Elf Sternberg

I love Propp's MORPHOLOGY but you kind of lost me at "great chain of being." Do you mean fairies, angels, devils, etc etc (above us on the Chain)? If so, he might have a point, though I wouldn't call it a 'right'.

The tales are focused on the humans and their fate. The stronger beings function in the story more like a storm or other natural phenomenon does; it blows the ship in the direction of plot, or sinks it, but the storm isn' morally judged one way or another.

For one thing, because they're stronger and more secure than we are, they aren't subject to the same kind of life-changing events that punish or reward the human characters -- at least not within the scope of these stories. (Rumplestiltskin tearing himself in half is an exception, and I'd guess it's a flourish added late.)