Category Archives: Grimm’s Fairy Tales

Was the Real Snow White a 16th-Century Countess?

Most of us associate the origin of Snow White with Willhelm and Jacob Grimm’s nineteenth-century publication of Kinder und Hausmärchen (Children’s and Household Tales). Some assume the brothers composed the volume of fairy tales, but most tales in the book were hundreds of years old by the time the Brother’s Grimm’s compiled them. Some stories, like Cinderella, were over a thousand years old.

I often wonder what inspired these tales. In a post about Snow White, author Kate Forsyth says there may be upwards of 400 versions of Snow White and the oldest is a”medieval Norse saga written by the 12th-century poet Snorri Sturluson, which sets the tale in the time of Harald Fairhair in the 9th century.” While the saga and the German tale share some similarities (beautiful girl, a prince falls in love, she dies), the two stories are very different. The Norse version has no poisoning, no apples, no wicked stepmother, and no dwarves. So if the Norse tale is indeed the origin, how did the other elements end up in the German version of the tale? Is it just the product of an unknown storyteller’s imagination, or is the German fairy tale somewhat rooted in historical fact?

Margarete von Waldeck (1513-1534) may have been the origin of Grimm’s Snow White.

According to German scholar Eckhard Sander, Grimm’s Snow White the latter is true. In his book, Schneewittchen: Marchen oder Wahrheit? (Snow White: Is It a Fairy Tale?), Sander argues that the famous fairytale is based on the life of Countess Margarete Von Waldeck

Margarete was daughter to Count Phillip von Waldeck-Wildungen and stepdaughter to Katherina of Hatzefeld, whom Margarete did not get along with. At the age of sixteen, Margarete’s father sent her away to Brussels, where she attracted the attention of Phillip II, a Spanish Hapsburg prince who later became king of Spain and Portugal. A marriage between the Spanish prince and German countess was seen as politically disadvantageous by many, and Margarete’s untimely death all-too-conveniently ended the affair.

A love affair between Phillip II of Spain Margarete von Waldeck may have resulted in her untimely death.

According to Sander, Margarete did not die of some unknown illness but was poisoned. On her deathbed, it’s said that Margarete composed her will with a tremored-hand, a sign of poisoning though I think the fear of death alone might cause a woman so young to be a little shaky when writing her own will.

So let’s assume Margarete was poisoned. Who did it? Her “wicked” stepmother died before Margarete, so she couldn’t have been the culprit. Besides, there were others who had more to gain in killing Margarete. Sander believes the Spanish poisoned Margarete to keep her from marrying the future king.While it is unlikely that the weapon of choice was an apple, there seems to be some evidence that a man living in Wildungen gave poisoned apples to children whom he suspected were stealing from him. This may be how poisoned apples ended up in the German fairy tale.

Sander believes children working in coal mines were the basis of Snow White’s seven dwarves.

But what about those seven dwarves? Where did they come from? Maragerete’s brother owned copper mines in Wildungen which employed children who worked twelve hour days. The children grew crooked and crippled from the work. Their hair grayed prematurely and most were dead before the age of twenty. Thus, they looked much like the dwarves from the Brother Grimm’s tale. According to Sander, the many parts of the story from this particular region were told and retold until they became the tale that the Grimm brothers recorded, and we now know as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.”

According to Sander, the many parts of the story from this particular region were told and retold until they became the tale that the Grimm brothers recorded, and we now know as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.” Whether Sander’s theory is right or not remains a mystery. But for me, Sander’s research on Snow White’s origins is every bit as compelling as the German fairy tale.

Andrea Cefalo is a Medieval fiction author and history blogger. Her debut novel The Fairytale Keeper, made it to the quarter-final round in Amazon’s 2013 Breakthrough Novel Contest. The sequel–The Countess’s Captive—was published earlier last year. She is currently working on the third book in her series.

Did you enjoy this article? Well, there’s more where that came from! Check out the archives or peruse the sidebar for a list of trending posts. To make sure you don’t miss out on my latest articles, follow this blog or sign up for the newsletter.

And if you happen to be a historical fiction reader who loves a strong female voice and gritty Medieval settings, check out The Fairytale Keeper series. (When a storyteller’s daughter attempts to avenge her mother, she gets caught in the cross-hairs of a power struggle between kings and kingmakers. The conflict gives rise to some of the greatest stories ever told: Grimm’s Fairy Tales.) Publisher’s Weekly calls The Fairytale Keeper a “resonant tale set late in the 13th century…with unexpected plot twists. An engaging story of revenge.”

4 Grimm’s Fairy Tales That Will NEVER Be Disney Movies

In my retelling of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, I meld the original folklore with real medieval history…gore and all. And while I prefer a gritty story, there’s something about Disney that even I love. With a wave of Walt’s wand and a sprinkling of Tink’s fairy dust, Disney transforms dark tales into candied confections. Still, there are a few fairy tales that even Tinkerbell can’t sweeten and will likely never be Disney movies.

The Three Army Surgeons

Three army surgeons enter a tavern… Yup, this one starts like a dirty joke. Anyways, the three men tell the tavern owner they can amputate and reattach any body part. Shocked, the owner doesn’t believe them and challenges them to prove their claim.
One army surgeon gouges out his eyes. Another slices off his hand. The last removes his heart. And then, off to bed they go.
To make a long story short, a cat steals the eyes, heart, and hand when a serving wench isn’t looking. Terrified of punishment, the wench replaces the missing organs and appendage with animal and corpse parts. Ignorant of the switch, the surgeons attach the impostor body parts the next morning and go on their merry way.
When their new parts malfunction, the army surgeons return to the tavern and demand the real eyes, heart, and hand. But the owner can’t return what he doesn’t have. To keep the three army surgeons from killing him, the tavern owner gives them his life savings. The three army surgeons are left with faulty body parts, the bar owner is broke, and no one lives happily ever after.

So why won’t Disney touch it? The tale is too violent and offers few merchandising options. Can you imagine a “gouge out the kitty’s eyeball” playset? Me neither.

Rumpelstiltskin

In a nutshell, a king locks a beautiful maiden in a room and commands her to spin straw into gold, but she doesn’t know how. So enter a conniving magical dwarf who can and will spin straw into gold—for a price.

At first the girl trades her jewelry for the dwarf’s services. When she no longer has anything to offer him, the dwarf makes her promise to give him her firstborn child.
Eventually the girl marries the king and becomes queen. Her first child is born and the dwarf comes to take what was promised, but the queen is so distraught that the dwarf makes her an offer. If she can guess his name in three days, she can keep her child. The queen sends a messenger to learn every name in the kingdom. The messenger stumbles upon the dwarf’s hovel instead. By the third day, the queen learns the dwarf’s name is Rumpelstiltskin. She keeps her child. And Rumpelstiltskin, in a fit of rage, tears himself in half.

Calling little people dwarfs and portraying them as evil is─at the very least─politically incorrect. Disney strives for a squeaky-clean image and this seems like a bigger media debacle than The Little Mermaid penis castle.

The Girl Without Hands

A man accidentally sells his daughter to the devil, but the girl keeps herself so clean that the devil cannot claim her. The devil commands the girl’s father to chop off her hands so she can’t clean herself. At her father’s orders, the girl succumbs to the amputation without argument. But because the girl cries on her stumps, she remains clean and the devil still can’t touch her. In his rage, the devil kidnaps the father and mother before burning their mill to the ground. The homeless, handless girl wanders to a castle followed by an angel. The king of the castle falls in love with the pious girl, has silver hands made for her, and marries her.

Can you imagine parents lining up at the box office to watch a little girl’s hands get lopped off by her selfish father? I can’t. Besides this, the female protagonist in this tale offers herself up for sacrifice without argument and then waits for salvation which makes her far too passive for modern audiences. .

The Jew Among Thorns

When a boy discovers his violin’s music forces people to dance, he preys upon a Jewish man in a thorn bush, forcing him to dance. The Jewish man─who’s being cut by the thorns─begs the boy to stop playing. The boy refuses…unless the Jewish man hands over a bag of money. When the man relents, the boy runs off with his coins. The Jewish man reports the robbery to local officials, the youth is caught and then sentenced to hang. At the gallows, the boy pulls out his violin and makes the Jewish man dance again. The boy refuses to stop playing until the man admits that he stole the gold in the first place, which he does. They hang the Jewish man instead of the boy even though he was a thief, as well.

This story perpetuates an old and terrible stereotype that Jewish people are greedy swindlers. For that reason, Disney would never turn this into a movie. They did, however, adapt the Israelite Exodus into a movie called The Prince of Egypt, a more positive portrayal of Jewish people and their history.

Can you think of another Grimm’s fairy tale that would make a TERRIBLE Disney retelling? Let me know via Twitter, Facebook, or simply comment below. If you like this post, there’s more where that came from, follow my blog, Twitter, and Facebook to keep up with my posts on medieval history and fairy tales.

Top Ten Most Gruesome Fairy Tale Facts

Illustration of “The Girl with No Hands” by H.J. Ford

“Fairy tales of the past were often full of macabre and gruesome twists and endings. These days, companies like Disney have sanitized them for a modern audience that is clearly deemed unable to cope, and so we see happy endings everywhere. This list looks at some of the common endings we are familiar with – and explains the original gruesome origins.” -Jamie Frater

Of course, I had to find something gruesome, gory, and Grimm for Halloween! I hope you enjoy this article from Listverse written by Jamie Frater.

The Three Army-Surgeons: A Little-Known German Tale Despite Being Essentially, Grotesquelly Grimm

Life during the Middle Ages was harsh and children, like those that would be told the sometimes gory German folklore later compiled by the Grimm brothers, lived an R-rated existence. Death due to infection and disease was common, especially during times of war. And as the saying goes when life hands you lemons, make lemonade, or in the case of this story, when life hands you a horrific war in which people die of infection and horrible wounds, compose a story about three foolish surgeons who have the magic to fix such problems.

“The Three Army Surgeons” is a tale of three men roaming the countryside on their way back home from war. The men spend a night at a tavern and participate in a very grotesque challenge. The innkeeper dares the surgeons to detach their own body parts and reattach them the next morning. Each of the surgeons accepts the challenge and amputates a part of his own body: the first removes his hand, the second tears out his heart, and the third gouges out his own eyes. The surgeons put the parts on a platter and the innkeeper locks them in a chest for safe-keeping. The innkeeper gives his serving wench the key to the chest and the charge of guarding these items for the night, but when she opens the case later and accidentally leaves it open all night, all goes awry. The parts are missing and fearing punishment from her employer, the girl forces her lover to go out to search for them. Unfortunately, a cat snatched the items and has mauled them beyond repair so the lover must set out to find replacements.

Illustration by Agnieszka Wrzosek of The Three Army Surgeons

The essentially dark humor and magical elements traditionally associated with many of Grimm’s tales comes into play during the second half of the tale. The lover, in his scramble to find a replacement hand, heart, and eyes, comes up with a silly solution by turning to second-hand parts. In the end, a thief’s hand, a pig’s heart, and a cat’s eyes end up on the platter. The following morning, the unsuspecting surgeons use a magical ointment to successfully put the used body parts back into their bodies. Within a day, they find themselves feeling and acting strangely, due to their new animal anatomy, but I won’t spoil the humorous ending for readers.

For those looking for an authentically Grimm tale, I highly recommend “The Three Army Surgeons.” My readers can look forward to seeing it in one of the installments of The Fairytale Keeper series.

Five Things You Didn’t Know About the Cinderella Story

Written by Andrea Cefalo, author of The Fairytale Keeper series

While Cinderella is one of the most widely known tales, here are a few facts about it that are not…

1. From Russia to India and Vietnam to Scotland, nations from all over the world have their own traditional telling of the Cinderella story. A few examples of titles are The Story of Tam and Cam (Vietnam), Baba Yaga (Russia), The Saddleslut (Greece), Pepelyouga (Serbia), Ashey Pelt (Ireland), and Conkiajgharuna (Georgia).

2. Many Native American tribes fused the European Cinderella with their own legends to create unique versions of the tale. For example, Mi’kmaq Native Americans combined the French Cinderella with their own legends to come up with a version called The Invisible One. Some other Native American versions include The Turkey Herd and The Rough-Faced Girl.

3. The tale was first recorded in 9^th century China by Tuan Che’ng-shih, but the tone of the tale suggests it was already a well-known story to its readers. That makes the story at least 1,140 years old!

4. The next recording didn’t come until over eight hundred years later when Charles Perrault of France published it in 1697. This version is the one Americans are most familiar with. That’s probably because it is kinder than most other versions which result in the maiming or killing of the wicked stepsisters in the end.

5. There are approximately 1,500 versions of the tale when one includes retellings, movies, musicals, operas, and picture books!

Resources:

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0510a.html

http://www.native-languages.org/oochigeas.htm

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/cinderella/history.html

The Real Snow White: A 16th Century Countess?

Portrait of Margarete von Waldeck

Most of us associate the origins of Snow White with Willhelm and Jacob Grimm’s 19^th century publication of Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children’s and Household Tales) which is a volume of German folklore collected by the Grimm brothers and not actually composed by the two. So where did this tale actually come from? Is it really just the product of an unknown story-teller’s imagination or was this famous fair-faced maiden based on historical fact? German scholar Eckhard Sander presumes in his book Schneewittchen: Marchen oder Wahrheit? (Snow White: Is It a Fairy Tale?) that the real Snow White was in fact Countess Margarete Von Waldeck.

Margarete was daughter to Count Phillip von Waldeck-Wildungen and step-daughter to Katherina of Hatzefeld, whom Margarete did not get along with. At the age of sixteen, Margarete was sent away to Wildungen, Brussels where she met and fell in love with Phillip the II, who would later become king of Spain. A marriage between the Spanish prince and German countess was seen as politically disadvantageous by many and Margarete’s untimely death all-too-conveniently ended the affair.

According to Sander, Margarete did not die of some unknown illness, but was poisoned by the Spanish secret police to keep her from marrying the future king. However, her “wicked” stepmother couldn’t have been the culprit since she was dead before Margarete’s death. While it is unlikely that the weapon of choice was an apple, poisoned apples were given out by a man living in Wildungen who didn’t want children stealing his fruit. And as for the seven dwarves, Maragerete’s brother owned copper mines in Wildungen which employed children who worked twelve hour days. The children grew crooked and crippled from the work. Their hair grayed prematurely and most were dead before the age of twenty. Thus, they looked much like the dwarves from the Brothers Grimm’s tale. According to Sander, the many parts of the story from this particular region were told and retold until they became the tale that the Grimm’s brothers recorded and we now know as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.”

Article written by Andrea Cefalo, author of The Fairytale Keeper: a novel of corruption, devotion, and the origins of Grimm’s fairytales. To follow Andrea Cefalo and hear more about The Fairytale Keeper series, please visit:

Amanda’s Writings Book Review

“There was never a slow moment, and I couldn’t put the book down… And then came the end. Gah! That can’t be it! It was perfect, and I was excited and it ENDED! I sincerely hope there will be a book two!”

Oh yes, Amanda, there is definitely a book two coming. To find out what else Amanda had to say about The Fairytale Keeper click here.

Free E-Version of FTK

Click here to visit the very beautiful book blog Burgundy Ice and enter for a chance to win a free ebook version of The Fairytale Keeper. While you’re there check out my latest interview with the Laura Armstrong, the site’s editor, and see what she has to say about her favorite books.

Grimm’s Cinderella: A Far Cry from Disney

Andrea Cefalo is a Medieval fiction author and Medieval history blogger. Her debut novel, The Fairytale Keeper, was a quarter-finalist in Amazon’s 2013 Breakthrough Novel Contest. The sequel–The Countess’s Captive—was published earlier this year. She regularly posts about Medieval history on Facebook and Twitter.

As a Millenial, I was raised on Disney-fied versions of Grimm’s most famous fairytales. I loved these innocent tales with their neat, happy endings…when I was six. As I got older, I craved darker tales. It wasn’t until college that I bought a leather-bound volume of Grimm’s fairytales and fell in love.

So how exactly is Grimm’s Cinderella different than Disney’s?

1. Not just a slave

Not only does Cinderella’s stepmother force her to tend the fires, she also tosses Cinderella’s supper of peas into the hearth, forcing her to eat the dirty peas or starve. This is how she earns her monicker.

2. No fairy godmother

When Cinderella wants to go to the ball, there are no furry friends to help her make a dress and a fairy godmother doesn’t come to her rescue. Cinderella asks her stepmother if she can go to the ball. Her wicked stepmother says that Cinderella can go…if she can find and eat all the peas she tosses into the ashes. Birds swoop in to help Cinderella eat the peas, but the stepmother doesn’t hold up her end of the bargain. The birds lead Cinderella the to the beautiful gown that she wears to the ball. It’s hanging on a tree above her mother’s grave. Creepy.

3. Amputations and Eye-Gougings Galore

In order to fit their gangly feet into Cinderella’s dainty slipper, the stepsisters slice off parts of their own feet. Cinderella knows she has the shoe, but stands idly by and watches the amputations. How’s that for vengeance? But there’s more. For their cruelty to Cinderella, a bird pecks out the stepsisters’ eyes. (Read Grimm’s version of Cinderella)

So if you’re sick of Poe and in desperate need of some dark Victorian Romanticism, I highly recommend giving Grimm’s fairytales a read. Once you’ve finished, check out The Fairytale Keeper and The Countess’ Captive to see how I’ve incorporated this famous fairytale into my award-winning Medieval fiction series.

“Fairytale Comes True for Local Author”

That’s the title of the article written by Cheryl Allen in today’s Greenville News. To read the rest of the article, which also discusses trends in youth literature and the indie-publishing boom, here’s the link: http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20120714/NEWS/307140015/Fairy-tale-comes-true-Simpsonville-writer?odyssey=nav|head&nclick_check=1

THE WRITER-LY WORLD OF ANDREA CEFALO

Blogging Medieval History, Grimm's Fairy Tales, and My Progress on The Fairytale Keeper Series

Category Archives: Grimm’s Fairy Tales

Was the Real Snow White a 16th-Century Countess?

Did you enjoy this article? Well, there’s more where that came from! Check out the archives or peruse the sidebar for a list of trending posts. To make sure you don’t miss out on my latest articles, follow this blog or sign up for the newsletter.