From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World:
Fairy Tales Revisited

by Miranda Hawkins

 

 

Throughout time fairy tales have been cherished and adored, though by a very different audience than we associate them with today; this phenomenon has created a remarkable variety of tales all centering on the same basic story. In this paper I will explore three of Western civilization's most common fairy stories and how society have altered them throughout the centuries. But it is always best to start at the beginning - the origin of these so-called fairy tales. In all reality, there were very few of these stories that actually had anything to do with fairies. The name was taken from the 17th century French term ‘contes des fees' which literally means ‘tales of the fairies'. These stories were soon translated into English versions and the term ‘fairy tales' was created. The actual fairy tale form is far older with similar stories appearing in ancient oriental texts and dating back to the 5th century CE (Common Era).

No one knows for sure when the first of such tales were written, but scholars are fairly certain with whom it all started - women. Fairy tales as well as mythology and folklore have always been associated with the power and wisdom of the female. Originally passed down orally by mothers and grandmothers as they sat knitting by the fire on chilly nights, their tales included all of the familiar elements. Although mostly forgotten, these stories were highly more inventive than their male-written counterparts and often much nastier, too; so it's really no surprise that when these marvelous tales began to be of more interest to the literary community the output and number of stories were largely by female authors. It was a time where women had little (if any) voice and very few rights and fairytales became the one way in which they could make their personal opinions known.

 

The Internet article ‘The Tales and Their Tellers' explains it best when it says, "Instead of being forced out they [women] formed their own style." Despite this, most of the female authors such as Marie Catherine d'Aulnoy and Marie Leprince de Beaumont have been all but forgotten, leaving only three or four prominent male names in their place. Giambattista Basile, though not as popularly known, was the first to publish written versions of many now-familiar tales such as ‘Sleeping Beauty' and ‘Beauty and the Beast.' His works were often comical and always bawdy, never leaving anything out, not even the most gruesome details. Hans Christian Andersen can also be found in this group of few, but since his tales are solely his own creations taken from personal experience and not orally passed down from one to another he is difficult to compare to the rest. The three biggest names, those of Charles Perrault and Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, are what this paper follows most closely.

 

Perrault's role in the development of the fairy tale as a literary form is ample and altogether fascinating considering that he was writing his stories at a time when the genre was almost solely controlled by females. It was Perrault that began editing out the blood and gore of previous female-told versions; his stories became almost utopic and most definitely exhibited a male-centered view of the world. The Grimm brothers, who came nearly a century later, were the first to attempt to preserve traditional tales in their truest form. There is a bit of disagreement among scholars about how much they reworked the stories, but most believe that their collection, though somewhat stylized, faithfully retells the tales as they were told among the common people. Unlike Perrault, the violence remained in the Grimm's tales while the actual magic of the stories diminished, becoming very discreet and often giving over to coincidence and rationalization. Now, most scholars agree that what the Grimm brothers did was increase "the strength and resilience of the tales in the period when their survival was most threatened." Using ‘Sleeping Beauty,' ‘Snow White,' and ‘Cinderella' this paper will show how much these fairy tales have changed as the society and culture of Western civilization changed around them. Keep in mind, there is no ‘right' interpretation to any fairytale and in the end the meaning "does not lie in the story itself, but in the minds of the audience. . . A tale may have different meanings for different people - and all of those meanings may be true."

When asked almost anyone could tell the general story of ‘Sleeping Beauty,' a beautiful princess cursed by an evil fairy to prick her finger on a spindle and sleep until awakened by a prince's kiss. Very few realize how far this is from Basile's original 17th century tale, which he in turn took from ‘Perceforest,' an ancient Arthurian legend. Titled ‘Sun, Moon, and Talia', Basile's version has no fairies evil or otherwise, nevertheless it is a spindle's splinter which sends Talia, the princess, into a ‘dead' sleep, so that her father and the rest of the court abandon the castle leaving her alone. Some time later a king discovers Talia and tries in vain to wake her up. When he can't the ‘heroic' king rapes her instead, afterwards returning home to his wife and practically forgetting the whole incident. Time passes and Talia gives birth, still asleep, to twins who suckle the splinter from her finger in hunger, thus awakening her. Not soon after the king decides to revisit the castle and is unabashed to find the princess awake and nursing two children. His childless wife soon discovers what's been going on and decides to do away with her husband's children by cooking them into a hash and Talia by burning her at the stake. However the kind-hearted cook spares the children and informs the king, who is able to save Talia by throwing his wife on the fire instead. Perrault's version follows this one fairly close changing only the morals of the story. The prince discovers the princess as she's awakening from her curse, no kissing involved, and most definitely no rape. The twins are conceived inside wedlock and there exists no jealous wife only a cannibalistic mother, who wants the princess and the children to be cooked in a savory sauce so she may eat them one at a time. The cook once again intervenes in this tale, but the Queen discovers his deception and plans to throw the mother and her children into a pit of venomous vipers. They are saved at the last moment when the prince returns home from battle early, and his mother, ashamed of her actions, commits suicide.

 

The Grimm brothers, it's not surprising, cut out all of these elements and instead chose to focus on the enchantment of the princess, having the story end with a single chaste kiss and the breaking of the spell. Disney, well-known for their taking of artistic liberties, kept only the general gist of Grimm's version, and changed everything else. The beginning remained the same, but the whole aspect of the fairies taking the princess out into the forest to raise her is completely contrived. Sleeping Beauty never knew the prince, he was a complete stranger to her. Disney changed all of that to add more angst to the plot and to create a more socially acceptable story line. After all, what woman in her right mind falls in love with a man she's never met before? Of course if we're going to discuss liberties, Disney shouldn't be the only ones mentioned.

 

In James Garner's politically correct version the poor princess is given this curse, "May you grow up thinking you can't be complete without a man, put unrealistic hopes of perfect and total happiness on your marriage, and become a bored, dissatisfied, and unfulfilled housewife!" Jane Yolen's ‘Briar Rose' places our ‘sleeping beauty' in WWII Poland telling of her life during and after the Holocaust. Not only is it a fairy tale, but a mystery as well, with slight homosexual undertones which are brought up more than once. For a highly erotic rendition one might recommend "The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty" by Anne Rice. She goes back to Basile's original having Beauty awakened though ‘sexual initiation' (i.e. rape) and then taken as a slave to the Prince's domain where she is taught the intricacies of how to best plese her prince as well as others in the court. Of course I'm only touching on the extremes this fairy tale has reached; there are many wonderful adaptations of this legend is one is willing to take to time to look.

When you hear the name ‘Snow White' probably one of the first things you think of is seven dwarves marching across a log singing ‘Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go.' But Disney's mild mannered version is a far reach from Grimm's despite their version being the cartoon's inspiration. In Grimm things always seem to go a step into the horror genre. When the huntsman returns with what the Queen thins is Snow White's heart she has it pickled so that she may eat it with her evening meal. To match this, the Queen's fate at the end is even more gruesome. At Snow White's wedding, when her stepmother's horrible crime is exposed, iron shoes are heated until red-hot and the Queen is forced to put them on and dance until she's dead. But the liberties Disney has taken don't stop there by any means; once again we find that the animators have decided to introduce the hero to the heroine to each other ahead of time, completely eliminating the classical ‘love at first sight' factor which is associated with most fairytales. They even changed the method in which the spell is broken. In the original, the prince cannot wake Snow White and insists on taking her with him to his castle. On the way, the glass coffin is jolted and a piece of poisoned apple, which was lodged in her throat, is loosed, thus ending the enchantment. There was no kissing involved whatsoever; Disney just decided to borrow that aspect from ‘Sleeping Beauty.' Something else that should be mentioned, is that in Grimm the Queen tried three times to kill Snow White, once with a too-tight bodice, next with a poisoned comb, and finally with a poisoned apple. Obviously cut out of Disney due to time constraints, this elongated version (sans the iron shoes) can be found in the Golan Globus movie starring Diana Riggs and Sarah Patterson. I could go on and on about the ‘Disney-fied' version, but to be perfectly fair, instead I'll briefly introduce you to some other interesting versions of the tale.

 

Most recent is Hollywood's 1996 adaptation titled ‘Snow White: A Tale of Terror' starring Sigourney Weaver and Sam Neill. This is a fascinating movie which I highly recommend. It doesn't even attempt to stay with Grimm's story, instead it takes the original and makes it into something fresh and new, delving deeply into the characterization of each individual role, especially the Queen's. However if books are more your cup of tea, and a slightly erotic twist is what you crave then Tanith Lee's short story ‘Snow Drop' might be of more interest. Set in the near future, a lonely wife plots murder in an isolated country estate, and although far removed from the original tale it's startling to see how many congruencies there are between the two.

 

Of course, erotica isn't for everyone; perhaps comedy is more up your alley? In James Garner's version the Queen has a slight change of heart, "I had a personal awakening. From now on I'm going to dedicate my life to healing the rift between womyn's souls and their bodies. I am going to teach womyn to accept their natual body images and become whole again." Talk about a turn around. For a more gothic taste, ‘Red as Blood' another short story by Tanith Lee produces vampires and strong religious themes all in just under five pages. Set in 14th century Europe a ‘Witch Queen' gives up her beauty to stop her stepdaughter's morbid hunger. This one offers a new twist on the Queen's reasons for trying to kill Snow White and it isn't too bad if you can get past all the blatant religious symbolism. Overall it's worth reading at least once, just for the experience, but it's a far cry from the original and definitely not one I'd read to the kids before bedtime.

The final fairy tale I wish to discuss is definitely the most well-know and popular of the three, Cinderella, or as the Grimms referred to her, Ashenputtel. This fairy tale has over 340 variations and can be traced back as far as 850-860 CE. This is another story that Perrault softened for the ears of his listeners and the eyes of his readers, but when the Grimms came along later they gathered the most accurate information they could to restore the tale to its ‘truest' form. Perrault's version is, once again, the one that everyone knows and can practically recite from memory. Let's compare it to the Grimm's version and see what we get.

 

As usual, the blood and gore of Grimm are completely absent in Perrault, for example, at the end, when the stepsisters are trying to squeeze into the slipper their mother bids them to each cut off a piece of one foot so it will fit, which they do. Both times, with a little help, the Prince notices blood dripping out of the shoe and realizes he's been tricked. Also, in the original is the horrific fate of the two stepsisters, who have their eyes pecked out by doves at Cinderella's wedding. On a less gory note, in Grimm there is no fairy godmother like we see in Perrault's tale, instead there is a hazel tree which has grown over Cinderella's mother's grave. It is this tree, embodied with her mother's spirit, which gives Cinderella silver and gold dresses for each of the three nights she attends the prince's ball. Following along this same line, pumpkins, mice, and glass slippers are all pure Perrault. No where else can you find any of these elements, except, of course, in Disney. They actually did a fairly good job with ‘Cinderella.' The only real difference, is that the ball lasts just one night, due to time constraints; Everything else holds fairly true. Of course, they fleshed out some of the other characters to add to the story and anthropomorphized some of the animals a bit too much, but from Disney that's to be expected. Overall this is one of the truest works they've ever done. Even the romance is kept the same, love at first sight, the way it's supposed to be.

 

The most recent version of Cinderella would have to be Hollywood's ‘Ever After' starring Drew Barrymore and Anjelica Huston. This is the most wonderful fairytale adaptation I've ever seen. It opens with the Queen of France inviting the Grimm Brothers to her palace. Once there, she proceeds to tell them the true story of ‘the little cinder-girl' and they listen with rapt attention as her tale unfolds. ‘Ever After' brings the characters to life in ways I never even imagined. It turns one of the most over-told fairytales into a beautiful historical romance worth watching again and again. For read-aloud comedy I once again turn you to James Garner, who's put interesting twists on all too familiar characters, such as this:

"Hello, Cinderella, I am your fairy godperson, or individual deity of
proxy, if you prefer. So, you want to go to the ball, eh? And bind
Yourself into the male concept of beauty? Squeeze into some tight-
fitting dress that will cut off your circulation? Jam your feet into high-
heeled shoes that will ruin your bone structure? Paint your face with
chemicals and makeup that have been tested on nonhuman animals?"

I've now shown you three different fairytales, all of which have spawned numerous books, movies, poems, short stories, etc. Now the real questions arise. Why have these stories changed instead of staying the same down through time? What has caused them to change and grow, expanding across different continents and cultures, across time itself? The answer I believe is to be found partially in this quote:

"J.R.R. Tolkien compared fairy tales to the bones from which a savory
broth is extracted. Each storyteller dips his or her ladle into that bubbling
cauldron of soup, and then uses it as the base of a dish individaully spiced
and flavored. The soup has been simmering for centuries — there are no
cooks we can credit as the originators of the first fairy tales; there is no
single version of each tale we can point to as definitive."

But it wasn't just the passing down from one storyteller to another, it also became a question of who was demanding the fairytales. When it first became fashionable, aristocracy demanded public readings in court, among other things, but as time went by interest started to wane and the genre became associated with a much lower class of society and "from this stems the Victorian belief. . . that these tales are somehow the special province of children, for it was children who continued to have access to the stories. . . " Disney soon helped to encourage this belief with fanciful retellings centered completely on the younger audiences.

 

Now, we are gradually stepping away from this belief. More contemporary authors and playwrights are exploring the possibilities that fairy tales present to the adult audience. Even Disney in recent years has gotten better about giving the both the parents and their children something to enjoy when they go to the movies. Which leaves us to wonder, where will this wonderful genre go in the years to come? I predict we'll start to see a great deal more ‘contemporary' fairytales set in the here and now. Not simple retellings, but recreations of entire ideas which will bring forth things that society can relate to in this day and age. It's beginning to happen already, the themes are already there, you simply have to look for them.

Throughout time fairy tales have been cherished and adored, though by a very different audience than we associate them with today; this phenomenon has created a remarkable variety of tales all centering on the same basic story. In this paper I have explored three of Western civilization's most common fairy tales and how society has altered them throughout the centuries. What I leave you with is an expanded understanding of these three stories and hopefully some knowledge and respect for the genre as a whole. Besides, why should children get to have all the fun?

 

 

 

Sources

 

 

Daae, Christine. Fairy Tales: Evolution of the Tales. 1996. The Brodia Group. 16 Oct. 1999 <http://www.darkgoddess.com/fairy/>

 

 

Magill, Frank N., ed. Critical Survey of Short Fiction. Vol.3. Pasadena, California: Salem Press. 1993. pp.1083-1090

 

 

"About Folktales." From The Brothers Grimm: A Teacher's Guide. 1993. Davenport Films.
16 Oct. 1999 <http://www.davenportfilms.com/mgmtgintro.html

 

Garner, James Finn. Once Upon A More Enlightened Time. USA: Macmillan, 1995. p. 68

 

Garner, James Finn. Politically Correct Bedtime Stories. New York, Macmillan, 1994.

 

Windling, Terr Ellen Datlow, ed. Black Swan, White Raven. New York. Morrow. 1997. p. 2

 

Windling, Terri & Ellen Datlow, ed. Snow White, Blood Red. New York. Morrow. 1993. p. 3

 

Opie, Iona & Peter Opie. The Classic Fairy Tales. New York. Oxford UP. 1974

 

Luthi, Max. Once Upon a Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales. New York. Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. 1970

 

Warner, Marina. From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers. New York. Farrar. 1994.

 

Zipes, Jack. Fairy Tale as Myth / Myth as Fairy Tale. Lexington. UP Kentucky. 1994.

 

Lee, Tanith. Red as Blood. USA. Daw Books, Inc. 1983

 

Abramson, I. Fairy Tales and Beyond. 1999. Texas Wesleyan University. 28 Nov. 1999
<http://www.wesleyan.edu/~iabramson/project.htm>

 

All poetry, stories, etc. ©2000 Miranda J. Hawkins. All rights reserved

 

 

 

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