The stories were compiled by German historian Franz Xaver von Schönwerth in the 1880s – around the same time as the Brothers Grimm folk tales – from across the Bavarian region of Oberpfalz.While the well-known Grimm fairytales often feature a vulnerable princess and dragon-slaying hero, Schönwerth reverses their roles – offering readers powerful female and vulnerable male characters.
In Schönwerth’s fantastical version Cinderella, for example, the heroine uses her golden – not glass – slippers to rescue her lover from beyond the moon.
yoooooooooo omg
HOLY SHIT I WANNA READ THESE
Very cool – though as a nitpick, it’s not quite accurate to call the tales of Schönwerth’s collections ”role reversals”. Many scholars believe that they actually represent a more accurate reflection of the oral tradition of the late 19th Century than the Grimms’ better-known compilations; if anything, it’s the Grimms’ stuff that’s got it reversed.
(In a nutshell, the Grimms are known to have had some very particular ideas about gender roles, ideas which were doubtlessly reflected in the types of fairy tales they chose to compile. Indeed, most fairy tales tend to have several versions floating around, which makes it highly unusual that some of the versions presented by the Grimms are found nowhere else. Several of the Grimms’ more popular tales are now believed to have been heavily redacted prior to publication to remove “unsuitable” attitudes and motivations from female protagonists.)
Not so happily ever after: Fairytales that lay undiscovered for 150 years tell stories of wicked step-fathers witch-slaying princesses and scared young princes
Published
The Carving Witch 