In “The Jew in the Brambles” the protagonist happily torments a Jew by forcing him to dance in a thicket of thorns. The Grimms gathered over 200 tales for their collection, three of which contained Jewish characters. And in “The Stubborn Child” a youngster dies after God lets him become sick. The title character in “Frau Trude” turns a disobedient girl into a block of wood and tosses her into a fire.

But not every child in the Grimms’ book is so lucky. Snow White eventually wins the day, as does the boy in “The Juniper Tree,” who is brought back to life. She then chops up his body, cooks him in a stew and serves it to her husband, who enjoys the meal so much he asks for seconds. In “The Juniper Tree” a woman decapitates her stepson as he bends down to get an apple. Snow White is just 7 years old when the huntsman takes her into the forest with orders to bring back her liver and lungs. Child abuseĮven more shockingly, much of the violence in “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” is directed at children. The princess in “The Frog King” turns her amphibian companion into a human not by kissing it, but instead by hurling it against a wall in frustration. In “Cinderella” the evil stepsisters cut off their toes and heels trying to make the slipper fit and later have their eyes pecked out by doves in “The Six Swans” an evil mother-in-law is burned at the stake in “The Goose Maid” a false bride is stripped naked, thrown into a barrel filled with nails and dragged through the streets and in “Snow White” the wicked queen dies after being forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes.

Other tales have similarly gory episodes.

A particularly horrific incident occurs in “The Robber Bridegroom,” when some bandits drag a maiden into their underground hideout, force her to drink wine until her heart bursts, rip off her clothes and then hack her body into pieces. Graphic violenceĪlthough the brothers Grimm toned down the sex in later editions of their work, they actually ramped up the violence. The Grimms stripped the sex scenes from later versions of “Rapunzel” and “The Frog King” and eliminated “Hans Dumm” entirely.īut hidden sexual innuendos in “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” remained, according to psychoanalysts, including Sigmund Freud and Erich Fromm, who examined the book in the 20th century.

In the original version of “Rapunzel,” published in 1812, a prince impregnates the title character after the two spend many days together living in “joy and pleasure.” “Hans Dumm,” meanwhile, is about a man who impregnates a princess simply by wishing it, and in “The Frog King” a princess spends the night with her suitor once he turns into a handsome bachelor.

GRIMM FAIRY TALES #0 by Joe Brusha