We have grown up listening to our favourite fairy tales, forcing our parents to read them one more time till we fell asleep. It has been a part of our life and we have dreamt of wearing the beautiful gowns and conquering the world with true love.
What we, however, never knew was how much these stories have changed along the way. The Grimm Brothers, Charles Perrault, and Hans Christian Anderson were the first ones to have written some of our favourite fairy tales but with violent, brutal and sexually abusive twists that were erased from their very existence. Take a look at these 7 fairy tales we were all aware of, but never knew the truth behind and prepare for your childhood to be ruined.
1. Sleeping Beauty
Raped while she was unconscious. WTF?!
Published in 1634 by Giambattista Basile, t he princess, unlike in the story we were told, doesn’t prick her finger on a spindle but rather gets a flax from a splinter stuck under her nail. She suddenly falls, and devastated with the news the father cannot accept her death. He gets her body laid in one of his estates. Another king out hunting, later finds her, and as he can’t wake her up, rapes her while she is unconscious and heads back home. While she is still unconscious, she gets pregnant and gives birth to twins . One day, mistaking her finger for her breast, one of the kids sucks on it pulling the stuck piece of flax out. The second king returns to find Aurora awake with kids, he is however already married, so he gets his first wife burnt alive to marry Aurora. Happily ever after, I’m guessing?
2. Little Red Riding Hood
The end is quite different than what we were told…
If you haven’t read Charles Perrault first take on this story, you have no idea how much refinement the Grimm Brothers have added to the story. The wolf does not only kill the grandmother, but cuts her flesh and puts it on the pantry and then drains her blood into a wine bottle. If that wasn’t enough, he forces Little Red to strip naked and get into bed with him, after which he eats her too . Yes, there’s no way back from this.
3. Cinderella
Maybe the step-sisters got a little more torture than they deserved?
We all know that to find his true love, the Prince went around town with a glass shoe that Cinderella left behind. What we didn’t know was that in a desperate attempt to fit into her glass shoe, Cinderella’s step sisters mutilated themselves, cutting their toes and heels. Not just that, when the mutilation didn’t work, the prince punished them for lying to him, by having their eyes picked out by birds . Not so fascinating now, is it?
4. Snow White
Why did you do this to us, Snow White?
In the actual story, the Evil Queen is Snow White’s actual mother, and she sends the huntsmen to get not only her heart but her liver and lungs that she intends on eating. Snow White dies the same way though, by eating a poisonous apple, but as she is being carried away in her coffin by the prince who plans on playing with her dead body, one of his servants stumbles. The sudden bump leads to the poisonous piece of apple dislodging from her throat and she wakes up. The Prince and Snow White decide to get married, and on the wedding day the Evil Queen is forced to wear iron shoes that were fresh out of fire and dance till she died . Snow White wasn’t the very soft-spoken naive beauty we were told of, after all.
5. Rumpelstiltskin
Calm down there, Rumpel.
The story line is very simple, a miller’s daughter is imprisoned and forced to spin gold out of straw or she’ll be killed. A man [Rumpelstiltskin, no shit] comes out of nowhere and spins straw into gold in exchange of her unborn child, if she cannot guess his name. In the actual story, the miller’s daughter is able to guess Rumpelstiltskin’s name and in agony he stomps on the wooden floor so hard that he goes waist deep into the ground. Out of sheer anger and embarrassment, he then holds his left leg with both his hands and tears himself in half . Jeez.
6. Rapunzel
Pregnant, eyes poked, what?
We all know, Rapunzel is an innocent soul who has been trapped in a tower by a witch. In the original story, the story line is pretty much the same, except for the twist where she lets her hair down a little too many times to a prince and ends up pregnant. The witch then chops her hair off and sends her somewhere far away to live as a beggar with no money and soon after two mouths to feed. As for the prince, the witch lures him into the tower and then pushes him out of the window. He lands on a thorny bush saving him from dying, but poking his eyes out. But they do end up together. YAY?
7. The Little Mermaid
Should’ve just killed the Prince, Mermaid.
She sells her voice, goes around and wins the prince’s heart. That’s what we’ve been told. In the original story, however, the mermaid gave up her voice to get legs, but every step would feel as if she’s walking on thorns. Even in so much pain, she dances for the prince and even though he cheers on, he eventually chooses to marry another woman (what an ass, right?). She is given the option to kill the prince and get her fins back, but she is not able to bring herself to do it. She chooses to jump into the water instead and eventually dies.
We wish we had never become aware of the horrific truths to our beautiful fairy-tale like childhood, but we did, and hate us as much you want, we are glad we scarred your childhood too. Happy living!