The Truth About Fairy Tales

Growing up, I was and still am a huge fan of fairy tales. I was enchanted by the idea of a happy ending, and dazzled by all of the protagonists’ extraordinary adventures. Before I could read, I was constantly asking my parents to read fairy tales to me, and I would watch beloved Disney movies on repeat. Fairy tales are such an innocent part of most people’s childhoods, but these well known stories don’t have such squeaky clean origins.

Now, if you’re anything like me, you are endlessly curious and fascinated by history, no matter how disturbing it may be. Here are just a few descriptions of classic fairy tales before they were tweaked to be appropriate for children.

 

The Little Mermaid

This family friendly story of a mermaid seeking adventure and love on land, and finding success despite a few obstacles did not start off so PG.

The original story was written in 1837 by Hans Christian Andersen. In the original story, the little mermaid feared her fate of turning to sea foam after she died. Her ticket to escaping her harsh fate was to obtain a human soul. In order to achieve this goal, she would have to marry a man who loved her more than anything. If the man did not marry her, she would die.

After setting her eyes on a handsome prince, the little mermaid ventured off to make a deal with the sea witch. The sea witch promises the little mermaid will be able to walk, but every step will feel as if she is striding on sharp knives. The little mermaid so desperately wanted to shed her tail that she agreed, and allowed the sea witch cut out her tongue as payment.

Alas, the little mermaid is not loved more than anything by the prince, as he weds another woman. In order to save her own life, the little mermaid must stab the prince. The little mermaid loves the prince too much to kill him, thus ensuring her death on land and in the ocean.

 

Cinderella

The core of Cinderella’s original story is the same: she is abused by a wicked stepmother, she meets a prince who pursues her, and lives happily ever after. The parts in the middle of the early stories are what is disturbing.

In the original story, Cinderella follows her governess’ orders and murders her stepmother by snapping her neck. Her father then marries the governess, who views Cinderella as a slave and banishes her to the kitchens. Cinderella is later granted a wish that lets her attend and fit in to a royal party. While leaving the party, Cinderella loses her slipper and is sought after by the king. The slipper fits, and this unhinged version of Cinderella lives happily ever after.

If that were story was not unsettling enough, other early versions are more persistent on testing their boundaries. In one version, the stepmother cuts off pieces of Cinderella’s stepsisters’ feet in order to ensure they will fit into the slipper. In another version, the sisters cut off pieces of their own feet, and lovely little songbirds peck out the sisters’ eyes.

Charming.

 

Sleeping Beauty

In the original tale, the princess’ eternal slumber is caused by a splinter. Her father is heartbroken when she will not wake up, so he abandons the castle with her still in it. A king from a different kingdom found the castle with the princess’ body still laying unconscious inside of it. The king thinks she is so beautiful that he rapes her, and unknowingly impregnates her with twins. The princess delivers her babies while still slumbering, and one of the babies sucks the splinter out of her finger, causing the princess to awaken.

Later on, the queen finds out about the king’s infidelity, and demands that the twins are cooked and fed to him. The cook secretly hides the children, and serves goat in their place. Thinking the twins are gone, the queen then tries to throw the princess into a fire. The king stops his wife, and burns her alive instead. The king then marries the princess, and lives “happily ever after” in a really twisted kind of way.

Hansel and Gretel

In the original story, Hansel and Gretel are good children who are betrayed and abandoned by their greedy parents who no longer wanted to feed them. The siblings wandered through the woods until they stumbled upon a house. The children knock upon the door and an old lady answers. She allows them to stay with her, but warns them that her husband is a cannibal who will consume them if he discovers them.

The husband comes home and beats his wife after he finds the children. He then makes Gretel his slave and holds Hansel captive in a pig sty while he gets fattened up for the husband’s meal. The husband leaves for a bit, and asks his wife to watch the children. The wife gets drunk, and the children slit her throat and steal her fortunes before escaping.

The husband returns to find his dead wife unaccompanied by the children. He chases them and eventually catches up with the children. Hansel and Gretel trick the husband into falling off of a bridge and drowning.

Eventually, Hansel and Gretel find and forgive their parents, and they live off of stolen fortunes.

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There you have it, those were the origins of just a few fairy tales. I hope your childhood hasn’t been ruined. In all honesty, I think it’s incredible that the creators of the fairy tales we know today were able to make such wholesome things out of pure horror.

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you found this topic to be as fascinating as I did.

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