Saturday, September 10, 2011

The Grimm Fairy Tales

I didn't read a full book this week (unless you'd like a review on Beowulf, which I don't). But I did read some of the Grimm's fairy tales. I was quite proud of myself when I found that I knew some of the lesser-known stories. And wow, I really learned a lot about what Disney and society changed! I guess parents in the 20th century didn't want to read about how Rapunzel gave birth to twins after she got out of the tower, and Disney didn't take too well to Cinderella's stepsisters chopping off their toes and heels. I'd also heard that the stories were dark, much darker than how we perceive fairy tales today. Some of them are a lot darker than the rose-tinted way we see the tales now, but some of them I'd read to a five-year-old and so far all of them I'd let a nine or ten year old read.
And of these tales, I've learned a few things:
  1. Kings will marry peasants. They don't care about treaties or anything like that. She just needs to be beautiful.
  2. If you're industrious, you're beautiful. But if you're lazy, you're ugly.
  3. Fathers always take their new wife's side over their children's.
  4. You can fall in love on-sight. 
I'm only about 1/4 of the way through (I never realized how many tales there were!) but I look forward to keeping reading them.

5 comments:

  1. I have the book of stories in my library. I like to get it out and flip through it for a great short story. I've finished reading it by skipping around. Good for you for reading it cover to cover!

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  2. My daughter just read these. She's sort of nuts about them. But she keeps telling me how Disney got them all wrong...Ha!

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  3. I've heard lots of people compare the Disney versions of fairy tales to the real ones, applauding them on one hand for giving kiddos a happily ever after, and chastising them on the other for not sticking to the truth of the fairy tales.

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  4. Hi Jenna! HaHa! I love the things you learned about fairy tales from the tales you just read - so funny!
    As you talked about reading Grimm's Fairy Tales, it reminded me of when I was a kid and I picked up that very book from my dad's collection. I loved fairy tales so I started reading with relish. But after I read the gruesome foot-chopping in Cinderella, I decided I'd much rather read more cheerful fare. Nowadays, I love finding obscure fairy tales - they're never like well- known renditions. But I still don't care for gruesome! Thanks for a fun post!

    I'm a fellow campaigner - I'm not in your groups, but I wanted the fun of getting to know more writers. It's so great to meet you!

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