Dark Grimm Fairy Tales: The Grimmest Stories, Their 1812 Versions and Why Video Games Still Borrow Them

Published · By Alehundred Studios

Dark Grimm fairy tales are the Grimm stories where murder, mutilation and cruel punishment drive the plot, such as The Juniper Tree, The Robber Bridegroom, Fitcher's Bird and The Girl Without Hands. Many were dark from the 1812 first edition on, some grew darker in later editions, and they still feed books, films and video games.

Below: the darkest tales in order, what happens in them, how their first editions compare, why the collection was softened and where to read them. For the famous before-and-after changes to Snow White and Rapunzel, see Grimm fairy tales original.

What are the darkest Grimm fairy tales?

The darkest Grimm fairy tales include The Seven Ravens, The Girl Without Hands, The Robber Bridegroom, Fitcher's Bird, The Juniper Tree, The Goose Girl and The Willful Child. Here they are in order by their number in the collection (Kinder- und Hausmärchen, or KHM), linked to translations by folklorist D. L. Ashliman at the University of Pittsburgh:

  1. No. 25, The Seven Ravens. Seven brothers are cursed into ravens, and their sister cuts off her own little finger to reach them.
  2. No. 31, The Girl Without Hands. A miller makes a deal with the devil, and the devil orders him: "Chop off her hands. Otherwise I cannot get to her." The father obeys.
  3. No. 40, The Robber Bridegroom. A bride discovers her fiancé leads a band of cannibal robbers.
  4. No. 46, Fitcher's Bird. A sorcerer carries off three sisters and hides a blood chamber full of murdered girls behind a forbidden door.
  5. No. 47, The Juniper Tree. A stepmother kills her stepson, cooks him into a stew and serves him to his father.
  6. No. 89, The Goose Girl. A servant steals a princess's identity and ends in a barrel "studded inside with sharp nails."
  7. No. 117, The Willful Child. A dead child's arm keeps rising out of the grave until the mother beats it back down.

For the complete numbered list of all the tales, see our Grimm Brothers fairy tales list.

What happens in The Juniper Tree?

In The Juniper Tree, a stepmother murders her stepson, cooks him, feeds him to his father, and the boy returns as a bird who sings the truth until she is crushed to death.

In Ashliman's translation, the stepmother lures the boy to a chest of apples, then "crash! she slammed down the lid, and his head flew off, falling among the red apples." She tricks her daughter, Marlene, into thinking she knocked his head off, then turns him into stew. Marlene cries, and "all her tears fell into the pot, and they did not need any salt." The father eats it all and throws the bones under the table.

Marlene buries the bones beneath the juniper tree, and a bird rises from a mist of fire singing "My mother, she killed me, My father, he ate me." It trades its song for a golden chain, red shoes and a millstone, then drops the millstone on the stepmother: "it crushed her to death." The boy stands up alive again.

Ashliman notes that the Grimms' source was "the romantic painter Philipp Otto Runge," whose version "was first published in 1808," and that the brothers included it in the first edition and "all succeeding editions." Marina Warner, writing in The New York Review of Books, adds that Runge sent it "in the Pomeranian dialect," and quotes translator Peter Wortsman on the "playful—and therefore paradoxically comforting—terror" of the best Grimm tales.

Why is The Robber Bridegroom one of the darkest Grimm tales?

The Robber Bridegroom is one of the darkest Grimm tales because it is a straight horror story: a bride walks into a cannibal's house, hides behind a barrel and watches a murder.

In the final 1857 version on Ashliman's Robber Bridegroom page, a caged bird warns her, "Turn back, turn back, you young bride. You are in a murderer's house." An old woman in the cellar tells her what the robbers plan: "they will chop you to pieces without mercy, cook you, and eat you, for they are cannibals." From behind the barrel, the bride sees them kill another young woman, and a severed finger with a gold ring "flew into the air and over the barrel, falling right into the bride's lap." At the wedding feast she tells it all as a dream, repeating "Darling, it was only a dream," until she pulls out the finger.

The first edition is just as grim. Ashliman explains that "A different version of this tale was included in the first edition (1812)" and that it "was substantially rewritten for the second edition (1819)." In the 1812 version the bride is a princess, the bridegroom is a prince, and the victim the robbers drag into the cellar turns out to be her own grandmother.

Its sister tale is Fitcher's Bird. There, the forbidden room holds "A large bloody basin" with "the cut up parts of dead girls." Ashliman classifies it as "The Heroine Rescues Herself and Her Sisters": the youngest puts her murdered sisters back together, sends them home hidden under gold in a basket the sorcerer must carry, and her family burns his house with him inside.

Were the first editions of the Grimm tales darker?

Not always: the 1812 and 1815 first edition was blunter, but several dark tales stayed dark or even grew darker through the final edition of 1857.

Ashliman's notes show the range:

Of punishments added after 1812, Warner writes, "Such additions increase the dark mystery of the fairy tales." The first edition was rawer, but the violence did not simply disappear over time.

Are famous Grimm fairy tales like Cinderella dark too?

Yes, many famous Grimm fairy tales are dark too, especially in their endings. Warner describes the Grimms' "chilling and ferocious variant of “Cinderella” in which her sisters cut off their toes and their heels to fit into the glass slipper." In the same essay she notes that the evil queen in Little Snow White "must wear red-hot iron shoes at her stepdaughter’s wedding, and dances herself to death." And the Goose Girl's false bride chooses her own death sentence without realizing it: "She deserves no better fate than to be stripped stark naked, and put in a barrel that is studded inside with sharp nails."

Why were the Grimm fairy tales softened?

The Grimm fairy tales were softened because the brothers wanted the book to work both as a record of folklore and as a book families could read, and those two goals pulled in different directions.

The Grimm museum in Kassel, Grimmwelt, says the brothers intended the collection "as a folkloric document and educational children’s book." It also notes that "Extensive editing took place before the illustrated “Small Edition” – which brought the Brothers world renown – was published in 1825." The University of Illinois Rare Book & Manuscript Library adds that critics found the early volumes unsuitable for young readers, so later editions cut sexual references and turned wicked mothers into stepmothers.

Warner says Wilhelm was "trying to lighten the cruelty," but the softening was selective: sex and bad mothers were toned down, punishment scenes kept or added. Folklorist Jack Zipes, writing in The Public Domain Review, explains why the dark core survived: in these tales, "even though magic, superstition, miraculous transformation, and brutality are involved, the storytellers believe in their stories." The debate never fully ended: Grimmwelt adds that the tales were "Classed as dubious children’s literature after the Second World War" before being rehabilitated.

How dark is The Seven Ravens, the tale behind Coins Catcher?

The Seven Ravens is one of the gentler dark Grimm tales, but it still turns on a curse and a self-inflicted wound. A father's angry wish turns his seven sons into ravens; their sister travels to the sun, the moon and the stars to find them, then loses the key to the glass mountain. In Ashliman's translation: "The good little sister took a knife, cut off one of her little fingers, put it into the door, and fortunately the door opened." Ashliman also notes that the tale appeared in the first edition with the title "Die drei Raben" (The Three Ravens) and "was retitled and substantially rewritten for the second edition (1819)."

The full story is in the seven ravens story.

Where can you read dark Grimm fairy tales today?

You can read dark Grimm fairy tales today on Project Gutenberg, in Ashliman's folktexts and through library and museum collections.

Where does Coins Catcher: Co-op Lands fit?

Video games keep borrowing from dark Grimm fairy tales because a curse, a monstrous transformation and a hard-won rescue already make a quest. Coins Catcher: Co-op Lands takes The Seven Ravens and twists it on purpose, the same way the Grimms reshaped the tales they collected. In the game, a shadowy curse traps a princess, and her seven brothers, her guardians, are not turned into ravens but into seven giant beasts, each banished to a different historical era.

Each era has its beast: a wolf in Italy 1956, a carnivorous plant in the Wild West 1885, a hippogriff in the Caribbean 1704, a dragon in Kyoto 1503, a bear in York 1062, a sabertooth in Hatra 201 AD, and the giant spider of Alexandria 300 BC as the final boss. You are 10 cm (about 4 inches) tall. Defeat the beast, climb its tower and claim the Magic Gem at the top; seven gems break the spell and rescue the princess. The Tale page on the game's site tells the twist in full.

It is an online co-op 3D platformer for up to 8 players by solo developer Alehundred, rated for players 13 and up, with crossplay across PC on Steam, mobile and VR and voice chat for everyone. It is on Steam in Early Access.

FAQ

What is the darkest Grimm fairy tale?

A strong candidate is The Juniper Tree (KHM 47), where a stepmother kills her stepson and cooks him into a stew that his father eats.

What are some examples of dark Grimm fairy tales?

The Juniper Tree, The Robber Bridegroom, Fitcher's Bird, The Girl Without Hands, The Goose Girl, The Willful Child and The Seven Ravens.

What is the list of dark Grimm fairy tales in order?

By KHM number: The Seven Ravens (25), The Girl Without Hands (31), The Robber Bridegroom (40), Fitcher's Bird (46), The Juniper Tree (47), The Goose Girl (89) and The Willful Child (117).

Were the original Grimm fairy tales darker?

In some ways. The 1812 edition was blunter, but many dark tales kept their violence through 1857, and some, like The Willful Child, got harsher.

Why are Grimm fairy tales so dark?

They come from storytelling that did not hide brutality; as Jack Zipes puts it, the storytellers "believe in their stories." The Grimms softened sex and wicked mothers but kept the punishments.

Which famous Grimm fairy tales are the most violent?

Cinderella (the stepsisters cut their feet), Snow White (red-hot iron shoes) and The Goose Girl (a barrel studded with nails) have the most violent endings.

Sources

  1. Grimm J, Grimm W; Ashliman DL, trans. The Seven Ravens. Folktexts, University of Pittsburgh, 2002.
  2. Grimm J, Grimm W; Ashliman DL, trans. The Girl without Hands. Folktexts, University of Pittsburgh, 2001-2012.
  3. Grimm J, Grimm W; Ashliman DL, trans. The Robber Bridegroom. Folktexts, University of Pittsburgh, 2001-2005.
  4. Grimm J, Grimm W; Ashliman DL, trans. Fitcher's Bird. Folktexts, University of Pittsburgh, 2002-2020.
  5. Grimm J, Grimm W; Ashliman DL, trans. The Juniper Tree. Folktexts, University of Pittsburgh, 2000-2007.
  6. Grimm J, Grimm W; Ashliman DL, trans. The Goose Girl. Folktexts, University of Pittsburgh.
  7. Grimm J, Grimm W; Ashliman DL, trans. The Willful Child. Folktexts, University of Pittsburgh, 2000-2006.
  8. Warner M. Rescuing Wonderful Shivery Tales. The New York Review of Books, 2015.
  9. Zipes J. The Forgotten Tales of the Brothers Grimm. The Public Domain Review, 2012.
  10. Grimmwelt Kassel. The "Children's and Household Tales". Grimmwelt journal.
  11. University of Illinois Library, Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Kinder- und Hausmärchen gesammelt durch die Brüder Grimm. Once Upon a Time exhibit.
  12. Library of Congress. A Grimm Beginning. From the Catbird Seat, 2012.
  13. Grimm J, Grimm W; Taylor E, Edwardes M, trans. Grimms' Fairy Tales. Project Gutenberg.
  14. Grimm J, Grimm W; Hunt M, trans. Household Tales by Brothers Grimm. Project Gutenberg.