Volksmarchen

From Elizabeth Wanning Harries’ introduction to Twice Told Tales:

When we speak of fairy tales, we seem to mean several things at once: tales that include elements of folk tradition and magical or supernatural elements, tales that have a certain, predictable structure. Maria Tatar has suggested that the fairy tale "has been associated with both oral and literary traditions but is above all reserved for narratives set in a fictional world where preternatural events and supernatural intervention are taken wholly for granted." She distinguishes the fairy tale from the folk tale because, though it often has folk elements, it rarely has the "earthy realism" of the true folk tale. She places the Grimms' fairy tales midway between folklore and literature…
The common word in German for the Grimms' and other similar collections is Buchmärchen, or traditional oral tales with folk elements that have been written down and printed. They are always opposed to Volksmärchen (tales in an oral form), on the one side, and Kunstmärchen (invented, literary tales…) on the other.