Once Upon A Time...

A couple of weeks ago, Daniel and I got a $30 gift card to Barnes and Noble. While there we picked up three classic novels (I'm trying to extend my classic reading knowledge since none of the new literature of today interest me right now). One of the ones I got was Grimm's Fairy Tales. Now, I know it was the Grimm brothers who collected these stories and thus why it's named after them, but the title also has a double meaning to me. These stories are rather grim. These are not your Disney fairy tales where everything is cute and fluffy, these tales are rather violent.

Take for example the very first story in this collection, "The Frog Prince". Now we all know that the Frog becomes the Prince when the Princess kisses him, right? Wrong! You want to know how he becomes human again? The Princess throws him against a freakin' wall! She gets so annoyed with the Frog begging to share her bed with him that "she threw him with all her strength against the wall, saying, 'Now, will you be quite, you ugly Frog!'" And it's as he falls to the floor that he transforms back into a handsome Prince.

Of course, the Princess instantly falls in love with him and they get married. Now, I know there is supposed to be a moral to this story about keeping promises and not being shallow or vain and the like, but there was one fact that I found rather amusing. Since I read so much fantasy I have a pretty good knowledge of the laws of magic within literature. The idea that an evil spell will be broken with a kiss is not an uncommon one. It goes back to the "love conquers all" bit. But think on how this one evil witch must have cursed this poor Prince.

Picture it with me: The Prince is cowering on the floor at the feet of some ugly hag. She's waving her wand over him and speaking in a terrible sounding language. She's preparing a most wonderful curse for him because of some misdeed he did that pissed her off for unknown reasons. After she's finished mumbling, the Prince begins to transform into a Frog. He cries out in horror, "Oh no! Please no! How can I undo this evil?"

And the Witch grins down at the ugly little Frog and says, "If you can find the most beautiful Princess in the land and piss her off as much as you've angered me, to the point where she throws you against a wall in a fit of rage; only then will you become human again."

The Frog, thoroughly confused and very depressed, hops away to find a nice cool pool of water to spend the rest of his days. The End.

I'm not sure why this image amuses me so. I guess because it's so... unromantic. We've grown up with Sleeping Beauty and Snow White being awakened by "Love's first kiss". It's strange not seeing it when you totally expect it to happen. And yes, this book does have the stories of Sleeping Beauty and Snow white in it, but I haven't gotten that far, and I'm not going to skip ahead yet either. It's more fun reading all these stories in order.

Overall, the first three stories that I have read, have all been rather violent. Lots of killing and defiling of dead bodies, and a very gruesome rescue of baby goats from the stomach of a wolf. And the funny thing is, these stories are the edited down versions. The Grimm brothers knew that these tales were too violent for children, so they down played most of it and took out almost all the sexual references, which I guess there were many. I guess the common German folk of the 17 and 1800's were a rather perverted lot. ::shrug:: Makes for interesting reading nonetheless.

~Kricket