The Persistence of Cannibalism in Fairy Tales

It is certainly no longer a secret that the original versions of fairy tales were much darker than the Disney versions that have been made into movies. What is less commonly known is that a disturbing trend toward cannibalism permeates throughout many of the most beloved tales of morality still read in their bowdlerized versions every night to young tikes across the world. Since fairy tales existed in the first place to instill fear into wayward children who might transgress certain firmly held assumptions of safety in both the moral and literal sense, the presence of cannibalism holds true. After all, what could be worse than dying? Being eaten after death. Where's the salvation in that? Oh yeah, that's right. The wafer thing.

The most obvious instance of cannibalism perhaps may be in the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel. After all, dear Hansel (Hansel? Hansel? Hansel?) and Gretel get tossed into the pot by witchy-poo with the expressly stated intention of eating them. Now, why she would want to eat Hansel (Hansel? Hansel? Hansel?) and his sister when her entire house is made of gingerbread makes perfect sense, actually. I mean, seriously, does anybody actually eat gingerbread? Who had the idea of making a bread with ginger in the first place: I mean, it's like making a cake with carrots. Who could possibly want to do such a thing. But I digress. Mainly because I just went to the kitchen to eat a gingerbread cookie. The question of why the witch would eat Hansel and Gretel when she is, after all, a witch and is probably capable of wrinkling her nose and cooking up some delicious carrot cake on her is never answered. But then again, it need not be. The lesson is still quite valid: don't go taking stuff that belong to other people or else you'll wind up in steak and kidney pie guest starring as the kidney.