The horrifying stories we tell our children
I remember when our sons were small and loved to have us read to them. We had several volumes of books that contained some of the familiar stories we had learned as children. I remember the books as being filled with beautiful pictures and the typical “happily ever after” endings. They’re called fairy tales and nursery rhymes, and even when I was a parent of young children, I never thought about how dark and violent these tales really are. We had grown up with them and seen the cartoon movies over and over. We’ve watched the beautiful Disney-fied stories all our lives... how could they possibly be anything other than delightful?
In truth, most nursery rhymes and fairy tales aren’t happy stories, and only from a distance and a colorful book or movie are they beautiful. In reality they are dark tales of abuse, neglect, violence and murder.
Think about these story lines: Cinderella is held as a prisoner and treated as a slave in her own home, abandoned by the death of her father to the physical and psychological torment of her stepmother and stepsisters. Hansel and Gretel are abducted by a sadistic maniac who holds them captive in the woods, fattening them with the intent of roasting them alive and cannibalizing them. Red Riding Hood goes into the forest to visit her elderly grandmother only to find the woman has been savaged and eaten alive by a wild animal.
The first nursery rhymes can be traced back to the fourteenth century. While the bubonic plaque ravaged England, peasants used rhymes to spread messages. In more repressed times, people were not always allowed to express themselves freely, for fear of persecution. Gossiping, criticizing the government or even talking about current events were often punishable by death. In order to communicate at will, clever rhymes were constructed and passed around to parody public figures and events.
Other nursery rhymes don’t seem to carry a particular message at all, but convey a macabre sense of humor. They have been so ingrained in us since childhood that we hardly notice that babies are falling from treetops, women are held captive or live animals are being cooked. It’s only when you stop and absorb the actual words of these catchy, sing-song rhymes that the darkness and absurdity is realized. Scholars have suggested that while certain nursery rhymes are simply nonsense songs or sweet poems, others derived from political satire, obscene jokes or religious disputes. A handful do not reference historical events at all, but instead seem to convey warnings or common sense wisdom.
Consider the following nursery rhymes that you’ve known all your life:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King’s Horses and all the King’s Men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again. In children’s books, Humpty Dumpty is portrayed as a large egg, and he’s usually dressed like a little boy (But why? There is nothing in the rhyme that even hints at an egg!) It’s a sad story, as he gets busted up and nobody can fix him. However, the real story behind the rhyme dates back to the English Civil War. Humpty was a huge cannon mounted atop a high walllike church tower. During the Siege of Colchester, the tower was hit by enemy cannon fire and Humpty suffered a great fall. There was no fixing the cannon or the tower, and the Humpty Dumpty rhyme was born. Or every child’s favorite:
Ring around the rosy, a pocketful of posies
Ashes! Ashes! We all fall down! This rhyme dates back to the Great Plague of London in 1665. The symptoms of bubonic plague included a rosy red ring-shaped rash, which inspired the first line. It was believed that the disease was carried by bad smells, so people frequently carried pockets full of fresh herbs, or “posies.” The “ashes, ashes” line is believed to refer to the creamation of the bodies of those who died from the plague.
I am out of space and out of time, but not out of stories to tell, so stay tuned and come back to this spot next week for Part 2 of “The horrifying stories we tell our children.”
