Fairy Tales by Dawn Ireland

I thought it would be fun to put snippets of fairy tales at the start of each of my chapters in The Perfect Duke, so I did some research.  I looked at The Brother’s Grimm  and discovered many of their tales are gruesome. I mean, really, did they have to punish the wicked sorceress when she came to the wedding by heating metal shoes and making her dance in them until she died? And that’s only one of their less than savory endings for “the villain” in a tale. And speaking of the bad guys, why were so many of them women? (I know, I know, it was the view by society of the day. Women were tempting and evil.)

All this made me realize two things. I would never read the original fairy tales to children. I’d be afraid to. Even the Hans Christian Anderson love story about the tin soldier with one leg, who falls in love with the paper ballerina, ends badly. Some of these stories would give children nightmares.

My second realization?  I needed to write my own one-liner’s based on fairy tales. And I had fun with that: quotes from Prince Charming, thoughts from one of the seven dwarves and lines that could have been found in the stories.

Of course, I’m not the first to have fun playing with fairy tales. How many of you watch Once Upon a Time or went to see Enchanted? I enjoy both of them. I think Once Upon a Time is very well written and every time I think I know what will happen, they surprise me. My favorite character is Mr. Gold/aka Rumplestiltskin.  Who do you like: Snow, Prince Charming, Hook, Belle, the Dwarves or one of the other entertaining characters?