Do your kids know the little mermaid committed suicide?

[OnlyParentsAreReal]

I had I discussion with another mother about a new book I had got my son that had the little mermaid in. It says she "chose to ascend" which I thought was a lovely age appropriate way of putting across the original story. She was horrified and said she would never let her son know any of the true non Disney endings to stories. I think that's awful as the Disney endings send bad messages. What are peoples views on this?

Oh sorry, yes, but in my one the prince didn't notice the blood on the shoes -the doves told him.

lts bring back the originals!

while your there can u stop bullshitting about santa bringing presents i think thats the worst lie of all

If you go to a big bookshop and look for one of those proper hardback compendiums of Grimm's or HCA fairytales or folk tales you will often find the versions which are original.

I agree that many folk tales are very simply written compared to what we are used to today, but HCA is very descriptive in his prose, see:

hca.gilead.org.il/li_merma.html

Here's a site with some English folk tales which illustrates the more simple storytelling style (it's very much "This happened, then that happened, so he did this, and she did that. Then this other thing happened because she felt X." - you'd be discouraged from writing like this in a creative writing course today.)

This is one I used to like - it's fairly harmless - but be warned the one on the next page is really violent and horrible! But again, probably told to children.

www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/eft/eft03.htm

I'd love a recommendation too for a good compilation of the really dark versions. Actual book, rather than kindle.

As a child I had a version of the three little pigs where the wolf fell into the caldron of boiling water and they ate him for supper along with one of farmer brown's apples and some of farmer someone else's turnips. .

And Snow White where the queen/stepmother spoke to the mirror and when it confirmed that once again Snow White was the fairest of all she, the queen, took a knife and drove it through her own heart.

In mine the ugly sisters were sent to see in a spiked barrel as punishment which I always found very satisfying as a child.

My children, by contrast were quite traumatised by Struwwelpeter.

TheNightSky - I had that book, too! What WAS the story with the three women dangling by their hair? That really stayed with me! They were hung up on hooks or something? Was it Bluebeard, maybe?

Give me the Disney versions any day. I find enough horror in real life that a story needs to be a happy escape for me.

I must have read all the dark books when I was little!. In three little bigs the wolf fell into a pot of boiling water and boiled alive. In Rapunzel the prince fell on thorns and blinded himself. Rumplestiltskin tore himself in half. Granny died and the woodcutter hacked the wolf. Hansel and Gretyl shoved the witch into the oven!. There's got to be more. I think they were much better.

The red shoes where the girl has to chop her feet off to stop dancing - fascinated me.

In the princess and the pea the whole point is that she was a real princess though she appeared to be a peasant girl from her rain-sodden appearance so that's how they knew she was a real princess.

Can't see how it works being actually a peasant girl pulling a fast one on the hosts

How about the little goats who get eaten by the wolf - the mum frees them and sees up his stomach with rocks. He goes to get a drink from the well and they push him in.

Although I've never understood why they push them down the well (isn't it the same in little red riding hood?) as that ruins their water source!!

HebeMumsnet I don't think it was Bluebeard, but it was a large hardback book with a lot of other stories in, one of which was Bluebeard (I think). Wasn't it something to do with an evil dwarf or goblin capturing three sisters? I do wish I still had the book.

Some dwarf or goblin action seems to ring a bell... Will have to scour my parents' attic at some point. Would love to find that book again.

My dd must be impressionable as we read Hansel and gretl when she was 5 and she was very upset about the dad leaving his children in the woods. I’m all for some realism - I used to love Dahl and a lot of his books are a bit gruesome but I’m not sure it’s teaching them anything as the consequences are outlandish

We always have the discussion about who is worse - the step mum who suggested leaving them (I inderstand in the original it is the mother) or their father for going along with it

I read a lot of these fairy tales when I was younger and never liked the little mermaid, I found it just too sad.
I also had a copy of the little match girl where she freezes to death, but framed that she goes to meet her granny in heaven. Which didn't bother me half as much! Kids, eh?

FarceFace - I know, I always expect my children to find the abandonment of H&G upsetting, not to mention G being forced to assist in the fattening up of her brother so the witch can eat him, but they love it!

I thought the prince poking his eyes out with brambles was still fairly integral to Rapunzel though? It's certainly in the version DD has. But then Rapunzel cries when she sees him and her tears magically restore his sights.

sight

I love fairy tales. I think it's worth remembering that the brothers Grimm didn't write them themselves, they went around collecting them and then compiled them, so often there were already plenty of different versions of the same story, and because they wrote them down their version is now seen as the definitive one. I don't mind having different versions particularly, but I hate the idea that they would be changed just to give them a happy ending. The little mermaid in particular.

Just getting this deleted as it might be identifying. Thanks.

thenightsky and hebe I had that book too! Came on this thread just to say about the hanging women

I also remember a picture in that book of someone being dragged along by their hair?

Wrong thread Sorry!!!

I read through the original stories before I ever saw the Disney versions and love both. I went to Denmark when young and visited Hans Christian Andersons house and bought a nice copy of the stories. I will read them to my children. I don't recall the woman the prince marries being a wicked mermaid, just another woman

Cinderella - the sisters cut off their heels or toes and were beheaded