Bloody original plot of popular fairy tales of the world

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In Great Britain, the Brothers Grimm fairy tales were published in the first edition of 1812 - that is, in the bloodiest and most terrible. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, like Charles Perrault, together with the Italian storyteller Giambattista Basile, did not invent plots, but rewrote folk traditions for subsequent generations. The blood runs cold from the primary sources: graves, severed heels, sadistic punishments, rape and other "non-fabulous" details.

Cinderella

It is believed that the earliest version of "Cinderella" was invented in Ancient Egypt: while the beautiful prostitute Fodoris was swimming in the river, the eagle stole her sandal and took it to the pharaoh, who admired the small size of the shoe and ended up marrying the harlot.

The Italian Giambattista Basile, who recorded the collection of folk legends "The Tale of Fairy Tales", is much worse. His Cinderella, or rather Zezolla, is not at all the unfortunate girl we know from Disney cartoons and children's plays. She did not want to endure humiliation from her stepmother, so she broke her stepmother's neck with the lid of the chest, taking her nanny as an accomplice. The nanny immediately hurried up and became a second stepmother for the girl, in addition, she had six evil daughters, of course, it was not possible for the girl to interrupt all of them. Saved the case: once the king saw the girl and fell in love. Zezolla was quickly found by His Majesty's servants, but she managed to escape, dropping - no, not a crystal slipper! - the rough pianella with cork soles worn by the women of Naples. The further scheme is clear: a nationwide wanted list and a wedding. So the killer of the stepmother became the queen.

61 years after the Italian version, Charles Perrault released his tale. It was she who became the basis for all "vanilla" modern interpretations. True, in Perrault's version, the girl is helped not by the godmother, but by the deceased mother: a white bird lives on her grave, making wishes come true.

The Brothers Grimm also interpreted the plot of Cinderella in their own way: in their opinion, the mischievous sisters of the poor orphan should have received what they deserve. Trying to squeeze into the cherished shoe, one of the sisters chopped off her toe, and the other - the heel. But the sacrifice was in vain - the prince was warned by the pigeons:

The same flying warriors of justice ended up pecking out the eyes of the sisters - this is the end of the fairy tale.

Little Red Riding Hood

The story of a girl and a hungry wolf has been known in Europe since the 14th century. The contents of the basket changed depending on the area, but the story itself was much more unfortunate for Cinderella. Having killed the grandmother, the wolf not only eats her, but prepares a treat from her body, and a certain drink from her blood. Hiding in bed, he watches as Little Red Riding Hood devours his own grandmother with gusto. The grandmother's cat tries to warn the girl, but she also dies a terrible death (the wolf throws heavy wooden shoes at her). Little Red Riding Hood does not seem to be embarrassed by this, and after a hearty dinner she obediently undresses and goes to bed, where a wolf is waiting for her. In most versions, this is where it all ends - they say, serves the silly girl right!

Subsequently, Charles Perrault composed an optimistic ending for this story and added moral for everyone whom all sorts of strangers invite to their bed:

Sleeping Beauty

The modern version of the kiss that awakened the beauty is just childish babble in comparison with the original plot, which was recorded for posterity by the same Giambattista Basile. The beauty from his fairy tale, named Thalia, was also cursed by a spindle prick, after which the princess fell asleep without waking up. The inconsolable king-father left him in a small house in the forest, but could not imagine what would happen next. Years later, another king passed by, entered the house and saw the Sleeping Beauty. Without thinking twice, he carried her to bed and, so to speak, took advantage of the situation, and then left and forgot about everything for a long time. And the beauty raped in a dream nine months later gave birth to twins - a son named Sun and daughter Luna. It was they who woke Talia: the boy, in search of his mother's breast, began to suck her finger and accidentally sucked a poisoned thorn. Further more. The lustful king again came to the abandoned house and found offspring there.

He promised the girl mountains of gold and again left for his kingdom, where, by the way, his legal wife was waiting for him. The king's wife, having learned about the homeless woman, decided to exterminate her along with the whole brood and at the same time punish her unfaithful husband. She ordered to kill the kids and make meat pies from them for the king, and burn the princess. Just before the fire, the cries of the beauty were heard by the king, who came running and burned not her, but the annoying evil queen. And finally, the good news: the twins were not eaten, because the cook turned out to be a normal person and saved the kids by replacing them with lamb.

The defender of maiden honor Charles Perrault, of course, greatly changed the tale, but he could not resist the "moral" at the end of the story. His parting words read:

Snow White

The Brothers Grimm flooded the tale of Snow White with interesting details that seem wild in our humane time. The first version was published in 1812, supplemented in 1854. The beginning of the tale no longer bodes well: “One snowy winter day, the queen sits and sews by the window with an ebony frame. Accidentally she pricks her finger with a needle, drops three drops of blood and thinks: “Oh, if I had a baby, white as snow, ruddy as blood and blackened as an ebony.” But the witch appears to be really creepy here: she eats (as she thinks) the heart of the murdered Snow White, and then, realizing that she was mistaken, comes up with all the new sophisticated ways to kill her, including a strangling lace for a dress, a poisonous comb and a poisoned apple, which, as we know, worked.: When all is well with Snow White, the witch's turn comes in. As punishment for her sins, she dances in red-hot iron shoes until she falls dead.

The beauty and the Beast

The primary source of the tale is neither more nor less than the ancient Greek myth about the beautiful Psyche, whose beauty everyone envied, from the older sisters to the goddess Aphrodite. The girl was chained to a rock in the hope of feeding the monster, but miraculously she was saved by an "invisible creature." It, of course, was male, because it made Psyche his wife, provided that she would not torment him with questions. But, of course, female curiosity prevailed, and Psyche learned that her husband was not a monster at all, but a beautiful Cupid. Psyche's spouse was offended and flew away without promising to return. Meanwhile, Psyche's mother-in-law Aphrodite, who from the very beginning was against this marriage, decided to completely lime the daughter-in-law, forcing her to perform various difficult tasks: for example, to bring the golden fleece from the mad sheep and water from the Styx river of the dead. But Psyche did everything, and there Cupid returned to the family, and they lived happily ever after. And the stupid envious sisters threw themselves off the cliff, hoping in vain that an "invisible spirit" would be found on them too.

A version closer to modern history was written by Gabriel-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in 1740. Everything is complicated in it: the monster is, in fact, an unfortunate orphan. His father died, and his mother was forced to defend her kingdom from enemies, so she entrusted the upbringing of her son to someone else's aunt. She turned out to be an evil sorceress, in addition, she wanted to seduce the boy, and when she was refused, she turned him into a terrible beast. Beauty also has her own skeletons in the closet: she is not really her own, but the merchant's adopted daughter. Her real father is a king who has sinned with a stray good fairy. But an evil sorceress also claims the king, so it was decided to give the daughter of her rival to the merchant, whose youngest daughter had just died. Well, and a curious fact about Beauty's sisters: when the beast lets her stay with her relatives, the "good" girls deliberately make her stay in the hope that the monster will go berserk and eat her. By the way, this subtle related moment is shown in the latest film version of Beauty and the Beast with Vincent Cassel and Leia Seydoux.