Revealing the Culture through the Fairytales
I remember the nights when I headed up to bed, and could not wait for my mom to come up to me and read me fairytales that began with ��once upon a time,�� and ended in ��happily ever after,�� such as Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, The Girl without hands, and Little Red Riding Hood. Most young kids know these stories well; but as I got older, I asked myself: where did these stories come from? An answer came to me when I was given Grimm��s Fairytales, an excellent collection of popular fairy tales, by an uncle who knew how much I loved these stories. They entertained me and filled my imagination with castles, wicked witches and magic draughts for many years to come.
I never had any suspicions that the fairytales that I knew might not be original, genuine, or authentic, yet as chance may have it I took a class that was about folk tales, and my unshakable belief in the austere Grimm��s Fairytales completely fell apart. I learned that the stories that are most familiar to the majority of people are those accommodated in the third or later versions of the Grimm��s fairytales, and are in fact quite different from the originals. The cardinal version was published in 1812, and, through enlargement and revision, came to a seventh and final edition, which was issued in 1857. Even though later publications were all derived from the first version, the latest and the earliest versions are conspicuously different from each other. The older books are remarkably brutal, sexually explicit, and horrifying; while the later ones are much tamer, - sanitized, as it were, - and are even considered to be romantic and beautiful.
The Grimm brothers�� preliminary tales had to be refurbished and modified to such a high degree because of the overall atmosphere of early nineteenth century German society. German values at the time emphasized a strong civil and family ethic, of an extremely moral and solemn flavor. In addition, in society, at large, - the conversation concerning the importance of proper childhood education was earning significant recognition, and a movement arose stressing the need for developing appropriate children��s books. Thus, the immoral and vulgar Grimm��s Fairytales was severely criticized by pious citizens. While different forms of similar tales prevailed in various areas (which would be expected in the case of orally transmitted knowledge), only the stories published by the Grimm brothers were particularly popular and transmitted to a wider audience. As such, the Grimm brothers and their work received great scrutiny. They were forced to bow to public pressure and alter their collection on a vast scale. The sanitized forms of these classic folk tales diverted greatly from the text of the first edition initially distributed by Grimm brothers, and of course from the regional forms as well. Studying these tales and their changes, then, not only expose the background of particular stories, but helps us to understand the realities and social mores of different eras.
Hansel and Gretel is one of the most famous Grimm��s Fairytales. Compared to the other stories, few changes are actually discernible between the original and revamped versions. For example, the original and earlier versions are both about Hansel and Gretel, a brother and sister, the children of a deprived woodcutter; the family is destitute and suffering through a harsh famine; and due to trickery and malice, the children are abandoned in the woods. The story follows that the children were led twice into the words, but they were able to come back the first time thanks to white pebbles that they left to mark a trail. The second time, however, Hansel and Gretel left breadcrumbs for a trail. This was not workable since the animals of the wood ate Hansel and Gretel��s trail of breadcrumbs; consequently caused the brother and sister to lose their way. Hansel and Gretel strived to find their way home, and wracked by hunger they found a house made out of bread and various candies and cookies, which they proceeded to gnaw at with gusto. The house, of course inhabited by a cruel witch, becomes their prison when the witch captures the children and locks them up. The witch desires to eat the kids after making them fat, but she fails and the children kill her by tricking her into climbing up and being locked in her own oven. In the end, Hansel and Gretel come back home with jewels, and reunite with their father, since their stepmother had already died, and they lived happily ever after. (Grimm 102-135)
The differences between the two versions lie in who did the original bit of trickery and conspired the children to be abandoned in the forest: in the story we all know, it��s an evil stepmother; the original however, tells us that it was the mother proper of the children who conspired in such a way. This did not match the 19th century German ideal of motherhood and proper family life, hence the changes. The original story did, however, match the realities of life in Europe at the time of it��s telling. Hansel and Gretel, burdened by starvation and poverty, reflect the universal and widespread features of European life during and after the middle ages. Due to wars, the black plague, and subsequent famines caused by a decimated work force, Europeans suffered great agony. Furthermore, all peasants in Europe were serfs, who had to work for the lord of the manor from morning to night. For the serfs, day-to-day survival was the ultimate goal. For these Europeans, to renounce their children was not uncommon. Sometimes parents fled at night without their children, or sold the children to evil people. Acquiring enough food for daily survival was a daunting task for the European masses, and Hansel and Gretel was the standard story of inconsolable peasants. What the pious German critics at the time failed to recognize in the earlier version of the story is that the children survived, and brought great wealth to the surviving father. The moral of the earlier version is that children bring treasures, not only worldly treasures, but are themselves treasures in their own right.
Similarly, the stories of Snow White and The Girl without Hands were also adjusted to reflect the then appropriate family mores. In the cardinal Snow White, the Queen who devises the unforgivable conspiracy is not a stepmother, but the natural mother, unlike the story we now know so well. Moreover, although The Girl without Hands, as known now, tells that the father cuts off the daughter��s hands due to falling into evil; in the primary edition, the father firmly made up his mind to cut his daughter��s hands because she rejected his sexual advances. (Grimm 158-209)
Although Grimm��s Fairytales are the most prevalent stories worldwide, Cinderella is an exceptional case, in that the story we know today is mainly based on the story Cendrillion, written by French author Charles Perrault. The fame is largely thanks to Walt Disney��s animated 1950 film, Cinderella, which had it��s screenplay based primarily on Perrault��s tale. In fact, there are about 500 comparable fairytales scattered around the world, and the Korean Kong-gie Pot-gie is also considered to be a similarly rooted fairytale. The folk tales we��ve come to love so well have been constructed, hence effectually silencing or shouting over regional varieties.
The Cinderella story known to most people these days, thanks to Walt Disney and Perrault, is indeed beautiful, tender, and even ethical. Cinderella was able to participate the party through the help of a fairy godmother, who exhibited astounding magical skills. The stepsisters are easily foiled in their attempts to become queen after failing the glass slipper test, which did not fit them. In addition, the angelic Cinderella forgives her stepsisters, who unceasingly visited torture and deprivation onto her, and even arranges her stepsisters�� marriages to upstanding aristocrats. The overall story results in the marriage of the three couples at the same time, and all of them lived happily ever after.
Contrarily, the original German folk tales are notably violent, cruel, and dark. The magical and attractive fairy godmother does not appear in the text. When the prince came to Cinderella��s house with the shoe, the first stepsister fit her foot into the slipper by cutting off a toe, but magical doves told the prince how to distinguish the truth by drawing attention to the blood dripping from the slipper. The false bride was returned to the mother; then the second daughter conspired in the same manner by fitting into the slipper by cutting off her heel. Unfortunately for her, the same doves exposed the truth to the prince. Finally, Cinderella was determined as the genuine possessor of the glass slipper, and was able to marry the prince. At the wedding, the stepsisters are astringently punished for their dishonesty and avarice by having their eyes pecked out by crows. (Son 2-3)
In spite of the fact that the same motif was engaged in the diverse types of the Cinderella story, each version underlines slight distinctions in personalities of characters, details, and the predominant mood of the day. In Cinderella��s case, the disparities arise from concerns about the readers. Perrault��s Cendrillion was compiled for the royal families at Versailles Palace in 1697, thus the barbarity retained in traditional folk renditions of the tale was intentionally obliterated. The Grimm brother��s Cinderella, on the other hand, is more tightly associated with regular folks, who embraced all the brutality that was found in customary folkloric tales. (Grimm 225-280)
Once upon a time there was a sweet little maiden. One day, the maiden��s grandmother presented her a small, red velvet cap. Since the maiden received the cape, she insisted on always wearing it, and thus she was called Little Red Cape. On the way to her grandmother��s house, the maiden encountered a wolf, which tricked Red Cape to unveil the destination, and to dawdle while looking for flowers. While she enjoys her time, the wolf hurries to her grandmother��s house and proceeds to gobble the grandmother up. Then, dressed like the grandmother, the wolf proceeds to wait for Red Cape to come. The maiden, arriving late, was suspicious about the strange appearance of the wolf, and asked him many questions: ��Oh, Grandmother, what big ears you have!�� ��The better to hear you with.�� ��Oh, Grandmother, what big hands you have!�� ��The better to grab you with.�� ��Grandmother, what a terribly big mouth you have!�� ��The better to eat you with!�� In the end, the wolf gobbles the maiden up as well. However, a hunter noticed the wolf snoring loudly, cut his belly, and saved Little Red Cape and her grandmother. He proceeds to fill the wolf��s belly with heavy stones, and the wolf dies painfully (Grimm 480-513).
There is a great possibility that Little Red Riding Hood, written by the Grimm brothers, was a story aimed at generating alarm in children, who would not listen to their parents, and would stayed outside until a late hour, and would too easily trust strangers. My town��s adults occasionally told children: ��After the sunset, the hammer man will invade the town, and devour the children who still play outside.�� Naïve children consequently believe the fable, and, later on, grasp that the story was fabricated to restrict their immature and dangerous conduct. The Grimm��s version differs from the thrust of Perrault��s version of Little Red Riding Hood, which was understood more as a tale propagated to notify the brutal behavior of strangers to virgins and girls. In the common French editions, the story doesn��t end after the wolf gulped Little Red Cape and was rescued by the hunter, nor did the wolf dress in grandmother��s clothes to deceive the Red Cape. In Perrault��s version, a naked wolf waits for the girl. When Red Cape arrives at her grandmother��s house, the wolf suggests that Red Cape take her clothes off and come up the bed, and she obliges. ��Grandmother dear, what big arms you have!�� ��The better to embrace you, my child!�� ��Grandmother dear, what big legs you have!�� ��The better to run with, my child!��(Perrault 380). The French fairytale continues in implicitly detailing what it means to run and to embrace a naked girl in bed. According to research done by Marianne Rumpf, France, especially from the 15 to the 17th century, saw many trials involving a Werewolf that devoured young girls. Disregarding the existence of werewolves however, and considering the expression: ��all men are wolves,�� Perrault��s motivation in his publication of Little Red Riding Hood��s was to prevent girls from being seduced and ravaged by wolf-like men, or men demonstrating wolf like behavior.
The fairytales handed down in various countries are more than just entertainments that ignite fire in children��s imagination. Indeed, fairytales should more appropriately be regarded as a cultural archive that sustains, conserves, and transforms the beliefs and mores of different groups of people. While stories were and are occasionally reconstructed significantly to conciliate the demands of the general public, the conditions and values of differing regions are reflected in these stories – reflected too are the era��s atmosphere and perspectives. By understanding the background of the inauguration and the metamorphosis of the fairytale, many scholars are able to acquire information concerning life hundreds of years in the past. Similarly, the backgrounds of the stories are inevitable elements for comprehending distinct fairytales.
As a final note, a number of misconceptions concerning Grimm��s Fairytales prevail in several countries. For example, Grimm��s Fairytales are translated in Korean as ���� ��ȭ,�� which leads readers into a universal misinterpretation. ���� ��ȭ,�� the title of the Korean version, was intentionally selected to imply the meaning of a book written by the Grimm brothers. However, simultaneously, the same spelling includes a ludicrous definition, which basically means ��fairytales with illustration��. My previous knowledge on Grimm��s Fairytales was that it is a book of many fairytales written by the Grimm brothers. After research, I became astonished about that the book was not actually written by the Grimm brothers, but rather compiled and reformulated by the brothers. Moreover, the stories in the first edition were not for naïve children, but were genuinely stories orally transmitted and for entertaining adults, in general. In other words, the cardinal publication of Grimm��s Fairytale was a collection of folk tales rather than fairytales. However, thanks to widespread requests in contemporary Germen society, the primary version had to undergo significant modulation to fit into the current genre of fairytale. As a result, a considerable amount of specific information and intent about public life and beliefs was gone astray. A crucial role of adults is to prevent innocent children from being exposed to violent and dirty tales, which can possibly contaminate a guileless child��s imagination. Still, however, the primitive Grimm��s stories should not be abandoned. They are so much more than just a means of amusing, - but are- that leaves a trace of European history.
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