Our modern fairy tales have taught us that in the end, after going through all the difficult trials and hardships, the main characters find happiness, and the evil characters always get punished according to their deserts. But almost all of our fairy tales have been rewritten in a kinder and lighter version. But the original versions of these works are more suitable for adults, because there is a lot of violence, and no one guarantees that all will end with a happy ending. Still, it’s good that these stories remade, because it’s scary to think what cartoons and movies would have raised children. After all, it is so important to bring up in the younger generation such qualities as: kindness, love, honesty and justice.
Little Red Riding Hood
The origins of this tale go back to Europe in the fourteenth century. It was most popular in Italy, Switzerland and France. The plot was about the same in each country, only the contents of the basket changed: fresh fish, a head of cheese, tarts and a pot of butter. The tale began the same way as in the modern version.
Her mother sends her daughter to bring a present to her grandmother. On the way, she meets the wolf and tells her where and to whom she is going through the woods. But in the original versions, the wolf was not only a killer, but also a maniac. When he overtook Little Red Riding Hood, he tore up the poor grandmother, and he didn’t eat her whole. He made food from her body parts and poured the blood into a carafe of wine.
After changing into his grandmother’s clothes, the wolf lies down in bed, waiting for his next victim. Soon Little Red Riding Hood arrives. Pretending to be her grandmother, the wolf offers her granddaughter dinner. The grandmother’s cat, trying to warn her about what has happened, dies from wooden boots thrown at her by the wolf. The girl eats and drinks wine with gusto, unaware that it was all cooked from her grandmother. By the way, the wine was offered to Little Red Riding Hood because in the original versions she was not a little girl, but quite a grown-up girl.
Next, the “grandmother” offers her granddaughter a break from the road, to undress and lie down to rest beside her. The obedient granddaughter accepts her grandmother’s offer. Once very close to her, the girl asks why Grandma has so much hair, long nails, and big teeth. To which the wolf replies, “To eat you as soon as possible, child.” Eventually the girl gets eaten, but in some versions of this tale she still manages to escape from the clutches of the terrible wolf.
Over time, Charles Perrault remade the tale, coming up with a more optimistic ending. He also added a moral in the conclusion for all those whom strangers lure into their beds. A little later the Grimm brothers took up the tale, though in a scarier version than Perrault’s.
Beauty and the Beast
Originally it was not even a fairy tale, but an ancient Greek myth about the girl Psyche, whose beauty was the envy of many, from her sisters to Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. To get rid of the first beauty, it was decided to chain her to a steep rock, in the hope that the monster would eat her. But the monster saved her, and transformed her into a handsome young man.
They fell in love with each other and decided to marry. The young man’s only condition was that his wife not pester him with questions about his background and past life. But girls were curious at all times. Psyche discovered that her newly minted spouse was not a monster at all, but a sweet Cupid. Enraged, he flew away, leaving his wife behind.
When Aphrodite learned that Psyche was left without male protection, she decided to harass her with various errands. For example, she would ask to draw water from the river of the dead, or bring a golden fleece from rabid sheep. To Aphrodite’s great annoyance, the girl coped with any tasks, even the most difficult ones. Aphrodite didn’t have time to lime the first beauty, for soon her husband decided to return. Inspired by Psyche’s story, her sisters went to jump from the rock where she was chained, hoping to meet their “monster.” But their dreams sank with them into the abyss of the sea.
Sleeping Beauty
The first version of this tale was written by the Neapolitan writer Giambattiste Basile. The plot of the original was much scarier than the usual, kinder version. A beautiful woman named Thalia was put under a spell by a witch. With a jab of the spindle, a poisonous splinter went into her finger, after which the girl fell into an eternal sleep. The grief-stricken king-father took his daughter to the woods, to a small cottage, and left her there.
Some time later, another king passed by the edge where the princess was. He decided to go in and see who lived there. When he saw the sleeping beauty, he took advantage of the situation and left. And nine months later, the princess gave birth to twins – a son, Sun, and a daughter, Luna, who just broke the curse. The ravenous son, while searching for his mother’s breast, began sucking on her finger, and accidentally dipped an enchanted splinter.
Soon the same king was passing through the forest again, deciding to look again at the sleeping beauty. When he saw her and the children, he said he would soon take them back to his kingdom, where he lived with his wife. When the queen learned of the betrayal, she decided to destroy the divorcee and her children, and to teach her unfaithful husband a lesson. The queen ordered her servants to burn the princess and kill the children, making meat pies for her husband.
When the princess saw the arson, she began to cry out loudly for help. Her cry was heard by the king, who rushed swiftly to save her by throwing his wicked wife into the fire. Fortunately, the children turned out to be all right; the cook couldn’t go along with such a terrible crime. He saved the children by secretly making lamb pies.
Snow White
This grim tale was written by the Brothers Grimm. In order to be forever young and beautiful, the evil queen ordered Snow White, poisoned by an apple, to be taken to the woods and have her liver and lungs cut out, which the stepmother wanted to eat. Passing by, the prince sees the beauty in a coffin. He decides to take her body with him. But the servant who was carrying Snow White’s body accidentally tripped and a piece of poisoned apple jumped out of her throat. Miraculously, the beauty wakes up.
Soon the prince and Snow White held a feast to celebrate their wedding. All the rulers came to this celebration, including that evil queen, who had no idea who she was going to the wedding. This witch ends up being forced to dance around in red-hot shoes until she dies for all her mischief.
Cinderella
Cinderella is probably one of the often attributed fairy tales whose origins go back to ancient Egypt. Its first version was written on papyrus. In this version, Cinderella, a native of Greece, was called Rodopis. The girl was graceful and beautiful, so she was kidnapped and given into slavery in Egypt. Her master, wishing to thank his beloved slave for all kinds of pleasures, gave her gilded shoes.
The girl practically never parted with her gift. But once these sandals were stolen by an eagle, when she left them on the bank of the river in which she was bathing. The eagle dropped his prey near the king of Memphis, who was very interested by the miniature size of her feet, and he immediately sent his subjects in search of the owner of these sandals. The girl was found quickly, taken from slavery, and soon she was married to the king.
Then the story was taken up by the writer Giambattiste Basile, who made adjustments to the tale. Now the story sounded different. Here, Cinderella is called Zezolla. Tired of her stepmother’s eternal humiliation and abuse, she decides to kill her. Taking her stepmother as an accomplice, she breaks her neck by crushing her with the lid of a heavy chest. By the way, this nanny in the future married Zezolla’s father, becoming her new stepmother.
But the girl’s problems were not lessened. The new stepmother turned out to have as many as six evil and jealous daughters who wanted to harm the girl. One day Zezolla met the king, who fell in love with her, but the girl quickly fled, leaving behind only pianelle – women’s shoes on thick cork soles. But the girl was quickly found by the shoes she left behind. Eventually they were married and Zezolla became the queen to the envy of her sisters.
Charles Perrault presented his version next, it does not need to be described, it is a classic, all known story of Cinderella. But this version did not suit the Grimm brothers. In their interpretation, Cinderella mourns her mother with bitter tears, thanks to which a magic tree grows on her grave. And the magic tree is that a bird comes to it, which can fulfill absolutely all Cinderella’s wishes: a dress, slippers, a ball. You could say that this bird here performs the role of the fairy godmother.
Once at the ball, Cinderella meets the handsome prince, whom she quickly becomes enchanted. But embarrassed, the girl runs away. Picking up the runaway’s slipper, the prince arranges to try on the shoes. To fit into the miniature shoe, Cinderella’s sister cuts off her own toe. But the bird gives the prince the deception. Not having learned from others’ mistakes, another sister tries to make her foot size smaller. To do this, she cuts off her own heel. The bird ends up pecking out the sisters’ eyes for such deception.
Pinocchio
In the original version of Pinocchio, which saw the light of day back in 1883, things were more brutal. Good-natured Papa Carlo carved Pinocchio out of a log, but the ungrateful tomboy ran away from home. Consequently, the carpenter is arrested, accused of mistreating the reanimated doll. After wandering around, Pinocchio decides to return home. There he meets a hundred-year-old talking cricket, who tells him that naughty children turn into donkeys.
Unwilling to listen to the insect’s moralizing, the living puppet kills him and falls asleep by the fireplace. Pinocchio’s feet catch fire. As the cricket had warned, the wooden puppet turned into a donkey. They wanted to buy it at the fair to make a drum out of it. But they ended up tying a rock to the donkey and throwing it off a cliff.
The Little Mermaid
The original version by Hans Christian Andersen tells the story of the Little Mermaid, who rescues the beautiful prince and falls in love with him with all her heart. To be always near him, the girl in love turned to a witch for help. She gave the Little Mermaid her legs and cut out her tongue in return. The witch also made one condition – if the prince marries another, then the Little Mermaid will die, turning into sea foam.
The Little Mermaid suffered a great deal from living as a human, for every step she took pierced her with savage pain. In addition, she could no longer speak. She was shocked to learn that her beloved prince had found another princess and they were getting ready to marry.
To save The Little Mermaid from her tragic fate, her sisters turned to the sea witch for help. She gave them a dagger with which the Little Mermaid was to kill her unsuccessful bridegroom. She was to sprinkle his blood on her feet to relieve the unbearable pain and return to the sea. But still her love for the prince was stronger than her longing for a life without him. In the end, as the witch had warned, only sea foam remained of the Little Mermaid.