And they all lived.....

I've been thinking a lot about fairy tales lately. I'm not sure why. I've been thinking about the whole "prince-charming-happily-ever-after-ride-off-into-the-sunset-fairy-godmother-rags-to-riches" idea and wondering.

When did it all get started? How did it all get started? I think that fairy tales used to be just that: tales about fairies. Warnings about fairies, if you will. Like: don't make a fairy mad by not inviting her to your party or you'll end up pricking your finger and falling asleep for 100 years. Or, if you're really sweet and do your chores, some benevolent fairy will come along and give you gifts and you'll get to go to the ball and dance with the prince. I don't think the moral was about poor girl meets amazing, rich guy, he's smitten, he fights the dragon, she falls in love, they get married and live happily ever after. The point was the fairies. Not the princes and their various paramours.

So yeah. I think they started out as tales about fairies. And they became pretty popular. Everybody wanted to read them, the magazines were sold out as soon as they were put on the stand, the tv stations aired them every weekend. Yeah, it was a big industry. And everybody wanted a piece of it.

And out of that industry came great stories like Beauty and the Beast:
A young and selfish prince ticks off a fairy and she turns him into a beast until he is able to unselfishly love someone other than himself. A beautiful young girl comes along and is able to see past his hideous exterior and grows to love him and in return, he learns to love and regains his human form.

We all know the story. But I think it actually went like this:
There was once a young man who was the ugliest man in the world. And because he was ugly, he was also the crankiest man in the world. After all, what do ugly people have to be happy about? One day a beautiful young girl wanders onto his property and he imprisons her for trespassing. And during that time, he is mean and ugly, but she sees that it's all because he is unattractive. Eventually, she stops seeing the ugliness and falls in love with him. She sees only his personality (which turns out to be quite pleasant once you get past the crankiness). They get married and live - ever after. Not always happily, because sometimes the crankiness comes back out, but they do live ever after.

But then a young Hans Christian Anderson takes the story to a publishing house and the editor says "well, Mr. Anderson, I like the general story, but it's not going to sell without some fairies in it. It's all the rage now, you know? So how about we change this here, rearrange this here, add in a character here and voila! You've got a fairy tale!"

And Mr. Anderson, although he hates the idea of being a sell-out, has to eat, so he goes along with it, sure that someday, after he's made it big, he'll be able to write stories HIS way.

And that's how I think it happened.

Next week: The real Snow White.