I really find the stories behind the Disney versions and classic rhymes and children’s books interesting, even if most of them are pretty dark! For example, I was told that at the end of the "real" story of The Little Mermaid, the mermaid gains a soul but turns into foam.
What stories do you know? If you have links to online sources that feature them, please use as a source! Thank you!
More Information:
"Pop Goes the Weasel" dates back to the Black Plague, because the pustules would pop…yeah, that’s actually a really gross song.
In "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," pretty much nothing is the same as in the Disney movie. Quasimodo is obsessed with Claude Frollo, because he’s like a father to him. He has no desire to go out into the real world. And at the end, Claude Frollo and Esmeralda both die.
Also, it’s not true that The Little Mermaid turns into foam. That was what the Sea-witch told her would happen, but she actually turned into an air-fairy. There also was no three-day deadline – she had as long as she wanted, but she had to marry the prince, not kiss him. (http://hca.gilead.org.il/li_merma.html)
Snow White is actually pretty similar, but first the queen tries to suffocate her by lacing her too tight into a corset, and then she tries to kill her with a poisoned comb, before finally resorting to an apple.
(http://www.familymanagement.com/literacy/grimms/grimms42.html)
With Cinderella, of course there’s not talking mice, but in order to go the ball Cinderella has to pick pans of lentils out of ashes, but birds do help her. A bird brings her a dress, and there was no midnight deadline. (http://www.familymanagement.com/literacy/grimms/grimms16.html)
In Aladdin, he does get trapped in the cave because a sorcerer double-crosses him, but he rubs a magic ring to get out. When he gets home, he rubs the lamp and a much more powerful djinni appears. He wishes himself riches and marries a princess. Nowhere does the djinni wish for freedom. The sorcerer comes back and convinces Aladdin’s wife to trade ‘new lamps for old’.
(http://www.wollamshram.ca/1001/Payne/aladdin/p13_index.htm)
Hope this helps!
The Grimm Brothers book.
All the old stories, yet a lot darker and more medieval.
http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/nursery_rhymes/three_blind_mice.htm
This is a nursery rhyme link, complete with explanations.
Actually, when the prince marries the woman he was betrothed to (before the little mermaid came) the version which I read stated that the mermaid, who was on the ship the newly weds got married on and were sleeping on, waited for the coming of dawn and the end of her life. Then her sisters appeared. They said they chopped off their hair and gave it to the sea witch so they may obtain a special knife. This knife, if the mermaid used it, would kill the prince and when his blood touched her feet she would be a mermaid again. They tossed it to her and they said they would wait for her. The mermaid went into the chambers of the sleeping couple and there they were. He had his strong arms wrapped lovingly around his true bride. The mermaid loved him so much that she tossed the knife out of the window in to the sea and vowed that she could never sacrifice his happiness for her own. She walked out side and as the sun shown on her she expected to become the foam of the sea, but this did not happen. Because she was willing to die than kill the one she loved her life was spared. She was given the chance of an immortal soul. But she would have to spend at least 300 years doing good as a kind of spirit before she entered heaven.
As for the other stories, that would take a LONG time, you can fined them online, just search for ‘classic fairy tales’ or ‘grimm and anderson fairy tales.’
Be aware that people have their own versions to.
I even made up my own versions!