Fairy Tales, Part Deux

Two grown, well-educated young men write stories about houses in the woods made of candy and cake that charm young children in order for a witch to capture and eat them: bedtime stories that bear out the saying that truth is stranger than fiction.
In northern 17th and 18th-century Europe, cycles of unseasonably cold weather played hell with the population. Whether caused by meteors, volcanic eruptions or some other contributing factor, the results were crop failures and famine. History touches briefly upon drastic solutions undertaken by starving people, and infanticide was one of them. Picture malnutrition-wracked mothers struggling to abandon sickly newborns in a forest, thus eliminating one more mouth to feed when there was no food to begin with -- a scenario that is Grimm, indeed.
What better way to confront the horrors of life than to fabricate tales which explain away past atrocities? What happened to all those children who disappeared in the woods? Well, listen, my dears, and I will tell you a story...

The French approach to 'fairy tales' [and they were the first to coin the phrase] is as lascivious as the German one is dark and dour. Case in point: remember the story of the goatherd, actually a prince in disguise, who courted the king's haughty daughter? He comes to her aid at one point, but demands payment of kisses in the public marketplace. Cute, no? Except that in Perrault's original narrative, she performed not kisses but headstands and somersaults - thus the plot takes a randy turn, since in those days ladies wore no undergarments!

From the British Isles, and through Europe as far as Russia, the witch is a common character. Depicted as old, toothless, living alone in a hovel and practicing dark arts, she is a figure to be feared and avoided. Behind a centuries-old curtain of socio-religious superstition, what can we find? Then, as now, women outlive men, so living alone is not cause for suspicion. Dental hygeine and the aforementioned malnutrition taken into consideration, old age pretty much equaled toothlessness. And we have Christianity to thank for the demonization of those, both men and women, who were versed and skilled in herbal lore, healing practices, and the cycles of the sun and moon. The Druids would have honored them, American Indians would have called them Medicine Women; the church branded them [some, literally] as witches.

The history of a culture reflects not only its history but its mindset, values and standards. Its stories for the young are no less descriptive, in both the details it reveals, and those it seeks to suppress. The next time you share a bedtime story with your kids, read between the lines.

Naked Derrieres, Infanticide and Mother Goose: A Lighthearted Look At Fairy Tales

Fairy Tales. Ah, the stuff of childhood. At least they used to be; children were read to at bedtime by their parents, or nannies, or whomever, and the stories of choice involved castles, magic spells, kindly animals, evil people who lived in forests, and brave young men who rescued beautiful young women. That is to say, the abbreviated 'disney-fied' versions did - and it's a good thing, because reading original Hans Christian Anderson, the Brothers Grimm, or Charles Perrault to a flock of grade-schoolers would send them shrieking out of bed in a bloody heartbeat.

Have you ever read any original stories by the above-mentioned authors? If not, let me warn you that they, more often than not, are morality tales of suffering, death, cruelty, heartbreak and loss. 'Happily Ever After' ? Not bloody likely. But then, in defense of Anderson and Grimm, they wrote what they knew. Life is hard and then you die - certainly true in 18th and 19th-century Germany and Denmark.

Next Week: How history shapes folklore, and reality bleeds - literally - into literature.