It's well-known that our favorite fairy tales started out darker than the ones Disney animators brought to life. But you might be surprised by how much darker the originals were.
For the first time, a new translation of the Brothers Grimm's tales reveals exactly how unsanitized and murderous the bedtime stories really were. Jack Zipes, author of The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, is the only person who has ever translated the first edition of their tales into English.
"Some of them are extremely dark and harrowing," Zipes tells NPR's Rachel Martin. "Many are somewhat erotic and deal with incest. Most of them are not what we call fairy tales; they tend to be animal tales or warning tales."
Take, for example, Snow White. In the modern version of the tale, the Evil Queen is Snow White's stepmother. But in the first edition, Snow White is only 7 years old, and it's her biological mother who wants to murder her for her beauty.
The stories are hardly appropriate for children by today's standards, and at the outset, they weren't intended to be. The Grimms "collected these tales to show what life was like," says Zipes. "And they wanted to reveal what they considered the divine truths of the tales."
And the tales endure. Zipes says that's because they resonate in every era. "I think they speak to the human condition. ... They also provide hope. For the most part, there is social justice in these tales and ... we need that. We need the hope that these tales provide."
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Transcript
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. It's not news that our favorite fairytales started out much darker than the Disney interpretations we grew up with. But for the first time, an English translation of the very first edition of the Brothers Grimm's tales reveals exactly how murderous those bedtime stories really were.
Jack Zipes translated the tales. He's a professor emeritus of German and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota. And his book is called "The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm." The stories are closer to the oral tradition, and they are harrowing - filled with killing. Here's a not-so-fun fact about a notorious archetype.
JACK ZIPES: We tend to think that stepmothers are the evil mothers. But in the first edition in "Snow White," it is the biological mother who wants to murder her daughter who's only 7 years old. And the mirror has already stated that the 7-year-old is prettier than the mom. And mom gets totally infuriated. And so she tries to kill her own daughter.
MARTIN: The very first edition included many tales that didn't appear in future editions.
ZIPES: Yes.
MARTIN: What kinds of stories did they cut?
ZIPES: Well, I'll give you one outstanding one, and that's, like, how some children played at slaughtering. This is a tale about a farmer or peasant who butchers a pig, and his two sons see him. And one boy says I'll be the butcher, and you be the pig. And he slits the throat of his brother.
The mother is upstairs washing in a bathtub a baby boy and sees from the window what just happened, runs down, takes the knife out of the boy who is dead, and then stabs the other boy because she's so angry at him and then runs back upstairs. In the meantime, the baby boy has died in the bathtub. And she commits suicide. The father comes home and is totally depressed and wastes away.
MARTIN: I mean, this is not the stuff of children's fairytales.
ZIPES: No. You know, the Grimm's did not collect these tales for children. They collected these tales to show what life was like. And they wanted to reveal what they considered the divine truths of the tales. They felt that storytelling was next to God.
MARTIN: What do you love about these stories? What do you think is important about them?
ZIPES: I think they speak to human struggles that we have even today. They also provide hope. For the most part, there is social justice in these tales. And I think that for us today, these tales resonate. We need the hope these tales provide.
MARTIN: Jack Zipes is a retired professor of German and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota. His translation of the original 156 Grimm's fairytales is out now. Thank you so much for talking with us.
ZIPES: Thank you again for inviting me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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