Cinderella - Her True Story

Most everyone knows that most fairy tales, especially those written by the Brothers Grimm, were much darker and even scarier than the stories we know today. It's these stories that I will be addressing, when possible, in my articles for the folklore and mythology site.

Take the story of Cinderella for instance. Everyone knows about her wicked stepsisters and stepmother and how they taunted and teased her and made her do all of the work in the house. We also know about Cinderella's fairy godmother and how she made her into a beautiful princess-like person dressed in a fine gown and glass slippers to adorn her feet so she could go to the ball at the palace and meet the prince. We have read that the fairy godmother told Cinderella that she had to leave the ball by the stroke of midnight because everything would return to normal. Her gown would disappear, the coach would turn back into a pumpkin and the team of beautiful white horses would turn back into mice. The story also says that Cinderella stepped out of one glass slipper in her rush to get out of the palace and how the prince traveled the countryside to see who's foot would fit into it. He found Cinderella, saw that her foot fit perfectly and they got married to live happily ever after.

What most of us don't know is that the original story was a bit more graphic and darker. The prince didn't have just one ball. It was a three day festival for him to get to know the ladies of the country and take one of them as his wife. The original story had no fairy godmother but it had white pigeons that sat in a tree by her mother's grave that she visited daily and the pigeons would grant her any wish she desired. When she was told by her stepmother that she could not go to the festival because she had nothing nice to wear and her chores were plentiful, Cinderella would go out to the tree and wish for a fine gown. On the first day of the festival, Cinderella appeared and was the most beautiful woman that he had ever laid eyes on. So beautiful in fact, that her wicked stepmother and stepsisters didn't even recognize her. The prince would dance with no one else but her. Each night when she left the festival, the prince would follow her to see where this beautiful girl lived but she had always escaped him and returned to her gray, dirty dress and to the fireplace to sleep.

Each day of the festival, Cinderella returned to the tree and each day she was presented with a dress that was more gorgeous than the one before. On the final day, the prince had pitch or sap put on the stairs of the palace in hopes that it would stop this beautiful girl from leaving. On this day, she was given a gorgeous gown and golden slippers to wear. When she ran from the palace that night, she stepped in the pitch and one of her slippers came off. The prince traveled the countryside looking for the girl who's foot it would fit. When he got to Cinderella's house, the slipper would not fit the two stepsisters and asked to see the young girl named Cinderella. She cleaned herself up a bit and when she tried the slipper on, it fit perfectly and the prince asked her to marry him. The stepsisters then tried to get into the good graces of Cinderella so they could enjoy her riches as the princess but at Cinderella's wedding, the two white doves poked out the eyes of the wicked stepsisters and they would have to walk around in blindness for the rest of their miserable, wretched lives.

In a nutshell, that is the true story of the fairy tale called Cinderella.