If you don’t know already, many of classical fairytales don’t end with a one true kiss or a happily ever after, or at least not after going through cruel and sadistic “adventures”. The original versions of these classical stories often have much more darker elements infused into the story, making it often a rather disturbing read for some.
1. The Little Mermaid
This original story may just be one of the more less disturbing stories in this list in my opinion. Here are the little differences between Disney’s and Andersen’s (the original author) versions:
- Unlike Disney’s version where Ariel exchanges her voice for a pair of legs, her tongue was the price for legs in the original version.
- It was described in the original version that every step felt like “walking on knives”.
- In the original version, if she fails to make the prince fall in love with her, she would end up dying and ceasing to exist (becoming sea-foam for mermaids have no souls, another factor for her to succeed)
- The prince did not end up marrying Ariel, but another women whom he was saved by. (Ariel cannot speak the truth for she cannot speak at all)
- There is no happy ever after: Having a second chance, Ariel’s sisters surfaced with a dagger. Only by stabbing the prince can Ariel return to the sea. However, Ariel cannot bear to and end up dissolving into sea foam in the sea or a “daughter of the air” where she remains in purgatory.
Click here to read Andersen’s version.
2. Snow White and The Seven dwarfs
This, in my opinion, is also rather light on the more gruesome details compared to other fairytales.
- At the end of the story, the evil queen is invited to Snow White’s wedding and and is forced to don on a pair of red-hot iron shoes, dancing in them until she drops dead on the dance floor.
- In the Grimm version, the Queen orders the huntsman to bring back Snow White’s internal organs, saying “Kill her, and as proof that she is dead bring her lungs and liver back to me.”
- He kills a boar instead, and brings back to the Queen the boar’s lungs and liver—which the Queen thinks belongs to Snow White and so promptly eats.
Click here to read Grimm’s version.
3. Sleeping Beauty
This original version was more messed up than I had originally thought it to be. With dark themes like necrophillia, canabalism and even rape. Compared to the Disney’s version, these older versions are anything but for children.
In 14th-century France’s “Perceforest,” in which the prince returns to find the young woman lying in a bedchamber, nude and comatose, and can’t resist the urge to have sexual intercourse with her. She becomes pregnant and has a child, all while remaining asleep. But her infant bites upon his mother’s finger, mistaking it for a breast, causing the flax chip from the spindle to fall out and the young lady to awaken.
In Gimbattista Basile’s 1634 story “The Sun, the Moon and Talia,” it’s a king who impregnates the sleeping maiden, who gives birth to twins. When his queen finds out, she sends her cook to get the children, to kill and cook them, and serve them to her wayward husband as punishment. Fortunately, the cook can’t bring himself to do it and serves lamb instead.
4. Cinderella
This, to me, is by far the most gruesome story in this list.
- In the 1812 Grimm version, “Aschenputtel,” is pretty horrific. The evil stepmother hands a knife to the eldest of her two daughters, and orders her to cut her toe off, “for when you are queen, you will never have to go on foot.”
- The prince is fooled and rides off with her, until two talking pigeons alert him to her blood-soaked shoe.
- The younger stepdaughter then tries to fool him by cutting off her heel, but the pigeons tip off the prince again. Ultimately, when he identifies the girl of his dreams, the two evil stepsisters attend the wedding hoping to curry favor.
- But the pigeons blind them by plucking out their eyes.
Click here to read Grimm’s Version.
5. Rapunzel
This has seemingly been the happiest ending out of all other classic fairytales in this list. However, the process of getting there doesn’t seem to be any easier, or less gorier.
- In the original Brothers Grimm story, after the prince climbs the tower to woo Rapunzel and apparently impregnate her, the witch cuts Rapunzel’s hair and then abandons her in the desert.
- When the prince returns and climbs the tower, he’s confronted by the witch, who taunts him by proclaiming that he’ll never see Rapunzel again.
- The prince, in despair, jumps from the tower and lands in bushes whose thorns pierce his eyes. He then wanders for several years as a blind homeless person, until by chance he meets Rapunzel, who’s struggling along as an unwed mother of twins.
- Fortunately, Rapunzel’s tears have the same healing power as they do in the movie, and the prince’s sight is restored. The two return to his kingdom to marry.
Click here to read Brothers Grimm version.
