Top 10 Gruesome Fairy Tale Origins
CINDERELLA
In the modern Cinderella fairy tale we
have the beautiful Cinderella swept off her feet by the prince and her wicked
step sisters marrying two lords – with everyone living happily ever after. The
fairy tale has its origins way back in the 1st century BC where Strabo’s
heroine was actually called Rhodopis, not Cinderella. The story was very
similar to the modern one with the exception of the glass slippers and pumpkin
coach. But, lurking behind the pretty tale is a more sinister variation by the
Grimm brothers: in this version, the nasty step-sisters cut off parts of their
own feet in order to fit them into the glass slipper – hoping to fool the
prince. The prince is alerted to the trickery by two pigeons who peck out the
step sister’s eyes. They end up spending the rest of their lives as blind
beggars while Cinderella gets to lounge about in luxury at the prince’s castle.
HANSEL AND GRETEL
In the widely known version of Hansel and Gretel, we hear of two little
children who become lost in the forest, eventually finding their way to a
gingerbread house which belongs to a wicked witch. The children end up enslaved
for a time as the witch prepares them for eating. They figure their way out and
throw the witch in a fire and escape. In an earlier French version of this tale
(called The Lost Children), instead of a witch we have a devil. Now the wicked
old devil is tricked by the children (in much the same way as Hansel and
Gretel) but he works it out and puts together a sawhorse to put one of the
children on to bleed (that isn't an error – he really does). The children
pretend not to know how to get on the sawhorse so the devil’s wife
demonstrates. While she is lying down the kids slash her throat and escape.
PIED PIPER
In the tale of the Pied
Piper, we have a village overrun with rats. A man arrives dressed in clothes of
pied (a patchwork of colours) and offers to rid the town of the vermin. The
villagers agree to pay a vast sum of money if the piper can do it – and he
does. He plays music on his pipe which draws all the rats out of the town. When
he returns for payment – the villagers won’t cough up so the Pied Piper decides
to rid the town of children too! In most modern variants, the piper draws the
children to a cave out of the town and when the townsfolk finally agree to pay
up, he sends them back. In the darker original, the piper leads the children to
a river where they all drown (except a lame boy who couldn’t keep up). Some
modern scholars say that there are connotations of paedophilia in this fairy
tale.
RED RIDING HOOD
The version of this tale
that most of us are familiar with ends with Riding Hood being saved by the
woodsman who kills the wicked wolf. But in fact, the original French version
(by Charles Perrault) of the tale was not quite so nice. In this version, the
little girl is a well bred young lady who is given false instructions by the
wolf when she asks the way to her grandmothers. Foolishly riding hood takes the
advice of the wolf and ends up being eaten. And here the story ends. There is
no woodsman – no grandmother – just a fat wolf and a dead Red Riding Hood. The moral to this
story is to not take advice from strangers.
LITTLE MERMAID
The 1989 version of the
Little Mermaid might be better known as “The big whopper!” In the Disney
version, the film ends with Ariel the mermaid being changed into a human so she
can marry Eric. They marry in a wonderful wedding attended by humans and merpeople.
But, in the very first version by Hans Christian Andersen, the mermaid sees the
Prince marry a princess and she despairs. She is offered a knife with which to
stab the prince to death, but rather than do that she jumps into the sea and
dies by turning to froth. Hans Christian Andersen modified the ending slightly
to make it more pleasant. In his new ending, instead of dying when turned to
froth, she becomes a “daughter of the air” waiting to go to heaven – so,
frankly, she is still dead for all intents and purposes.
SNOW WHITE
In the tale of snow
white that we are all familiar with, the Queen asks a huntsman to kill her and
bring her heart back as proof. Instead, the huntsman can’t bring himself to do
it and returns with the heart of a boar. Now, fortunately Disney hasn’t done
too much damage to this tale, but they did leave out one important original
element: in the original tale, the Queen actually asks for Snow White’s liver
and lungs – which are to be served for dinner that night! Also in the original,
Snow White wakes up when she is jostled by the prince’s horse as he carries her
back to his castle – not from a magical kiss. What the prince wanted to do with
a dead girl’s body I will leave to your imagination. Oh – in the Grimm version,
the tale ends with the Queen being forced to dance to death in red hot iron
shoes!
SLEEPING BEAUTY
In the original sleeping
beauty, the lovely princess is put to sleep when she pricks her finger on a
spindle. She sleeps for one hundred years when a prince finally arrives, kisses
her, and awakens her. They fall in love, marry, and (surprise surprise) live
happily ever after. But alas, the original tale is not so sweet (in fact, you
have to read this to believe it.) In the original, the young woman is put to
sleep because of a prophesy, rather than a curse. And it isn't the kiss of a
prince which wakes her up: the king seeing her asleep, and rather fancying
having a bit, rapes her. After nine months she gives birth to two children
(while she is still asleep). One of the children sucks her finger which removes
the piece of flax which was keeping her asleep. She wakes up to find herself
raped and the mother of two kids.
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