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The Unhinged Historian

Good Day Ladies and Gents!

There is now an official page for The Unhinged Historian Blog, so head on over by clicking on the badge and become a fan. For those who are saying, I already am a fan, um... I'm sorry I changed the page. It used to be shared with my author page but I decided to make it a page of it's own so I can really get going with fun content.

Why become a fan? Because I'll be posting bonus material on the page and even ask you guys for your input to create blog posts. I'll post interesting photos I find, and research sites I discover. I'm often perusing the net to confirm facts or double check things, and I find these awesome sites that I want to share with you. You guys are also super knowledgeable and I want to ask you questions!

I'm hoping to start a discussion for next week's post so go go go, make it so I'm not the only one who likes my own fan page... =/  It's sad.

And now to the blog post! I didn't want to make the Facebook thing my entire post this week and it feels wrong to say you have to like my Facebook page to get this week's content. It just seems wrong.

The Unrealized Creepiness of Fairy Tales

This week's post is inspired by my very first book endorsement. Yippie! And my endorser who was kind enough to point out that readers will probably not believe a reference I made to "Cinderella" as historical, so I looked it up to double check, and I found this neat resource: The Wee Web: Rare, Collectible, and Used Children's Books. I didn't flip through the entire site, but the page this link leads to tells of the origins of a few fairy tales including Cinderella.

photo credit: aqsahu via photopin cc

This got me thinking about how fairy tales really were the first creepy historicals that most of us were exposed to. Of course everyone knows about The Grimm's Fairy Tales. I used to think this was made popular by teen goths from my generation until I read a few and realized I had actually read them as a child - probably in school. Then I started Googling away and found that when you search fairy tale origins, all the results come up with mentions of how the origins are disturbing:

The Disturbing Origins of 10 Famous Fairy Tales
Ten Gruesome Fairy Tale Origins
The Gruesome Origin of Five Classic Fairy Tales

Disclaimer - fairy tales change so much over time that you might find some of these lists differ in what they call the origins. I'm not posting these with the guarantee that they are discussing the 100 percent original stories but they are discussing older version of these stories.

I once read a children's story that was literally about how a hermit-priest tricks a little girl into thinking that his erect member is the devil and the only way to get rid of it is for her to smother it with - well what do you think? This was a medieval children's story I read in an anthology for a literature class, but still OMG! I still have that anthology and will try to find that story for you guys because it's messed up! The little girl enjoys it in the story and thinks it's fun and wants to do it so much that the priest decides to get rid of her. At the end when she taken in by some adult women, she tells them how sad she is that she won't be able to banish the devil anymore. The women in the story laugh about it as a joke and then tell her not to worry, that she'll get to banish the devil all she wants when she gets married.

If you think about it, even the modern "cleaned up" versions of fairy tales are still pretty awful things happening to people. Cinderella is still a girl who has her entire life robbed from her by a gold digging step-mother, Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs are about being malled and killed by a wolf. Even in the cleaned up version, usually several pigs die. And of course who could forget Hansel and Gretel and that canabilization story.

Now the fact that fairy tales are creepy is not a new concept. People have been talking about this for a long time, obviously by the lists I found online, but I'm bringing it up for a different reason. I'm bringing it up because these are the original creepy, paranormal, magical and gothic historicals. Children are exposed to these and as adults remained fascinated by them. They are gold for fiction.

photo credit: seriykotik1970 via photopin cc

This is why so many authors and television shows use fairy tales for inspiration, like Once Upon a Time, Grimm, etc., but I recommend finding lesser know tales like the molestation tale I read or going back to the originals for your inspiration. Rather than making a modern day version that is clearly a take on a fairy tale, and which has been done, I reccomend focusing specifically on what makes these fairy tales creepy because it's not always about daughter-slaves and child canabalization. Study the methods of creepiness and see how you can incorporate them into your writing.

For example, I recently reread Rumpelstiltskin in Grimm's Fairy Tales. If you read that story again you'll find that yes it's creepy that this troll-like thing wants to steal a woman's baby to eat it, and it's creepy that he tricked her into being locked away and forced to bargain with him, and it's creepy that her only salvation rests in the impossible task of guessing his name out of millions of names.

But the real reason this story is freaking creepy is that this little troll-goblin somehow has access to her prison cell. She is locked up in a prison by a guy who thinks she can spin gold. After he slams the cell door shut on her, making it very clear that she can never get out unless she does what he wants, somehow this hobgoblin opens the cell door and comes in to bargain with her.

How does he get in? How does he have access? Could you imagine being imprisoned and then someone who isn't associated with the prison at all comes into your cell and starts offering you freedom if you promise something to him - who let him in there in the first place? How did he get in without a key? Oh and it's a hobgoblin. It's hard to explain why this seems so creepy to me, but it's the kind of creepiness that can really inspire you to spin some gold. Get it?

Anyway, it's a short story. Read it to see what I'm talking about Rumpelstiltskin. Tell me if you agree.

DISCUSSION: what do you think is at its core the creepiest fairy tale - old or newer version? What is it, other than the obvious that makes these stories so creepy, or do you think it usually the obvious? Post links to the stories on the Facebook page! Like how I tied that in there?