The Dark Origins of Fairy Tales

I've heard mentioned it. It's like we're holding hands with our our listeners all across the world, across the world. I'd like to buy the world a coke thing. I supposed to them. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone. Okay, wow what happens at that? But like there's a plot that's a huge plot point. I'll just I'll tell you afterwards. Okay. If never gonna watch the show, yeah I probably won't. I mean, like I pick and choose what I'm going

to get into, you know, like it's a commitment. Especially how many seasons did that thing goes six for? You're not like most people who just watch whatever is on in front of them until it's over a lot of people. Do most people do what you don't think. People pick and choose their their culture, they consume. I think that they do, but I think they're they're more ready to jump in than I am. Like the idea of like taking your tablet to the beach to watch TV. That's

not like a great thing to me. That's that's like what happened to us. So what you're saying is you're more selective than your average Joe. I guess. But I don't mean to make myself seem all like Laude dot or anything like that. You know, I'm just saying I don't watch I don't watch TV shows like Narcos. Remember I told you to watch it the other day. Yeah, and other folks have told me that, So I'm gonna watch it. So I saw the first episode amazing, amazing stuff. Um,

and I started to watch the second one. I was like, I just I can't write now. I don't know what it is about me. So you recommended that to me before you saw it. No, I saw the first US like, I could have seen the first couple of minutes and it would have been like, go watch this whole series. I think it's gonna be great, and then you bailed on it. Yeah, but I haven't bailed entirely. But I guess that's my point. Is I like, like, it's not just something I can pick up like willy nilly, and

I don't know why because it's TV. Well, here's what I used to do. Boy, we're already so sidetracked, but I don't care um because there's no one in here, no one here to stop us, right to pull the plug. Here's what I used to do is I would watch a show, let's say a few seasons, and then if it started getting bad, like True Blood or Dexter, I would be like, well, yeah, but I've got to finish it. And then I got to the point where I was like, no, I don't need to finish it. I can bail on

a TV show that starts to suck. Yeah, the show runner bailed on you exactly, so why can't you bail on? And then I'll just read about the finale because that's all I care about is seeing how it ended. And in the case of Dexter's finale, it was amazingly all fully great. So but yeah, I think that's that's fair. Same with books. Too, I mean, like, why plow through a book that you're like, I cannot I cannot care

about this any longer. I think it have I'm only forty four, but I do since my mortality a little bit, like, wait a minute, do I need to watch this season of this thing that I don't like because I'm gonna die? And I haven't seen Casablanca yet? What I haven't seen Casablanca? Really you should, I know, because I'm gonna die. I mean you should, Like that's a any any night of

the week kind of movie. You know, I plan to? Okay? Um, So, speaking of dying, Chuck, it turns out that in fairy Tales, these wonderful little things that Disney promoted and turned into well, wonderful little things, it started out with a lot more death, a lot more destruction, a lot more cannibalism, how about murder, rape, incest, torture, kidnapping, sex with the comatose, necrophilia, probably somewhere in one we

haven't heard of yet. Um, but yeah, that's where fairy tales or that's the kind of um, that's the type of tales that fairy Tales started out as. Yeah, and we are going to uh, I think we agreed we're gonna do a show on fairy tales, probably like the brothers Graham, Hans, Christian Anderson and Chairo, the Three the Three Biggies. Yeah, and fairy tales in general, because it's

really interesting. Well, let's make this a two parter, so this will be part one and then part two will be a fuller explanation of everything we just talked about. So um, we don't have to go into it too much. But the point is is that many, many years ago, there were such things as oral traditions folk tales, and they were typically passed along by say, women who are working at looms or people who put the kids to bed.

And we're passing the time before the fire because there weren't tablets you could take to the beach to watch Orange is the New Black anywhere, you know, so you had to entertain yourself somehow. So adults told each other tales and these form the basis of fairy tales, which seems weird to us now because fairy tales you tend to associate with kids, but that just wasn't the case before. Yeah, and apparently the brothers Grim, Jakop and Wilhelm originally intended

them for adults. Things weren't selling so well, so they said, maybe we should um sanitize these a little bit, lighten them up, and see if we can get kids, um to read these grizzly morality tales, right, you know, to scare them into being you know, straight shooters. Yeah, and then Walt Disney came along and he said, you think you sanitize things, wait till I put my Disney stink on it, because my Disney stink smells like roses. It does. There's like glitter and like fairies and it's just all

very nice. It smells like I was trying to think of the best smell I can think of, but um per plus smells pretty great. I had a friend who used to call the s U a v E shampoo, called it swave. It was pretty funny on purpose. Yeah, like like that was legitimately what they thought it was. Yeah, he really thought that. He like, you know, stay at his house, Like, hey, if you need anything that's opened on some swave in there. You know, it's hilarious. Yeah,

you were talking about how Disney sanitized it. Yeah, that's right, sanitized things, And um, so we're gonna I don't think we're gonna do all ten, because that's what we do. But we're gonna talk about some of the earlier versions of um now sanitized classics, because it's kind of fun because you see just how far we came by, you know, when things became disneyfied Chuck. Um. Should we talk about Binocchio. Yeah, that's a good one, which was as far as Disney

films go, that was maybe the creepiest of all. Yeah, because of the stranger danger that wound throughout it, and that was part of the original The original thing was like, you don't go off as strangers, you don't run away with from home. There's plenty of predatory adults who wanted to just do all sorts of horrible things with you. That's right. So Pinocchio was kidnapped by Stromboli and uh basically was threatened with you know, Pinocchio was made of

wood and said I'm gonna burn you alive. You're gonna make a good fire one day if you get too old, if you don't stay young, which is also creepy, Yeah it is, And Pinocchio was like, oh no. But the source story was by Carlo Carlo Collodi in three and Carlo Collodi, and so Pinocchio was teased in that version by um about his wood head, by Jimny Cricket. Um. I don't know if they called him Jimny Cricket in that version though, but it was a cricket, yeah, and

he definitely didn't have a top hat. And seeing when you Wish upon a star, that was all Disney. So Pinocchio gets really upset and there's a hammer and kills the cricket with the hammer, and then Pinocchio is hanged and killed, tied up, hanged and killed by the fox and the cat. Oh I thought, like by the court for killing the cricket by his enemies. But he loses his temper and as a result, the one of the main characters in the story loses his life, and Pinocchio

is left to be like, what have I done? And then he's killed. That's a great children's story, is but think about how bizarre that is that at one point there was a story that adults told one another about a wooden boy, yeah, who they really wanted to stay a boy or else they'd burn him alive. And we'll get into more like fairy tale analysis and that kind of thing in the other episodes just chew on that for a little while she won the weird psychosis that

lies behind that. Alright, uh up, next we have The Little Mermaid, which I don't think of course, I'm just guessing, but I didn't know there was an original source story has Christian And yeah, I had no idea eighteen thirty seven. Um, was it actually called the Little Mermaid? I guess it was. I think it was. And there's actually a statue of the Little Mermaid um in uh Hans Christian Andersen's home country Utopia. Yes, in Denmark. Yes he was Danish, right,

I think Copenhagen Harbor. There's a statue over, but not the Disney one. Right, So that is Ariel Obviously we all remember and love that movie. Actually I didn't because I was a senior in high school at the time, so I wasn't into that. I was too busy watching uh bat TV on the beach. Um. All right, okay, so in the movie we all remember the Ariel um makes a deal with Ursula, the sea wit, and she says, you know what, you can be human if you'd like,

just give me that beautiful singing voice of yours. Uh And in the real version, that was the which offers her a potion in exchange for her tongue when she cuts out, yeah, and Ariel says sure first of all, which is weird, um, but she says, this will also make you feel like a sword has pierced your body forever, and you'll be able to dance, but it will feel like you're dancing on knives, and it'll feel like there's maggots eating at your man. So she takes a deal anyway. Uh,

all for a dude. Yeah, all for a guy, So say what you will about that as well. Um. In the original version, eventually these uh I think the sea ladies come out of the ocean and say, if you kill the prince, they give her a dagger, so you can kill this guy and drip that blood on your

feet and you'll get your mermaid tail back. And she says, I can't do it, so she flings herself into the ocean and becomes c foam, which is what happens, but then she goes the sisters take her into heaven and the dude ends up marrying another lady, which she watches as she's ascending into heaven. Right, So no blood on her feet. Nope, never never killed the Prince Cinderella, Yes, not cinder Fella. Nois movie with Dean Martin too, right one. I think he might have been fella. Was it the

same thing? Was it the exact same story? But just Jerry Lewis is pretty much And that's a pretty old story. But the Disney version basically has like Cinderella is very sweet and beautiful and kind, but she's being basically human, trafficked by her own wicked stepmother who makes her do everything that her too lazy, ugly inside and out daughters don't do. Don't we shouldn't we don't want to do that's right, like clean out the senders from the fireplace.

Hence her name. Is that where that came from? I believe so no idea. So the original story was from and Shao Um Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper. And as you remember in the original um, she is allowed to go to the she's dressed up by the fairy godmother. Yeah, very godmother, very great character of a pretty You get the ride in this great horse drawn carriage which used to be a pumpkin, remember, and it will turn into a pumpkin at midnight, so you'll lose all those nice

clothes in that glass slipper. If you want everyone to like you for being wealthy, make sure they don't see you after midnight. You have to like the messages these are sending. When you really dig into it, it's pretty hard. I can't wait to talk about it in the next episode. It's all just one big teaser for everybody. It is the fun teaser before the grim ending. So she takes

off um before midnight. The Prince is like, wait, wait, come back, uh please, and she's like no, I gotta god, I can't let you see that I'm actually poor and pretty. And he's like what, I couldn't hear you. She's likeing and she takes off, but she leaves behind her glass slipper, And in this glass slipper that fits her perfectly is what the Prince decides to use to identify this mystery woman.

So he starts looking throughout the kingdom. Correct and in the original version, which I said by p Oh, it's actually pretty much like that, but in eighteen twelve, And that's the thing with fairy tales, they're rewritten a lot throughout the ages by different folks with different versions, And in eighteen twelve the grand brothers had a version called Um, which I don't even know what that means. I don't either Osten. Maybe it's the same thing Cinder and Aston.

Maybe I don't know the pootel what is that? I have no idea, Okay, but anyway, So the evil stepmother in this version Um says to her stepdaughters. To the oldest one, she's like, here's what you do. I know that shoe won't fit on the around your big hammer toe. So here's a knife. Cut that thing off and the shoe will fit. And she does it. She cuts off her toe, puts on the slipper, and the Prince was like, this is great until these pigeons, magic pigeons come along

and say, hey, Prince, check that toe out. It's bleeding through the glass slipper. Like her shoe is filled with blood. She's like Rome and Michelle's high school reunion all of a sudden. So the Prince is like, you get away from me, impost and sends the eldest daughter, the eldest stepsister away. The youngest one tries the same thing, except she cuts off part of her heel which seems to me exponentially more painful than cutting off your own toe. Yeah,

same bit. Apparently, Charles Parrault was like, I can't come up with anything else, We'll just go with the same thing. The two pigeons point out the bloody shoe and the the the younger sister goes away, and then finally, somehow Cinderella ends up in the in the with the shoe on, right, yeah, and he says, I found you. We're gonna go get married, And in an act of good favor, she invites the step sisters to the wedding because she was such a

nice person, probably to rub salt in the wounds. Well, yes, and also because um, she knew that her pigeon friends were going to pluck their eyes out, which they did, yep, one at a time. They pluck out one eye each, and then they come back and finish the job pluck out the other eyes. So here's the thing. We were raised with this kind of stuff, right, Like, I mean, I'm familiar with the Disney version of all these things, but I also had like a fair idea that there

was a weird, darker um foundation to these stories before. Right, Um, imagine not having ever been exposed to this kind of thing. Think about how bizarre some of the twists and turns that take place in these stories. Are talking pigeons end up plucking out the sister's eyes after exposing them here, Like that's just a weird extra twist, you know. Yeah, like if the aliens came down, right, they're like, this is what we read our children on earth? Why does wrong?

All right, well, let's take a little break here. Oh yeah, we forgot to do this, and we'll come back and talk about a little someone with a red writing something. Mm hmm. I don't think I might know who you mean, all right, A little red riding Hood. That's who I was talking about. Everybody, it's not going to guess that. So let's recap the real story here, which is, uh, everyone knows this one as well. I'm assuming little Red riding Hood is traveling through the woods to deliver her

food to her dying grandmother, and she meets the hungry wolf. Yeah, she's bringing butter. A pot of butter? Is that what it was? According to Charles Parral delicious. So the wolf says, I like to think way in advance and make grand schemes. So I'm going to tell you, little girl who would like to eat, to stay here and pick some flowers. Grandma would love some flowers that she's dying. Yes, so, um,

and by the way, where's grandma live? And riding Hood while she starts picking flowers, like, oh, down the way and take a left at the the old oak tree, and then, um, don't make eye contact with the talking pigeons. That's right, right, and you'll find grandma's house. So the wolf takes off while Little Red Riding Hood just picking her flowers. Unbeknownst to her, the wolf has gone and

is now eating her grandmother to death. Yeah, and then, like Norman Bates style, dresses up in her clothing, sits with his back to her in a rock chair and lays and wait, which you would think that's dark enough. Yeah, that's pretty dark. Just eating grandmother is bad enough. Right. In the Grim version, it was called Little Red cap Um, which doesn't have the same ring. Now, Little Red riding Hood beautiful just rolls off the Little Red cap No,

this kind of ends right there, you know. So a Little Red Riding Hood is is actually eaten by the wolf in their version. And then a because she comes in the world stressed as the grandmother and they have a little exchange and she ends up getting in exchange, and so he eats her dead, or we think she's dead. A woodsman comes along and it cuts the wolf open

with uh, well, there's different versions. Shears are an axe and the woman, the grandmother and little Red Riding Hood come out and as if you think that's the end, no, no, no, let's fill the wolf with rocks. And the version and the grim version, the wolf gets up, tries to go away, but he has weighted down by the rocks inside of his body and collapses and dies. So it's a good ending, yeah it is. That's the grim version. In the Charles Parult version, he ended his with the moral of the

story kind of thing um. In the moral his story was do not get in bed with a sexual predator. Because then his story, Little Red Riding hood Um comes to grandmother's house and she suspects that something is a miss um, but she still takes off her clothes and gets into bed with grandmother when she's invited to by this wolf dressed as grandmother, and she says, what big arms you have, what big legs you have? What big years you have, and the wolf has a smooth answer

for everything. You know what I'm saying, uh, and then ends up eating her just she dies. She's eaten to death by a wolf, and that's the end of the story. And then the moral is his little girls should not um, should not expose themselves you predation by sexual predators. Basically, it's not exactly how Pearl put it, but essentially that's what you're saying. Well, here's a direct quote from parole

or p oh, excuse me, um. From this story, one learns that children, especially young lasses, pretty courteous and well bred, do very wrong to listen to strangers, and it is not an unheard thing if the wolf is thereby provided with his dinner. I say wolf, For all wolves are not of the same sort. There is one kind with an amenable disposition, neither noisy nor hateful nor angry, but tam obliging and gentle, following the young maids in the

streets even into their homes. Alas who does not know that these gentle wolves are all such creatures the most dangerous. So you're basically saying like they're all gross and dirty and preying on you. Yeah, which I mean, hats off to him for performing that public service. But where's the fairy tale that says sexual predators do not predict. I don't think they read uh stories, for they were once young children, young boys who could have been raised on

that kind of thing. That's a good point, you know. I tip my little red cap to you. Thank you. Uh oh, this is a good one. Hansel and Gretel, Yeah, I grew up next to um an older couple who had a dog named Gretel Schnauser. So cute, sweet dog. So this one starts out with an evil step mom married to a dad of the father of Hansel and Gretel, and she's like, you guys eat way too much food and your dad and iron uh, danger of going hungry.

So we're gonna take a long walk in the woods and only two of us are coming back, so the kids. She does this twice because the kids are smart enough on the first go around to leave a trail of pebbles in the woods. So I thought it was breadcrumbs. That's part two. The first they leave the pebbles, they come back and she's like, son of all right, we're gonna do this again, and you're not taking any pebbles.

She walks about into the woods again. They leave breadcrumbs, which are famously eaten, and so they are now stranded in the woods. Find the pigeons, the talking pigeons, probably so, so the plan has worked. From the evil step monster. Uh, They then encounter the bloodthirsty witch, who basically is like, look at this sweet gingerbread house. Why don't you come on in here, because I know you little piglets like

to eat. Yeah, and they do. They go in, Yeah, they go in, and I mean a house made of gingerbread, Like that's that's a great device right there, you know, I mean, who wouldn't want to just come into that house and see what's inside? If the house is made of gingerbread, what the heck is the microwave made of There might be charcuterie inside. Sure, so um. Once inside, they're trapped because this is the house of an old witch who seems like a kindly old lady. As they're

going in, then once the door shuts, there in trouble. Right. Yeah, Gretel is basically enslaved. Hansel is locked in a cage and fattened up like a goose so she can eat. Yeah, And then At some point, the witch says, what the heck, I'll eat you both. Uh, And this gives Gretel the chance to get a drop on the witch. Yeah, which is pretty funny to me. The witch is basically like, hey, Gretel, why don't you go and look in that oven, let

me know if it's hot enough. And she's blind and the witches and Gretel's like, I don't know what you mean. Why don't you show me what you mean? Right? And the witch says, okay, you stupid girl, let me show you exactly. So she shuffles over and she's like, you stick your head in like this engage the right because Gretel went and pushed her in by the rump and the witches burned alive to death. Yes, And then Hansel and Gretel make their way back home and the stepmother

is dead. But in the alternate version, uh, Gretel is like, wow, Hansel, you do look pretty good and eats him alive. Oh really. Well what gets me is they go back home, stepmother's dead. They don't explain how she died, and I wonder if the dad was just like, so, uh sorry about Mary and that lady who tried to kill you twice start diggingy holes in the backyard. Should we take a break? Oh yes, I think we should. All right, we'll take another quick break and we'll come back with some of

my favorites. Welcome back to story time with Chuck and Josh. Yes, adult story time. Yeah, because if your kids are listening this, you're a monster yourself. Um rumpelstilt skin. This one really creeped me out when I was a kid because it featured a uh an imp, like a a creepy, beastly imp who not only that, had like um, a lack of control over his emotions. He was prone to emotional output and he was like unstable, which even even more scary.

You know. So this one starts out there's a miller who tells the king that, um, you know, my daughter can spend straw into gold. You ought to see this girl go. He's totally full of it. Though, totally full of it. I don't know what. I'm sure he was expecting to get away with it. I don't know how. Who knows, because he's just gonna like hit the king over the head with something when he came to look and then marry him while he was unconscious. So the

King says, great, she's cute. Let's trap her in the castle and lock her in a room with a bunch of straw spinning into gold, lady, and I'll marry you. Yeah. And she's like. She gets in there and she's like, I have no idea how to spend anything into gold. Uh. And this little imp rumple stilt skin climbs up says I can actually do that, and if you give me some jewelry, I'll spend that junk into gold. Uh. He does. So the King is like, this is sweet. Let me

lock you in a bigger room with more straw. Rumple still skin comes back, spends all that into gold for more jewelry, comes back a third time because now she's hooked. Yeah, she's hooked. And she's like, I don't have any more jewelry, Like what are we gonna do here? And what he says, I got an idea. I got an idea. I've always wanted to own a human child. So you go ahead and start spinning and I'll make sure this gets uh turned into gold, and then you can marry the king.

And when you guys have a kid, you just give it to me. And she's like, what are you gonna do with the kid, and he's like, don't worry about don't worry about that at all. It'll be fine. Um. So she says that sounds like a good idea. I can get the gold now, but pay later, and he says, yes, if you want to look at it like that, that's fine, and she says, let's do it. So they they end

up colluding this last time. The king marries her and years passed, and then the woman has a child and one day Rumpel still a child she came to love despite knowing that there was a bounty on the child's head. Yeah, and it was conceived under duress. Let's just say, okay, um, but she loved the child and Rumpel stillt skin comes a calling, yeah, and he says, hey, remember me, and she's like, how could I forget? He said, I'm back

to claim my bounty. Give me that kid. I've got lots of neat things planned and she says, I'd kind of like to keep my kid, actually, and he's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, okay. I love funning games. So how about this. I have a really weird name that you've never heard before. I've never told you. If you can guess my super weird, one of a kind name, we'll just call the whole thing off. Yeah, I'll give you three days even and uh,

she gets the name. She does. She overhears him, right, She sneaks around and overhears him in his own layer. I don't remember. I think that's how it is. Okay, so she but she guesses his name correctly, and he does not like that at all. By the way, in the early eighties, Harve vachas Tattoo from Fantasy Island played

Rumpo Stiltskin in a TV version of this. Yeah, so this outburst must have been particularly upsetting because you love Tattoo, so you don't want to see Tattoo playing Rumpo Stiltskin having this outburst where he's just lost his human child that's been promised to him for years because this lady managed to guess his name. And he goes the devil told you that, and he stops his foot and he stops it so hard it goes right into the earth

and gets stuck there like up to his waist. Yeah, and he gets really angry about that and says, let me get my leg out of here and he tears his body into two pieces and the ladies off the hook. Yeah, in the eighteen twelve version, he just runs away, and they actually went back in eighteen fifty seven to allow him to tear his body in half. It's a weird way to die, I agreed. Who has that that kind of upper body strength? Well, I guess so. And there's

a new TV show out too. I don't know if it's still out that had a lot of these characters, like Once upon a Time or something. Yeah, yeah, I think so. Yeah, I didn't watch it, though, I think it's still around. What is it? I think? So? What's his face? Robert Carlyle's in it from Trainspotting. Love that guy? Yeah, he's good. Uh, all right, let's skip that one because that one. Just what about snow White? You want to do that one? Yes, snow White. So snow White was

the one that changed everything. That was Disney's first animated full length feature, and apparently everybody, including his wife, said, do not do this. This is not the way to try to make your name, and he said, no, I'm gonna do it. He borrowed one and a half million dollars at the time to make this movie, and it turned out that everybody loved it. Obviously, it's apparently the tenth highest grossing film of all time adjusted for inflation. Wow, still,

that's crazy. Yeah. So snow White was the one that everybody thinks of when you think of a fairy tale becoming sanitized or disneyfied, you know. Yeah, because in the Grim version there was there was a heart in a box that the evil was the evil the evil witch, the evil witch, the the one who is jealous of snow White's beauty. She wanted her heart in a box. Yes,

that actually made it into the Disney version. Yeah, that was a sanitized version right in the in the full Grim version, she wanted to eat the liver and lungs of snow White as a matter of fact, which is a little freaky. Um. So the the the sanitized Disney version wasn't quite fully sanitized compared to the other one, but a little. They cut out the cannibalism. Yeah. And in the Grim version, snow White at her wedding, the evil stepmother, um gets involved there and the guest heat

a pair of iron shoes on burning coles four. Snow White into these shoes to dance until she dies yep, from wearing I guess. I guess her feet are burned off or something. She just danced herself to death. She's a dance dance, dance, dance, dancing machine. And got a couple of more here. Rapunzel. Yeah, overtly sexual, overtly sexual.

And I just realized while researching this that the Beastie Boys, Uh, we're clearly literature fans from the what Comes Around song Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, or I will climb up and get into your underwear. That's the Beastie Boys line. And I remember it. When I heard that line, I was like, well, that's childish, but that's actually exactly what happens in the original version, add rock, that was pretty childish. Yeah, is that what you thought? I did not like your usual,

you know, collegiate, high minded stuff. Uh. It's the Disney's movie Tangled, is the Rapunzel version that's been super sanitized. Uh. And it's about a young girl whose hair has miraculous properties that make you not age. So obviously there's gonna be some evil lady that wants the hair who happens to be a which builds a tower to house Rapunzel. Unfortunately, she doesn't think to make the tower taller than Rapunzel's hair is long. Error. Rapunzel has a suitor, a prince.

I believe it's got to be a prince. I didn't even have to look down. Yes, it's I'm sure it's a prince. Always needed a prince to save the damsel, right, which we'll talk about in the next episode. Um. But she liked to let her hair down and let the guy climb up her hair every night after the Which went to sleep, and they would get it on in the tower where she was locked up. And they did this a lot. And apparently one day she was very young and nine eve otherwise UM, and she said to

the Which, my clothes grow tight. And the witch is like what that means? Figured out what was going on. UM banished Rapunzel to the desert and said, be gone with you. And Uh. The prince comes back one day and tries to I guess he gets into the tower somehow. He climbs up in the tower and he is confronted not by Rapunzel, his lover, but by the witch. By the wicked witch who's like, I know what you did, Yes,

and there are a couple of versions. He either leaps from the tower or she pushes him from the tower, and in both versions he his eyes are gouged out by the thorns below and he's blinded right, but he's still very much in love. He wanders the earth, blind and homeless from that point on until he, by chance encounters Rapunzel, who's living as a single mom raising their kids twins on her own, apparently in a desert like town,

maybe somewhere in Nevada or Arizona. Barstow. Okay, so she Zimbarstow, raising their twins as a single mom, and he, a homeless blind man, encounters her, and apparently it's just like when Ralphie comes back home in a Christmas story. Um, she starts crying at the sight of him, uh, and her tears heal him. Heal his sight. Now that he has sight, apparently he's immediately got a home again. So they make their way back to his kingdom and get married and live happily ever after, which is very rare

if you haven't caught on by this point in time. Yeah, that is a really rare story. And it's sweet too, because you know, the love goes beyond there that immediate once once the sex drives up, it seems like another another. Yeah that that the dude is just like whatever, I'm fine. This guy in one version jumps out of the tower to kill himself and is blinded and wanders the earth. That's sweet. Once the sex drives up. Um, all right, let's finish it off with the worst of them all,

because it's straight up is rape. Yeah, you know, there's no dancing around what happens in Sleeping Beauty. It's like killed Bill. What do you mean at the beginning of Kill Bill? Oh? Sure remember? Yeah? Uh so in the Disney version in nine, of course you remember, there was a young princess and a sorceress, uh dooms her and cast a spell on her and says you're gonna die at sixteen, which is uh even in our time, pretty young.

Did you understand why? No, probably jealousy, Yeah, she's probably ugly. In Sleeping Beauty was a beauty. Uh So she says, you know what, You're gonna prick yourself on a spindle and you're gonna die. That is the spell. Uh. It can only be undone by a good fairy. Of course, the good fairy comes along says you can get out of the slumber if a prince your true love awakens you with a kiss. Pretty innocuous, right, sure, I mean why not? Why not just just let's make it interesting?

Is what the what the which said? That's right? But there's an earlier version in the fourteenth century from France. I don't have no idea how to pronounce that paras forest, okay. And in this version, the prince returns, finds the woman, uh, laying in bed, naked and unconscious, and he rapes her. Yeah. He's like, I can't help myself, and I'm a prince, so no rules apply to me. Pretty much. So she becomes pregnant, um has a kid still while asleep, she

doesn't wake up from this. She gets raped, she has gets pregnant, has a baby. Um her her little baby bites on her finger, thinking he's breastfeeding, and causes the spindle, the chip from the spindle to fall out of her hand. I guess, yeah, her finger where she picked it. Yeah, and saves her. So all anybody had to do was remove the the what's it called him? The flax chip? Now? What is it call? When a piece of wood gets

into your fingers. Splinter. She had a splinter. All anybody had to do was remove it, and she would have been fine pretty much. Luckily her kid was a dumb dumb and didn't know a breast from her finger. That's right. Then there's another version called The Sun, the Moon and Talia from the six thirty four by uh gim Batista Basil. And in this version, it's a king who actually rapes

the maiden. She has twins, and the queen finds out and she says, you know what, come here, cook, take this lady, take her kids, cook him, kill him, cook him and feed him to the king. And he says all right, But then he goes off. He's like, I just can't do that. What am I some kind of sick? Oh? I'll just kill a baby lamb and stead and he

feeds them lamb. So yeah, if you were a cook or a huntsman or a woodsman during this era, you like part of your job was murder, Like you were expected to murder innocence at the at the whim of the people in charge. I'm just cutting down some trees. Do you need me to kill someone? Right? I got an X you want me to put someone's heart in a box. All right, Well that was it. Um, be sure to listen to part two of this where we talk about all the weirdness that's behind all of this weirdness, right,

and drugs. Sure, it's always behind the weirdness. Right. Don't you think the grand brothers were token on something? I don't know. Let's find out all right. Uh, if you want to know more about fairy tales that were way darker than you realize as a kid, just type something like that into the search bar at how stuff works dot com and it will bring up this wonderful article. And since I said wonderful, it's time for a listener mail. I'm gonna call this we inspired someone to go back

to college? How about that? Hey, guys, my name is Maria. I'm from LAKEWD, Ohio suburb of Cleveland. I've been listening for a few years, and oh I'm sorry for years. And as soon as I heard you were coming to Pittsburgh, I flipped out and called my mother immediately. She's also a huge fan. Her name is Joanne. Please give her a shout out. So they came to Pittsburgh and they were in the audience. So, however, the reason I'm writing is way more important than that. You guys were my

inspiration to go back to college. After listening to how sign language works, I signed up for classes about a week later. By the first day, I was in love not just with the language, but also with school. I'd forgotten how much I love to learn and be challenged, And at the start of fall semester next year, I'll be returning to school full time and it could not be happier. Uh. In the words of my best friend's dad,

you belong there. How about that? Also in your episode, you mentioned three sentence structures for sign language, um I employee, employee I, or I employee I, and you were curious about the last struck Sure, and the purpose is for clarification. With the different structures long sentences or sentences like I love, you can get super confusing, uh, she said, or sentences it's clearly not a long sentence. It's hard to tell

who was giving and who was receiving the love. By adding the second eye, you're clarifying who is performing the verb. So thanks again for being my entertainment and my inspiration. Keep on doing what you do. You never know whose life you won't influence. Next, that is from Marie Rasmussen. Thank you so much for that email. Marie. We appreciate you best of luck in college and continuing your education. And thank you to you and your mom Joe Anne for coming to our show. I'm glad you guys had

a good time. Uh. If you want to get in touch with us because we inspired you to do something great, or um, because we make you angry whatever, Actually, you know what, we don't care to hear from you if we make you angry to yourself. Uh. You can get in touch with us for Twitter at s Y s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook dot com,

slash stuff you Should Know. You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at how stuff Works dot com, and as always, join us at our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff Works dot com