Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were German scholars, researchers and authors who collected folktales that were part of a rich oral tradition handed down through the generations, in 1812 they published the collection as Nursery (sometimes Children's) and Household Tales (free on Kindle). Despite the title the book was not originally intended for children, the tales included such things as sex, violence, incest and that's just the tame stuff!
The Evil Queen (and Snows step mother) is jealous of Snow-Whites beauty (the Mirror, mirror on the wall fairest in the land bit) and tells a hunter to take her into the forest and kill her, and as proof that the deed is done to bring back her liver and lungs!? Well the hunter can't bring himself to kill the 7yo (yep, Snow-White was only 7, not the supposed 14 in the Disney classic) so he kills a young wild boar and present it's liver and lungs to the Evil Queen, who promptly has them cooked so she can eat them!
Fast forward a bit and the Evil Queen discovers that Snow-White is still alive so decides to do away with her personally, she has 3 attempts at this, first with a corset which is so tight Snow passes out, (the dwarfs save her by cutting the laces), the second time by a poisonous comb, Snow uses it and passes out, again! (the dwarfs take it out of her hair, thus saving Snow, again!) and thirdly here enters the poisonous apple, which works!
The dwarfs thinks she's dead this time and place Snow in a glass coffin, a Prince just happens to be passing by and insists on taking her away, even though they'd never met before, the dwarves reluctantly agree and as they are carrying the coffin outside one of them stumbles and the piece of apple is dislodged from Snows throat and she is immediately revived!
So the Prince and Snow fall in love and they are to be married (at this point I'd like to remind you that Snow is only 7yo!)
The Evil Queen attends the wedding and as punishment for trying to get rid of Snow:
"They put a pair of iron shoes into burning coals. They were brought forth with tongs and placed before her. She was forced to step into the red-hot shoes and dance until she fell down dead"
And most of them live happily ever after!
And most of them live happily ever after!
Cinderellas mother was very ill and when she felt her time was near she called Cinderella to her bedside, she told Cinderella to be good and pious and that she would be looking down from heaven and also be near, she closed her eyes and died.
Cinderella visited her grave every day and wept, she remained pious and good.
Cinderellas father remarried, her step mother had 2 daughters, both fair of face, dark of heart, she treated Cinderella like a servant.
One day her father went to market and asked what his step daughters wanted, beautiful dresses and jewels they replied, he asked Cinderella "Father, break off for me the first twig that brushes against your hat on your way home"
Upon his return home he gave all what they had asked for, Cinderella took the hazel twig and planted it on her mothers grave, and wept, the tears fell upon it and watered it. She visited the grave 3 times a day wept and prayed, the tree grew and became a beautiful tree. A white bird came to the tree every day she did, and whenever Cinderella expressed a wish the white bird would throw down what she'd wished for.
So the King decided he wanted to marry off his son and held a festival and invited all the beautiful eligible females in the kingdom to attend.
To stop Cinderella being able to go to the festival the wicked step mother set her impossible tasks to do, which Cinderella did in fact achieve with the help of the birds, but still the wicked step mother said no, so Cinderella went to the hazel tree and wished for gold and silver, the white bird dropped a dress and shoes.
Cinderella went to the ball, he danced with her all night (no-one recognised her!) when she went to go home the Prince wanted to escort her, to find out more about her, she eluded him and rushed home as not to be missed. This happened again the next day, again Cinderella managed to elude the Prince, on the third day the prince wised up and set a trap, he covered the steps with pitch and due to this Cinderella lost one of her shoes!
The Prince declared "None shall be my wife except for the one whose foot fits this golden shoe"
He went to Cinderellas house, the first step sister tried to fool the Prince by cutting off her big toes so the shoe would fit, it seemed to work because the Prince carried her away on his horse, as they passed the hazel tree two pigeons sitting in it cried out:
Rook di goo, rook di goo!
There's blood in the shoe.
The shoe is too tight.
The bride is not right!
the Prince went back to the house, the second step sister cut off her heel to make the shoe fit, again whilst her and the Prince rode past the the pigeons piped up:
Rook di goo, rook di goo!
There's blood in the shoe.
The shoe is too tight.
The bride is not right!
The Prince returns to the house and low and behold the shoe fits Cinderella (you have to ask though why didn't the Prince recognise the girl he'd been dancing with for the last 3 days, perhaps he was staring at her surprisingly small feet!?)
At their wedding the 2 step sisters show up trying to gain favour with Cinderella, but instead the 2 pigeons pecked their eyes out thus blinding the step sisters!
Again, most of them live happily ever after!
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