The earliest fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm were a far cry from the stories we know today.
Romantic Literature that wasn’t too romantic
The Romantic Movement ushered in a new style of writing, focusing on human emotions, love, fear, and all that good stuff. It also brought about Fairy Tales. But these were not the types of stories you would want to read before bedtime….
Fairy Tales, a staple of any childhood, did not start out as very kid-friendly. In fact, the Brothers Grimm had to revise most of their early stories, because so many parents were outraged by them. Here is just a few of the things that Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm changed, in order to appease parents.
Rapunzel was pregnant in the tower- She asks the wicked Godmother “why are my clothes so tight and why they don’t fit me any longer.”
Cinderella’s wicked step sisters have their eyes pecked out by doves, while in another version Cinderella cuts up her stepsisters body and salts it down in a barrel. The she sends it off to her wicked stepmother as a gift.
Snow White’s wicked stepmother (who was her real mother, apparently) doesn’t fall down a well (certainly a humane way to die). In the early version she dances herself to death wearing red-hot iron shoes.
You can find out more about the Grimm’s gruesome fairy tales in Grimm’s Grimmest (Chronicle Books, 1997).
