Goodbye and Conclusion

Exploring possible hidden meanings in the Grimm brothers fairy tales allows us to challenge preconceived ideologies. Exploring the significance of food and doing research for this blog has blown me away as I've come to interpret certain items of food or the roles that food plays in these fairy tales in a completely new light. The symbolism of food is such a rich theme to identify and there is extensive research on it, with this blog now contributing to that extensive research. 

All of the Grimm brother's fairy tales are undeniably great and have many interesting undertones. We have come to understand that food in the Grimm brother's fairy tales have a deeper meaning to what we are presented with at face value. We know for a fact that their own personal experiences contribute to the way food is depicted in their fairy tales, but we cannot be certain for interpreting food symbolism and whether it was intentional. However, sometimes maybe the symbols are "more coincidental than a product of collective mind or something similar." [1].

"With every fairy tale explored, we always learn something new about our world, our history, and about ourselves." [1]

I want to thank you ever so much for being my company!

References
[1] https://owlcation.com/misc/red_riding_hood

God's Food?

[1]

What a fairy tale this is! So it starts off okay... We are told that there are two sisters, one is rich with no children, one is poor with five children. The poor sister with five children did not have enough bread to feed herself or her children. Is this story line beginning to sound familiar at all? (Hansel and Gretel maybe) The poor sister goes to the rich sister to ask for some bread and the rich sister responds by saying "I don't have anything in my house either." The rich sisters husband then comes home and "wanted to cut himself a piece of bread, but when he cut into the loaf, red blood gushed from it." (Grimms, n.p) The wife becomes horrified by what she sees and tells her husband what happened. This results in him going to the poor sister to see that three of her children have died, following them, the last two children and the mother herself dies of a broken heart.


Because of the rich sisters selfishness, she killed her own sister nieces and nephews and this is symbolised through the blood gushing out of the bread. The one item that could have potentially saved them, the absence of it kills them. All the sister wanted was some bread and the rich sister rejected her by lying and saying that she did not have any, but, all along she did. Giving food is an act of love, but, here we see that the rich sister has a cold heart and does not sympathise with her sisters need. This is such a deep story for a children's fairy tale which is what makes it so undeniably interesting and also thought provoking.

References:

[1] www.giphy.com

Candy House Trap!

[1]

I can imagine this was Hansel and Gretel's reaction when they saw the house made of candy that was actually a TRAP. Imagine you haven't eaten a full meal in what feels like forever and then you come across a house made out of bread and candy, it would feel like a God send right?! 






Hunger is frequently served as a motivation in fairy tales, causing protagonists to go to the extent of changing their circumstances in order to be fed. These tales are likely to reflect the reality of the time they were written in and we see this in Hansel and Gretel as it very much reflects Jacob and Wilhelm's reality that I informed you of in my introduction (head to my introduction post if you haven't already read it). We can say that Hansel and Gretel becomes a tale about displacement due to the absence of food. The parents of Hansel and Gretel kick them out of their own home as they are unable to provide them with adequate food. This is how the parents conversation went:

[2]

"Early tomorrow morning we will take the two children out into the thickest part of the woods, make a fire for them, and give each of them a little piece of bread, then leave them by themselves and go off to our work. They will not find their way back home, and we will be rid of them." Little did they know Hansel and Gretel had a plan and left a trail of breadcrumbs to find their way home, but the birds ate them.

Through this we see how food serves as a form of safety in a sense, because had not the birds eaten the crumbs, they would have lead Hansel and Gretel back home. Never would have thought that food could act as a form of safety! 

Not only does food serve as a form of safety but the lack of food in Hansel and Gretel is used as a catalyst for their abandonment. It completely destructs and divides their family. So food works as a threat here!

It's also funny and interesting to think that Hansel and Gretel's starvation saves them in a way. Why do you say that? You're probably thinking! Because they were so hungry, "The two children had not been able to fall asleep because of their hunger" which resulted in them overhearing the evil stepmother's plan to get rid of them as she sees them as a burden. Had they fallen asleep, they wouldn't have known the plan plotted against them!




We see how hunger serves as a motivation as it is interesting that "both the witch and the mother forsake their roles as nurturers and instead selfishly choose to assuage their own hunger by sacrificing the children." (Phoenix and Walter,195) The witch does this by locking Hansel away and attempting to make him fatter before eating him herself whereas the mother kicks both children out. This cruel act portrays the power of food in that the witch and more importantly, the mother put their own need for food before the children. A maternal act would be to put your children before yourself but here we see the total opposite of that. Times get hard so the parents resort to abandoning their children. T R A G I C. 

[3]

We see food as a trap, a danger, and a seducer. The witch's attractable edible house lures Hansel and Gretel into danger as they see the house as the fulfillment of their hunger. It's heaven in their eyes, a dream come true, they've finally got access to FOOD! The witch is so evil she uses food as a trap and a method of torture by feeding Hansel food to make him fatter so she could eat him herself. Do you ever wander how she was going to eat him fried, boiled, sauteed, roasted or simply RAW? How you ever stopped to think that the witch lives in a house made out of tasty food yet she desires to eat a human being?! Did I hear someone say cannibalism?


A catalyst, a protector, a seducer and an abuser... Although food kept Hansel and Gretel alive, it almost caused them their life!

References:

[1] https://giphy.com/
[2] https://giphy.com/
[3] https://giphy.com/

Phoenix E. L and Walter L. Critical Food Issues: Problems and State-Of-The-Art Solutions Worldwide. Praeger, 2009.

"Sweet Porridge" you say.. How sweet are we talking?!

Warm sweet porridge... Mmmmmm. If you're from where I am from, Jamaica, you most probably love Cornmeal porridge. If you've never heard of it, it is a sweet and filling traditional Jamaican breakfast. Click the link below and you will thank me later! Let me know in the comments section if you try out this recipe :D 

"Sweet Porridge" Jamaican Style!

[1]

Anyway, back to the Grimm brothers fairy tales! "The Sweet Porridge" or "The Magic Porridge Pot" as it is also known as in contemporary versions, reflects the desperate circumstances that Jacob and Wilhem faced in their childhood. When I recently read this fairy tale I couldn't help but wonder why the Grimm Brother's decided to create a magic pot rather than an ordinary pot of porridge, so I did a bit of research. I suppose the scenario is great if you are a lover of sweet porridge, but if you don't like it then this must be the worst possible scenario to be in as it is the only choice of food you've got! 

From 1437 to 1439 "there was a succession of wet summers and harvests were ruined, the peasantry was reduced to eating such herbs and roots as they could gather from the hedgerows, and thousands died."(Drummond and Wilbraham, 88)[2] "Sweet Porridge" most definitely reflects these times. The girls mother is widowed so financial hardship is big struggle. The girl ventures into the 
woods to find something edible and stumbles across an old lady who gives her a magic pot that would cook sweet millet porridge. Famine and food deprivation was a frequent struggle of life in Europe during the Middle Ages, so one can understand how these circumstances can lead to a fantasy such as a magic pot that produces endless sweet porridge. Understanding that its through adverse circumstances that the Grimm brothers fantasised and wrote a fairy tale about a magic porridge pot allows us to appreciate the concept that little bit more.

"The sweet porridge" is not just a magical story about endless yummy porridge but rather a story that "relies upon habitual and chronic hunger as a driving force." (Daniel, 63) Hunger is a powerful force that can either produce a great thing; endless sweet porridge, or produce a bad thing (see my 'Candy House Trap' post). 


How to make porridge in 5 ways!


References:
[1] http://www.slaphappylarry.com/fairytale-study-the-magic-porridge-pot/
[2] Daniel, C. Voracious Children. Routledge, 2009.
[3] https://giphy.com/

The Meaning of the Bottle

[1]

We all know the story of Little Red Riding Hood however the original 1812 publication by the Grimm brothers is called Little Red Cap. Little Red Cap is sent to visit her Grandmother with cake and a bottle of wine, but have you ever wandered why she was given wine to take to her Grandmother and not a child friendly drink, especially as the target audience is young children? One reading of the wine bottle in Little Red Cap's basket understands it to symbolise virginity. The shape of the wine bottle can be seen as phallic, it is also easily breakable and fragile as the mother warns Little Red Cap "do not leave the path, or you might fall down and break the glass."(Grimms, n.p)

In dream analysis a bottle can also represent repressed feelings, feelings that have been bottled. The only way to release these feelings is to open the bottle and release the trapped spirit.[2] So in this way, the bottle has a deeper meaning and purpose than just being a gift for her Grandmother. 

Jack Zipes, an American academic, holds that "there is a touch of nonconformity and sexual promiscuity in her character. But whatever her reputation and destiny, she has always been used as a warning to children" (Zipes, 1)The red colour of the wine that Little Red Cap takes to her Grandmother can be understood to symbolise passion and lust as it is interpreted that the wolf eating Little Red Cap is symbolic for sex. In this way Zipes identifying promiscuity in the character of Little Red Cap is definitely understandable and therefore strengthens the interpretation of the symbolism of the wine bottle. 

Obviously we can never know for sure what the Grimm brothers intentions were by placing wine in a children's fairy tale, after all, we could be completely over analysing but hopefully I've given you some new ideas to think about. Feel free to engage with my ideas by leaving comments down below. To end this blog post I want to leave this quote with you 

"Sometimes a cigar is only a cigar"[3] - Sigmund Freud 

References:

[1] http://horsenden.ealing.sch.uk/year-groups/year5/year-5-2017-2018/5306-5h-drama-bad-little-red-riding-hood.html. Accessed: 15/03/18

[2] Clarke, M. The Big Dictionary of Dreams. Skyhorse Publishing, 2015. 

[3] https://owlcation.com/humanities/red_riding_hood Accessed:15/03/18

Zipes, J. The Trials & Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood. Routledge, 1993.

Welcome!

WELCOME TO MY BLOG! I'm so glad you found it. It is time to talk all things food and the Grimm Brother's fairy tales! What an exciting combination?! Although it is practically impossible to trace the historical origins and evolution of fairy tales, research states that "they have been told since before even English, French and Italian existed. They were probably told in an extinct Indo-European language." ("Fairy Tales 'Thousands Of Years Old'") However, we can stand assured that the fairy tale genre will never die out, as long as children are being produced, fairy tales will never die out. So the question is why the preoccupation with food[2], other than it is incredibly satisfyingly delicious? The Grimm brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm cannot seem to centre their stories on anything other than food. 

The Grimm Brothers [1] 

Both Jacob and Wilhelm knew the pain of starving. When their father died of pneumonia in 1796 they were plunged into hardship. In the early 1800's, during the time of writing their collection of fairy tales, they deprived themselves of food in order to support and provide for their younger siblings. They drank a single cup of coffee and had one meal a day, this meal was typically three portions divided between five people.[4] So here lies our answer to why the Grimm brother's tales contain so much food, because they understand how sharing food is an act of love. What gives their tales such enduring power is their sense of home which is intricately connected to the idea of  being fed.

From cake and wine to bread, meat and wine that never runs out to endless amounts of sweet porridge[2] the Grimm brothers fairy tales are absorbed with food; after all, this is what makes them so intellectually stimulating and satisfying. This blog will be looking at the symbolism and significance of food in the Grimm brothers fairy tales. I hope to see you on my next post, Tiarna :)


References 

[1]http://www.notablebiographies.com/Gi-He/Grimm-Brothers.html
[2]https://www.shmoop.com/grimms-fairy-tales/food-symbol.html
[3]"Fairy Tales 'Thousands Of Years Old'". BBC News, 2018, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35358487. Accessed 12 Mar 2018.
[4]https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/9483512/Grimms-fairytale-food.html