With considerable understatement, the Brothers Grimm observed that some of the stories they collected appeared to be found with many variations in other countries.
A case in point is the story of Aschenputtel.
This is essentially the story of Cinderella as told earlier in The Tales of Perrault. There are some interesting differences though. For instance, while Cinderella relies on her fairy godmother, Aschenputtel does things because “a little birdy” tells her.
Comparing versions of fairy can say something about national sensibilities, I think. Some years ago Time or Newsweek (can anyone tell them apart?) editorialized abuot how modern versions of fairy tales “water down” events. As an example, they cited a modern edition of Cinderella which says that she forgave her wicked stepsisters and even arranged marriages for them.
This, in fact, is what Perrault had said happened. In the later version from the Grimms, they have their eyes pecked out by birds on Cinderella’s wedding day.
There must be plenty of other versions besides; variations of the story have been traced both to ancient China and to ancient Egypt.
The story of The Pied Piper of Hamelin appears to be unique–or at least highly unusual–in the Grimm canon in that it seems to refer to a real event, even if we are no longer sure what that real event was. Incidentally, this story is not included in the Grimm’s famous collection of 201 fairy tales (which are always numbered 1-200, preserving a printing error in the first edition where the last two stories were given the same number). Rather, it appears in a later, smaller collection.
While not a fairy tale from the Grimms, the story of Dick Whittington and his cat is at least partially true. There really was a poor boy by that name who grew up to be Lord Mayor of London. He left his money as an endowment for a children’s hospital. Did he really start his fortune by selling a stray cat he had adopted, and did he really imagine he heard the church bells in London calling him to turn back when he was ready to give up and go back to his village? Who knows?
One can find numerous instances in mythology in which a story apparently alludes to a real event. Perseus went to Crete to kill the Minotaur in his labyrinth because the King of Crete demanded that Greeks be sent each year as sacrifices. Archeologists have established that there were mazes on Crete and, further, people were thrown to a bull (or bulls) in an arena.
Similarly, while Zeus may not have changed into a bull to carry Europa across the sea, Herodotus began his History by telling about the Greek sailors who abducted and raped a Phoenician woman named Europa, and of the trouble which ensued.
Some myths and fairy tales seem to be straightforward parables. Narcissus and Echo talks about how you can’t get your self-image from other people–yet you can’t know yourself all by yourself either. Eros and Psyche is about how sometimes you have to trust your emotions in place of pure cold reason–even the names of the characters is a clue.
The Tales of the Brothers Grimm, though, generally seem pretty murky when taken as designed to teach a moral. This may have to do in part with they having been oral traditions which were heard and misheard, repeated and misrepeated, over a very long time.
Of related interest are nursery rhymes. A great many of these appear to have been satirical in nature when first published. Francois Perrault published the original Mother Goose, and it is taken to contain oblique references to scandals at the French court. Hardly any of the rhymes now called Mother Goose rhymes are included in his work, as the name has come to be a kind of generic term. Nevertheless, a great many of the Mother Goose rhymes which aren’t “really” Mother Goose rhymes are likewise taken to be satirical in intent.
There are probably a good many bogus interpretations circulating though. For instance, I’ve read several times that “Ring Around a Rosie” refers to the Black Death. And I’ve read that there is no record whatever of the song being known prior to the 19th Century.
Some historians have suggested that Humpty Dumpty was Cardinal Wolsley, who rode high as the Lord Chancellor, and ended his last days sick and penniless, cared for in a convent.
I’ve read that there really was a Jack Horner. He got rich overnight, and their is some speculation that it was by unscrupulous means. I think the “what a good boy am I” line may refer to his boring people with self-important bragging about his success–sort of an early Donald Trump or Ted Turner.
A final point: the Brothers Grimms were lawyers. Add them to the list with Gandhi, Lincoln, etc. of people who were attornies but seem to have been all-round neat guys anyway.