The Original Disturbing Versions of 7 Famous Fairy Tales
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In the modern day, folks view fairy tales as children’s stories, aimed at G-rated fun content, typically with a life lesson woven in. But these currently delightful tales weren’t always that way. Many fairy tales were written with adults and children in mind, but the themes and events that accompany the tales were more often than not very adult. These 7 still very popular fairy tales were originally written very differently.
Sleeping Beauty
Basile’s Italian version of Sleeping Beauty is pretty unsettling. The king discovers a sleeping beauty and decided to rape her while she sleeps. She continues to sleep through her pregnancy and the ensuing birth and wakes up only because one of the kids sucked out a splinter under her finger which was keeping her asleep. The king then decides to murder his wife to try to be with Sleeping Beauty. Not completely unfair, since the wife had tried to get him to unknowingly eat the children.
Pinocchio
In the original version, after Gepetto carves Pinocchio, the newly made puppet-turned-to-boy ran away only to be arrested by the police. The police make the assumption that Gepetto abused Pinocchio and send him off to prison. Pinocchio, meanwhile, goes back to Gepetto’s house and accidentally kills the wise cricket. Gepetto is later hanged from a tree.
The Little Mermaid
The original story has the newly legged mermaid walking, but each step causes her intense pain. On top of it, she knows that she must find the prince and get him to marry her, or else she will die and turn into sea foam. The prince ended up marrying someone else. Her sisters, in a desperate attempt to save her, strike a bargain with the sea witch and acquire a dagger. It turns out that if they kill the prince and drip his blood on their sister’s feet, she would return to being a mermaid. They failed.
Cinderella
In this version, Cinderella’s oldest sister so badly wants to fit into the glass slipper that she cuts off her own toes. The second sister’s plan? To cut off her heel. To inform the prince of these crazy acts, two doves sent by Cinderella’s dead mother show the prince’s blood in the slippers. Finally, the truth prevails and it’s discovered that Cinderella was the true owner of the slippers. Before the two could live happily ever after (and they eventually did) the doves returned to poke the older sister’s eyes out.
Rapunzel
The original story also features a beautiful girl with long blonde hair who is trapped in a tower by an evil witch. However, in this version, when the witch finds out the prince has been visiting Rapunzel and that she is pregnant, she cuts off all of the hair and banishes her to the woods. When the prince comes back for another visit, he is met by the evil witch who pushes him off the tower into thorn bushes. Luckily, they break his fall, but unluckily, the thorns stab his eyes out.
Chicken Little
The original story of Chicken Little is similar in that it features the paranoid chick who tries to round up other animals on its way to inform the king that the sky is falling. But different in that on their way to the King, a fox invites all of the animals to it’s home where he devours them all.
Little Red Riding Hood
In some of the original versions of this tale, the wolf arrives at the house early and chops up Red Riding Hood’s grandmother. Not satisfied with mere brutality and murder, he puts her flesh in the pantry and stores her blood in a wine bottle. When Red Riding Hood arrives, he offers her some food and drink. She accepts the offer and unknowingly fills up on her grandmother.
Source: listverse
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Not all are “original” versions!
Some tales here are original like the little mermaid that was written by Anderson and Pinocchio by Collodi. But Cinderella, red riding hood and rapunzel are versions of the stories. Just versions. Yes they are versions of famous writers the brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault. So these versions became famous. But the stories are older than that and don’t have one single writer that “invented” them
[…] MadMikesAmerica brings us the original disturbing versions of seven famous fairy tales. The comments strike me as insightful. […]
This is why I have never been into princess movies much. Sleeping Beauty is stalking gone way off the rails, same with Snow White, Shit she went hiding in the damn woods and her stalker still found her. Watch these Disney movies through that prism and they will scare the shit out of you. Stalking, check, abuse check check, rape check check check.
I’m thinking H.P. Lovecraft more than the brothers Grimm
Cthulhu? What a beast!! Dead but dreaming in the cosmos….
There’s a disturbing fairy tale in the WH right now.
Now that’s the truth, but which version?
Another example of how we clean up the past and make it palatable and even self-flattering.
Isn’t it though? That’s exactly what is happening here.