Enchanted Conversation: A
Fairy Tale Magazine
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Why so Grimm?
Older versions of fairy tales are notorious for the amount of
…readers are once
violent and barbaric content they possess. When you start to
again scared into
research the different versions, you can see almost immediately
doing the right
the dark qualities. Most times the stories use these dark qualities
thing.
to make a point or prove a moral. The story of Cinderella is a
great example of using dark qualities to prove a moral. In the
Brothers Grimm version, Cinderella’s stepsisters cut off part of each of their feet so they
could fit into the glass slipper. One cut off her big toe and the other cut off her heel
(which are, incidentally, both essential for walking. Please take a moment to ask yourself
why, why they would do this and if it would be worth it). With the assistance of a white
dove, which is the equivalent of the fairy godmother in the Charles Perrault version, the
deceit in both the sisters’ cases is revealed to the prince and he winds up with Cinderella,
the rightful owner of the glass slipper. Cinderella and the prince get married and live
happily ever after. The same cannot be said for the stepsisters. At Cinderella’s wedding,
the stepsisters get their eyes pecked out by birds. Through the example made of the
stepsisters and the sincerity of Cinderella, readers are once again scared into doing the
right thing.
The tale of Sleeping Beauty is much different, however. The story uses the dark qualities
not to prove a moral, but to make the story worth reading. Originally named Sun, Moon,
and Talia, the tale of Sleeping Beauty is a disturbing one. Sleeping Beauty, or Talia,
came into great danger from a splinter of flax, which was foreseen by wise men and
astrologers. She fell into a deep sleep in the forest, which is where things started to go
sour. Talia was not woken by the kiss of a prince, but by her illegitimate children, of
whom an already married prince impregnated her. The prince, or king in some versions,
stumbled upon Talia in a coma-like sleep in the middle of the forest while he was
hunting. Finding that she was quite beautiful, the prince took her unconscious form to
bed. After nine months, she gave birth to twins, still unconscious. One of them sucked at
her finger, removing the poison of flax from her finger and thus effectively waking her up
from her sleep. After a cannibalism scare and an (almost)-death-by-fire, Talia and the
prince get married and live happily ever after with their twin children…sort of (I still find
it disturbing). Without the dark qualities of this story, it would be a boring anecdote. The
gruesome and sometimes over-the-top characteristics that are found in this story make it
interesting and worth reading. The grim qualities have a unique purpose, although they
may seem superfluous to us in our modern day.
Aly Jorgensen is a student at Brigham Young University-Idaho. She hails from the
scorching city of Gilbert, Arizona, where she hopes to live forever after experiencing the
frigid winters of Rexburg, Idaho.
Image by HM Rheam.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
A Brief History of Fairy Tales
Stories such as Cinderella and Sun, Moon, and Talia would never sell in our society
because they would be too frightening and ghastly for children to read. But, the details
we find shocking helped the stories to flourish in their original setting. About one third of
European fairy tales are taken from Indian fairy tales. These tales that migrated from
India were made popular in the Middle Ages where magic and the supernatural were
widely believed. Because most of the tales that migrated from India were tales of magic,
they thrived in this society. This is evident in our knowledge of these fairy tales. If they
were not already famous when they were originally told and the years following, they
would not have been passed down to us. With each generation, the different fairy tales
have had to evolve just to keep afloat.
Each author or taleteller changes the details or inconsequential plot points to fit his or her
audience and purpose. The alterations of fairy tales are linked to the societal standards at
the time. The audience changes with the societal changes. The morals of fairy tales have
an inverse relationship with the morals of society: as our morals decrease, the tale’s
morals increase. Take the new Disney movie Rapunzel for example. In this movie, she
meets Eugene (our prince) while he uses her tower as a safe haven from his pursuers. She
then manipulates him so he will act as a guide for her to experience and really find her
life. This movie, instead of focusing on dependence, centers the moral on independence
and finding one’s true self. In the original literary version however, Rapunzel is a
youthful girl, imprisoned in a tower who is romanced by a prince who has fallen in love
with her because of her singing ability. After many of their meetings, she becomes
pregnant and, knowing that Rapunzel has been fornicating with the prince, Dame Goethel
casts her into the forest to fend for herself. There she is reunited with the prince and they
live happily ever after. These two different versions exemplify the changes that this
classic tale has gone through. The Disney movie glorifies independence, while the
original romanticizes true love and dependency.
Through all of this, there is a lingering question that forms in the minds of readers: Is
there a correct version of these fairy tales? The differences in variations are so startling
that one would think that there could be only one true, correct version. But that person
would be wrong. Each different version gives a unique perspective and a different story
to tell the reader and each reader will interpret and appreciate each version differently.
That is what is so great about literature. There are so many different things that can be
taken or derived from a single work that the results are truly endless. While most modern
adaptors have chosen to remove the gore and abnormal attributes of these classic tales,
there is still merit in them. We can learn a great deal from studying the fairy tales of old.
Aly Jorgensen is an English major at Brigham Young University-Idaho. She hopes to
graduate and move on to a job in the editing and publishing business, preferably of
novels.
Image by Johnny Gruelle.