These seem to be the two most common sources to find fairy tales from. I have a book of the Grimm fairy tales, 200 stories in that one, I haven't gotten around to reading more than the first couple yet but I'm very curious to find out if there's Snow White in one story, what is in the one Snow White and Rose Red, and why are there several stories involving people named Hansel and Gretel when we only know of the 'original' story? Of course there are far more than where those came from; at the library in the nonfiction section where the fairy tales are kept (huh?), there's Japanese fairy tales, Dutch fairy tales, Swedish fairy tales, etc., obviously they're not as common.

In your opinion, of the two main authors, is one better than the other or do they pretty much even out? And just HOW did we go from fairy tales originally being tales of incest and cannbalism and beastility and homicide, and all that good stuff, and only the brightest scholars got to study them, to them being the pussified politically corrected up pieces of crap they are now. And on the subject of Red Riding Hood being banned some years back because of the illustrations having her carrying a bottle of wine for her granny, what the hell?

I remember the little match girl and thinking, even as a kid, what the hell is that mother thinking sending that kid out to sell matches in the cold winter snow! Even mathilda is a ridiculous story with a 4yr old girl going to the library by herself.


Come on, Hansel and Gretel is pretty messed up when u think about it--- two kids rob from an old lady, then shove her in the oven when she catches them in the act-- yeah i always heard it was a witch, but she wasnt out stalking little kids, they came to her and tried to eat her house! Bluesmama and I live in neighborhoods where u would get shot for that! LOL

but i took a childrens literature class which discussed the vocabulary levels and cognitive learning levels of different age groups--- was pretty interesting. I had to write a paper on peter pan... when u break down the story and look at it scene from scene-- i was like WTF?? Most of the stories we read i raised eyebrows at thinking how are kids reading this stuff. But people forget that kids live in a fantasy world and books/stories are written to help them deal with the real world. I mean, Mathilda was down right abusive! the kids were getting abused in school, verbally and physically. so a kid suffering abuse can relate to this-- reading it actually socializes them.

I never heard the riding hood/wine scenario. Thought she was taking lunch in a basket

I liked Matilda. My mother did not want to see the movie because she thought it was a different one she had seen years before, then she saw it and said 'this is like me and my family', she was very much like that, had to become independent on herself at a very young age and was the only one in the family who liked to read and wanted to learn.

No she wasn't stalking the kids but she fed them with the sole purpose to fatten them up and eat them, that's cannibalism and not justifiable under any law I've heard of.

Though I do have to agree about Peter Pan, as a kid I saw the Mary Martin movie and thought Neverland would be a fun place to live, then you read the original book and it sounds like a downright depressing place to be. And I always wondered WHY Peter Pan was not considered a fairy tale even though it had much to do with fairies.

You know, I first heard that on Golden Girls, that fairy tales were to help teach kids about the real world, but I sure never believed it. Yes there are morals, there are cautionary tales, but I never saw what any of it had to do with our real lives, except maybe the 3 Little pigs because it shows hard work pays off, but for the rest of it...you know, what morals are there?

Well the wine was apparently part of her lunch but some people apparently decided that just couldn't be done in a children's story, I don't know wine; wine and its customs are far older than any of these PC bellyachers.