Week 13 Essay: Grimm But Not Grim

I read the LibriVox Brothers Grimm unit this week and I really enjoyed reading all of the different stories.   I was surprised that they all had fairly happy endings.  I'm used to most of the stories, especially the ones that Disney uses, to end rather tragically and not so happily as most of these stories did.  These definitely seem to be more kid friendly than some of the other ones that we've read in past units.  I don't think some of the past stories would be good for bedtime haha.  I also really liked that most of the stories focused more on mercy rather than justice.  There were some deaths but for the most part it was a different punishment - either having to marry someone they didn't want to or giving their child to an enchantress.  I definitely needed some happy endings this week!
I was pretty surprised by the ending of The Twelve Dancing Princesses .  The king doesn't understand how his daughters' shoes have holes in them every morning when they are locked in their room at night.  He has princes try to find out and if they fail after three nights, they are beheaded.  He even beheaded his own son!  He promises that whoever finds out will be king when he dies.  The old soldier finds out and then he picks what daughter he wants to marry and then he becomes king.  It was just so random to me.  Especially since so many princes were beheaded and the only punishment his daughters get is that one of them has to marry the soldier.  It's not much of a punishment compared to getting beheaded.  I was a little sad for the underground princes though.  I wonder what the soldier did to the trap door and if the other sisters were able to see their princes.

                                                       Image source: wikipedia

                                                 Illustration by R. Anning Bell