The fairy tales mentioned in The Once and Future Witches are a distinct departure from the versions that most children have learned. These alternative stories are a recurring motif that serves to emphasize the theme of secret communication required to further women’s resistance to male authority. Conventional fairy tales in real Western culture often reinforce patriarchal values and social structures: All witches are evil, and mothers die conveniently in childbirth before the story begins. All stepmothers are malicious and usually pose a threat to the hero. All princesses are beautiful and passive, waiting to be awakened with a kiss or rescued from some dire plight. Although many traditional fairy tales were recorded or sanitized by men like Charles Perrault, Harrow returns fairy tales to the domestic sphere from which they arose: tales told among villagers or mothers and their children. Harrow gives authorship of fairy tales to the Sisters Grimm rather than the Brothers Grimm. The witches in her version of the stories are ambiguous characters and frequently assist a heroine who hasn’t been deprived of her own agency to resolve the story. These harmless mythical tales contain the coded information needed to resurrect magic in the world.

Aside from performing this function, the tales also serve to mirror the mental state of the novel’s protagonists.