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In large part thanks to Disney's version of her story, Cinderella is a familiar fairy tale character. The girl is maltreated by her stepmother and stepsisters, and essentially ends up as their servant. When it comes time for a royal celebration, Cinderella can't attend - until the intervention of her fairy godmother, some lovable creatures, and a magical gourd. By the time the tale ends, Cinderella finds her Prince - well, he finds her - and they live happily ever after. But this is just one telling of “Cinderella,” and it's a fairly tame one.
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We all know the story of Cinderella
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the classic rags-to-riches fairy tale with the singing mice, the cruel stepsisters
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and the kind-hearted girl who lives happily ever after. But Cinderella is just one of the many fairy tales
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that didn't always feel so wholesome. The story has changed many times over the years
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and some of those changes were too dark for the Disney Channel
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So today, we're revealing the surprisingly dark origins of Cinderella. Let's get this pumpkin on the road
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We only have until midnight. The story of the Vietnamese fairy tale, Thum and Cam
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will probably sound familiar to you. Thum is a young woman forced to do all the dirty work for her stepmother
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while her stepsister, Cam, spent her days without any responsibilities. Thum particularly excelled at catching fish
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However, after being tricked by Cam, who stole all of Thum's fish and passed them off as her own catch
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Tum was only left with a small morsel. Luckily, that tiny fish turned out to be a goddess
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And when it was time for a celebration held by the king, to which Tum hadn't been invited
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that same fish goddess clad Tum in a silk dress with golden slippers
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and whisked her off to the ball. At the ball, Tum loses the golden slipper
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The king finds it. Tum tries it back on. And boom. They have a fairy tale wedding and live happily ever after
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It's the Cinderella story we're all familiar with. Right? Uh, not quite
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In this version, Tum gets whacked by her stepmother, who's trying to take Tum's place by the king's side
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The king finds a nightingale he believes to contain Tum's spirit. But her stepsister, Kam, cruelly kills the bird and buries it in a spot
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which would eventually sprout a golden apple tree with the power to bring the dead back to life
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Fairy tales have a lot of subplots, like The Wire. Tum is resurrected and reunited with the king
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And now they live happily ever after. After tying up some loose ends, of course
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You see, the vindictive Tum tells her sister Cam, the secret to great-looking skin is to jump into boiling water
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Because this was centuries before Clearasil, Cam believed her and plunged to her doom
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Not one to waste a batch of stepsister stew, Tum turned the pot into fish sauce and served it to her stepmother
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who had gone blind from crying so much. You can see why Disney chose to leave this version out
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The Brothers Grimm is the name of one of the most forgettable red box rentals ever made, starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger
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But it also the name of two of the most famous storytellers in history Well known for their dark tales the Brothers Grimm published their version of the Cinderella story Ashenputul in 1812 And it plays like a soft flick
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The story kicks things off with the death of Cinderella's mother and a promise that if a tree is planted at her grave
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all Cinderella would have to do is shake the tree to get whatever she desires, as long as she remains pious
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There's always a catch with magic trees. Cinderella's father eventually remarries, giving her a wicked stepfamily and several chores to do around the house while she is mistreated and isolated
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You know, standard Cinderella stuff. This mistreatment continued as a royal ball approached the village
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Cinderella helped her sisters prepare, but was not allowed to attend. So she decided to shake that mystical tree at her mother's grave
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and was magically adorned in a silver dress, pearls, and silver slippers, the whole nine yards
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She stopped by the ball, wowed the prince, and hoofed it out of there at the end of the night
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leaving one slipper behind. When it was time for all the ladies of the kingdom
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to try on the slipper, Cinderella's stepmother instructed her daughters to slice off pieces of their feet
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to make the shoe fit. The sisters hacked away their heels and toes
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only for the prince to discover their scheme anyway and marry Cinderella when the slipper slides easily on her foot
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No pruning required. So Dewa Bai was born wearing a golden necklace
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that contained her soul. Her parents were instructed to never remove that necklace
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or Sodewa would surely die, which is how many teenagers feel about accessories during their punk phase
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As the story goes, Sodewa loses a beautiful slipper made of gold and jewels while on a walk
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where it is found by a prince who decides it must have been dropped by a fairy
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Hey, it was a really nice shoe. But his mother assures him the slipper belongs to the woman he will one day marry
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should he ever find her. They eventually find each other and wed
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But there's one problem. The prince already had a wife, and she wasn't too happy with this arrangement
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Fancy slipper or not? The prince's first wife ordered her servant to remove Sodewa's life-granting necklace
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which caused Sodewa's spirit to leave her body. And the servant who stole the necklace began wearing it as an everyday accessory
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which must have been awkward. Each time the servant removed Sodewa's necklace, her spirit briefly returned to her body
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The same body that was already buried in a tomb. if you've been keeping track
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This nightly ritual caused Bai to live and die over and over
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and over again, while locked away in a crypt. That's like if Walt Disney hosted the Twilight Zone
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Eventually Sodewa and the prince are reunited with each other long enough for her to explain the whole deal with her necklace The prince throws his other wife in jail and gives Sodewa her soul necklace back And most of them live happily ever after
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In the 12th century, Marie de France wrote a collection of Les, or romantic poems
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from the medieval era, one of which included a spin on the Cinderella tale
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The story starts with a mother who gives birth to twins. And apparently, back then, it was commonly believed
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that anyone who gave birth to twins must have been with two men. Rather than bear the potential shame
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the new mother considered destroying one of her baby girls before being stopped by her servant
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The servant took the baby into the woods and left it in an ash tree, which is a thing you do
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with orphans and fairy tales. The child was eventually discovered and raised in an abbey
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and became known as Le Fren, or the Ash. She grew up to be a beautiful woman
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who caught the eye of a wealthy noble named Gourin. But Gouron's buds didn't want him slumming it with an abbey girl
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As luck would have it, they found another bride for him, a woman named Lacodre, who was of more noble blood
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and who looked just like Lefren. What are the odds? The swapperoo worked, and Gouron was set to marry Lacodre instead
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Lefren took the whole thing with grace we can only dream of
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even preparing the couple's marital bed for their first night together. Okay, that's a little too nice
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She placed a brocade on the bed, which sounds like what your college roommate calls his game room
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but is actually an elaborate woven fabric. But when La Côtre's mother saw the brocade
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she recognized it immediately as the fabric she had once wrapped around an unwanted child
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before leaving it in an ash tree. That's right. La Côtre was Le Fren's long-lost twin sister
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Le Fren is then reunited with her noble family, Although we imagine she and her mom had some considerable beef to squash
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And she is allowed to marry Gouron after all. The tale of Russian Cody was first collected onto paper by Australian-born English folklorist
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and prominent two-first namer, Joseph Jacobs. Like other versions of Cinderella, Russian was a young girl who lost her mother, the Queen
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Before she died, the Queen told Russian that one day a red calf would come to her and grant her wishes
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Magic cows are not bad as inheritances go. Most people just get a figurine collection
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and old credit card debt. Eventually, Rushen's father remarries, opening the door for the wicked step antagonists
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Our hero is forced to do all the work in the house while wearing a coat of Rushes hence the name Russian Cody Very clever Joseph Jacobs Starving and neglected Cody is finally visited by the red calf which turns out to be the reincarnation of her birth mother
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This does not sit well with Cody's stepmother, who has the calf whacked and turned into sweetbread
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Game of Thrones style. A grieving Russian buries the calf bones, except for the shank bone, which has gone missing
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The next time Russian is alone, the calf comes back with clothes and slippers
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Only this time, the calf is limping on account of the missing shank bone
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The newly fabulous Russian heads to church to meet a hunky prince, where she loses her slipper
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While searching for his loss to love, each of Russian's cruel sisters try on the slipper
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The first two sisters fail miserably. So the evil stepmother, not willing to be made a fool, chops off the third sister's toes to get the slipper to fit
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Being a leader means making tough decisions about other people's toes. The prince is about to make good on his promise to marry the toeless trickster
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But in the end, the deception is revealed, and Russian Cody ends up with the prince
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Score one prince for Cody and zero toes for sister number three
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The Greek version of Cinderella bears the unfortunate title, Little Saddle Slut
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Believe it or not, that is not the most bizarre thing about this story. Little Saddle, as we'll refer to her for the sake of our bleeping machine
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is a spinner of flax alongside her three sisters and mother. For some reason that is never adequately explained
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the family decides that the first person who allows their spindle to fall
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should be eaten by the others. Could we maybe start with a timeout first
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When her mother's spindle falls first, Little Saddle refuses to chow down and offers herself up as a meal instead
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But her sisters devour their mom anyway, because they understand how to follow directions
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And Little Saddle is forced to bury her mother's bones. 40 days later, she visits the grave and is met with rays of light illuminating clothing and riches
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This miracle just happens to fall on a day of worship. And Little Saddle, now disguised in magical finery
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attends the service while throwing coins to anyone who comes near. She keeps up the ruse for weeks, catching the attention not just of her sisters
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but of the prince as well. If you can believe it, their relationship is cemented after she loses a certain article of footwear
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But don't roll those credits just yet. Little Saddle's sisters are coming back like the guy at the end of Die Hard
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The story continues as the sisters visit Little Saddle, lock her in a wooden chest, and throw her in the river
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She is eventually rescued and reunited with the prince. And our heroic monarch proceeds to chop his new sisters-in-law into pieces
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Well, at least he didn't eat them, right