Happily Ever After

This innocent nursery rhyme was about the Black Death. The Roses were red marks of the bubonic plague sores. The Posies, rosemary and other herbs were stuffed in the nose of the plague doctor masks, to lessen the stench of death and to protect them from infection, that didn’t really work though. Fall down, you guessed it… fall down dead.

This is a rhyme about Edward Teach aka the infamous pirate Black Beard

The King is Black Beard himself, Sixpence was how much Black Beard paid his crew a day and a Pocket full of Rye, whiskey. Blackbirds are his crew. Baked in a pie, the crew hiding ready to pounce. Sing is when the crew came out of hiding and attacked another ship ARRRRRRRRRR

There are more verses of this nursery rhyme, one of the lines says “Queen eating bread and honey” It was referring to the Queen Anne’s Revenge, Black Beard’s beloved ship with the spoils of his plunders

Aye Matey!!!

This is a very well known Nursery rhyme from Mother Goose in the 18th century

At the time, iron underwear aka chastity belt was nicknamed “pumpkin shell”. Peter was married to a woman who was unfaithful, Peter forced his wife to wear one. Locked it up and kept the key away from her.

Grimm Fairy Tale 1812 but the story originated in the Baltic Region around 1315

The great Famine started 1315 and wasn’t recovered until 1322

The story is well known, but just in case you aren’t familiar, it’s basically about Hansel and Gretel being abandoned in the forest and falls into the hands of a witch in a gingerbread, candy house. She plans to fatten the children and eat them, Gretel tricks her and kills her.

Just fantasy? 

Maybe the part of the gingerbread house. During times of extreme famine and poverty, children were abandoned for real. The children would have to fend for themselves. Unfortunately some parents were reduced to murder and sometimes cannibalism.

A pleasant little ditty… not!

Once upon a time there was a child who was witful and would not do what its mother wished. Because of this, the child became very sick and ultimately died. When the child was laid to rest the child’s hand popped out of the ground, so the mother buried it again. This happened a few times, hand pops up, mother bruised it until the last time the hand popped up, and the nother found a pole and smashed it down.

Happily Ever After

Is this about buried alive, I think so and what about child abuse? Wow!

The Grimms message is “wilfulness, selfishness, disobedience leads to punishment and is unholy”

We as a society understand wilful children much better now, although still challenging to deal with, but buried alive.. Hmmmmm

Often wilful people are very intelligent and think out of the box.

I think I am a wilful Child. How about You?

This rhyme has nothing to do with the weather. In actual fact, the old man liked to drink and it’s raining and pouring refers to alcoholic drinks being poured very liberally. The Old Man was drunk at the bar and fell asleep. He was asked to go home, where he went to bed, bumped his head and lied there dead.

Alcoholism is a disease and approximately 4000 people die of alcohol-induced deaths in a year in Canada.

Grimm Fairy Tale published 1812

This is a long story so I will give you the gist. The story goes, a miller is approached by a stranger and offered him riches for whatever was behind the mill. The miller agreed, thinking that behind the mill was an old apple tree. The stranger ends up being the Devil, and behind the mill was his very good daughter, Whoopsie! The Devil couldn’t get her because she was sooo good and always kept her hands clean. So instead the devil will take the miller instead. The miller doesn’t want to go, so he makes a deal with the Devil, that if he would cut off her very clean hands he will spare him. So he does, and promptly sent her away so the devil couldn’t get at her. The girl wandered until she found a pear tree in a royal garden. The river goddess helped the handless girl to gather some pears. Then comes in the King of the royal garden whom promptly falls in love with the girl and gives her silver hands … and the story continues.

This long winded fairytale’s message is about being good and you are awarded. Cleanliness is to godliness. Whatever!! 

Oh yeah` never make deals with unknown strangers, that are too good to be true. You never know, it could be the devil to grab your soul.

This fairy tale is straight out of the horror handbook, this tells the tale of an impoverished miller who seeks a better life for his only daughter. To save the mill, he arranged a marriage between her and a wealthy man from out of town. She wants to help her parents and do what is right, although she has had bad feelings about this man. So she takes a walk in the woods to his house to find out more about her betrothed. But something wicked lurks in the woods where the bridegroom lives…….

It’s a story of dark woods, gangs of murders, severed body parts and even cannibalism with a touch of salt.The message is to listen to your gut, your intuition because it is always right, there is real evil out there. BEWARE!!

It’s a dairy tale about a young girl who meets a crafty wolf on the way to her grandmother’s house. The wolf gets to the house first, eats the grandmother and then awaits Red Riding Hoods in the grandmother’s bed. “What big eyes you have” “Better to see you” “What big teeth you have” “Better to eat you” CHOMP!!!

The End

It’s a story of stalking in the woods, it’s a cautionary story to be aware of your surroundings and be diligent especially alone in the woods, alleys and any other high risk areas. Wolves aren’t going to eat you, just like that. The wolf in this story is a human predator.

This is the story in a nut shell. The frog is actually an enchanted prince, the King has three daughters. The frog asked each daughter to kiss him. Two of the princesses said “NO WAY!!” But the youngest princess said “yes” and POOF the frog is now a prince. The two other princesses are really jealous. 

Happily Ever After.

Guess what this story is about? 

You got it! Don’t judge a book by its cover. Treat everyone with the same respect and love no matter how they look.

This nursery rhyme is thought to be a reference to King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. In the “Reign Of Terror” in 1793 a period of the French Revolution, King Louis XVI was beheaded and broke his crown and Marie Antoinette was beheaded tumbling after. Both were beheaded by guillotine.

This is a Perrault’s Fairy Tale from 1697

A rich gentleman called Blue Beard is unable to find a new wife due to his usual beard and rumors about his missing wives. He remarries and he gives her all the keys for the castle but she is never to use the smallest key on the ring. Blue Beard goes on a trip leaving his wife alone in the castle where she decides to explore and disobeyed her husband’s orders and opens the small key door… 

There were two real life Blue Beards in history, Gilles de Rais, which the story was influenced by and Henri Desire Landru of France. The L=latter was guillotined on February 25 1922.

Landru lured 11 to their deaths.

The moral of the story is basically obey your husband and “Indulgence in curiosity is dangerous”

Wow! Two old patriarchic values.

I can’t wonder if the term “Skeletons in the closet” relates to this fairy tale.

This plot is that a young girl, who is treated terribly by her step mother and sisters, experiences a bit of magic from her fairy godmother and is able to go to the ball dressed as a beautiful princess. There, she falls in love with a prince, leaves a slipper. The step sisters want the Prince for themselves, so to fit in the slipper, one cuts off her toe, the other their heel, but neither works and Cinderella gets the Prince. 

In 1634 when it was written, big feet for a woman was considered peasant stock, small feet contributed to female attractiveness. It’s a light to big footed women everywhere, I wear size 10.5 and love my big plates of meat. In the Grimm version of the story, the StepMother is tortured and punished by making her wear red hot iron boots and dance at the wedding until she died.

Yikes! You don’t want to cross this very good and kind character.