Discussion » Questions » Books and Literature » Have you read the original versions of Grimm's and Andersen's fairy tales? Not necessarily in the original language; translations should do.

Have you read the original versions of Grimm's and Andersen's fairy tales? Not necessarily in the original language; translations should do.

.

Posted - November 1, 2016

Responses


  • Not all of them, but most of them. 
      November 1, 2016 7:37 PM MDT
    0

  • 17261
    I have. 
      November 2, 2016 1:57 PM MDT
    0

  • 6988
    I like The Ugly Duckling. 
      November 2, 2016 2:00 PM MDT
    0

  • Not the originals, no. I had a book with only a selected few of the stories which had been altered to be “more suitable” for children: The Elves and the Shoemaker, Rumplestilskin, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, The Golden Goose, Rapunsel, Little Briar Rose, Rose White and Rose Red, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. None of them ranked among my favourites. Even then, the stories left me unsatisfied.

    (Years later, I was commissioned to design and make the spinning wheel for a theatre production of Sleeping Beauty. The play was given a Jungian twist for adults, treating the story as a journey into the unconscious during which each character became integrated as parts of the balanced consciousness of one whole person. I enjoyed the challenge by creating a synthesis of three medieval styles with a heavy perspex, polished frame, and an eight-spoked Buddhist Dharma wheel made of plantation grown and solar kiln dried Rose Gum. I made the steel spindle theatrically oversized.)

    This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at November 3, 2016 12:52 PM MDT
      November 3, 2016 12:49 PM MDT
    0

  • 46117
    They are NOT for children, that is for sure.  They are filled with horrors and terrors about being the victim of evil.

    But you know what?  As bad as they can get; i.e., witches eating kids, giants eating kids, all kinds of scares like that?  NONE of them come close to getting on a website and bragging about ripping a kid's pants off and spanking their butts to humiliate them and make them obey and trying to get other's to applaud them. 

    That kind of mentality is strictly in the real world.  I wish it were a fairy tale, but that kind of activity is to sick to consider even for the Brother's Grimm.
      November 3, 2016 12:52 PM MDT
    1