viernes, 21 de noviembre de 2014

Hardcore Grimm brothers' fairytales


A new edition of the Grimm brothers' tales shows that the original versions were a good deal more gruesome than the ones we know (further sweetened by the Disney factory). Between 1812 and 1857 the brothers published several editions in which they softened the stories and made them more child-friendly.

According to Jack Zipes, author of this new edition, "Though the Grimms kept about 100 of the tales from the first edition, they changed them a good deal. So, the versions with which most English-speaking (and German-speaking) readers are familiar are quite different from the tales in the first edition."

In 'How the Children Played at Slaughtering', for example, a group of children play at being a butcher and a pig. It ends badly: a boy cuts the throat of his little brother, only to be stabbed in the heart by his enraged mother. Unfortunately, the stabbing meant she left her other child alone in the bath, where he drowned. Unable to be cheered up by the neighbours, she hangs herself; when her husband gets home, “he became so despondent that he died soon thereafter”. 

To learn more juicy details about Rapunzel, the evil queen in Snow White or Cinderella read this article.

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