Fairy Tales Had Darker Meanings

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  The saying goes that we can never go back home again-home as it was when we were growing up, and if you had a happy one as I did with loving parents and a mother who read fairy tales to you before you could read, that was an added bonus.  I loved the magic fairy tales were brimming over with and living in the Hawaiian Islands in the time I did, just made things more fantastic and mystical.  The islands were full of legends of their own and so tales from the Brothers Grimm and all the rest served to enhance the feelings of enchantment.  Little did I know then that most of the fairy tales had darker meanings, or they represented times throughout early history when periods of illness, madness and despair were prevalent upon the peoples who lived in those challenging times.  When witchcraft became an issue and the horrors that happened to innocents was also weaved into tales for children, I finally took notice as I grew older and was able to research the meanings behind these “wonderful” stories, stories that can now give one the shivers when the truth becomes known!

  Mother Goose’s identity surfaced around the 1600’s during the time of the great witch hunts.  Witches were known to live alone in the woods with animals as owls, cats, ravens, the wolf and such.  The darker meaning behind Mother Goose was that she was a witch who flew on a broom.  A poem about her is recounted as follows:

  ”Old Mother Goose

  when she wanted to wander

  would fly through the air

  on a very fine gander

  Mother Goose had a house

  it stood in the wood

  where an owl at the door

  as sentinel stood.”

  The first outbreak of Bubonic plague began to surface around the 1300’s and came into the 1665 period, it produced a 65% death rate with symptoms of a red, rosy rash in the shape of a ring, hence the rhyme,

  ”Ring a Ring o’ Rosies 

  a pocket full of posies

  A-tishoo!  A-thshoo!

  We all fall down”

  A -tishoo meaning sneezing, then was later changed to “ashes, ashes, we all fall down”.

  The ashes were results of creamation of the dead, plague laden bodies.  The posies were little fragrant flowers tied in bundles for survivors to hold to their noses when the odors of the dead became overwhelming.   Just think of what a horrible thing this was to endure back then, much less the lives of loved ones taken from families by an illness for which there was no cure at the time, and coming from such a tiny thing as a flea on the back of a rat or other animal.

  ”Mary, Mary quite contrary

  how does your garden grow

  with silver bells and cockle shells

  and pretty maids all in a row”.

  This was a rhyme about the deaths that were brought about during Queen Mary’s reign, aka “Bloody Mary”.  

  Maids stood for a device used to behead people.  At times it could take up to 11 blows to sever a head off until the invention of the guillotine.  The guillotine was also called “The Maiden”.  Silver bells were thumbscrews and cockle shells-oh my gosh- were instruments of torture attached to a man’s testicles!  Are we cringing by now?

  Nursery rhymes began in England and went into print as early as 1570.  They were peddled and sold as children’s books.  Chapbooks ala our American comic books, that were filled with rhymes and illustrations in a small pamphlet that contained ballads, stories and religious pieces as well.

  ”Rock a bye baby”  originated in the 1700’s.  This nursery rhyme relates to a family who lived in a tree house formed in a massive 2000 year old Yew tree.  The family who resided in this tree were charcoal burners who lived in Shining Cliff Woods. Ambergate, Derbyshire in the 1700’s

  Kate and Luke Kenyon were the true dwellers, charcoal burners, and lived in what was called the “Betty Kenny Tree” named for Betty Kenyon.  The Kenyons had 8 chidlren and part of the tree was hallowed out, and served as a cradle for their children.

  Shining Cliff Woods was owned by the Hurt family who favored the Kenyons.  The Hurts commissioned artist, James Ward of the Royal Academy, to paint their portraits.  This Yew tree still exists, but was badly damaged by vandals setting fire to it in the 1930’s.  Imagine anyone of a mindset who’d want to do this.  The song, Rock a bye baby also called hush a bye baby, became a favorite of mothers singing their little ones to sleep.

  ”Rock a bye baby in the tree top

  when the wind blows the cradle will rock

  when the bough breaks the cradle will fall

  and down will come baby, cradle and all.”

  These are merely a few listed from the great amount of fairy tales we know about,  and there are many, many more we haven’t even began to look into.  There is an extensive list that can be found, along with their meanings at:

  www.rhymes.org.uk/

  From:  Nursery Rhymes-Lyrics, Origins and History

  Tragic as many of the tales were, we as children would never imagine the horrors of some of them.  I was so fortunate to not have any Bogey men in my life and to me, fairy tales still hold their magic all these many years later.  I hope our little ones who reside in today’s world will be able to have fairy tales read to them before bedtime, and that these stories and rhymes can be as preciously remembered as they become parents of their own beloved children.