I remember being told fairy tales from a young age
And at the time they seemed quite innocent
from brutal torture and murder
to sexual assault and witchcraft
here are 10 Dark Fairy Tale Origins
I think everyone watching this will be familiar with the story of Cinderella
but perhaps you are only familiar with the modern version
in the original version
the ugly step-sisters chop off parts of their own feet
in an attempt to fit the glass slipper
but they weren't fooling anyone
when the prince learned of their tricks
he ordered the removal of their eyes
this was only the beginning of their punishment
as they were then sentenced to death by dancing on hot coals
in some versions, they weren't sentenced to death
but spent the rest of their lives as blind beggars living on the streets of some medieval slum
In Hansel and Gretel
two young children find themselves lost in the forest
when they were taken in by an evil witch
she enslaves the children with plans of eating them
but they push the witch into the fire
with the witch dead, they are free to escape
in a different version of the tale
the children are captured by the devil
and just like the witch, he also plans on eating them
so he keeps them locked in his house for a few days to fatten them up
and the devil did have a house, where he apparently lived with his wife
the devil and his wife were overweight to the point of being very slow
taking advantage of this, the children grabbed a knife and cut their throats
when you hear the original version of snow white
your childhood will be completely destroyed
in the modern version, an evil queen tries to kill snow white with a poison apple
when the seven dwarfs return home
they discover snow white's dead body
but they couldn't bring themselves to bury her, so her body is placed in a glass coffin
one year later, her body is discovered by a prince
who breaks the poison curse with a single kiss
and she is woken up
the original version was rather different
on discovering her body, the prince did not kiss snow white
what he did instead was steal her body
so he put her on his horse for the long journey back to the castle
the evil queen was captured and sentenced to death by dancing
death by dancing is quite simple
a pair of iron shoes would be placed into a fire
until red hot
and someone would be made to wear them until they die
The story of Aladdin was included in one thousand and one nights
but oral history has ensured the survival of many versions of it
although it's an Arab folk tale
it is set in China
a local sorcerer convinces Aladdin to enter a booby-trapped cave in search of a magic lamp
in return for the lamp he would make Aladdin the most wealthy man in all of China
but the sorcerer betrays Aladdin, trapping him in the cave
in most versions
Aladdin is rescued and taken home by a genie
and the genie makes him rich
in one version
Aladdin doesn't ask the genie for great wealth
the only thing he wants is revenge
Aladdin and the genie search the town for information on the sorcerers location
when no one gives them any information
they start torturing people and murdering their children in front of them
that's where the story ends
The classic story of Rapunzel descries a beautiful woman trapped in a tall tower
the tower had no entrance or staircase
one afternoon a prince discovers the tower
and Rapunzel allows him to climb into the tower, by grabbing onto her long hair
they soon fall in love and hatch a plan for Rapunzel's escape
but her adopted mother finds out about the plan
and as she was the one who trapped Rapunzel, she didn't want it to succeed
she cut off Rapunzel's hair and sent her far away
she left Rapunzel's hair hanging from the tower window to trap the prince
that night the prince climbed into the tower only to see Rapunzel's evil mother
she pushes him from the tower
and he is blinded by the thorns below
some versions tell that his sight is eventually restored and he finds Rapunzel
but others tell that he is blinded forever
and Rapunzel is lost in a far away desert forever
the Pied piper of Hamelin dates back to around the year 13 hundred
according to the tale
the old town of Hamelin has been overrun by rats
desperate to control the situation
the local townsfolk agree to pay a man to lure the rats away from Hamelin
and so the man lured the rats away by playing them music on his magic pipe
but when he returned
the local townsfolk refused to pay him
in retaliation, he decided to kidnap their children and hold them for ransom
he did so in the usual way by luring them away with his pipe
Now, eventually the parents paid him
and they were reunited with their children
but there are more old and more gruesome versions of the story
in which he forces the children into a river where they drown
the Hunchback of Notre-Dame features the character Quasimodo
he was a deformed hunchback who was abandoned by his own mother as a child
adopted by the Archdeacon of Notre-Dame, and raised in the cathedral
He was never allowed to leave the Cathedral as the local population was deeply scared of him
For a long time he was considered a purely fictional character
but the memoirs of a Victorian sculptor suggest otherwise
they describe a hunched back mason who worked on the cathedral
could Quasimodo be real?
Goldilocks and the three bears is a classic
the story begins with a family of bears who live in a house for some reason
one day the 3 bears leave their home to do bear things for a while
while they were gone, a young girl called Goldilocks broke into their house
she ate their food and fell asleep in the small bears bed
as she sleeps soundly
the three bears return home and discover the tiny home invader
scared by their return
Goldilocks jumped out of the window and made her escape
But in the oldest versions of the story Goldilocks didn't get the chance to escape
the bears simply tore her to shreds
I'm not quite sure what the moral of this story is...
In little red riding hood
a young girl travels through the woods to visit her grandmother
on arriving at her grandmothers house
she discovers the big bad wolf disguised as her grandmother
But she didn't realise until the wolf tried to eat her
and he would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for the meddling woodsman who saved the girl
in the original version of the story
the woodsman never rescues her
and she never reaches the house
it's literally just a tale of a girl being eaten by a wolf
it was told to teach children not to stray from their villiages
as all kinds of dangers surround them
the original story of Sleeping Beauty is somewhat similar to snow white
although a lot more dark
in the story we know
a young princess seems to have been struck by an illness that put her to sleep
not until 100 years later is she awoken by a kiss
she falls in love with the prince who kissed her, and the story pretty much ends here
however in the original version the prince doesn't wake her
on discovering her body
he decides to rape her
he then leaves her alone
despite being both asleep and over 100 years old
this encounter impregnated her
nine months later she gave birth to twins who managed to wake her up
it's really not a politically correct story
and I'm guessing not a true one either