Murder, Rape, Necrophilia and
Cannibalism The Dark Side of Fairy Tales
SPOILER ALERT
I will be referencing
and/or discussing key moments of fairy tales so if you don’t want them ruined
skip this post. A list of the fairy tales mentioned is in my previous blog post.
Many of us are aware, that fairy tales are
quite dark, at least original ones. Over the years they have been cut,
rewritten, tamed, sugar-coated and intensely Disneyfied. Now, don’t get me
wrong, I LOVE Disney, it was a big part of my childhood and is still a pretty
big part of my life. I’m not going to talk about Disney films though, after
all, they deserve their own post and they’re not all based on fairy tales. If
you have a book of fairy tales that are credited to the Grimm brothers they may
be darker than most, but some seem to have disappeared completely from
literature. One that is dark but still widely available is Hansel and Gretel.
Now I could go over each fairy tale
individually but I think it might be more effective, is if I list the dark
themes and point out in which tales they occur. A spoiler alert is in effect
for all fairy tales, though I probably won’t talk about all the ones in
existence, I will be referencing a fair few.
Murder
For fairy tales, this a rather broad term as
the characters killed are usually the bad guys and therefore, their death is seen as their
just desserts, however, this is not always the case. In the fairy-tale, The Cat
Who Married A Mouse, the story ends with the cat eating the mouse after they
have an argument. While this seems pretty dark, it is explained by the last
line
“Now, that’s the way of
the world, you see.”
In the original Sleeping Beauty, some
versions have the princesses children killed, cooked, and served in a pie to
their father. You’ll find out why later. In The Twelve Brothers, a King informs
his wife that if their next child is a girl, their sons will die and he makes
coffins and grave clothes for them in preparation. Although it is not
explicitly said, it seems the King will kill his sons if they have a girl.
While some say it sounds like some kind of prophesy or enchantment, when the
brothers find out and leave, the Queen tells them that when another child is
born, a red flag will fly for a girl, warning them to stay away and if it is a
boy, a white flag will fly letting them know that it is safe to come home. When
a girl is born the brothers vow to kill the first maiden they meet, though they
later change their minds. Although no murders actually occur, the murder of the
brothers is planned and their sister is nearly killed. In The Robber Bridegroom
a young girl is taken to a house full of murderers. While there are many more
fairy-tales that involve murder, it usually includes a happy ending. However,
this is not always the case.
Cannibalism
I touched on this in the murder section when
I mentioned on possible fate of Sleeping Beauty’s children. This is also the
planned fate of the maiden in The Robber Bridegroom, as he himself is a
cannibal.
“…for he is a man and
woman eater.”
In Hansel and Gretel, the witch plans to eat
Hansel, even fattening him up in preparation. This is touched upon in many
different fairy-tales. Another version of Sleeping Beauty has the Prince’s
mother, who is an ogress, eating her own husband. While this may not be strictly
speaking seen as cannibalism, as it is an ogress eating a human, she does later
attempt to cannibalise her own grandchildren.
Child
Slavery
A very common theme in fairy tales, we seem
to almost forget that it happens. The most notable is Cinderella. In Hansel and
Gretel, Gretel is enslaved by the witch and forced to fetch the water the witch
wants to boil Hansel in. In The Widow’s Two Daughters, the two girls follow a
similar story to Cinderella, the pretty one forced to work, the ugly one spoiled.
In some versions of Snow White, the Queen dresses her in rags and puts her to
work in the hope it will diminish her beauty. In the fairy tale One Eye, Two
Eyes, Three Eyes, the girl named Two Eyes is abused and starved by her family
for being ‘normal’ and therefore ‘common’. Though it is not stated that they
made her do chores, it is implied and as they give her old clothes to wear,
scraps to eat and make her miserable, the story is reminiscent of Cinderella.
There are probably others and different versions but these are the most
notable.
Necrophilia
So, in the other ones you could probably see
it and work it out but necrophilia? To be honest, it’s not a common one, but it
is so dark I had to add it. For those who don’t know, necrophilia is when
someone has sex with dead people. Maybe creepy and odd but a recognised
activity. Not necessarily encouraged and very often seen as a mental disorder.
Now I can think of it being referenced in Sleeping Beauty and I will go into
that in the next subheading but the only fairy- tale it is strongly implied is
Snow White. Not to be confused with Snow White and Rose Red, Snow White, while
also written by the Grimm Brothers, was written after Snow White and Rose Red
and the character is very different. Snow White is the earliest version of Snow
White and the Seven Dwarves, the character was actually based on a real person
but that’s beside the point. In the original, Snow white has no pulse or breath when she is found by the dwarves after eating a poison apple. This is actually
the Queen’s third attempt at killing her; you would think Snow White would have
learnt not to trust strange women trying to sell her things. Anyway, even they
believe her to be dead and mourn her for three days. They do notice however,
that her appearance hadn’t changed so put her in a glass coffin instead of
burying her. Partly because she still looks the same and also so they can see
any signs of decay. Now a Prince, who hasn’t met her before, comes across her
and asks to have her because she is beautiful and he loves her. As far as this
prince knows, this beautiful princess is dead, yet he still wants to take her
home. Notice his wording; he’s in love with a dead girl.
“…my heart is drawn
towards this beautiful child, and I feel I cannot live without her.”
Now we can’t know for sure that the Prince was planning to do anything with Snow White’s corpse but even if he didn’t, this is kind of creepy and it is implied. I know I haven’t mentioned the Prince kissing an apparent corpse but, in the original, he doesn’t. She is awoken when one of the Prince’s servants stumbles with the coffin, dislodging the apple in her mouth.
Rape
Perhaps the darkest element of fairy tales it
is, like necrophilia, not a common one. The difference is, this is not just
implied, it actually happens. In earlier versions of Sleeping Beauty (Titled
the Sleeping Beauty in the Wood in modern translations and often Briar Rose)
when the prince finds Sleeping Beauty, he does not kiss her or, if he does, he
does not stop there. In this version, the prince, upon finding a beautiful
sleeping maiden, decides to rape her. Now, Sleeping beauty is not dead but as she's under a sleeping curse and therefore unresponsive, this does sound a little like necrophilia. Sleeping Beauty does not wake up during
this but it is partly what leads to her waking up. Her encounter with the
prince results in a pregnancy. As she is unaware and unconscious, the fairy’s
help with the delivery of what turns out to be twins. As the twins seek milk
one sucks on Sleeping Beauty’s finger, this removes the piece of flax
(sometimes a needle or thorn) from her finger which ends the enchantment and
she awakens. Very soon, practically minutes later, the Prince arrives, no doubt for
round two. However, inexplicably, he and Sleeping Beauty (I’ll call her Rose
after this) bond and leave with their children. There is one problem here, the
Prince is already married. This is where it gets darker, remember the children being
cooked and put in a pie? This is the revenge of the Prince’s wife when he
brings another woman and two children home. In some versions she kills the children and Rose, in some she just kills the children in some she attempts to kill the
children but is thwarted. In nearly all versions however the Prince’s wife is
executed, poor thing. In some versions
it is a King, rather than a Prince who comes across Rose but either way, pretty
dark for a child’s story. Now there are many fairy tales I haven’t talked
about, most notable Red Riding Hood. Well read on, it is here!
Little
Red Riding Hood
The reason I have put this into its own
category is because of the sheer number of dark themes the original story has.
Little Red Cap, in essentials is the same. A naïve little girl in red allows a
smooth-talking wolf to persuade her to, not only disobey her mother, but reveal things she
really shouldn’t. When asked where she is going, not only does she tell the
wolf, a total stranger, in some versions she even gives him directions to her
Grandmother’s house. In some versions, the wolf asks where the house is, in
other’s it’s part of her explanation. E.g. I am going to visit my Grandmother;
she lives in the house in the middle of the wood. The wolf suggests that the
girl picks some flowers for her Grandmother, This gives the wolf time to beat
her to her Grandmother’s house and also takes Red off the path, which, in many
versions, she has been told by her mother not to do. Now, none of this is
particularly dark but it shows what not to do. In this version, the wolf kills
and eats Grandma before donning her nightgown, importantly; he does not eat all
of her. He leaves some flesh and blood. When Red finally arrives, the wolf,
hiding under the covers mostly, tricks little Red Cap into cannibalising her
own Grandmother, he offers Red her Grandmother’s flesh to eat and blood to
drink. Unaware of what she is consuming the girl eats and drinks what she is
offered. The wolf also invites Red to get into bed with him. This is still
present in some of the newer versions. In some versions, he also persuades Red to remove her clothes and throw them on a gire, as she dies not need them.This is a reference to paedophilia and
child sexual assault. While the wolf doesn’t actually sexually assault Red it is a metaphor for rape. In the end the
wolf kills and eats her too. Now in this there is murder, cannibalism and rape. In this version of course, neither Red nor her Grandmother
are rescued. This story was told with a moral, don’t talk to strangers. Now,
the wolf is of course a metaphor, he is a violent sexual offender, who leads
Red astray. Although this is not explicit, this is still a child’s story, with
no heroic figure to rescue them; this makes the moral pack more of a punch.
Obviously, in the real world, being rescued in the nick of time, is a much less
likely.
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