Original Versions of Fairy Tales

Original Versions of Fairy Tales

While Disney did the work of adapting these tales into more kid-friendly ones, the original tales were bloody, cruel, and disturbing, to say the least. Originally written by the Brothers Grimm, these would never pass for anything close to family appropriate. The brothers Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm were from Steinau, Germany, and wrote these tales in the mid-1800s, based on other tales that they’d gathered from other parts of Europe. Some of these tales are actually far older, though.

Cinderella

In the Disney classic from 1950, Cinderella tells the story of a young maiden who lives with her stepmother and stepsisters, and they force her to work tirelessly as the maid. The king hosts a ball to find a bride for his son, the prince, and the stepsisters do what they can to prevent Cinderella from going. But Cinderella receives a dress and a carriage from her fairy godmother that will disappear at midnight. She goes to the ball, her stepmother and stepsisters don’t recognize her, she meets the prince, they dance, but midnight comes, and she runs away, not wanting the prince, or anyone else, to see who she really is. As she is running towards the carriage, one of the glass slippers falls off. The prince retrieves the slipper and sets out to find the slipper’s owner. After trying the slipper on several of the kingdom’s young women, the stepsisters try, unsuccessfully, to fit the shoe. Cinderella, looking like the maiden and not in the dress, shows up, tries on the slipper.

In the Grimm version of Cinderella, or “Aschenputtel” in German, Cinderella’s father is still alive, meaning he doesn’t protect or care about his own daughter. The second difference is that Cinderella grows a hazel tree over her mother’s grave, using her tears to water the tree.

Instead of mice, Cinderella has many birds for friends, who bring her whatever she asks for. At one point in the story, the stepsisters throw lentils in a pot of ashes and tell Cinderella that she can go to the ball when all of the lentils are taken out. This is where the birds come in handy, and they help Cinderella pick out the lentils from the pot of ashes. Another difference is that the ball lasts for three nights, not just one. Cinderella spends all of them with the prince. She runs away from him during all three, and on the last night, he has the stairs coated with glue, which causes the slipper to become stuck, and she has to run away without it. It should also be noted that the slipper is made of gold, not glass.

When the prince tries to find the slipper's owner, the sisters cut off parts of their feet to try and fit the slipper. One of them cuts off her big toe. The other cuts off her heel, but the prince sees blood running up their white stockings. Soon enough, he finds Cinderella and they marry. On the wedding day, Cinderella orders two doves to peck out the stepsisters’ eyes, leaving them blind.

Lastly, many have argued that trying to find the perfect fit for the slipper was a metaphor for the prince doing it with all the girls in the kingdom, looking for the perfect fit.

Snow White

This was the first full-length animated feature film by Disney, in 1937. It originated from Willem and Jacob Grimm in 1812. To begin with, Snow White is about 7-10 years old during the span of events. Also, her own mother, not stepmother, tries to kill her four times out of jealousy of her daughter’s beauty. The first time, the mother orders a huntsman to abandon Snow White in the woods and bring her heart and liver as proof, but he doesn’t go through with it. He releases her and brings back a sheep’s heart and liver. Then the queen, thinking that it’s Snow White’s organs, cooks and eats them. After she learns that the huntsman disobeyed her, she puts on a disguise and tries to kill Snow White herself. Once with a tightly bound corset, once with a poisoned comb, and finally, with a poisoned apple. Snow White is only in a coma, but the dwarves put her in a glass coffin. A passing prince falls in love with her and convinces the dwarves to take her to the palace. Along the way, the dwarves drop the coffin, and the apple that was stuck in Snow White’s throat falls out, and she wakes up. They then get married, and at the wedding, the mother is forced to put on red-hot iron shoes and then dance until she dies.

Sleeping Beauty

Adapted in 1959, in this one, a princess is cursed by a sorceress to get a splinter from a spinning wheel and falls asleep for eternity. A prince finds her and wakes her up with a kiss. The original, titled “Sun, Moon, and Talia” was written by Italian poet Giambattista Basile. The princess gets a flax splinter underneath her fingernail and falls into an enchanted sleep. A king, out for a hunt, passes by and tries to wake her up, but fails. He takes this opportunity to rape her. Nine months later, she bears twins, all while still asleep. One of the babies tries to get some milk but sucks the splinter out of her finger instead. With the spell broken, she wakes up. The king returns for some more rape fun, but they fall in love. The queen hears about this (and yes, the king was married this whole time) and kidnaps Talia and the twins. She tries to eat the twins by telling the chef to cook them for dinner. Instead, the chef saves them and serves lamb. The queen then makes Talia strip naked before being taken to burn at the stake, but the king arrives in time, and has the queen burned at the stake instead.

The Princess and the Frog

This was adapted by Disney, but it differs in several ways. Firstly, Tiana was the first black Disney princess, which was a major milestone for the Disney princesses. Secondly, the original story is far different from the Disney version. To begin with, the princess isn’t the best of all people, and she would never kiss the frog at all. In the original, she drops her golden ball into a fountain. A frog offers to help if she takes him home and makes him her companion. She agrees, but after getting her ball back, she leaves the frog behind, but he follows her. When the king, who is also her father, hears about this, he makes the princess keep her promise, even though she is disgusted by the frog. The frog gets to sit at the table and go to the princess’ room. But when he asks to sleep in the bed with the princess, she gets so angry that she throws the frog against a wall, and that’s when he turns into a prince. And for who knows why, they get married.

Little Red Riding Hood

This is the only one on this list that hasn’t been adapted by Disney. The modern version is supposed to teach kids not to talk to strangers. It tells of a girl who travels through the woods to deliver wine and stuff to her sick grandmother. Along the way, she meets a wolf and tells him about the grandmother. The wolf then finds the grandmother’s house, locks her in a closet, and tricks Red Riding Hood into believing the wolf is the grandmother, before a huntsman stops the wolf.

The oldest known version dates back to the 10th century CE, and the wolf eats the grandmother, then serves a plate of her flesh, and pours her blood into a wine glass. He then offers Red Riding Hood the meal, and she unknowingly eats her own grandmother. Then the wolf tells her to get naked and get in bed with him. She does, and he eats her, too. In other versions, the wolf is a werewolf, and in one of them, Red and the wolf eat grandma together.

In the Grimm story, the wolf eats both of them, then falls asleep on a tree. A passing huntsman cuts open the wolf, and Red and the grandmother come out, fully intact, and still alive. They then fill the cut with stones, and the wolf tries to get up but dies, then gets skinned by the huntsman

The Little Mermaid

Made into a feature-length film in 1989, this one originates from Danish author Hans Christian Andersen in 1837. The mermaid saves a drowning prince and wants to be with him. She seeks a sea witch to make a potion that will make her a human. For no apparent reason, the witch says that every step taken on land will feel like walking on sharp blades, and she will need to forfeit her ability to talk. On top of this, if the prince marries someone else, she will become a seafoam and cease to exist. The mermaid agrees to these terms, and the sea witch cuts off her tongue, leaving a stump. She then tries to impress the prince by dancing, even though she suffers pain from every step. The prince leaves her for another woman. Fearing death, the mermaid goes to her friends for help. They receive an enchanted knife from the same sea witch. If the mermaid kills the prince and spills his blood on her legs, she will become a mermaid again, but she can’t go through with the murder, so she throws herself into the sea, and becomes a lonely spirit that wanders the earth for 300 years.

Sources: Top Trending, Feli from Germany