The finest fairytales are dark and sad.
Arthur Rackham illustration of The Goose Girl.
Good people suffer. Bad people reign. Terrible things happen. There is ugliness in the world. Life is scary and it ends in death. The fairytales that really stay with you understand these things, and you believe them no matter how prettily Disney lies. When people say “That’s a fairytale” to refer to a story with an improbably happy ending, they must mean the Disney versions or Hollywood flicks. The best fairy tales are full of cruelty and terror, so when you hear in the end that “They lived happily ever after” you know they have paid dearly for their happiness (and you ignore that foreboding. . .).
Cornelia Funke, the author of Inkheart and Reckless, discusses her top 10 fairytales in the Guardian. The article contains links to the stories themselves. I still remember how disturbing The Goose Girl and The Six Swans were the first time I read them; what is it about girls, curses and birds?
July 7th, 2011 at 06:16
It’s a good thing Oscar Wilde (The Birthday of the Infanta) is represented here. His fairy tales are wonderful and timeless. Anyone remember The Selfish Giant?
July 8th, 2011 at 11:31
I read all five hyperlinked fairy tales (three Grimm, one Andersen, and one Wilde) and could only recall Andersen’s The Nightingale from my childhood.
The Grimms’ Boy Who Did Not Know How to Shudder (a fair alternate title) was hilarious.
I’m curious about the tale from the Urals and the two from France (which were not hyperlinked).
July 8th, 2011 at 11:40
Remember Jim Henson’s Storyteller series starring John Hurt and the very expressive dog muppet? And the white lion? They had an excellent adaptation of The Boy Who Left Home To Find Out About The Shudders (directed by Anthony Minghella I think). All the episodes are wonderful. I especially loved The Soldier and Death, based on a Russian fairytale. The series is available on DVD.
The Mistress of Copper Mountain is here. First story, titled The Stone Flower.
I vaguely remember a film adaptation of Donkeyskin. Creeped me out as a child.
July 8th, 2011 at 16:41
Donkeyskin was Sapsorrow and Six Swans were The Three Ravens in The Storyteller. Also could not forget Bluebeard and Baba Yaga (this one more for the imagery – the riders, the chicken house, and Baba Yaga’s really scary). The DC Vertigo series Fables attempts to feature the creepy aspects of the fairy tales while making ‘new’ adventures of the traditional characters Tarantinoesque.
July 9th, 2011 at 02:35
i love jim henson’s storyteller :) they’re magical :)