A Grimm Post

Today is the 200th anniversary of Grimm's Fairy Tales.

I love Grimm's Fairy Tales.
I adore Grimm's Fairy Tales!

Have you ever read the originals? They are not Disney-fied no way no how!

Cinderella is super gruesome- cutting off body parts- pecking out eyes- total gross out story.
Rapunzel is pretty bloody too.

But they're just so darn GOOD!

As far as Hollywood goes, my favorite story is called The Singing Bone. This clip is from a movie called The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm. It has a few of the stories they wrote. They're so cute (check out the Elves and the Shoemaker (plus it's kinda Christmasy so there's and extra reason to watch it). There is also the Twelve Dancing Princesses (with my childhood crush, Russ Tamblyn [Gideon from Seven Brides])

My favorite from this movie though, is called The Singing Bone.

Hans is a poor servant- doing everything he can to please his master. When his master hears of a kingdom being ravaged by a dragon- and the prize for slaying the dragon is half the kingdom, he decides to take his faithful servant and destroy the dragon. But he is a coward. A sniveling coward. So when the approached the dragon's lair and saw the bodies of knights and princes strewn across the cave, burned to ash and dust, the master hid behind a rock and sent faithful Hans in to dispose of the foul beast.  Hans, afraid yet loyal, slays the beast. On their way back to the castle, they stop for a break. While Hans is resting, the Master takes his sword and runs poor Hans through. He buried him under the tree and left him forgotten and alone. He made his way back to the King's throne to claim his prize. After some time has passed, a young shepherd boy, leading his flock through the forest, sits under a tree to rest. There he finds a bone. "This would make a splendid flute" he says. He pulls out his knife and carves holes into the bone. And when he blew into his new flute...

It's just a haunting story. I don't know if it's the sound of the flute- or the whole story, but I love it. Ever since I was a little little kid and first saw this movie- I loved it.

Movies aside, my favorite Grimm story of all- I'd never heard of until I was on my mission. We were working with a man named Bill. I have no idea how we got onto the subject one day, but he wanted to read us a story. Oh- that's what it was- we'd told him one of "our" stories- so he wanted to tell us one of "his".

Anyway, he read this story- my companions I don't think were very impressed- but I'd never heard this story. I thought it was absolutely the funniest story I'd ever read- and several times after that, I'd request him to read it to me. The way he told it was just. so. good. (sigh... I really miss him... no idea whatever happened to him. I lost track of him )

The story is called The Three Spinners.

Read it. Seriously. It's so awesome. You'll just die over the ending. It does not end how you would think a fairy tale would end. It's just my favorite.