Grimmer Fairy Tales

Few things are as comforting as an old familiar favorite book.  For me, that book is Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn.  I’ve read the book so many times that I can recite whole pages from memory, yet after a few months, I’m invariably drawn back to read the book again.  I guess everyone has a favorite book.

For my wife, The Doc, it is an ancient copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, that collection of harmless stories that Disney has been strip mining fo public domain and royalty-free content for decades.  Evidently, The Doc and her sister used to read the stories as children from a now lost book.  So, when she found a duplicate copy at an estate sale, she had to have it.  

The auction sold the vintage copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales along with another book, Billy Whiskers: the Autobiography of a Goat, by Frances Trego Montgomery.  Though I had never heard of either the book or the author, it turns out that after the book was published in 1902, several million copies of the book and the 24 sequels were published, making the author the J.K. Rowling of the 1920’s.  According to Rose Kennedy, her son Jack read them all.  If you are interested, you can read the book online here.

Like everyone else, I kind of knew about Grimm’s Fairy Tales.  Well, to be honest, most of what I knew came from watching Fractured Fairy Tales on the Rocky and Bullwinkle television show, but that counts, right?  So, I read a few of the stories, spent at least ten minutes researching the brothers Grimm online, looking at most of the pretty pictures and discovered that I knew absolutely nothing about these stories.  While my research was a little spotty, it was way better than what Disney had ever done.

First off, the Grimm brothers were sort of the prototype of the orphans who despite being poor, still worked their little Hessian asses off, studying law and anthropology after their parents died while the brothers were off at school.  The brothers collected old folk stories from books and transcribed stories told to them by friends and family members.  In 1812, the first volume of 86 stories was published, followed 3 years later by the second volume containing 70 more.  Interestingly, the volumes were published with the title we all know so well, Children’s and Household Tales. 

The stories are dark—dark even for Germans—and are the kind of stories you would only tell children if their parents were Lizzie Borden and the Son of Sam.  By the second printing of the stories, the Grimm brothers had already been forced to make certain revisions…take the story of Rapunzel, for example.  

Rapunzel’s parents lived next door to an evil witch who had a vegetable garden protected by a high wall.  I have no idea why anyone would think living next to a witch was a good idea; perhaps the obvious risk made the rent lower? The wife, having pregnancy cravings, sees rapunzel growing in the garden and refuses to eat anything else.  We never actually learn just what kind of vegetable rapunzel is, but since the wife is growing weak with hunger, the husband climbs over the wall to steal some for his beloved wife and is immediately confronted by the evil witch.  Desperate, the husband works out a deal wherein he trades the future infant for an unlimited supply of the unknown veggie.  (In all of the stories, the lives of children aren’t worth much more than a fistful of root vegetables.). 

In time, the witch takes the beautiful infant and locks her in a doorless room atop a tall tower.  Access to the room is only available by Rapunzel—named after the vegetable—letting down her long, beautiful golden hair.  (Presumably, the tower grew about as fast as the child’s hair).  The witch brought food to the girl daily, and on one of those visits a passing prince learned the secret of getting Rapunzel to lower her hair.  Intrigued, the prince began visiting Rapunzel daily.  After a few weeks, Rapunzel mentioned to the witch that her dress was getting tight in the belly.

What?  Rapunzel is R rated???  From there, the witch cuts off the girl’s hair and blinds the prince, then he and Rapunzel wander the dark forest for years, destitute and miserable until they finally discover each other and live happily ever after.  The story doesn’t mention it, but presumably the witch goes unpunished, and Rapunzel’s mother remained a vegan.

Most of the original stories are far different than the versions you think you know.  Cinderella went to the ball several nights in a row, wearing luxurious mouse fur slippers.  Her evil mother, changed later into an evil stepmother, had her sisters mutilate their feet with a knife in an effort to fit their huge feet into the small furry slipper.  Little Red Riding Hood is eaten by the wolf, Rumpelstiltskin is torn into two pieces, and in Hansel and Gretel, the villain is the children’s mother.  The Frog Prince is not transformed back into his human form by a kiss, but by the princess smashing him against a wall in sexual frustration.

Reading the original stories is a little alarming at first, but after a while, you start to enjoy the dark humor and the lack of the sugar sweetness of the animated versions.  If the Grimm brothers had included Bambi, it would probably end with a recipe for venison jerky.  (Though if you think of it, even Disney’s version of Bambi starts with a murder.)

I’m not the only one who thinks these stories should be read by adults:  many contemporary authors have suggested that you should give the fairy tales a second chance.

Someday, you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.  – C. S. Lewis

Fantasy is a recurring ingredient in living. – Dr. Seuss

There wouldn’t be so many stories about vampires and zombies and other such creatures if they didn’t really exist.  – R. L. Stine

"Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. – C. K. Chesterton

Besides, if you don’t read the stories for yourself, how will you learn about Snow White’s sister, Rose Red?