At the beginning of the year, I signed up for an online creative writing workshop across four weeks.
The focus of the workshop was on fairytales, and we have learned about the writing techniques used in those super old (weird and creepy) fairytales, as well as how modern writers can reinterpret or draw from them in retellings.
It’s been FUN and I’ve learned a lot. And I’ve spent the last few weeks writing my own weird, short fairytale-inspired stories (that I’ll share with you in the future!).
I’ve always loved those old creepier fairytales, and find the matter-of-fact horror of them quite fascinating.
Why do I love these old fairytales? I think I’ve been hooked since I learned that many fairytales (in their earliest forms) are literally thousands of years old!!
For instance, Beauty and the Beast is apparently 4,000 years old, and a folk tale called The Smith and the Devil (catchy title!) apparently dates all the way back to the Bronze Age, at 6,000 years old!
The long-lasting power of stories is no joke!
These older, more disturbing fairytales rival the most intense grimdark novels in terms of gruesome details and violence, but they are told with a sense of detachment, which is a strange reading experience
Sun, Moon, and Talia
for instance, a variation of the Sleeping Beauty story, an Italian fairytale from the 1600s called Sun, Moon, and Talia, goes something like this:
- Talia is sleeping (stuff happened to get to this point, but whatever, haha, we’ll start here.)
- A king turns up and can’t wake her. So he impregnates her with twins. Nice. Then he pisses off back to his castle (and his wife!).
- Talia gives birth to a boy and girl while still asleep. The little girl sucks the splinter from her finger and Talia wakes up. She names them Sun and Moon.
- The king comes back and is delighted by all this(!). He leaves them all and pisses off back to his castle again. This time, while dreaming in bed, he says Talia’s name, and his wife overhears.
- His wife summons Talia and her kids and tries to cook the children and feed them to her husband (luckily a cook intervenes and serves lamb instead, phew!).
- The king goes off on a business trip or whatever. Meanwhile, his wife tries to burn Talia alive on a bonfire. Talia screams a lot and the king hears and hurries to save her. He learns what his wife has done, so he burns her on a bonfire instead.
- The king, Talia, and their two kids all live happily ever after, or whatever.
Charming, right? Haha.
Also, just so you know, the original Repunzel story features the prince leaping from her tower, getting his eyes scratched out gruesomely by thorns, before he wanders a wasteland blind for years and years, crying. Also, Repunzel stays trapped in the tower in some versions. Fun!
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PJ Nwosu writes dark mystery novels set in epic fantasy worlds.
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