500 Lost Fairy Tales Found!
Early last month it was reported that 500 fairy tales
collected in the around 1840-1860 by Franz Xaver
von Schönwerthand, a contemporary of the
Bother’s Grimm. He, like the Grimm Brothers traveled around Germany collecting
stories that village grannies told the children. In fact there is some evidence he knew the Grimm Brothers.
The stories were published in 3 volumes in 1857, 1858 and
1859. It seems that these books did not gather much more than dust and were locked
away in an archive in Regensburg, Germany
where they remained forgotten until found about 150 years later in 2010 or
2011.
So why would this tickle the heart of
your Pranking Pixie? I think Fairy Tales hold an important part in all human
culture. Fairy Tales are the perfect tool to teach children lessons both moral and
cautionary. Little Red don’t be fooled by the Big Bad Wolf! Lion don’t eat the
little mouse, he may help you! Mouse you should help the lion he may save you. (Aesop’s
Fable) Don’t be like the lazy barnyard animals that refused to help the industrious
Little Red Hen, instead help her so you can share in the bounty! Now, I could
go on but I’ll stop. You get the idea.
I am hoping Disney will get ahold of a
few of these stories and work their magic upon them. From what little I’ve
heard some of them are, well to put it bluntly Grimm and need the Disney
Treatment.
Do you know where our current usage of
the term “Grimm” came from? It was from the “children’s” stories the Brothers
Grimm gathered. I know of some adults that complain about how Disney “sanitized”
the tales but I honestly don’t know any current day sane parent that would tell the
stories to their young child as they were originally written.
In the original Red Riding Hood Grandma
was eaten by the wolf and the hunter cut her out of his belly with an axe. Cinderella’s
step sisters cut off their toes and heals in a vain attempt to make their feel
fit into Cinderella’s glass slipper. In yet another tale there was a peasant girl
that lied and tricked the prince into believing she was a princess. Once they
married she was wicked and had those around her punished for the slightest misdoing.
Eventually her lies came to light and the prince asked her what should be done
to someone that lied to royalty. She said they should be put into a giant metal
ball with spikes pointing in and that ball should be dragged behind two running
horses. So the prince had it done to her.
I’ll be honest I like the Disney
versions of the famous fairy tales instead of the cruel ones. I believe a child
can learn the lessons of wisdom in choice of friends, the danger and futility
of jealousy and the rewards of kindness and humility, along with the disastrous
results of lying without the cruelty and violence of the original tales. Adults
are reminded of the lessons as well when we read the tales. Who can’t read Aesop’s The Grasshopper and the Ants and not realize hard work pays off laziness leads to
ruin?
I believe the world needs more fairy
tales and I’m glad these have been found and I look forward to when they are
more widely available in English. For now I’ve read one of the tales and found
it interesting.
Here is a link to the Turnip Princess
and the first article I read about these stories being found.
Here is a link to another newspaper
article I found on this find.
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