The
Grimm Brothers fairy tales are a collection of oral stories from their youth. Although many of these stories had previously
been printed, the Grimm Brothers took the liberty of putting all of the stories
in an easily accessible book. Their aim was to make these gruesome stories more
kid-friendly. What they deemed to be kid-friendly looks monstrous compared to
the Disney stories we have grown up on. In all of the Disney versions we allow
some negativity only so it can be overcome by a positive and the characters can
live happily ever after. In the Grimm Brother’s stories, this is not the case. In their version of the Little Mermaid, Arial
does not end up marrying the Prince and since she failed she must either die or
kill the Prince to live. Since she does not want to kill the prince she commits
suicide by throwing herself off of the boats ledge and turns into sea
foam. Another example would be Sleeping
Beauty. In the original story, Sleeping Beauty is raped and only awakes when
she gives birth to twins. Despite all of this she and the King still fall madly
in love and live happily ever after, excluding the fact the Queen tried to burn
the Sleeping Beauty’s castle. The last example
is Snow White; although a majority of the story is similar the ending is much different.
In the Grimm Brothers version the evil step-mother is forced to dance in
red-hot shoes until she falls down dead. The difference between the stories told is the
main meaning behind them. In the German versions they use these stories into
scaring children about the horrors that will happen if they disobey their
mothers. In America a lot of these stories are used to show how being a good person
will eventually work out in your favor. I feel like this can show a difference in
raising children between the two cultures. We focus more on hoping children
will learn what is right and wrong through experience and guidance, while
Germans have a stricter way of raising their children.
I
chose to read the story of the 6 Swans. It begins with the King and his men
hunting in the woods. The king is so eagerly chasing his prey that he loses all
of his men and ends up alone in the forest. The only way to get out is to agree
to marry this witch’s daughter, so the King agrees. He had a bad feeling about
her so he took all 7 of his children, from his previous wife and hide them deep
in the forest in a castle. They hide safely here until one day the witch
discovered the castle and put cursed silk white shirts on the 6 boys and they
turned to swans. The daughter saw what had happened and was determined to
redeem her brothers even though this meant she would have to be silent for 6
years. During this time a King found her, they got married, and she had
children. The king’s mother did not like her so in hopes of getting her sentenced
to death, the mother killed all three of her children and smeared blood on the
Queen’s face. She claimed the Queen was a cannibal. After the third time this
had happened and the Queen never defending herself the King sentenced her death
by fire. The day she was to die was the last day of her 6 year vow to silence.
Right before she was put in the fire, she saved her brothers and they were no
longer Swans. Now that she could talk she told the King of what really happened
and his mother was burned in the fire. I
think this story demonstrates that justice will come to those who are honest
and patience, in addition to be careful who you trust. I believe this is a common theme throughout
most fairy tales. A fairy tale,
according to Google, is a
children's story about magical and imaginary beings and lands. I think
this definition is partially accurate. It is important to include that the
story always has an important lesson to be taught through the creative and
attention grasping way. Fairy Tales, regardless from which culture, are
important for children to learn valuable lessons at young ages.
http://www.notablebiographies.com/Gi-He/Grimm-Brothers.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/12/the-real-story-behind-eve_n_4239730.html
http://grimmsfairytales.us/id10.html
https://www.google.com/search?q=fairytale+definition&oq=fairy+tale+de&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5.5107j0j7&sourceid=chrome&espv=2&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8
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