Long ago, many tales were told and passed on from generations orally, with little handfuls of children, their eyes attentive. A prominent story is the Tale of the Seven Ravens. Originating in 1812, this story was written by the Brothers Grimm. In the Tale of the Seven Ravens, the genre of this story is fantasy or fairytale fantasy. One reason why this is fantasy is that the brothers in the story magically turn to ravens. In the real world, this is impossible, for there is no evidence that humans can actually turn to ravens. In the end of the story, the brothers magically turn to humans again when the sister runs toward them. Living things cannot change into another species. Even if people can turn to ravens, there is no scientific “cure” to make a turning-back-to-human potion , especially if family members are the cure. Another reason why this story is fantasy is that there is no logical explanation about how magic actually works. Usually , other types of fiction, such as realistic fiction and sci-fi, are based in facts. They have understandable reasons. However, fantasy isn’t as understandable as other types of genres. There is typically no basis for scientific reasoning. There is typically no need for science, physics, and chemistry in fantasy. The last reason why this is fantasy is that it commonly starts with the phrase “Once upon a time”. Fantasy started a long time ago, with nomadic tribes and empires thinking that the natural things around the world are caused by gods, monsters, and dragons. By contrast, sci-fi and realistic fiction started thousands of years after. One of the few first sci-fi novels included Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein novel, and the Dune series by Frank Herbert popularized science fiction further. Use of other ways to begin a story were discovered, and very little fiction novels, except fantasy. Because of this, most stories with “Once upon a time” could be first, as a temporary guess, fantasy. Contributing to the Tale of the Seven Ravens, it starts with “Once upon a time”. This tells me that this is a fantasy story. Supported by other facts, I am definite. In conclusion, the Tale of the Seven Ravens is a fantasy story because it is magical, has no scientific reason about how magic works, and starts with the phrase “Once upon a time”.