Folk Tales are just Granny / Grandpa stories

[nonnie]

While following OUaT blogs / spoilers I came across an article on how modern parents think the old fairy tales are to violent and dark for children. ( OKAY OUAT is rather dark) Sorry can not find the link for the article.

I just remember my mom telling my daughter stories that harken back to Italy… ( not the Grimm or Anderson versions) The stories usually were chosen based on what mischief she had been up to during the day. The stories always had a moral. Of course for my DD she made her the heroine and the evil one always got their just deserts/ punishments. The Nonna / Grandma stories were my mom’s favorites and she often put a Nonna into all the stories even if there was none in the first place.

Since we are a country of many nationalities but grandma seem to be the same the world over….

DO YOU HAVE A SIMILAR EXPERIENCE?

HOW DID YOU LEARN ABOUT FAIRY TALES?

WHAT FAIRY TALES did you like best as a child?

Do you know any stories / fairy tales from other ethnic groups or nationalities?

[riddleraven]

There was a book I really liked as a kid called Heckedy Peg and wow that is definitely a dark story with a moral. The kids open the door to a stranger even though they aren’t supposed to and get kidnapped and turned into FOOD for the kidnapper to eat. Oh, god. And the mother has to pretend to CUT OFF her feet and then her legs in order to be non-threatening enough for the kidnapper to agree to let her in. Then she has one chance to figure out which kid is which food to break the curse… It’s very disturbing and suspenseful. But I liked it because of the mom. I just thought she was so great! She was clever and she saved them. My mother hated that story but she still read it to me several times. Honestly, I think part of me may be a tiny bit twisted from stories like that xD But oh well.

[mia]

I totally agree, the original fairy tales are really violent! I mean, in the Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella (no idea if it has another name in English, in German it’s called Aschenputtel,more or less meaning ash girl) the stepsister cut of their calves and toes so they can fit in the shoe! In Snow White the Mother has to dance in hot iron shoes until she drops dead! That’s really dark.

Still, my parents read me the stories as a little girl (I must have been REALLY young, because I don’t remember at all). I remember one of my kindergarten teachers reading some fairy tales to us.

I always liked the stories and only now do I realise how macabre some of them are. Then again it’s like that with many children’s books. Think of Harry Potter.

Here’s a pic of my Grimm story book. It was my father’s as a little boy.

[Author]

Posts