Ho Mary_Qin, I believe you Talk about those expressions that repeat themselves in every fairytale. The start often is: "Es war einmal, (vor langer, langer Zeit)..." like "once upon a time". The optional addition just renders a stronger effect, but isn't necessary. The end of course depends on the story, but since it's often about two people finally being together, we say: "Und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, dann leben sie noch heute." translated "and if they haven't died yet, they still live today". This is giving an interesting feeling of mystic to the end, even if maybe the story didn't have anything about a witch or so. Just mentioning, that they still live today, if they haven't died (a pretty basic knowledge on the one hand) opens up the possibility that they could have lived on, even if it's not normal. In my experience this is leaving the kid with a fascination. Viele Grüße, Daniel

Further to Daniel's answer, which is correct, I just checked http://www.internet-maerchen.de/ and found that, unfortunately, not many fairy tales of this online version comply to the rule. HOWEVER, click on the letter H, and then on "Hase und Igel", and you will find "Es war an einem Sonntagmorgen in der Herbstzeit, just als der Buchweizen blühte: ... ... und beide gingen vergnügt nach Hause, und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, leben sie noch."

Another ending of fairy tales is "Und sie lebten bis ans Ende ihrer Tage...(...glücklich und zufrieden)"