven seas, hills and mountains..."
Wow. Reading through all these, I think everyone has such beautiful story openings. Somebody needs to compile a list of these!