Question:
Fairy stories.?
Reading through fairy stories with my daughter it seemed to me that they all seem to very dark tales in disguise,Take Hansel and Gretel for instance.What do you think.
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
The first answerer is correct.
These 'fairy tales' started out as cautionary tales. Before people learned how to write, they used stories as a way of passing on knowledge and information.
It wasn't until fairly modern times that these stories were toned down to the level they are today. In one of the original tellings of Cinderella from the Brothers Grimm, the stepsisters actually mutilated their feet so that they could wear the shoe and the birds in the trees warned the Prince to look and see the blood. Many of the older fairy tales have older counterparts that are not nearly as sunny and bright so as to drive home the warning that everything under the sun isn't safe.