One of the ways to learn a foreign language is to read fairy tales. They are written in a simple way so that children can understand them. That is why fairy tales are a good place to start.

 

What is your favorite fairy tale? Is it Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, or maybe Snow White? All of these and many other fairy tales are known as the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. Jackob and Wilhem Grimm lived in Germany in the 19th century, and if you have seen the Brothers Grimm movie (starring Mat Damon and Heath Ledger), well, just so you know, their lives were not as exciting as the movie shows. They just collected traditional German stories because they wanted to preserve the stories that had been passed down orally from generation to generation. Then they edited and shaped them so that the fairy tales were stylistically similar, and published them in a book called “Kinder- und Hausmärchen” (Children’s and Household Tales), which was republished many times, with new tales added each time. Many of these stories are known around the world because they have been filmed or animated. The most famous are certainly Disney’s cartoons. Beautiful gentle princess in distress and brave and handsome prince comes to the rescue. What you may not know is that some of the original Grimm’s fairy tales had very cruel parts and were not meant for children. But in later editions the Grimms themselves removed sexual elements from the stories and added Christian elements. Are you curious about the original stories? Let us see what they were like.

   

Snow White. Believe it or not, it was Snow White’s mother, not her stepmother, who wanted her liver and longues as proof of her death. And when she finds out that Snow White is alive, she tries to kill her three times. The first time with a poison comb, the second time with an overly tight corset, and the third time with a poison apple. What actually saves Snow White’s life is when one of the dwarfs carrying the glass coffin with her inside stumbles, the coffin shakes, and the poisoned piece of apple falls out of her throat. No kissing! As punishment, her wicked mother dances to death in red-hot iron shoes. Imagine this scene.

   

Cinderella. Her stepsisters are actually pretty, and the dove helps Cinderella get ready for the ball by giving her beautiful dresses because the prince holds three balls. Two nights Cinderella manages to escape the ball and the third night the prince sets a tar trap where she loses her golden shoe. Yes, golden, not glass shoe. Each of her stepsisters tries to get her foot into the shoe, the first by cutting off her toes, the second by cutting off her heel, but both times the dove warns the prince that blood drips from the shoe. At Cinderella and the Prince’s wedding, the dove pecks out the wicked stepsister’s eyes. Happy ending?

   

Sleeping Beauty. The Brothers Grimm story is very similar to Disney’s animation, but the original version is more sinister. After Sleeping Beauty (her name is Briar Rose) pricks herself with a spindle and falls asleep, everybody leaves the castle. A king from another kingdom finds her by accident and seduced by Rose’s beauty he rapes her. She becomes pregnant and gives birth to twins in her sleep. When one of the hungry babies sucks her finger, Sleeping Beauty wakes up. She raises the twins all alone. The King visits her from time to time, but he cannot marry her because he is already married. His wife, the Queen, eventually finds out about Sleeping Beauty and her children. The Queen decides to cook Rose and her children and serve them to the King. But kindhearted cook saves their lives, the angry King burns the Queen alive and marries Sleeping Beauty. Could they really live happily ever after?

 

So, if these three original versions of beloved fairy tales do not disgust you, you can explore the origins of other tales for yourself.