Fairy stories.?

Question

Reading through fairy stories with my daughter it seemed to me that they all seem to very dark tales in disguise,Take Hansel and Gretel for instance.What do you think.

Answer 1

The first answerer is correct.

These 'fairy tales' started out as cautionary tales. Before people learned how to write, they used stories as a way of passing on knowledge and information.

It wasn't until fairly modern times that these stories were toned down to the level they are today. In one of the original tellings of Cinderella from the Brothers Grimm, the stepsisters actually mutilated their feet so that they could wear the shoe and the birds in the trees warned the Prince to look and see the blood. Many of the older fairy tales have older counterparts that are not nearly as sunny and bright so as to drive home the warning that everything under the sun isn't safe.

Answer 2

All "fairy stories" or childrens tales evolved out of lessons that parents taught their children in order to keep them safe. There were no happy endings, they only came much, much later. Hansel and Gretel were eaten, so too little Red Riding Hood, The first two pigs and the younger Billy Goats Gruff came to a sticky end as well.
The sole purpose of these tales was to scare the life out of your children so they didn't go wandering off into the woods, or away with strangers or go building houses out of straw. What most of the revisionist writers failed to recognise is that children prefer scary stories over the more sanitised versions, something that Roald Dahl and a few others were only too aware of.

Answer 3

Most "Fairy Tales" are derived from folk tales..some of these are VERY dark. If you really are interested, try to get hold of a copy of "The Virago Book of Fairy Tales" edited by Angela Carter, but please don't read them to your daughter. Her book "The Bloody Chamber" is also an adaptation of "Folk Tales", but again, DON'T read them to your daughter. Even Perrault's tales are much darker than our present day "fairy Tales". Perhaps it is an instinct to protect our children from the real world that has resulted in these vibrant folk tales being dumbed down for children.
There is an American author, Alison Lurie, who also puts froward the arguement that most children's literature is subversive, I do agree with her. It's just, children do not see the subversions, only the adults do, in our jaded, cynical outlook on the world.

Answer 4

I totally agree with you.

They put sunshine and butterflies on top of those stories and call it a fairy tale.

Snow White for example, the prince randomly finds a coffin in the middle of a forest and decides to take it home because the girl in it is beautiful?

Oh yes, people do that all the time >_>

Answer 5

I agree with the moralist here..they were to teach a lesson about what that culture percieved as dangerous. But...
perhaps the reason they are dark and scary is because kids love it., even adults if you judge by the popularity of horror movies. Kids don't like a boring flower and rainbows story.

Answer 6

Fairy tales are beautiful stories full of wonder, dreams, magic, love, and beauty. It lifts our spirits with light and a smile.

Answer 7

Yes they are dark. They come from th era when parents routinely frightened their children to keep them from going places and being with people they shouldnt. Dont go into the woods alone...dont talk to strangers. Don't stray from the beaten path, never eat a windfall apple and never trust a man with one eyebrow.

Answer 8

they are all changing now due to pc gone mad. I was watching this morning and you can't say black, black, baa sheep in case it offends, you can't say the king's horses and men couldn't put humty back together incase it upsets kids! it is ridiculous, fairy stories and nursery rhymes never did me any harm. they are dark but most have happy endings.

Answer 9

i agree with you but i doubt your daughter knows what they really arexx