Nicholas Jubber is the author of The Fairy Tellers: A Journey into the Secret History of Fairy Tales, published on 20 January 2022 by John Murray Press, priced at £20 and available online and from all good bookshops.
“A witch lives in an abode made of chicken legs and surrounded by a wall of skulls.
One mother of young children is taken from her infants and accused of eating the babies.
The sea-witch is used to cut the tongue of a Mermaid.
If we hear the word “fairy tale”, we might think of fairy godmothers and princesses wearing pointed hats.
However, beneath the fairy tales’ gentle cover are bloody fangs like the one waiting for Little Red Riding Hood to be devoured by the Wolf.
This darkness is found in every classic, from Hans Christian Andersen’s tales to the Brothers Grimm, to Hans Christian Andersen’s stories to the Brothers Grimm, and with body counts that rival those of any contemporary horror series.
As I traveled through the history of fairy stories, I was struck by the question “What makes old fairy tales so dark?” The original early versions, not the Disney-diluted versions.
Although scholars have condensed them into a multitude of theories, there is a reason why the stories are so dark: they reflect the lives and times of their original authors.
The Brothers Grimm and Dortchen wild
The Brothers Grimm (pictured) lived in a world at war. Hesse in Germany was the location where the Brothers Grimm lived. It was overthrown by Napoleon’s army and its brother, the dissolute bigamist.
Storytellers narrated tales for the brothers. Stories such as Rumpelstiltskin’ and ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’ were narrated by Dortchen Wild, an apothecary’s child who lived just across the street. Dortchen Wild’s sister, who lived across the street from her family, once said that she wanted to kill the French soldiers because of their frustration with them. However, things didn’t get any better after the Napoleonic troops were expelled. Cossack soldiers from Russia arrived and set up camp in Dortchen’s house on straw mattresses, asking for hospitality. Even worse was Dortchen’s relationship with her story-gathering brothers from across the road.
The Brothers Grimm lived in wartime times.
Hesse, Germany’s region in which they lived was overthrown by Napoleon’s army. The dictator’s brother and a bigamy-loving dissolute brother seized control of the throne.
Dortchen Wild was an apothecary’s daughter and lived right across the street from the stories being narrated to the brothers.
Dortchen’s family got so mad at the French soldiers that she once said to her sister, “I want them dead!” Things didn’t get better when Napoleonic troops were withdrawn.
Russian Cossack troops arrived in Dortchen’s home to demand hospitality. They slept on straw mattresses and requested hospitality.
Worse, Dortchen lived under the watchful eye of her father who was very strict about her friendship with her story-gathering siblings.
It’s no wonder that her stories are filled with darkness. One of her stories, “Sweetheart Roland”, tells the story of a young girl who is attacked and killed in her sleep. Her blood reveals the location of her escaped lovers.
The story “The Six Swans”, in which a young mother takes her babies, is smeared with blood on her lips and accused of eating the children, tells of how her baby was taken from her.
Because she made a vow to silence, she can’t protest her innocence.
The much loved tale of Hansel and Gretel, another one narrated in Dortchen’s voice, is hardly sweeter than the gingerbread house it was named after.
They are being held captive by the witch, who intends to devour them both.).
Ivan Khudiakov
Nick Jubber (author) is featured in the photo
We can now see these stories as joyful tales that we can share with our kids, despite their being sanitized over time.
It’s difficult to clean up Russian fairy tales. The darkness is what makes them fascinating!
Baba Yaga, a feared witch with iron teeth, is at their heart. Baba Yaga lives in a hut on giant chicken legs. There’s also a bathhouse filled with frogs.
A girl appears at Baba Yaga’s house in one story and is required to perform various tasks.
She is known for her impeccable housekeeping, and she receives a large amount of cash. Her step-sister, however, appears eager to get her rewards. Because she fails to perform her tasks, money is not given to her. She’s burned to death.
After hearing the story in a Russian village, Ivan Khudiakov recorded it.
Khudiakov is almost completely unheard of in English-speaking countries.
At the tender age of eighteen, he traveled the Ryazan area and collected stories.
He recognized the link between the stories and the lives of those who told them.
In an effort to improve the lives of his fellow citizens, he began to read and write and joined a revolutionary outfit to try to eliminate the Russian Class System.
This is not a smart move, especially if you are looking for an easy lifestyle. He was involved in a plot to kill the Tsar and was sent to the most remote town on Earth.
His time was wasted in Siberia. He ended up on a psychiatric unit.
A former visitor said, “Everything dark, grayy, and cloudy, filled his once brilliant thoughts.”
His body was placed in a grave for vagrants and criminals a few weeks later.
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen began his life in poverty. His parents were washerwomen and his father was a soldier. After an unsuccessful stint in army, his grandfather became an inmate of the asylum. Andersen’s aunt was the owner of a brothel.
For many, happy endings were out of reach of old storytellers.
Hans Christian Andersen, however, was one of the few who stood out from this trend.
He said, “My whole life is a fairytale.”
In dire poverty, his parents raised him.
After leaving Odense, his home town, he moved to Copenhagen. He was ridiculed for his provincial accent, gangly appearance, but he persevered and won over people. His stories became so popular that a host of others, including Charles Dickens and Duke of Weimar, welcomed him.
It was his final words: “I have drunk chocolate with Queen, sitting beside her and King at the dinner table.”
However, the misery in his childhood haunted his stories.
Andersen felt the same feeling when Andersen fled from Odense, provincial Denmark to Copenhagen. The little-mermaid was taken by the sea witch.
The Little Match Girl who died from the cold could have been Andersen in Copenhagen’s early days. He compared his experiences of people’s contempt with his story of “The Ugly Duckling”.
Andersen’s stories all contain loss.
My personal favorite is “The Wood Nymph”, a story in which a forest-sprite longs to see the city lights. She dances the can-can, visits the Paris Exhibition and then dissolves into a drop of water.
Sacrifices have to be made. Happiness rarely comes without cost.
Although fairy tales can be uplifting and promise a way out from the darkness, they also warn of the pain and loss that will follow us along the hard path to happiness-ever-after.