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A step-mother wishing to eat the lungs and liver of her step-daughter; birds pecking
out the eyes of two sisters after they cut off part of their feet in deception; and
a girl gets her tongue cut off in exchange for feeling like she’s walking on lots of
sharp knives every time she takes a step. I don’t know about you, but these sound
more like horror stories than fairy tale bedtime stories to me. But no, I just made reference
to Snow White, Cinderella and The Little Mermaid. Yeah...the movie and the book versions I know
from my childhood are a little bit different.
Hey everyone! I’m Dana and you’re watching Wanted Adventure Living Abroad.
Halloween is coming up soon, and so in honor of that, I thought that we’d look at some
of the horrifying origins of the lovely happy ending fairy tales we know and love today.
Let’s start with Cinderella. Now, this story can’t be blamed all on the Germans; the
first recorded version of this story actually comes from Egypt way back in the first century
BCE. After that, there are records of it appearing around Asia too, in Korea, the Philippines
and Japan, for example.
The story of Cinderella had already lived a long life with many different twists and
turns before first being published in Europe in Italy in 1634. But then it got really popular
in 1697 after being published in France and finally in 1812 the Brother’s Grimm added
their own special horrifying touch to it, which is what we’re going to focus on today, of course.
In their version of the story, at the end when the step-sisters try on the glass slipper,
their big feet don’t fit. Okay, so far that’s the same as the Disney version. But then,
to solve the problem, the step-mother -- their actual mother -- instructs them to cut off
part of their feet so they will fit in the shoe.
The first step-sister cuts off part of her toes, and then: wow, look at that, the shoe
magically fits her foot and the prince thinks that he has found the one. It’s not until
he’s actually on the way home that some birdies come and point out that the girl’s
foot was a bloody mess in the shoe. And then he realizes that he had been tricked. So he
goes back the next day and basically the same thing happens with the other sister, except
for instead of cutting of part of her toes, she cuts off part of her heel.
Finally on day three, he finds Cinderella, and they live happily ever after. And at the
wedding those pesky little birds that told Prince Charming about the blood dripping from
the sisters’ feet -- which, I mean, he somehow didn’t notice? I know they say that love
is blind, but come on; really? That blind? That he had to have birds point the blood out to him.
Anyway, ah, those birds come back into the story at the end to peck the eyes out of the
two step-sisters at the wedding. But not all at once. No that would be too, I don't know,
humane. They don't peck them out all at once. The birds peck out one eye of each sister
at the beginning of the wedding and then one eye of each sister at the end of the wedding.
That would just make for some really awkward wedding photos. Maybe awkward is not the right
word; just disgusting wedding photos.
Now how about Snow White? So, as far as I can tell, the Germans are the only ones entirely
responsible for this one. The first recorded history of the story seems to come straight
from the Brother’s Grimm themselves in 1812. And how is this version different from the
goofy, playful one that I and many others grew up reading as a picture book or watching
on TV? Well, for one, the evil queen doesn’t just want the huntsman to go kill Snow White,
but rather she instructs him to return with some of the girl’s delicious inner organs
so that she can feast on them. And in some versions of the story, the queen is not just
the queen and step-mother, but actually Show White's mother. So double ew? Triple ew? Just very ew.
In the Grimm version the queen also tries several times to do away with Snow White in
some pretty sick ways, like one time she gives the girl this beautiful new dress only to
then tie the dress's bodice so tightly that Snow White faints to the floor. But each time
the queen fails until she finally goes for the good ol' poison apple trick.
But as we know this too ultimately fails and in the end Snow White gets the prince. What
you might not know, however, is that in the Grimm story, the queen goes to the wedding
and once there, she’s caught and forced to put these glowing hot iron shoes onto her
feet and then dance for everyone until she dies. So literally dance until you drop. Literally.
And lastly for today’s horror-filled line up, we’ve got The Little Mermaid. Now, as
I mentioned before, the Germans weren’t the only ones writing fairy tales, of course,
and they also weren’t the only ones whose twisted tales got transformed into lovely
little children’s books and movies.
The Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen, originally published the story of The Little
Mermaid in 1837, and in his version rather than, you know, magically losing the ability
to talk in order to get legs and feet, the mermaid actually lets her tongue get sliced
right out of her mouth, and then instead of being able to happily prance around on those
new found walkers, she’s forced to suffer in pain because every step she takes feels
as though she’s walking on knives that are cutting into her.
And at the end, she doesn’t even get the guy. Nope! He marries someone else and she
turns into sea foam. So yeah, a little different from the movie I grew up with. But interesting.
Definitely interesting.
So my question for you is: What’s your favorite fairy tale and did you grow up reading
the "nice, sweet" little versions of fairy tales or did you grow up reading the more, achem,
grim versions? Ah, ah! Did you see what I did there? The more "grim" versions. Yeah, so, please let me know in
the comments below for your chance to win this record clock from the old background.
It's a working clock, and Mr. German Man and I will go through the comments and pick a
winner from there. Full contest details in the description below.
Thanks so much for watching. Please don't forget to subscribe and hit that like button.
And also, for more fun stuff, you can check me out over here on my Twitter and my Facebook page.
Until next time, auf Wiedersehen!
The Danish author, Hans Christian-- oh Danish! That makes me hungry.
I would like a cheese-filled danish.
That's so disgusting!