Grimm Stuff

16-02-2010

I have been reading the original versions of "Grimm's Fairytales" recently and those brothers really got lucky when it came to the family name (there is a word for that but I can't bloody remember it. Like a poker player whose surname is "Moneymaker"). Grim is not the word for it, some of the stories are just outright gruesome.

See, a few years ago a mate of mine told me about the original endings for some of the stories, how Disney had twisted the endings into the happy-ever-after format, and how the originals were really dark in nature.

I mentioned this in passing to the lady one time and when it came round to my birthday I was presented (along with all the art stuff) two copies of the "Grimm's Fairytales". One was a hardback edition from 1922 that smells like an ancient library (proper books all the way for me, give me none of those new fangled e-book devices) and the other was a newer edition of the book.

The 1922 copy contains the happy endings, the new version has the dark stuff.

So naturally, being a bit odd in the head, I started on the dark versions first.

Boy are they dark. Only last night did I finish reading one of the stories were a stone statue asks a King to kill his two sons so that the blood from their necks might make him (the statue) live.

See...gruesome.

Good read though, it has to be said.

In relation to my own book I am now starting chapter eight. The seventh chapter is, honestly, the weakest of the chapters so far. But that is what rewritting is for, to fix that sorta thing.

Going to be heading into the Comedy Dublin contest tonight as well, first heat of the competition so it will be good to see what standards are like early on this year.

Blue_jester