{This is in response to a photo prompt from Friday Fictioneers, run by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. I went a bit over: 17 words over, to be precise. The rhyme scheme made it difficult to cut much, without losing something crucial, Hope you will forgive me this once. 🙂
A few words may need explaining: Fraktur is a typeface used in printed books in German from the 1500’s to the 1940’s. The link above has a fascinating history of the typeface, including a mention that Hitler actually outlawed the typeface in 1941, but it nevertheless continued to be used. So, ironically, after WWII, it was almost exclusively associated with the Third Reich.
The name Struwwelpeter may not be familiar to those of you without German ancestry. It was an 1845 illustrated book of morality tales, in the form of poems, by Heinrich Hoffmann. The link above is to a Wikipedia page on it, which includes the classic picture of Struwwelpeter. The book was read to young children to prevent them from doing naughty things, which, in these poems, invariably brings the young hellions to a very bad end. Not exactly happily- ever-after stuff.
Thank you for the prompt and as always, for reading. }
With Hansel and Gretel
And Red Riding Hood,
Who else remains hidden,
In this lone wood?
In hectares of darkness,
For decades of age,
What grim tales in Fraktur
Appear on the page?
There’s wolves in these shadows.
There’s witches and trolls.
And one Rumpelstiltskin
Trades babies for gold.
And wild Struwwelpeter,
With tangles and claws,
Will cut off your thumbkins,
And burn down your house!
These fables, obnoxious
To delicate ears:
Why listen, when, noxious,
They play on our fears?
What right have they,
Stirring our anger and dread,
When all that we want
Is our warm, cozy bed?
Once, Hamelin’s rat catcher
Piped kids to the bay.
What fairy tales should we
Be telling, today?
Copyright 2018 Andrea LeDew
Great take on the prompt. It’s funny but just recently I was thinking about Grimms Fairytales and remembering the old nursery rhymes which were so scary and disturbing. Can’t believe children use to read or have them told to them.
Styles of parenting have changed in many ways, over time.
So clever! Great story in prose. Love those creepy tales
Thank you Laurie! All those wonderful names lend themselves to rhyme, don’t they?
This is wonderful fun, from first word to last. I’m German and I grew up with this stuff. Yes, they are gruesome. All of them have morals. Where the Grimms, as I’m sure you know, have collected folk tales from all over the place (Germany wasn’t Germany back then but a conglomerate of kingdoms and such, and there were some pretty horrible antisemitic tales in there, too, so the moral of these is questionable at best). Hans Christian Andersen invented his fairy tales, they all have a message as well, and the Struwwelpeter’s intent as far as I know, was to scare children into behaving properly. Give me Alice in Wonderland instead any time to get these messages across…
I think there are great stories out there for today’s kids. Shrek, Harry Potter, A wrinkle in time, and so on… Kids today, I think, are too sophisticated to fall for the simple black and white, but that doesn’t mean that a moral in a story would be wasted.
So glad to get your perspective on this, gah. Its been a while since I read either Grimm or Struwwelpeter, so I can’t vouch for the degree of antisemetism in either.
Any degree is too much in my book, of course. But you cant swing a cat during this time period (1840s–1900s) without hitting some rich vein of unfounded prejudice.
It’s like the arguments about whether Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer should be read by children because of their portrayals of black characters in a racist way. Do we throw the baby (or book)out with the bathwater, because the age had misguided, evil and harmful beliefs, and they crept into the literature? Or do we seek to read them, keeping in mind their context? I would argue the latter.
Youre right, theres lots of great children’s lit out there, new and old. I guess my point was more that by sanitizing the experience of our children too much, we can take away their ability to recognize and fight the bad things they will surely encounter in this world.
I know. German versions of some books now try to use the political correct words instead of the original. I’m a bit divided on that. I think it is immensely important to adjust language to be less racist, less sexist, less prejudiced and whenever possible, the less offensive version should be used. In older works however… hm. Depends on whether it changes the meaning, I guess.
With Twain and the Grimms and other older stories, I think it is important to not let the kids alone with these stories and not let them read it as ‘role model’. If racist content is discussed with the kids, they can learn about history, about how it was and how it shouldn’t be. If the parents want to teach them that. You’re absolutely right, sanitizing the past and present doesn’t help them. Disneyfying doesn’t either (but I love the Disney sugar overload anyway.)
I think I’m a total George Orwell fan,(Fahrenheit 451, 1984) and i have trouble with the concept of censoring anything, even by schools and parents, even from our kids(although people have every right to do as they please in their own families.) Opinions differ on this subject, of course.
I maybbe wrong, but I understand the German government has chosen to outlaw certain forms of what we might consider First Amendment Speech in the US. This is mainly because these expressions harken back to and raise the spectre of the many abuses and excesses of WWII.
In this country, (speaking broadly,) we tread a fine line, allowing offensive, even repulsive and what some might consider “dangerous” speech, and criminalizing only the actions that flow from them that cause harm.
There are many in my country who would agree with a more restrictive policy, but it’s a slippery slope, so to speak. Who’s to say what is offensive, what is repulsive, and what is dangerous?
That’s true. Giving the Hitler salute, openly carrying the swastika, stuff like that is not allowed and a criminal offense (don’t quote me on the law terms). Mein Kampf was completely banned until a few years ago when an edited version was allowed. Of course with books being easily available through the internet this had to be done, these laws were invented shortly after WWII.
I don’t mind that kind of censorship. No good ever comes out of allowing people to do the Hitler salute and scream Nazi paroles. And there are always groups that try to deny the Holocaust, which is also an offense, or depict the Nazi crimes as inventions. People need to be reminded, especially but not only here.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply. Makes perfect sense.
Struwwelpeter was my favourite childhood book. But then I was a weird child! Fun little poem.
It is strangely appealing, though a little savage to modern ears. An article in Wikipedia on the author, Heinrich Hoffman, said the book was not received as “cruel or overly moral” by his peers in 1845 or so, and that it was actually meant to be funny and entertaining.
So i don’t know exactly how earnestly he meant these tales to be taken. He originally wrote it as a Christmas present for his 3 year old son.
He has a fairly common German name, even among those famous enough to merit a Wikipedia article. If you happen to look him up, don’t confuse hime with Hitler’s photographer, an Olympian shooter, or the WWII flying ace, among others, all of the same name.
This physician,psychiatrist and pre-parliamentarian was fairly accomplished, though this is his most famous book. He actually supported a constitutional monarchy under Prussian rule in the new Germany (1848, before that it was a collection of city states, including Frankfurt where he lived.).
He was a liberal thinker, for his time, and even left the free masons in protest of the fact that they would not admit Jews.
In Frankfurt, there is even a Struwwelpeter museum:
And a fountain commemorating the anti-heroes of the book in a city square.
Sorry so long!
Such a lovely read. Gorgeously pieced together.
Poetry, as quilting. ?
Thank you Lisa!
I like telling the tales before they got sanitized. Was that Shock Headed Peter in your poem? I liked this.
Wow, i didn’t know there was a musical of that name, based on the book. I will have to try to find a copy of that! Looks like they are one and the same.
I saw the show in London. Small theater that added to the creepiness, and fun, of the performance.
I enjoyed that! I have no German ancestry, to my knowledge, but I read most of those stories as a child. They are all nasty, aren’t they?
A little bit. Definitely not in keeping with our modern, child-centric sensibility. Even though, as I mention in my reply to elappleby’s comment below, Hoffmann wrote these as a Christmas present to his own three year old son, which, in itself is evidence of a great deal of fondness. He apparently intended them to be funny and entertaining, and we twenty-first century types may be taking them too literally.:)
Cautionary tales can tend to be fairly barbaric – loved this, especially the reference to ‘thumbkins’. Something very appealing about that word.
Anything with “-kin” on the end seems small, childlike, precious, doesn’t it? I wonder if it’s linguistically related to the German “-chen” as in Maedchen or gloeckchen (little girl, little bell.)
It also makes me think of Tom Thumb or Thumbelina, so I managed to squeeze two extra fairy tale references in there with no extra words (well except the 17 aforementioned ones. ?). Sometimes I feel like FF is a coupon club, where we gather to strut and compare our word “bargains.” ?
Yes, Rumpelstiltskin in German is Rumpelstilzchen.
Thanks, i’m not sure if my spelling is correct, even in English!?
I’m no sure I got it correct either. 🙂 I was only referring to the ‘chen’ you mentioned. Which is there in the german name for the dwarf.
Gotcha. Good example.
thanks for reminding me of the time i visited the black forest where the best cuckoo clocks are made. brought back good memories.
Bitte schoen. (You’re welcome!)
“What fairy tales should we
Be telling, today?”
What a relevant question! And what fairy tales are we telling without realising it (like – You can be President of the USA. Or, you can be beautiful if you use this lotion, that hair spray, have this surgery..
Very thought-provoking post, Andi!
Thanks Penny! We do need to identify today’s witches and trolls, and warn our children!
17 is my favourite number, Andrea. And this is my favourite piece so far (I am working backwards through these stories at a total of 69 ). I love the way the words pull and stretch me, yet at the same time there is antiquity deep inside them and their meaning. Lovely questioning end.
Thank you so much, Kelvin! Beaming.
You did a great job of combining fairy tales.
Thank you Alicia!
A wonderful poem, reminded me of my childhood.
Thank-you snows!
Dear Andrea,
Since Prior has already had a go at the word count, I won’t nitpick…although I do agree with her. 😉 It’s amazing what words can be cut when we don’t think they can. I run into this all the time. That being said, I love the history and the verses. Wonderful piece.
Shalom,
Rochelle
Nice poem. Not all fairy tales are bad if explained with reference to the context.
Very true Abhijit. Many European fairy tales–The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen comes to mind–seem to call attention to the abhorrent conditions of poverty that existed at the time, and the indifference of the upper classes to the plight of the poor. So many things can be said in a story that the current politics may otherwise forbid. And for sure, our modern tastes and estimation of reality are not the same as those of generations past.
True.
Great poem. The original fairy tales were somewhat gruesome!
Yes I remember reading old (early 1900s) collections–I want to say they were from Andrew Lang–at 11 or 12.
They constantly reminded the reader that there are potentially horrific consequences when we make bad or foolish decisions.
Im now going through a Great Books series of readers with my son, and I think they try to stay true to the original texts, but they still tend to pick more placid tales, where no one really gets hurt, like the fisherman and his wife.
For all our love of violence and gore in our entertainment for grownups, we have (in the US) watered down so many of our stories for young kids to inconsequential pablum.
I blame Disney. ?
That was such an interesting piece. Learnt so many new things also. Thanks.
Thank you for reading!
Lovely read – thank you! (And you’re forgiven for exceeding the word count.)
Susan A Eames at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
I appreciate the absolution. I do struggle with the competing attributes of completeness and brevity. ?
Excellent mix of the old fairytales. Well done.
Thanks. Not too Grimm, then??
Now that is a challenge! Not the brutal morality of the Struwwelpeter tales. certainly. But you’re right – we do need new cautionary tales for our age
Yes that book is pretty harsh. One poem has a child playing with matches who burns the house down, and another child sucks his thumb and then has his thumbs wacked off. I imagine children were too afraid to do anything wrong.
I was brought up with it
Hope I didn’t offend! Are you from Germany?
No offence at all. And no, I’m not German
hi again – and this is just a thought – because I might be missing meter or something with the prose – but I think I could knock six words off:
With Hansel and Gretel
And Red Riding Hood,
In hectares of darkness,
For decades of age,
There’s wolves in these shadows.
There’s witches and trolls.
__
In my mind it could be this without any loss and maybe even more direct flow:
Hansel and Gretel
Red Riding Hood,
hectares of darkness,
decades of age,
wolves in these shadows.
witches and trolls.
Thanks!
I liked the history before the fiction so I was able to get more from your words.
and loved the culmination of :
What fairy tales should we
Be telling, today?
Thank you prior! It is annoying, to have to look up everything as you go along, and in this age who has the time?