Time for another FAQ party!

If you are in the woods late at night and a hideous giant approaches you demanding food and drink, treat her nicely, she might be your future wife and queen.

Always be nice to animals, young people, old people, and honor any strange requests they may make of you, you never know when you may have to retrieve something from somewhere unreachable, or gain esoteric knowledge. Also, always make sure they get invited to life-cycle events, especially weddings and birth ceremonies.

Don't get into arguments about trees and longevity.

Although if wolves ask you to go pick flowers when mom said "stay on the path," you might want to... pretend to go pick flowers and then run for the nearest woodsman. Fast.

A very fair point.

Also, train your bird friends to distinguish pebbles from beans and lentils and sort them into little piles efficiently and quickly, but don't let any eastern European vampires get their hands on your useful little avian friends, especially if they're pursuing you.

And, if your animal companion asks for clothing, give it over, even if it's all of your inheritance.

Sometimes I wonder about European fairy tales. I've seen European wolves on TV, Spanish wolves to be specific. They're smaller than coyotes, not big scary bastards like our timber wolves. How am I supposed to be scared of something I can drop-kick over the fence?

I don't know about the Spanish ones, but Eurasian wolves are around the same size as the American variety (both basically Gray Wolf): "North American wolves are, overall, generally the same size as European breeds, but have larger, rounder heads, broader, more obtuse muzzles, shorter legs and are usually more robust. European wolves on the contrary tend to have longer, more highly placed ears, narrower heads, more slender loins and coarser, less luxuriant fur."

I was disappointed by the Canadian Timber Wolves I've seen, they looked small compared to the North European ones, but it seems that there is so much regional variation (and climate and seasonal variation in the thickness of the coat) that there is no overall difference.