7 Myths and Fairy Tales That Inspired ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’

Sarah J. Maas’s *A Court of Thorns and Roses* draws on older fairy tales, myths and folklore, giving its faerie courts, cursed romances and magical objects familiar roots. The article says the series began as a darker retelling of *Beauty and the Beast*, while Maas also drew on other traditional stories as she developed Feyre’s character and the world of Prythian.

One key parallel is with the 19th-century Norwegian tale *East of the Sun, West of the Moon*, which Maas has called her favourite fairy tale and which also resembles *Beauty and the Beast*. Like Feyre, its heroine lives with an enchanted prince and sets out to rescue him after a spell is broken. The article also places ACOTAR in a wider fantasy tradition of adapting older stories, noting that Maas’s *Throne of Glass* began with a question about Cinderella as an assassin.