I found this over at Listverse, and I thought you should read about it. I'm sure there are many more fairy tales that have a gruesome origin, but luckily I don't know about them! At least, not yet !
Pied Piper
“The long procession [of children] soon left the town and made its way through the wood and across the forest till it reached the foot of a huge mountain. When the piper came to the dark rock, he played his pipe even louder still and a great door creaked open. Beyond lay a cave. In trooped the children behind the pied piper, and when the last child had gone into the darkness, the door creaked shut.” This is an excerpt from the famous Grimm brothers version of the very famous tale of the Pied Piper in which the small German town of Hamelin loses all of its children to the Piper when the mayor refuses to pay him for ridding the town of rats. You may be very surprised to know that it is a true story! Well – largely true – some bits are exaggerated. Here is a quote from the wall of the “Piper’s House” in Hamelin today: “In the year of 1284, on the day of Saints John and Paul, the 26th of June, 130 children born in Hamelin were seduced by a piper, dressed in all kinds of colours, and lost at the calvary near the koppen.” Many theories abound as to the factual events of that day but the most logical seems to be that the piper represents death (death was depicted as a skeleton wearing pied clothing in the middle ages) and that the children who died were killed by the plague.
Interesting Fact: “Pied” means “having two or more colors.” The word comes from middle English and is taken from the word “magpie.” Thus, the pied piper was a man wearing clothing of many colors.
If anyone has anymore examples of where some of the fairy tales come from, I sure would like to know about them! After all, you just never know when this stuff might come in handy, ya know?
How about coffee on the patio this morning? It's supposed to go into the upper 70s and that ain't too bad!
A lot of the Grimm tales were really pretty horrible in nature - not at all like the cute Disney versions. They wrote over two hundred stories and you can download all of them free on line.
ReplyDeleteCoffee on the patio sure does sounds good - it's 22 here!
Phyllis is right. The originals were often pretty horrific. Murder, mutilation, and canibalism were common themes.
ReplyDeleteI have heard that a lot of Grimm's Fairy Tales were based on true events. Life back then was very terrible and scary with death being a common event.Coffee outside sounds good to me. Rainy, cool and very damp here.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, good one.
ReplyDeleteSome truths need not be known. But the plague sounds like something that may be truth. Sad anyway.
ReplyDeleteSo lets do something fun and have coffee on the patio and watch Buddy play.
There is a program called Grimm on the tv now filmed in Portland, Oregon across the river from where I live it is pretty gross looking but actually interesting once you get past the gory faces, etc. It seems like fairy tales were that fary like indeed with gruesome twists and turns. I like Hans Christian Andersson tales they really are simple tales for little ones, no use in scaring the be jesus out of the little ones, I don't think it good for little ones imagainations of tiny children. Happy turkey day, it is now upon us, we don't do holidays, so hope you enjoy yours!
ReplyDeleteHey Phyllis...
ReplyDeleteI guess that they wrote about what they knew. Lots of sadness back in those days!
Too cold there for me, so my patio look like a great place to stay warm!
Thanks for coming over this morning.
Hey Sixbears...
Probably we really don't want to know the origin of some of the stories! Might lead to some pretty awful nightmares!
Makes you wonder about some of the other stories, doesn't it?
Hey Linda...
Like I told Sixbears, guess they wrote about what they knew!
Scary is a good word for it!
Thanks for the visit today!
Hey John...
Thanks, my friend! I appreciate it!
Also, thanks for coming over today!
Hey Jo...
You are certainly right that some things are probably best not known!
The plague was indeed a terrible thing, but the living conditions made it possible, to a large extent!
Thanks, sweetie, for coming by today!
Hey Anon 9:21...
I think that a lot of the Grimm fairy tales are "grim!" Maybe that's where they got their name!
I don't do holidays very often and wouldn't at all...except for Mom's sake!
Thanks for the visit this morning!
Mr Grimm lived up to a sound a like word: grim.
ReplyDeleteHey Dizzy...
ReplyDeleteSome of their stories had a "grim" origin, or so it would seem!
I'm going to research this all a little further!
Thanks for coming over today, buddy!