Day 12: Blood and Doves

Most of us know our fairy tale princesses these days through the medium of Disney animators, and everyone expects a good Disney fairy tale to be rated G. A lot of the classic fairy tales are much grislier than we realize, like the Cinderella story that turns up in my Brothers Grimm collection. Our heroine is not named after the cinders in the fireplace, but instead after the ashes. Ashenputtel gets special help with her stepmother’s impossible chores from her little bird friends, and they are also the ones who prepare her three ball gowns for three nights of dancing with the prince.

But here’s where details were tamed down a bit in Disney compared to this version collected from German villagers by the Grimm brothers: When it is time to do the shoe fitting, one of the stepsisters temporarily passes for the Prince’s sweetheart, because her mother gave her a knife and told her to cut off her big toe. She is exposed as an imposter only by the birds who call the Prince’s attention to her bloody foot which is leaving a trail of blood as he carries her off into the sunset. The second step-sister then gets to try the shoe and it fits her because she has chopped off a piece of her heel. As their mother saw it, “When you are a queen you won’t have to walk anymore.” But the birds again sang their song, “Look back, look back, there’s blood on the track,” and the prince went back to see if there were any other daughters at home.

When Ashenputtel gets to try on the shoe and it fits, the two White Doves sing a new song, “Look back, look back, no blood on the track, You are carrying the true Bride home.” Blood tells the difference between false and true in this fairy tale.

The ending is gorier too, more like a scene from Hitchcock’s classic thriller The Birds. When the two sisters show up at the wedding to try to make friends with the new Princess in order to share her good fortune, the two White Doves peck out the eyes of each of them. Would you tell your little princess this story? Is it much too fierce for little ears? Eighteenth century Germans didn’t think so.