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(#7) Everyone Dies In "The Death Of The Little Hen"
"The Death of the Little Hen" by the Brothers Grimm is particularly disturbing because cute little animals suffer so tragically. A little hen and little rooster live together on Nut Mountain. They agree to share all of their food as friends but when the hen finds a large kernel, she selfishly tries to eat it all by herself. Ironically, she chokes to death because the morsel is too big to eat alone. Her devastated rooster pal plans a funeral procession but in bleak succession, all of the other little forest animals die on the way to the burial site.
The rooster survives but is "all alone with the dead little hen." He dies of sadness atop his friend's casket.
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(#10) "The Jew In The Brambles" Is Pretty Anti-Semitic
In addition to being creative purveyors of bleak fiction, the Brothers Grimm were decidedly racist. Their story, "The Jew In The Brambles," is full of racial stereotypes and seems to encourage antisemitism.
When a fiddler plays near an area covered in thorns, the Jewish man in the story is compelled to dance in the thorny field and he cannot make himself stop. His clothing and skin are shredded to bits in the process but still the fiddler plays on, assuming that the Jewish man is a thief and deserving of punishment.
The battered man offers the fiddler a pouch of gold in exchange for his release, then runs to a judge to relay the wrongdoing. The judge catches the fiddler and forces him to atone for his crimes. In a twist of fate, though, the fiddler plays his magical instrument and forces all members of the court to dance.
It's eventually revealed that the Jewish man is indeed a criminal and he's hanged instead of the fiddler but the Brothers Grimm seem to insinuate that because he's Jewish he could've never been guiltless.
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(#3) A Woman In "The Goose Bride" Gets Thrown Into A Barrel Full Of Nails
In this story of mistaken identities and stolen courtships, we're introduced to a beautiful princess who is outsmarted and robbed by her chambermaid. The chambermaid pretends to be the true princess and is almost married to a prince as reward for her deception. When, finally, the true princess is able to relay her story, the king returns her former riches and finery. With her beautiful clothes returned, everyone is able to see her for who she is.
The chambermaid doesn't realize that her plot has been discovered and when asked how a thief and liar should be punished she answers in a most gruesome way. In turn when the king declares her a treacherous robber, her own words damn her.
She's stripped stark naked and then put in a barrel that is studded inside with sharp nails. This isn't the end of the lying maid's punishment, though. Her barrel is then hitched to white horses and dragged throughout the kingdom until she meets a painful death.
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(#5) Snow White Was Only Seven Years Old When The Queen Tried To Have Her Killed
When Snow White's beauty exceeds that of the queen's, she has to die. The Brothers Grimm title character is only seven-years-old when the queen orders a hunter to "take Snow White out into the woods... kill her... and bring her lungs and her liver back."
The huntsman can't bring himself to commit the deed and tells Snow White to run away, although he believes that wild animals will devour her anyway. He shows the helpless child mercy, relatively speaking, but only after kidnapping and almost killing her.
After many attempts, the queen successfully kills Snow White with a poisoned apple. When the prince finds the cursed beauty, his servant (enraged by royal servitude) strikes her so violently that the apple chunk she ate is dislodged from her throat.
Snow White and her prince fall in love, marry, and invite the jealous queen to witness their nuptials. When the queen arrives, she is forced to wear burning hot iron shoes and dance until she falls dead upon the ground.
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(#12) Hunting Leads To Fratricide In "The Singing Bone"
The depraved tale of "The Singing Bone" begins when a savage boar ravages a kingdom. The king offers to reward whoever kills the beast (as kings are oft to do). Two poor brothers take on the task and it seems that they will succeed and live happily. The animal is defeated but in a drastic turn of events, one brother kills the other, buries his bones, and takes all the credit. Years later, a shepherd finds the deceased brother's bone and uses it as a musical instrument. The bone sings of its own accord and recounts a grim tale.
Oh, my dear shepherd,
You are blowing on my little bone
My brother killed me,
And buried me beneath the bridge,
To get the wild boor
For the daughter of the king.The shepherd takes the bone to the king to get retribution and is not disappointed as the murderous brother is put into a sack and drowned alive. The punishment is deserved and more-than-a-little drastic but that is completely apropos for the Brothers Grimm
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(#13) The King In "All-Kinds-Of-Fur" Wants To Marry His Daughter
Though this fairytale does have a bit of a happy ending, it starts off quite direly. The king in "All-Kinds-Of-Fur" promises his dying wife that he will only remarry if he finds a woman whose beauty is equal to her own. He looks for anther woman to marry but the only person who compares to his wife, is their daughter. The icky king endeavors to win her affections.
In an attempt to dissuade her father, the princess insists that she can only marry him if he gives her three glorious dresses and a cloak made of every animal's fur. Despite the difficulty of the tasks, the king prevails and his daughter has to abandon the only home she's ever known to avoid her father's sick attentions.
She wanders into the forest and is found by another king's huntsman who allows her to work in the palace kitchen. Eventually she is recognized as royalty and married to a new king her but she certainly had to work hard for what can only be described as a minor victory.
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