We all grew up watching Disney films. They are sweetened versions of fairy tales that are actually horrific and gruesome. Original versions of these fairy tales are of death and blood.

One of the more childhood-ruining stories is of sleeping beauty. According to listverse.com, in the Disney sleeping beauty, the lovely princess is put to sleep when she pricks her finger on a spindle. She sleeps for one hundred years when a prince finally arrives, kisses her, and awakens her. They fall in love, marry, and live happily ever after. But alas, the original tale is not so sweet. In the original, the young woman is put to sleep because of a prophesy, rather than a curse. And it isn’t the kiss of a prince which wakes her up: the king seeing her asleep, rapes her. After nine months she gives birth to two children. One of the children sucks her finger which removes the piece of flax which was keeping her asleep. She wakes up to find herself raped and the mother of two kids.

In Hans Christian Andersen’s original tale of the little mermaid, Ariel can only come on land to be with the handsome prince if she drinks a potion that makes it feel like she is walking on knives at all times. She does, and you would expect her selfless act to end with the two of them getting married. Nope. The prince marries a different woman. Her sisters offer her a knife to stab the prince and kill him, but she refuses. The Little Mermaid throws herself into the sea due to grief, where her body dissolves into sea foam because she wasn’t human and had no soul. In more modern forms of this tale, instead of sea foam she becomes a star. Readers thought it was too cruel to imply she had no soul.

Many of the fairy tales you grew up with are horrifying. Although we say these wonderful stories are for children, the original versions of the Disney edited tales were told as horror stories around the campfire.

FSA Connection Questions

1. In the article author compares what?
2. In the piece, the word ‘Original’ means what?
3. The author seems to offer what main idea?
4. Select the best two sentences from the story that support the idea of horror.
5. What is the connotation of the word ‘horrific’ in the story?