About Fairy Tales

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Why do I use Fairy Tales and Fables to illustrate a point? Because behind the Fables, Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes there is another meaning. Here is what I heard through the grapevine.

From about 1400 to 1800 there was a cold spell in Europe called 'The Little Ice Age'. A time when most of Europe was caught in a frigid grip of very cold seasons. It snowed in the summer in some areas and crops could not grow. There was starvation everywhere and to make it worse, the Bubonic plague was being spread by the fleas on rats that were seeking shelter from the cold.Thousands died and millions were sick and hungry.

These are the tales, I have been told, that were written during this period. Many of the Fables, Rhymes and Fairy Tales had roots in the truth.

Hansel and Gretel was supposed to have been written because food was so scarce at that time that families had to get rid of some of their children in order to save the others. So Hansel and Gretel's parents took the two children out into the forest in order to loose them. (I suppose to let them die of exposure). The Gingerbread House, symbolically, saved their lives and even the witch wanted to eat the pair probably because she was hungry too. But it was only a Fairy Tale, wasn't it???

Back in the days of old, to criticize the King was punishable by death so......'Rock a bye baby' was the peasants song to chastise King James II for rumors that he had sired an
illegitimate child. 'When the bough breaks the cradel will fall' was supposed to be when the scandal broke the king would be exposed.

Ring around the rosie, I understand, was a reference to the Bubonic Plague in that period. Supposedly describing the symptoms of a rosie face due to fever and all fall down was the death of the person. Not too cheery but in those days life was hard.

Maybe that was one reason to come to the new world. Good news, the earth started warming around 1800. Probably due to gas guzzling trucks and SUV's.

Aesop wrote fables using animals to promote good behavior and morality. The Ant and the Grasshopper, one of my favorites tells of how the industrious ant worked diligently and saved his food for the hard times while the Grasshopper was lazy and just played all summer. Today we call that welfare and we don't let the Grasshopper starve, we give him the ant's stuff. All of Aesop's Fables had clear messages of unselfishness and honesty. We could use some of those now....where are our wise men today. I mean beside me.

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