Fairy Tale Bletherings (1)

Snow White

Sleeping Beauty

The Little Mermaid

Cinderella

Since I am finding it ridiculously hard to get into any books lately I thought I would do something a little different and post on fairy-tales, I didn’t really pluck the idea out of mid-air though. One of the books I have been trying to read is a fairy tale type book.

I don’t think that I have enough followers to actually start any arguments but this is not meant to offend anyone’s views of their favourite cartoon or anything else. This is just me being…well…me. This is not meant to be a be-all-and-end-all, professional post on fairy tales, it is just me having some fun. 

So let’s get going.

So despite the fluffy and happy version of these fairy tales, the original versions tend to be a little icky…

‘Snow White’ for example. The Wicked Queen didn’t just try to kill Snow White with the apple. Oh no, there were suffocating laces, poisoned combs and then the apple. And there is no denying that Snow White is VERY dim to fall for the queens tricks every time. And how is the wicked queen punished at the end? She is put into a pair of red hot iron shoes (of course) and made to dance until she drops dead. Oh, goody, that makes a nice bedtime story for little kiddlie-winks everywhere. NOT!

And how about ‘The Little Mermaid’’? Well kids, she DIES at the end! That’s right. The stupid prince doesn’t marry her and the Little Mermaid jumps into the sea and turns into sea foam because she loved the idiot prince too much to pop him off and save her own life. And then we have her constantly bleeding feet. Yip, can anyone imagine THAT in a Disney film.

Now let’s have a look at Sleeping Beauty. The first half of the tale is pretty much as most versions depict it. But not everything is rosy after the marriage. The prince loved his wife and children so much that he left them to go and play at soldiers in another kingdom while leaving his family in the clutches of his crazy mother. Charming. Who was more than happy to have them boiled, roasted or stuffed and have a good nosh up – of THEM! I would personally want a divorce at that point but that’s just me…

Cinderella. Now mostly Cinderella isn’t too…icky but it is a wee bit. The version by Charles Perrault is the one that is stuck to predominately through childrens entertainment, with the fairy godmother, pumpkin etc, etc, etc. But then there is the good old Brother’s Grimm, we can always count on them to get a grim (get that…lol – ok moving on) spin on things. In that version we have the step sisters cutting off bits of their feet so that they could try and fool the prince and fit into the shoe and then they have their eyes pecked out by birds – and the prince is painted to be a bit of a tool too.

More coming soon…

Any specific fairy tale you would like me to mention. Pop a comment below!