10 Original Fairy Tales That are Incredibly Dark

There are at least 10 original fairy tales that are incredibly dark and disturbing. The funny thing is a lot of us grew up with them.

Pinocchio

Fear is used in a lot of fairy tales to keep kids in line. But there is a version in which the titular puppet gets angry at his conscience, Jiminy, and kills him with a hammer after growing incensed at his taunting.

The Little Mermaid

There are a couple of different versions of this story, but none of them end happily as the Disney version does. Not only does Ursula end up taking Ariel’s tongue, but Ariel either dies and ascends to heaven or turns to seafoam when her prince chooses someone else.

Rapunzel

There are plenty of versions of this fairy tale as well, and most of them don’t involve an easy ending. For one, the prince, not a rogue, is flung from the tower and loses his eyes to wicked thorns that grow around the tower.

Cinderella

Did you ever hear of the version where the stepsisters cut toes and heels off to try and fool the prince? Cinderella does get to marry her prince, but the stepsisters don’t get to see it since birds pluck out their eyes.

Little Red Riding Hood

As if it’s not gruesome enough that Red Riding Hood and her grandma are eaten by the wolf and then cut from his stomach, right? In another version, the two are eaten and never saved.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Disney kept in the part about the evil queen wanting her heart, but otherwise, Snow White was Disney-fied in a big way. But in one version, the evil queen doesn’t get an easy death by falling off a cliff. Instead, she attends the wedding and is forced to wear burning hot iron shoes and dance until she dies.

Hansel and Gretel

This is essentially a story of cannibalism by a feared witch. But as everyone knows, the happy ending involves Gretel outsmarting the witch and pushing her into the oven rather than becoming the witch’s next meal.

The Snow Queen

It’s kind of interesting to think of the mental zigs and zags that were needed to make this possible. This is nothing like Frozen, which was made with this legend in mind. It has more to do with The Chronicles of Narnia.

Rumpelstiltskin

Given how creepy this fairy tale is, it’s still endured quite well. But what a lot of people don’t know is the version where Rumpelstiltskin stomps his foot into the earth, gets stuck, and then rips his body in two trying to get free.

Sleeping Beauty

Yeah, let’s give people another reason to call this story creepy, right? In another version though, the prince has intercourse with the young woman and gets her pregnant. Huh boy.