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Disney has done more than anybody else to bring fairytales into current popular culture. However, the forms we are familiar with from Disney’s Princess films are only the most recent in a lengthy sequence of modifications. I’m going to highlight previous versions of each film, starting with the oldest and ending with the most current. I’ll talk about Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty Origin this time.
I’d want to introduce you to a few recurring characters before I begin. While most of these tales contain the imprints of several storytellers, a select number have had a particularly significant impact on the stories we know.
- Charles Perrault: In 1697, the majority of his stories were published by a French collector. His versions are less violent than others, but they nevertheless have a tendency to be classist.
- Hans Christian Andersen: A Danish author who has written a number of original fairytales. Between 1830 and 1850, he published the majority of his stories. His creations were frequently whimsical and religious in nature.
- Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: These German nationalists, known as the Brothers Grimm, attempted – and generally failed – to gather stories that were entirely Germanic in origin. They published several versions of their stories, the earliest of which was published in 1812. Until 1857, they continued to add to and improve their collection. The alterations were mostly made to make the stories more “kid-friendly,” as their versions are often more violent than those in other well-known collections, and several of the stories are openly sexist.
But enough about the dead; let’s speak about tales.
Content Notice: These stories include torture and self-mutilation.
Snow White Origin
Snow White is based on the Grimm Brothers’ Snow White. In the oldest Grimm story, the Queen was Snow White’s true mother. She desired a lovely daughter, but when her mirror tells her that Snow White is more beautiful than she is, she becomes envious and hates her. The original Queen died in childbirth in a later version, and the King* marries a lady who is “proud and arrogant.” The Queen tolerates Snow White until her mirror tells her the awful news.
When Snow White is just seven years old, the mirror indicates that she is the “fairest of them all.” I’d like to believe the Queen stews in enmity for a few years, but there’s no evidence that she does. The huntsman is then ordered to murder Snow White and deliver her the girl’s lungs and liver (rather than her heart) to eat. Snow White is generally allowed loose by the huntsmen because he believes the wild animals would murder her anyhow.
Snow White discovers the dwarfs’ hut after several days of wandering about outside, resulting in a situation that is eerily similar to Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The Queen attempts to murder Snow White three times while she is residing with the dwarfs. First by tying her bodice’s laces too tightly, next by putting a poisoned comb in her hair*, and finally by giving her the familiar fruit. Each time the dwarfs caution Snow White not to converse to strangers because they may be the Queen in disguise, yet she does it nonetheless. She is, however, just seven years old.
There is no curse on the apple that can be broken by sincere love and kisses. Because it’s poisoned, it succeeds in getting trapped in Snow White’s throat. The princess was earlier saved by the dwarfs untying her laces and removing the comb from her hair, but they are unable to see the bit of apple. They pronounce her dead. They can’t stand to bury her since she’s so lovely, so they placed her in a glass coffin instead.
Snow White is said to have lain in the casket for a “long, long time,” implying that years have passed and she has grown older. While it is also stated in the later version that she does not alter, it is possible that the Brothers Grimm were just referring to the fact that her body does not decay. I hope so, because if not, she’ll still be seven when the creepy prince arrives.
Disney was wise to have the prince and Snow White fall in love before tragedy struck, although he first meets her while she is laying in her glass coffin in the original. He gets enamored with her and begs the dwarfs to give her to him, saying that she will be his “dearest possession.” This apparently appeals to them, and they agree to part with her.
There’s no nonconsensual kissing, at least. In the later version, one of the coffin carriers trips on his route to the king’s palace, causing the apple piece to fall out of Snow White’s neck. In a previous version, the prince takes her home and has his attendants carry her coffin wherever he goes because he becomes unhappy and refuses to eat until he is looking at her. Finally, one of the maids becomes enraged and smacks her in the back, dislodging the apple chunk.
She wakes up and marries the prince in either case. The Queen is invited to the wedding, but when she arrives, her feet are covered in red-hot iron shoes, and she dances herself to death. It was an improvement, as dumb as Disney’s conclusion is, with the Queen neatly tumbling off a cliff.
Cinderella Origin
While the Disney version is based on a reworking by Perrault, Cinderella is undoubtedly one of the oldest and most ubiquitous fairy tales in western culture. The earliest known version is from approximately 50 BCE, and it’s about a Greek slave girl named Rhodopis. As a reward for her elegant dance, her teacher gives her a lovely pair of slippers. The other slave females taunt her because they are jealous. Then one day, a falcon snatches one of her slippers and places it in the lap of the Pharaoh who is visiting. He interprets it as a divine sign and proclaims that whichever the slipper fits will be his wife. He vows he will marry the slave girl when she tries it on and shows him that the second one is in her possession.
What does it say about us that feminine envy and attractive footwear are two elements of a story that has been passed down for over two thousand years? At the very least, we now understand why the Pharaoh/King/Prince can’t recognize her without the shoe, which is a mystery in the Disney version. The narrative didn’t feature any prior meeting between Rhodopis and her royal love interest when the chapter about the shoe was written.
In every story I’ve found, the girl we name Cinderella had supernatural assistance, but the nature of that assistance has altered considerably over time. The deity Horus, according to the Rhodopis story, was the hawk who took her shoe. She grows a tree in subsequent versions, and a fairy who dwells inside it offers her presents as required. It’s a fairy godmother without a tree, according to Perrault. The tree was a representation of Cinderella’s dead mother in another European version. She put it on top of her mother’s grave and watered it with tears. She would shake the tree to receive her garments, and a pair of birds would drop nuts containing her attire. The Grimm version is very similar, but the miracles are credited to God rather than the mother’s spirit.
Cinderella aggressively hides her identity from her royal lover in every rendition where they meet at a ball. This is especially perplexing in the Grimm adaptation, where the party lasts three days and her gowns do not dissolve into rags at midnight. When the prince tries to track her down to find out who she is, she eludes him by entering a pigeon house and then going across the garden. Even in Perrault’s version, the Prince obtains the shoe by smearing tar on the stairwell to prevent her from fleeing. It’s never obvious why she’s attempting to flee. It can’t be because she dislikes the prince since she wouldn’t keep going to the ball to dance with him if that were the case. Whatever it is, once the Prince/King/Pharaoh locates her and convinces her to try on the shoe, all of her irrational anxiety vanishes.
While we now think of Cinderella as a story about a simple girl marrying a prince, this isn’t the case in every rendition. Rhodopis may have been a slave, but she is a noblewoman in Perrault’s portrayal. Only the most eligible females were invited to the prince’s ball. Her step-sisters’ transgression was turning her into a servant in her own house.
Of course, the Brothers Grimm couldn’t allow such a heinous act to go unpunished. To fit into the shoe, the step-sisters chopped off a portion of their foot in their version. It even works until the prince’s magic doves inform him that he is bleeding. The doves then peck out their eyes when Cinderella marries, because they are cruel yet beautiful, and this can’t be allowed to continue.
Sleeping Beauty Origin
The Grimms’ Little Briar Rose is the most similar to Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. That narrative was based on Perrault’s The Sleeping Beauty, which was influenced by Giambattista Basile‘s Italian novel Sun, Moon, and Talia. I’m basically going to tell you about the first version, but just so you know, it’s completely messed up.
Content Notice: In this narrative, there is a mention of sexual assault.
Talia is the heroine’s name in Basile’s rendition. She is the daughter of a wealthy nobleman, not a princess. There are no fairies to curse or bless her — they were added by Perrault. Instead, the lord’s astrologers predict that she will be harmed by a flax splinter. The lord, like later versions, forbids the use of hemp or flax. Talia, however, discovers a secluded and innocent elderly woman spinning when she is fifteen. She is enthralled with spinning, something she has never seen before, and she is anxious to attempt it for herself. She gets a splinter beneath her nail and “dies” as soon as she does.
There is no fairy to put everyone to sleep and make the mansion sprout large thorns. Talia is there when the King (who is already married) comes by with a hunting party and puts her up on a velvet throne and abandons the location out of sadness. When he sees Talia, he attempts to rouse her. In the event that this fails, he drags her into a bedroom and rapes her as she sleeps. After that, he abandons her.
It may come as a comfort to learn that in Perrault’s version, the prince does not kiss Sleeping Beauty while she is sleeping.* Instead, he kneels before her and awakens her up. Then they have a four-hour conversation that is only broken up when the hungry servants drag them down to dinner. That’s not a joke; that’s how it works.
Returning to the dreadful Basile version. Talia gives birth to a boy and a girl who are subsequently given the names Sun and Moon. Two fairies enter the story to assist with the birth, only to disappear again. Because they can’t reach their mother’s breasts and don’t have any fairies to aid them, the newborns start sucking on her fingers. They suck out the splinter, and Talia awakens.* The King arrives (presumably to abuse Talia again), and finds her awake with his children. He tells her what he did, but she doesn’t seem worried, and the two bond romantically. Ew.
Now comes the story’s true villain, the present Queen (of course).* She discovers her husband is cheating on her, and since she is enraged, she becomes very nasty. Talia’s children are summoned to the castle under the guise that the King wishes to see them, and she then instructs the cook to kill them and present them to the King as a feast. Because the cook does not want to do this, he hides the children and instead kills a couple of lambs. The lambs are exceedingly appetizing to the King, who consumes them. He has no idea why his wife is acting so strange.
Talia is then summoned by the Queen, who accuses her of taking her husband. Talia describes the entire rape situation to the Queen, but she refuses to listen. Instead, she orders Talia to be thrown into a pyre by the servants. Talia delays her death by, strangely enough, removing her garments. When the King arrives to rescue the day, she’s down to her last underwear. He has his wife flung into the pyre instead when she informs him that she fed his children to him. He comes close to doing the same to the Cook, but thankfully the Cook’s wife is nearby with Sun and Moon and hands them up.
The King then marries Talia, and the two of them live… happily ever after?