True versions of your favorite fairy tales: Non-childhood stories of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and other famous heroes

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Our modern fairy tales have taught that in the end, having passed all the difficult trials and difficulties, the main characters find happiness, and the evil characters always receive punishment as they deserve. But almost all of our fairy tales have been rewritten in a kinder and lighter version. But the original versions of these works are more suitable for adults, since there is a lot of cruelty, and no one guarantees that everything will end with a happy ending. Still, it's good that these tales were remade, because it's even scary to think on what cartoons and films the children would grow up on. After all, it is so important to educate in the younger generation such qualities as: kindness, love, honesty and justice.

Little Red Riding Hood

The origins of this tale go back to the 14th century in Europe. It was most popular in Italy, Switzerland and France. The plot was about the same in every country, only the contents of the basket changed: fresh fish, a head of cheese, pies and a pot of butter. This tale began as in the modern version.

Mom sent her daughter to take the present to her grandmother. On the way, she meets a wolf, tells where and to whom she is heading through the forest. But in the original versions, the wolf was not only a killer, but also a maniac. Having overtaken Little Red Riding Hood, he tore apart the poor grandmother, and he did not eat all of it. From parts of her body, he prepared food, and poured the blood into a decanter of wine.

After dressing up in grandmother's things, the wolf goes to bed, waiting for the next victim. Soon, Little Red Riding Hood arrives. Pretending to be a grandmother, the wolf invites the granddaughter to dine. Grandma's cat, trying to warn about what happened, dies from the wooden boots thrown by the wolf at her. The girl ate and drank wine with gusto, unaware that it was all made from her grandmother. By the way, the wine was offered to Little Red Riding Hood, because in the initial versions she was not a little girl, but quite an adult girl.

Further, the "grandmother" invites the granddaughter to take a break from the road, undress and lie down to rest next to her. The obedient granddaughter accepts the grandmother's proposal. When she is very close, the girl asks why the grandmother has so many hair, long nails and big teeth. To which the wolf replied: "To quickly eat you, child." As a result, the girl is eaten, but in some versions of this tale she still managed to escape from the clutches of the dire wolf.

Over time, Charles Perrault remade the tale, coming up with a more optimistic ending. He also added morality in the conclusion for everyone whom strangers invite to their bed. A little later, the brothers Grimm took up this tale, albeit in a more terrible version than Perrault. In our country, they first learned about this tale already in the 19th century, translated by Peter Polevoy. But the fairy tale gained fame in Russia after processing by I. S. Turgenev.

The beauty and the Beast

Initially, it was not even a fairy tale, but an ancient Greek myth about the girl Psyche, whose beauty was a reason for the envy of many, from her sisters to Aphrodite - the goddess of love and beauty. To get rid of the first beauty, it was decided to chain her to a steep rock, in the hope that the monster would eat her. But this monster saved her, and turned into a handsome young man.

Falling in love with each other, they decided to get married. The only condition for the young man was that his wife would not bother him with questions about his origin and past life. But girls have been curious at all times. Psyche found out that her new husband was not a monster at all, but a sweet Cupid. Angry, he flew away, leaving his wife.

Upon learning that Psyche was left without male protection, Aphrodite decided to exterminate her with various assignments. For example, he will ask you to collect water from the river of the dead, then bring the golden fleece from the mad sheep. To the great chagrin of Aphrodite, the girl coped with any tasks, even the most difficult ones. Aphrodite did not have time to eliminate the first beauty, because soon her husband decided to return. Inspired by the story of Psyche, her sisters went jumping off the cliff where she was chained, hoping to meet their "monster". But their dreams drowned with them in the depths of the sea.

Sleeping Beauty

The first version of this tale was written by the Neapolitan writer Giambattista Basile. The plot of the original source was much more terrifying than the usual, kinder version. The witch cast a spell on a beautiful woman named Thalia. With an injection of a spindle, a poisonous splinter entered her finger, after which the girl fell asleep in eternal sleep. The grief-stricken king-father took his daughter to the forest, to a small house, and left her there.

After some time, another king passed by the edge where the princess was. He decided to stop by and see who lives there. Seeing the sleeping beauty, without thinking twice, he took advantage of this situation and left. And nine months later, the princess gave birth to twins - a son, the Sun and a daughter, Luna, who just lifted the curse. The starving son, while searching for his mother's breast, began to suck her finger, and accidentally moistened the enchanted splinter.

Soon, the same king again drove through this forest, deciding to look again at the sleeping beauty. Seeing her and the children, he said that he would soon take them to him, and left for his kingdom, where he lived with his wife. Upon learning of the betrayal, the queen decided to destroy the homeless woman with her children, and also to teach her unfaithful husband a lesson. The queen ordered the servants to burn the princess, and to kill the children, making pies with meat out of them, for her faithful.

Seeing the arson, the princess began to call loudly for help. Her cry was heard by the king, who came running with lightning speed and saved her, throwing his evil wife into the fire. Fortunately, everything turned out to be all right with the children, the cook could not commit such a terrible crime. He saved the children by secretly making lamb pies.

Snow White

The writing of this dark tale belongs to the pen of the Brothers Grimm. To be forever young and beautiful, the evil queen ordered to take Snow White, poisoned by an apple, to the forest, and cut out her liver and lungs, which her stepmother wanted to eat. Passing by, the prince saw a beauty in the coffin. He decides to take her body with him. But the servant who was carrying Snow White's body accidentally stumbled, and a piece of the poisoned apple jumped out of her throat. Miraculously, the beauty woke up.

Soon, the prince and Snow White were having a feast on the occasion of their wedding. All the rulers came to this celebration, including that evil queen, who did not even suspect who she was going to the wedding. As a result, this witch is forced to dance in red-hot shoes until she dies for all her mischief.

Cinderella

Cinderella is probably one of the most frequently attributed fairy tales, whose origins go back to Ancient Egypt. The first version of it was written on papyri. In this version, Cinderella, a native of Greece, was called Rodopis. The girl was graceful and beautiful, so she was kidnapped and sent into slavery in Egypt. Her master, wishing to thank his beloved slave for all kinds of gratification, presented her with gilded shoes.

The girl practically did not part with her gift. But once these sandals were stolen by an eagle when she left them on the bank of the river in which she was swimming. The eagle dropped its prey near the king of Memphis, who was very interested in the miniature size of the leg, and he immediately sent his subjects in search of the owner of these sandals. The girl was found quickly, taken out of slavery, and soon she married the king.

Then this story was taken up by the writer Giambattista Basille, who made his own adjustments to this tale. Now this story sounded differently. Here Cinderella's name is Zezolla. Tired of the eternal humiliation and bullying of her stepmother, she decides to kill her. Taking her nanny as an accomplice, she broke her neck, crushing the lid of a heavy chest. By the way, this nanny in the future married Zezolla's father, becoming a new stepmother for her.

But the girl's problems did not diminish. The newly made stepmother turned out to have as many as six angry and envious daughters who wanted to harm the girl. Once Zezolla met with the king, who fell in love with her, but the girl quickly fled, leaving behind only pianella - women's shoes with thick cork soles. But the girl was quickly found based on the shoes she left behind. In the end, they got married, and Zezolla became the queen to the envy of her sisters.

The next version was presented by Charles Perrault, it is not necessary to describe it, this is a classic, well-known story of Cinderella. But this version did not suit the Brothers Grimm. In their interpretation, Cinderella mourns her mother with bitter tears, thanks to which a magic tree grows on her grave. And it is magical in that a bird flies to it, which can fulfill absolutely all the wishes of Cinderella: a dress, shoes, a ball. We can say that this bird here plays the role of a fairy godmother.

Once at the ball, Cinderella meets a handsome prince, whom she quickly charms. But the embarrassed girl runs away. Picking up the runaway's shoe, the prince arranges a shoe fitting. To fit into a miniature shoe, Cinderella's sister cuts off her toe. But the bird betrays this deception to the prince. Not learning from the mistakes of others, another sister is trying to make her feet smaller. To do this, she cuts off her heel. As a result, for such a deception, the bird pecks out the eyes of the sisters.

Pinocchio

In the original version of Pinocchio, which was released back in 1883, everything was more brutal. Good-natured dad Carlo cut Pinocchio out of a log, but this ungrateful tomboy ran away from home. In this regard, the carpenter is arrested, accused of cruel treatment of the revived doll. After wandering around, Pinocchio decided to return home. There he meets a 100-year-old talking cricket who tells him that naughty children turn into donkeys.

Not wanting to listen to the morals of the insect, the living puppet kills it and falls asleep by the fireplace. Pinocchio's legs catch fire. As the cricket had warned, the wooden doll turned into a donkey. They wanted to buy it at the fair to make a drum out of it. But in the end, a stone was tied to the donkey and thrown off the cliff.

Mermaid

The original version by Hans Christian Andersen tells the story of the Little Mermaid who saved the Prince Charming by loving him with all her heart. To be always by his side, the girl in love turned to the witch for help. She gave the Little Mermaid legs, instead of cutting out her tongue. The witch also put forward one condition, if the prince marries another, then the Little Mermaid will die, turning into sea foam.

Life in human form brought the Little Mermaid a lot of suffering, because every step pierced her with wild pain. Moreover, she could no longer speak. A shock for her was the news that her beloved prince had found another darling, with whom they were already preparing for the wedding.

To save the Little Mermaid from a tragic fate, her sisters turned to the sea witch for help. She gave them a dagger, with which the Little Mermaid was to kill her failed groom. She had to sprinkle his blood on her legs in order to get rid of the unbearable pain and return to the sea. Still, the love for the prince was stronger than the lust for life without him. As a result, as the witch had warned, only sea foam remained of the Little Mermaid.