These stories aren't your happy endings but rather sometimes gruesome and shocking tales. Fairy tales used to be stories aimed at both adult and child alike and the grown-up themes they portray is good evidence of that. We dug deep with this list to find where our common stories come from and what the original dark (very dark) stories really were. Hold on tight as we dive into these 25 Dark and Disturbing Original Versions Of Children's Fairy Tales.
25. Sleeping Beauty
Italian Giambattista Basile's version of Sleeping Beauty is really dark – the king who finds the girl rapes her while she's asleep. She later on gives birth (while asleep) and is awoken only because one of the kids sucks out a splinter under her finger which was keeping her asleep. The king later kills his wife (who tried to get him to unknowingly eat the children) to be with Sleeping Beauty.
24. Pinocchio
In Carlo Collodi's original version, once Gepetto carves Pinocchio, the marionette runs away. He's caught by the police who assume Gepetto has abused him and they imprison the puppet maker. Pinocchio goes back to Gepetto's house that night and accidentally kills the wise talking cricket. He later gets hung from a tree and suffocates.
23. Peter Pan
Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie has more adult themes than you'd guess. Peter brings Wendy to Neverland to act as a mother to the Lost Boys. With time, Wendy starts to fall in love with Peter and asks him how he feels for her. He describes himself as her faithful son – now that's the strangest friend zoning we've ever heard!
22. The Three Little Pigs
Some versions of this English tale have the wolf eating the first and second piggies after he blows their weak straw and stick houses down.
21. The Little Mermaid
Hans Christian Andersen's oriinal story has the newly-legged mermaid walking but in excruciating pain with every step. If the prince married someone else, she would die and turn into sea foam. Spoiler alert: the prince married another. (In an attempt to save their kin, the mermaid's sisters traded their hair for a dagger from the sea witch. If the mermaid killed the prince with it and drips his blood onto her feet, she would return to being a mermaid. Spoiler alert #2: she didn't kill him.)
20. Aladdin
Aladdin is a Middle Eastern fairy tale in which Aladdin, then trapped in the magic cave, rubs a ring he wears and a lesser genie takes him back to his mother. His mother cleans the lamp and reveals a more powerful genie who gives Aladdin his wealth and palace. The sorcerer (not called Jafar) tricks Aladdin's new wife, gets the lamp, and has the genie transport the palace to his home. Aladdin uses the ring genie to transport there, kills the sorcerer, and brings his palace back to where it was.
19. The Ugly Duckling
Hans Christian Andersen's tale The Ugly Duckling is a famous story world-round. The real version has the little chick originally harassed incessantly by the other barnyard animals. He escapes and lives with wild geese and ducks who are soon slaughtered by hunters. An old woman takes him in, but her cat and hen harass him even more so he leaves again. After much abuse and spending winter alone, he joins the swans who return in spring.
18. The Frog Prince
In some versions, it's not a kiss from the princess's goodness that transforms the frog into a prince but chopping off his head. In the original Brothers Grimm version, the princess slams the frog into the wall to turn him back into a prince. Ouch! (A Russian folk version has a prince come upon a female frog/princess.)
