RARA-AVIS: Fairy tales [was Racism and misogyny]

From: Karin Montin ( kmontin@sympatico.ca)
Date: 12 Nov 2005


The Satchel, the Hat and the Horn (Brothers Grimm) could conceivably be called noir. It's a very un-fairy-tale-like story. Kids raised on Disney don't quite know what to make of it. (SPOILER ALERT)

Three poor brothers go out to seek their fortune. One finds silver, one finds gold, and one gets hold of a magic satchel, hat and horn by double-crossing, thievery and violence on a grand scale. For example, he conjures up a hundred and fifty soldiers to thrash his brothers until they recognize him. He marries a princess who doesn't trust him, but then again, he doesn't trust her, either. And at the end

"things began to tumble down, walls, forts, towns and villages, and killed the King and the King's daughter. And if he had gone on blowing [the magic horn] a little longer everything would have been turned upside-down, but as nobody withstood him any more, he stopped blowing, and made himself King of the whole country."

How's that for a happy ending?

Karin At 16:41 12/11/05 -0500, Mark wrote:

>I recently read Brun Bettelheim's Uses of Enchantment about fairy tales
>and how they function for kids. He's got a lot to say about those
>witches and wicked stepmothers. Fascinating book.
>
>And except for the required happy ending, many of those stories were
>pretty damn dark. Change the POV character and you've got some pretty
>noir tales.

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