5 dark fairy tales

Stories like "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Cinderella" and "Alice in Wonderland" are well loved favourites but it's really much darker and scarier than many people know. A lot of famous traditional children's bedtime stories are actually creepy. I shall share some of the fairy tales and their earlier scary versions and also my take on it. There's a lot of symbolisms that I will mention in more detail with each of the stories listed here and others in a future post.

"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" featured a more evil queen. She wanted the huntsman to kill Snow White and bring back her heart in a box as proof. Well she wanted the huntsman to return all of Snow White's internal organs to the queen, so that she could eat it! Later on in the story, the queen is brutally tortured at the wedding of Snow White and the prince. What is even more shocking too is that the original Brothers Grimm version, the evil queen is the biological mother of Snow White. (My view is that Snow White has "vampire disease" a blood disorder, with skin as pale as snow and lips red as blood, which sounds like porphyria). 

"Cinderella" has a twisted version too. The stepsisters mutilate their feet so they could try and wear the glass slipper. Their horribly bleeding butchered feet was too ghastly for the prince and he refused to let them try on the magical shoe. After Cinderella wears the glass slipper and reveals that she was the mysterious girl dancing with the prince at the royal ball, they plan their wedding. The stepsisters are invited along, only to have their eyes pecked out by birds, and these are friends of Cinderella. In the original version, there wasn't a fairy godmother but a tree where Cinderella would talk to the ghost of her deceased mother. (I always believed that the fairy godmother was the spirit of Cinderella's true mum).

"The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen, is a much more tragic story. When the mermaid visits the sea witch and asks for human legs, she has to give up her voice by having her tongue cut out. By being given legs, she would need to lose her voice as payment. Also another price to pay, if the prince doesn't notice her, she would die. The mermaid did get human legs, and she could walk and dance but each step was painful. Her sisters give her a blade to kill the prince so that she doesn't have to die. As the prince married another woman, the heartbroken mermaid refused to kill him with the blade, instead she flung herself into the sea and died. (I always felt sad for the Little Mermaid until Disney gave her a happy fulfilling ending).

"Rapunzel" is very grown up and not for children either. When the prince climbs up Rapunzel's hair to visit her in the tower, they would do more than sweet nothings. She became pregnant, and soon banished from the tower by the witch after cutting off her long hair. The prince was tricked into climbing up Rapunzel's hair, only to see the witch, who sent him to his death. He landed in brambles, cushioning his fall, but the sharp spiky plants cut his eyes and made him go blind. He wandered the land searching as a blind man, until he was drawn to Rapunzel's voice. She had twin children with her, and seeing the prince made her weep tears of joy. Her tears fell in his eyes and restored his vision. (I always wondered how Rapunzel first ended up in the tower as a child, as this was never explained. I guess, the main door was bricked up later on)

"Alice in Wonderland" is by Lewis Caroll and the original is much more detailed than in later versions. The animated Disney film was going to be much more scary. The bottle she drinks that changed her size was a person, a cheerful and even manipulative character. The Mad Hatter owned a hat shop filled with dummies of his likeness wearing hats and with moving eyes. Also the Mad Hatter and the March Hare were originally large in size. The mad tea party is set on an eerie vast table, while Alice is being chased by the Mad Hatter and March Hare who threaten to cut her legs off. The earlier plans for the Disney animation was going to end with Alice being executed by the Queen of Hearts! (That would've been a mistake if they kept to this initial idea, it wasn't meant to be a horror!) 

Links:

10 facts about Disney's original Alice in Wonderland.. 

10 fairy tales that are way darker

She Wolf Night