11Tam's Fish Sauce
In a Vietnamese fairy tale similar to 'Cinderella' called "Tam and Cam," the protagonist Tam seeks revenge on her abusive stepmother and stepsister. She boils the stepsister into fish sauce and serves it to the stepmother as an act of revenge for the physical and emotional abuse they inflicted on her.
12Tom Thumb's Desert Adventure
In the original French fairy tale "Little Thumb" (also known as "Tom Thumb"), the parents of the seven brothers plan to abandon them in the woods due to their poverty. Tom Thumb outsmarts them by leaving a trail of pebbles and breadcrumbs to find their way back home. However, the parents later attempt to abandon them again, this time in the desert.
13Silver Hair Tragedy
The original story of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" diverges significantly from the popularized version. In the original tale, an old woman named Silver Hair enters the house of bachelors instead of bears. She not only eats their porridge, breaks their chairs, and sleeps in their beds but also impales herself on the sharp steeple of a church and dies.
14Pot-Winning Pig
In the original version of "The Three Little Pigs," the wolf succeeds in catching and devouring two of the pigs, but the third pig outsmarts him by boiling him alive in a pot of water.
15Enchanted Red Shoes
The Little Red Shoes by Hans Christian Andersen tells the story of a young girl whose enchanted red shoes compel her to dance incessantly. Eventually, in a desperate attempt to stop the uncontrollable dancing, her feet are amputated. Hans Christian Andersen named the spoiled protagonist after his own half-sister Karen and drew inspiration from an anecdote about an entitled customer his father dealt with.
16Bluebeard's Curiosity Warning
The French folktale of "Bluebeard" revolves around a wealthy nobleman who ruthlessly murders his wives and stores their bodies in a secret room. The story serves as a cautionary tale about curiosity and the consequences of disobedience. The term "bluebearding" has even come to describe the crime of killing, seducing, and abandoning a series of women.
17Goose Girl's Gruesome Punishment
In the original version of the German fairy tale "The Goose Girl," the deceitful maid is subjected to a gruesome punishment. She is stripped naked, placed in a barrel embedded with nails, and dragged through the streets until her death.
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18Hansel and Gretel Famine
The tale of Hansel and Gretel may have originated during the Great Famine of 1315-17. The scarcity of food led to parents abandoning their children, possibly explaining why Hansel and Gretel became lost in the forest. The presence of a cannibalistic witch in the story reflects the extreme measures people resorted to, including cannibalism, during the famine.
19Varulven
The Swedish fairy tale "Varulven," or "The Werewolf," features a pregnant maiden being pursued by a werewolf-like creature. A hero comes to her rescue, riding his horse so forcefully that it collapses and dies upon arrival. The tale ends abruptly with the discovery of a fragment of the maiden, such as a piece of her arm.
20Scheherazade's Survival Tactics
Scheherazade, the storyteller from "One Thousand and One Nights," shared her tales (Aladdin, Sinbad, etc.) with the monarch to prevent him from marrying and killing a new virgin every day, seeking revenge for his first wife's betrayal. By the time they met, the monarch had already executed 1001 women.
