FORBIDDEN FAIRY TALES. Why original versions of folk tales were prevented from reading by children

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

How did Little Red Riding Hood become a cannibal? Why does the original text of the turnip tale drive specialists crazy? And what, finally, is the meaning of "Rowbo Chicken"? We are used to thinking of fairy tales as simple, bright and kind stories for children. However, many fairy tales came from folk legends and tales, filled with terrible, and sometimes completely insane details. We will now take a look at them. Go.

Many famous storytellers - the brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault - were, first of all, not authors, but collectors and copyists of folk legends. And the creative component of their activity consisted mainly in the fact that they “smoothed” the original sources, adapting rather cruel stories for children. Thus, the Brothers Grimm fairy tales were published seven times, and the first edition of 1812 was regarded by the public as completely unsuitable for children's reading.

The fate of the Cinderella story is especially indicative here. The earliest prototypes of this story refer us to Ancient Egypt, where Cinderella appears in the form of the girl Fodoris, who is kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery. There, the owner makes her engage in prostitution, for which she buys beautiful gilded sandals. Once the sandal Fodoris is kidnapped by a falcon (which was the Egyptian god Horus) and taken to the pharaoh, followed by falling in love, fitting, and further along the plot. In the book by DzhambattIsta BasIle "Tale of Fairy Tales" - the first collection of fairy-tale folklore in the history of European literature - Cinderella is called Zezolla. She not only endures humiliation, but fights with them, breaking her evil stepmother's neck with a chest lid. However, the girl's nanny, having advised her such a radical way out, takes advantage of the situation, falls in love with her widowed father and brings her five daughters to the house, making Zezolla's position completely deplorable.

In 1697, the Frenchman Charles Perrault wrote a canonical version - with a simple conflict, a good fairy, a pumpkin carriage and a crystal shoe. And, of course, with the sweetest possible ending - Cinderella “from the bottom of her heart” forgives her evil sisters and, having become a queen, passes them off as court nobles. It would seem that here it is an idyll - but here the Grimm brothers have scraped together a more feasible option in the bins of the German people. The finale deserves special attention, which has become a truly bloody phantasmagoria. The Cinderella sisters, wanting to squeeze into a crystal slipper, cut off parts of their feet: one is a toe, the other is a whole heel. For some reason, the prince does not notice this, but injustice is not allowed to happen … pigeons cooing: "Look, look, and the shoe is covered in blood …" To top it all off, the feathered guardians of morality peck out Cinderella's sisters' eyes.

Other extravagant primary sources include The Sleeping Beauty, recorded by the same Giambattista Basile. There, the beauty, too, was overtaken by a curse in the form of a spindle prick, after which the princess fell asleep without wakefulness. The inconsolable king father left her in a small house in the woods. Years later, another king passed by, entered the house and saw the Sleeping Beauty. Without becoming exchanged for kisses, he moved her to bed and, so to speak, took full advantage of the situation. At the same time, the girl did not wake up, but the pleased prince left.

The beauty, however, nine months later gave birth to twins - a son named the Sun and a daughter Luna. It was they who woke up the Beauty Mother: the boy, in search of his mother's breast, began to suck her finger and accidentally sucked a poisoned thorn. The unlucky father returned after a few years - solely out of a desire to have a good time again. However, he found offspring in the house and could not get out. Then the lovers had to arrange their personal lives, simultaneously solving the issue with the first wife of the protagonist, who turned out to be a cannibal. After all, when she learns about the awakened mistress, she tries to kill her and eat the children, but in the end the king burns her. Happy ending and everyone is happy. What is left to expect from Little Red Riding Hood under these circumstances? Even in the canonical version of the Brothers Grimm, with a good ending, everything looks quite like a knacker: the lumberjacks passing by hear a noise, kill a wolf, cut his belly and take out the living grandmother and granddaughter from there. But in the folk version of the tale, they could only get Little Red Riding Hood from the wolf's belly. Because the grandmother … was in the belly of the girl herself. According to the plot of most versions of the legend, the wolf kills the old woman, prepares food from her body, and a drink from the blood, dresses in the clothes of the grandmother and lies in her bed. When the girl arrives, the wolf invites her to eat. The domestic cat tries to warn the girl that she is eating the remains of her grandmother, but the villain throws wooden shoes at the cat and kills her. Then the wolf invites the girl to undress and lie down next to him, and throw the clothes into the fire. She does just that - well, then there are sacramental questions about big eyes and teeth.