Tuesday, May 18, 2010
I shall post, for the first time ever, some useful information in this blog.
Or maybe it will just haunt you to your sleep.
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Fairy tales of the past were often full of macabre and gruesome twists and endings. These days, companies like Disney have sanitized them for a modern audience that is clearly deemed unable to cope, and so we see happy endings everywhere. This list looks at some of the common endings we are familiar with – and explains the original gruesome origins. If you know of any others, be sure to mention it in the comments – or if you know of a fairy tale that is just outright gruesome (in its original or modern form), speak up.
Once upon a time, fairy tales were written for adults, not children, and were intended as morality stories. To make sure the message was memorable, the older versions combined sex and violence with a much bleaker worldview. The most famous recorders of fairy tales are the Grimm brothers who first published their collection in 1812, entitled Children's and Household Tales. The book was immediately criticised for one simple reason: the tales in it were not at all appropriate for children. Read some of the “real” fairytales below from both the original Grimms book and elsewhere to judge for yourself.
Once upon a time, fairy tales were written for adults, not children, and were intended as morality stories. To make sure the message was memorable, the older versions combined sex and violence with a much bleaker worldview. The most famous recorders of fairy tales are the Grimm brothers who first published their collection in 1812, entitled Children's and Household Tales. The book was immediately criticised for one simple reason: the tales in it were not at all appropriate for children. Read some of the “real” fairytales below from both the original Grimms book and elsewhere to judge for yourself.
Little Red Riding hood
Little Red Riding Hood was intended to teach (especially well bred young ladies) the danger of talking to strangers. The Grimms' version introduced a last minute rescuer for Little Red, but she had usually been eaten at the end of the tale, often after implied congress with the wolf (who was sometimes a werewolf or an ogre). In an Austrian version Little Red's granny is killed and eaten before Little Red arrives. Granny's entrails are used to replace the string on the door latch and her teeth, jaws and blood stored in her cupboard. When Little Red arrives, she is hungry and so is directed to eat her dead grandmother's teeth (rice) and jaw (chops) and drink her blood (wine). Fake granny then invites Little Red to get naked and climb into bed with her, where as the story puts it, Little Red “noticed something hairy”. Shortly after the unfortunate girl is devoured in a single gulp, with no rescue.
Little Mermaid
The 1989 version of the Little Mermaid might be better known as “The big whopper!” In the Disney version, the film ends with Ariel the mermaid being changed into a human so she can marry Eric. They marry in a wonderful wedding attended by humans and merpeople. But, in the very first version by Hans Christian Andersen, the mermaid sees the Prince marry a princess and she despairs. She is offered a knife with which to stab the prince to death, but rather than do that she jumps into the sea and dies by turning to froth. Hans Christian Andersen modified the ending slightly to make it more pleasant. In his new ending, instead of dying when turned to froth, she becomes a “daughter of the air” waiting to go to heaven – so, frankly, she is still dead for all intents and purposes.
Snow white
The first Grimms' version of Snow White cast her mother rather than a stepmother as the queen jealous of Snow White's greater beauty. The wicked queen shows herself to be a cannibal by eating what she thinks is the lung and liver of her daughter/stepdaughter (although in reality they belong to a passing boar). When the first attempt at killing Snow White fails, the queen decides personal violence is the answer and attempts to strangle Snow White with lace. Eventually a poisoned apple does the trick and Snow White is dead. When a travelling king's son sees her corpse in the forest he insists on having this dead body at his side forever. He won't even eat unless the corpse is lying next to his food. His servants soon get frustrated with carting a heavy coffin from room to room and one of them picks up the body of Snow White to give it a beating. This dislodges the apple and brings Snow White back to life. At the conclusion of the tale, a pair of iron shoes are heated in the fire until red hot and then brought to the wicked queen. She is forced to put them on and dance in agony until she dies. In some tellings, the seven dwarves are not industrious mining folk, but robbers preying on travellers in the forest.
Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty now ends with a chaste kiss which wakes the sleeping princess after her hundred year sleep. However there was once more to the story than that. The prince marries Sleeping Beauty the same day and that night, the story makes a point of telling us, the royal couple get no sleep. Unsurprisingly, this leads in due course to two children. But the prince cannot live with Sleeping Beauty as he dare not tell his family about her. Why? Because his mother is an ogress whom his father has married only for her riches and the whole court knows that she cannot resist eating any small children that cross her path (perhaps worth noting that this makes the handsome prince a half ogre). After the prince becomes king he feels confident enough to bring Sleeping Beauty and their two children to the court. However his earlier fears prove well founded. As soon as he goes off to war his mother sends Sleeping Beauty to the country in order to eat her children without interference. When the palace cook objects, the ogress implies that he will be on the menu if he doesn't change his mind. After she thinks she's eaten the two children (although the cook has fooled her), the ogress decides to eat Sleeping Beauty as well. The cook manages to trick her again, hiding Sleeping Beauty and the children in his house. Unfortunately one of the children makes too much noise whilst Sleeping Beauty is whipping him for misbehaviour and the game is given away. The ogress arranges for a large tub to be filled with horrible creatures into which she will throw Sleeping Beauty, her children, the cook, his wife and her maid to be devoured. Fortunately the Prince (now the king of course) arrives back from his war early. This final thwarting of her plan so enrages his mother that she throws herself head first into the tub of horrible creatures and is instantly eaten up.
In an older Italian version, a king discovers Sleeping Beauty (here called Talia) whilst she is still sleeping and rapes her. In due course she gives birth to twins, without waking up. Thankfully a pair of fairies are on hand to help the children suckle. Only when the babies mistakenly attempt to feed from her finger is the original splinter removed and Sleeping Beauty woken. In due course the the king comes back to see Sleeping Beauty again and is even more smitten now she's awake. They have a few days of companionship, after which the king promises to send for her. Unfortunately he neglects to mention that he already has a queen and thus cannot marry Sleeping Beauty. This time it's the king's wife who attempts to have the children eaten by serving them to their unsuspecting father, whilst taunting him with the ambiguous statement that what he eats is his own. The cannibalism is secretly foiled by the cook. The king learns of his wife's actions and thinking that she fooled him into eating his children he has her burned alive. After which he is free to marry Sleeping Beauty and does.
Rumpelstiltskin
This fair tale is a little different from the others because rather than sanitizing the original, it was modified by the original author to make it more gruesome. In the original tale, Rumpelstiltskin spins straw into gold for a young girl who faces death unless she is able to perform the feat. In return, he asks for her first born child. She agrees – but when the day comes to hand over the kid, she can’t do it. Rumpelstiltskin tells her that he will let her off the bargain if she can guess his name. She overhears him singing his name by a fire and so she guesses it correctly. Rumpelstiltskin, furious, runs away, never to be seen again. But in the updated version, things are a little messier. Rumpelstiltskin is so angry that he drives his right foot deep into the ground. He then grabs his left leg and rips himself in half. Needless to say this kills him.
Goldilocks and the three bears
In this heart warming tale, we hear of pretty little goldilocks who finds the house of the three bears. She sneaks inside and eats their food, sits in their chairs, and finally falls asleep on the bed of the littlest bear. When the bears return home they find her asleep – she awakens and escapes out the window in terror. The original tale (which actually only dates to 1837) has two possible variations. In the first, the bears find Goldilocks and rip her apart and eat her. In the second, Goldilocks is actually an old hag who (like the sanitized version) jumps out of a window when the bears wake her up. The story ends by telling us that she either broke her neck in the fall, or was arrested for vagrancy and sent to the “House of Correction”.
Hansel and Gretel
In the widely known version of Hansel and Gretel, we hear of two little children who become lost in the forest, eventually finding their way to a gingerbread house which belongs to a wicked witch. The children end up enslaved for a time as the witch prepares them for eating. They figure their way out and throw the witch in a fire and escape. In an earlier French version of this tale (called The Lost Children), instead of a witch we have a devil. Now the wicked old devil is tricked by the children (in much the same way as Hansel and Gretel) but he works it out and puts together a sawhorse to put one of the children on to bleed (that isn’t an error – he really does). The children pretend not to know how to get on the sawhorse so the devil’s wife demonstrates. While she is lying down the kids slash her throat and escape.
Cinderella
In the Grimms' tale, Cinderella's fortunes are turned around not by a fairy godmother, but a macabre tree growing out of her mother's grave, which she waters with her tears. Like the Disney version, Cinderella is able to call on birds to perform the tasks set by her wicked stepmother and a bird provides her with suitable clothing for the ball. But when the king's son turns up on the familiar quest to find the foot that fits the shoe, these stepsisters are prepared to go above and beyond to get their man: one cuts off her toe and the other slices off her heel to make the shoe fit. Unsuprisingly each attempt is given away when one of Cinderella's bird friends helpfully points out the blood running out of the shoe. Vengeance on the stepsisters is completed at Cinderella's wedding to the prince. As the sisters go into the church, birds peck out an eye from each sister. After the wedding, the same birds peck out each woman's remaining eye, thus “punishing them with blindness all their days”.
In older variations it's Cinderella who kills her original mother or stepmother, only to get the wicked stepmother as a replacement. An interesting social aspect is the lost significance of the heroine having a small foot. One of the original versions of the Cinderella story comes from ancient China at a time where wives were often chosen by their foot size. Having a small foot suggested that you had agreed to it being bound and were therefore obedient and dependent, traits then seen as highly desirable in a wife.
Little Red Riding Hood was intended to teach (especially well bred young ladies) the danger of talking to strangers. The Grimms' version introduced a last minute rescuer for Little Red, but she had usually been eaten at the end of the tale, often after implied congress with the wolf (who was sometimes a werewolf or an ogre). In an Austrian version Little Red's granny is killed and eaten before Little Red arrives. Granny's entrails are used to replace the string on the door latch and her teeth, jaws and blood stored in her cupboard. When Little Red arrives, she is hungry and so is directed to eat her dead grandmother's teeth (rice) and jaw (chops) and drink her blood (wine). Fake granny then invites Little Red to get naked and climb into bed with her, where as the story puts it, Little Red “noticed something hairy”. Shortly after the unfortunate girl is devoured in a single gulp, with no rescue.
Little Mermaid
The 1989 version of the Little Mermaid might be better known as “The big whopper!” In the Disney version, the film ends with Ariel the mermaid being changed into a human so she can marry Eric. They marry in a wonderful wedding attended by humans and merpeople. But, in the very first version by Hans Christian Andersen, the mermaid sees the Prince marry a princess and she despairs. She is offered a knife with which to stab the prince to death, but rather than do that she jumps into the sea and dies by turning to froth. Hans Christian Andersen modified the ending slightly to make it more pleasant. In his new ending, instead of dying when turned to froth, she becomes a “daughter of the air” waiting to go to heaven – so, frankly, she is still dead for all intents and purposes.
Snow white
The first Grimms' version of Snow White cast her mother rather than a stepmother as the queen jealous of Snow White's greater beauty. The wicked queen shows herself to be a cannibal by eating what she thinks is the lung and liver of her daughter/stepdaughter (although in reality they belong to a passing boar). When the first attempt at killing Snow White fails, the queen decides personal violence is the answer and attempts to strangle Snow White with lace. Eventually a poisoned apple does the trick and Snow White is dead. When a travelling king's son sees her corpse in the forest he insists on having this dead body at his side forever. He won't even eat unless the corpse is lying next to his food. His servants soon get frustrated with carting a heavy coffin from room to room and one of them picks up the body of Snow White to give it a beating. This dislodges the apple and brings Snow White back to life. At the conclusion of the tale, a pair of iron shoes are heated in the fire until red hot and then brought to the wicked queen. She is forced to put them on and dance in agony until she dies. In some tellings, the seven dwarves are not industrious mining folk, but robbers preying on travellers in the forest.
Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty now ends with a chaste kiss which wakes the sleeping princess after her hundred year sleep. However there was once more to the story than that. The prince marries Sleeping Beauty the same day and that night, the story makes a point of telling us, the royal couple get no sleep. Unsurprisingly, this leads in due course to two children. But the prince cannot live with Sleeping Beauty as he dare not tell his family about her. Why? Because his mother is an ogress whom his father has married only for her riches and the whole court knows that she cannot resist eating any small children that cross her path (perhaps worth noting that this makes the handsome prince a half ogre). After the prince becomes king he feels confident enough to bring Sleeping Beauty and their two children to the court. However his earlier fears prove well founded. As soon as he goes off to war his mother sends Sleeping Beauty to the country in order to eat her children without interference. When the palace cook objects, the ogress implies that he will be on the menu if he doesn't change his mind. After she thinks she's eaten the two children (although the cook has fooled her), the ogress decides to eat Sleeping Beauty as well. The cook manages to trick her again, hiding Sleeping Beauty and the children in his house. Unfortunately one of the children makes too much noise whilst Sleeping Beauty is whipping him for misbehaviour and the game is given away. The ogress arranges for a large tub to be filled with horrible creatures into which she will throw Sleeping Beauty, her children, the cook, his wife and her maid to be devoured. Fortunately the Prince (now the king of course) arrives back from his war early. This final thwarting of her plan so enrages his mother that she throws herself head first into the tub of horrible creatures and is instantly eaten up.
In an older Italian version, a king discovers Sleeping Beauty (here called Talia) whilst she is still sleeping and rapes her. In due course she gives birth to twins, without waking up. Thankfully a pair of fairies are on hand to help the children suckle. Only when the babies mistakenly attempt to feed from her finger is the original splinter removed and Sleeping Beauty woken. In due course the the king comes back to see Sleeping Beauty again and is even more smitten now she's awake. They have a few days of companionship, after which the king promises to send for her. Unfortunately he neglects to mention that he already has a queen and thus cannot marry Sleeping Beauty. This time it's the king's wife who attempts to have the children eaten by serving them to their unsuspecting father, whilst taunting him with the ambiguous statement that what he eats is his own. The cannibalism is secretly foiled by the cook. The king learns of his wife's actions and thinking that she fooled him into eating his children he has her burned alive. After which he is free to marry Sleeping Beauty and does.
Rumpelstiltskin
This fair tale is a little different from the others because rather than sanitizing the original, it was modified by the original author to make it more gruesome. In the original tale, Rumpelstiltskin spins straw into gold for a young girl who faces death unless she is able to perform the feat. In return, he asks for her first born child. She agrees – but when the day comes to hand over the kid, she can’t do it. Rumpelstiltskin tells her that he will let her off the bargain if she can guess his name. She overhears him singing his name by a fire and so she guesses it correctly. Rumpelstiltskin, furious, runs away, never to be seen again. But in the updated version, things are a little messier. Rumpelstiltskin is so angry that he drives his right foot deep into the ground. He then grabs his left leg and rips himself in half. Needless to say this kills him.
Goldilocks and the three bears
In this heart warming tale, we hear of pretty little goldilocks who finds the house of the three bears. She sneaks inside and eats their food, sits in their chairs, and finally falls asleep on the bed of the littlest bear. When the bears return home they find her asleep – she awakens and escapes out the window in terror. The original tale (which actually only dates to 1837) has two possible variations. In the first, the bears find Goldilocks and rip her apart and eat her. In the second, Goldilocks is actually an old hag who (like the sanitized version) jumps out of a window when the bears wake her up. The story ends by telling us that she either broke her neck in the fall, or was arrested for vagrancy and sent to the “House of Correction”.
Hansel and Gretel
In the widely known version of Hansel and Gretel, we hear of two little children who become lost in the forest, eventually finding their way to a gingerbread house which belongs to a wicked witch. The children end up enslaved for a time as the witch prepares them for eating. They figure their way out and throw the witch in a fire and escape. In an earlier French version of this tale (called The Lost Children), instead of a witch we have a devil. Now the wicked old devil is tricked by the children (in much the same way as Hansel and Gretel) but he works it out and puts together a sawhorse to put one of the children on to bleed (that isn’t an error – he really does). The children pretend not to know how to get on the sawhorse so the devil’s wife demonstrates. While she is lying down the kids slash her throat and escape.
Cinderella
In the Grimms' tale, Cinderella's fortunes are turned around not by a fairy godmother, but a macabre tree growing out of her mother's grave, which she waters with her tears. Like the Disney version, Cinderella is able to call on birds to perform the tasks set by her wicked stepmother and a bird provides her with suitable clothing for the ball. But when the king's son turns up on the familiar quest to find the foot that fits the shoe, these stepsisters are prepared to go above and beyond to get their man: one cuts off her toe and the other slices off her heel to make the shoe fit. Unsuprisingly each attempt is given away when one of Cinderella's bird friends helpfully points out the blood running out of the shoe. Vengeance on the stepsisters is completed at Cinderella's wedding to the prince. As the sisters go into the church, birds peck out an eye from each sister. After the wedding, the same birds peck out each woman's remaining eye, thus “punishing them with blindness all their days”.
In older variations it's Cinderella who kills her original mother or stepmother, only to get the wicked stepmother as a replacement. An interesting social aspect is the lost significance of the heroine having a small foot. One of the original versions of the Cinderella story comes from ancient China at a time where wives were often chosen by their foot size. Having a small foot suggested that you had agreed to it being bound and were therefore obedient and dependent, traits then seen as highly desirable in a wife.
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if you ask me, it's interesting, in a gruesome sort of way :D
3:49 AM
Saturday, May 8, 2010
B O R A C A Y . 2010
So i am now back from the trip!
And it was awesome! :)
The picture collage above are taken from my travel. we have
approximately 600 photos. and now am i going to tell you about our
Boracay experience!
Part 1 : Travel time
We went to Boracay riding a Van. Our trip started at 6 am,
in SM southmall, after 2 hours of travel, we arrived at Batangas port.
We arrived there early actually, we waited for an hour and a half before
the Roll on- Roll off (RoRo) boat left. And we stayed in the Roro for another 2 hours
or so. Just to inform you people, it's not exactly comfort and relaxation
in the RoRo boat. For instance, we didn't have a proper chair.
The foods they sell are expensive. And they only sell Noodles, Chips,
and drinks. The not so Comfortable Comfort room stank and you had to
SQUAT, the toilet was on the floor and it didn't even have lock.
So i didn't use the CR. From Batangas, we arrived at Calapan, Mindoro.
We traveled thru Van for 3 hours and arrived at Roxas, Mindoro Port. We
were on the Boat for 4 hours. I slept thru the travel. :)
From Mindoro to Caticlan, and from Caticlan we rode a pump boat going to Boracay
for 10 minutes, and a tricycle to our place. So our Travel lasted for 16 hours.
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with Tracy (cousin) on 1st RoRo
.JPG)
At Caticlan, pump boats behind us.
1st day: Tita Jeck and Tito Arnel's 15th Wedding Anniversary,
Night Swimming, and Chicken Dancing.
So when we arrived in Boracay, My other Relatives were already there.
They were ahead of us for 1 day, they already rode the ATV when we arrived.
We rest a little then dressed in our white dress and red slippers for
my Tita and Tito's 15th Wedding Anniversary. It was so cool
because there were tons of random people taking pictures of the event.
The set up was cool, we were all wearing white + red slippers.
And we all had this Red fan. The event was not that formal since it
was at the beach, but it was fun. Tourists stopping by and taking pictures :)
.JPG)
Tita Jeck and Tito Arnel :)
Notice the by-passers watching :)
.JPG)
Us girls :)
After the ceremony, we took tons of pictures then ate.
Then after eating we chicken danced the night away.
I mean seriously, the Chicken Dance Song was playing so we danced
to the song and again, by passers took pictures. Then after Chicken Dancing,
we had an after party swimming!
2nd day: Island hopping
We went island hopping at 9 am in the morning.
The Boat took a stop over in the middle
of the ocean and allowed us to go swimming and go snorkeling.
After the island hopping, we went swimming at the hotel
swimming pool [La Carmela]. Pulling crazy stunts off each other.
I also got my henna this day :) (see collage picture above)
BTW, it's my first time in Boracay. I also
met my Nathaniel Antony and Jason Coutu,
the son and husband of my Cousin. :)
.JPG)
3rd day: Banana Boat Ride, Marine Walk, and ByeBye Bora
May 7 was fun because i got to experience
Banana boat and reef walking, although we went home that day.
I guess you have an idea on what banana boat is.
It was great because the others was fooling around,
salt water was splashing on our face too. :P
Reef walk was an awesome experience,
you'll literally walk under water. we were 15 feet below.
I saw tons of cool fishes, some i didn't even know existed. :)
We got to see the underwater life.
i sure hope i saw a mermaid. :P LOL. :D
.jpg)
Under the sea of Boracay :)...and so i end this post :)
When you go to Bora, try Reef walking. :) So coooool!
I have sunburn on my shoulders + nose :P
CiAO! i gotta fix the pics am uploading!
8:57 PM
Saturday, May 1, 2010
We'll be going to BORACAY from may 4-7,
i'll be blogging after about the trip :)
11:37 PM