The Dark Side of the Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales

Dr. Maddy Pelling (0:05)

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, a young woman is pacing her bedroom, holding a shoe of pure gold. The prince of her dreams is downstairs. He and his attendants are waiting to see if she is the woman he's been dancing with for three nights straight.

She isn't. Unfortunately, her step-sister, Cinderella, might be. But in all the hubbub of the festival, he seems to have forgotten his mysterious dance partner's face, voice and defining characteristics. All she has to do to convince the prince that she's the one he's been searching for is to fit her foot into the slipper. The only problem? Her toe is too big. With her mother watching from the bed, the pressure to make her foot squeeze into the tiny slipper is mounting. Slowly, her mother pulls a knife from her skirt. The solution is so simple, she says. Cut off your toe. When you're queen, you will no longer have to go on foot.

With trembling hands, the girl takes the knife, weighing the opportunity of a lifetime over the momentary pain of slicing through her own skin. After all, she can hide the blood, she thinks, and no one will be any the wiser. From the blood-stained pages of the Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales, welcome to After Dark.

And welcome to After Dark. I'm Maddy.

Anthony Delaney (2:13)

And I'm Anthony.

Dr. Maddy Pelling (2:14)

In this episode, we are on the hunt for the real stories behind the fairy tales gathered by the Grimm brothers.

Anthony Delaney (2:20)

Now, you will be familiar with a lot of these stories, but how much do they differ from the dark originals? We are about to find out in today's episode. Maddy Pelling, or as I like to call you, Paddy Melling. Who were the Brothers Grimm outside Matt Damon and that other man in that film?

Dr. Maddy Pelling (2:38)

Who is the other man in that film?

Anthony Delaney (2:40)

It's not Ben Affleck, is it? No.

Dr. Maddy Pelling (2:42)

No, sure. I mean, they're always together in everything, but I don't think it is.

Oh, my God. It's Heath Ledger. We forgot Heath Ledger. Oh, wow. Sorry, Heath.

Anthony Delaney (2:52)

She just blessed herself. You can't see that, but just to let you know.

Dr. Maddy Pelling (2:55)

Oh, Heath Ledger.

Anthony Delaney (2:57)

Oh, what a great actor.

Dr. Maddy Pelling (2:58)

What a great actor. Oh, my God.

Anthony Delaney (3:00)

Dead now.

Dr. Maddy Pelling (3:01)

Who were the Brothers Grimm? Yes, that's what I asked you. Okay, you asked to get back on track.

Anthony Delaney (3:04)

Yes.

Dr. Maddy Pelling (3:04)

Okay, we have those two of them, Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm and Wilhelm Carl Grimm. They were born in the 1780s, and they lived well into the 19th century and into the 1850s and 60s respectively. I am always obsessed with people who span that period of history from the 18th into the 19th century. There's so much change that happens.

I always say there's people who witnessed, albeit from afar in the case of the Grimm Brothers, the French Revolution, but who could feasibly have sat for the first photographs and seen trains. It's hard to compute. They were both born to... Where are they? They were both born? They were both born...

Anthony Delaney (3:44)

That's unusual.

Dr. Maddy Pelling (3:45)

The end. Okay.

They were born to a Calvinist family. And we've been talking about the Calvinists when we did the St. Bartholomew Day Massacre recently. And there's kind of a lot of that history in here, albeit a few centuries later, but the sort of repercussions of that actually. Let's hope that episode goes out first, otherwise nobody's going to know what we're talking about.

Anthony Delaney (4:06)

John Calvin, guys. Just go with that. Reformer religion thing. If you can know a Protestant.

Dr. Maddy Pelling (4:11)

Just Google it.

Anthony Delaney (4:11)

There you go.

Dr. Maddy Pelling (4:13)

So they were born to a Calvinist family with six children in, now, German pronunciation. Yes.

Anthony Delaney (4:18)

I'm excited.

Dr. Maddy Pelling (4:19)

Hesse Castle?

Anthony Delaney (4:20)

I will take it. 10 full marks.

Dr. Maddy Pelling (4:23)

Anyway, they're born in Germany, but this is, of course, before German unification in 1871 So in this particular area of what is now Germany. They're born to a kind of upper middle-class family. Their father is a lawyer and also serves as the chief judicial officer until his death in 1792 Possibly my favourite decade, 1790s. Not for the death of the Grimm Brothers' father, but it's icing on the cake. It's just delicious little detail.

And the fact that the father is a lawyer is important because both of the brothers study law at university and they want to follow in their father's footsteps. But as often happens with us sensitive types, Anthony, we get to university and they become enamoured instead with romantic poetry, medieval literature and folklore.