Disturbing Childrens Stories Like Rumplestiltskin

dh

As he was dancing, he sang:

Today I brew, tomorrow I bake,
And after that the child I?ll take.
I?m the winner of the game,
Rumpelstiltskin is my name?.

Rumplestiltskin is a very disturbing story! hmmm

hell yeah, there are a lot of them. what about hansel and gretyl? i remember a raggedy ann book my sister got when we were little that had something about somebody who wanted to eat children's faces *ack!*

the original little mermaid fairy tale, ariel commits suicide in the end. no wonder disney monkeyed with the story lol.

scary stuff. some of those writers were sick puppies.

Mary

Remember this one:

Ring around the rosie;
A pocket full of posies;
Hush-a, hush-a
We all fall down.

This is actually in reference to the Plagues that they used to get in Europe in the Middle Ages. The 'ring around the rosie' was the ring-like plague spots, the pocket full of posies was thought at that time to ward off the disease; the Hush-a is describing the cough or sneezing and the "we all fall down" is describing the person dying. How nice eh?

And what about the ever-familiar:

Rock-a-bye baby in the tree top;
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock;
When the bow breaks, the cradle will fall;
And down will come baby, cradle and all.

Fleur

yeah i never sang that song to my kid, or kingdom songs either! talk about nightmare inducing!

i love the simpsons episode from early on when marge is singing it to maggie and poor maggie is imagining it happening to her. makes the point very well!

it's scary enough to be so little and the world so big kids don't need any help with being scared!

though it's funny, stuff that would have scared me to death at her age don't even phase my kid...

Leolaia

http://www.snopes2.com/language/literary/rosie.htm

Insomniac

My mom loaned me a book called "Grimm's Grimmest" a couple of years ago. It had all of Grimm's fairytales, as they were originally written-lots of sex, torture, and murder. I read them to my true love as we drove cross-country, to pass the time. We were both amazed at the brutality of these stories, and could not imagine how they morphed into their present day, watered-down children's versions. Interesting book for adult readers, though.

Jonty Parkin

The school where I was doing my teaching practise had a resource bank of less well-known versions of famous fairy tales. There was one version of Red Riding Hood from the 19th Century in which it is clear that the wolf intends, not to eat Red Riding Hood, but to pork her! She outwits the wolf by taking her knickers off, giving them to him to sniff while asking permission to go outside for a dump! While the wolf is busy sniffing her knickers, Red Riding hood escapes into the forest. I'm not making this up, and before anyone asks, no we didn't use that version in class!

Jonty

LyinEyes

I was thinking this one too.

Rock-a-bye baby in the tree top;
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock;
When the bow breaks, the cradle will fall;
And down will come baby, cradle and all.

Even my kids asked what kind of bedtime song is THAT!!!!!!!!!!!

Disturbing Childrens Stories Like Rumplestiltskin

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