Who Am I?

          I am but with a mien of a true-blooded Filipino. A complexion of kayumangging kaligatan, brown eyes and a stature of a model, by model, I mean a thin body yet neither so tall or vertically challenged. Though my late grandfather has christened me with an Ethiopian appellation, i.e., Robele, both my parents are no foreign race. Inevitably because of the letter ñ in my last name, it was misunderstood as Spanish. An old story about my descendants reminds me that a volume of my blood runs the nature of a faith healer. A culture in our family that whenever one has a fever, instead of consulting to a physician, we consult to our aunt, a healer and she would give us diagnosis only believers of them can conceive. Another stunning event also, many decades ago, my late grandpa was blessed with immense wealth but because of his excessive generosity he was left financially incapacitated. For 3 years, I’ve felt my lolo’s genuine generosity worked in me. I’ve experienced it through others. On the other hand, I am blessed today for I have with me a philanthropist. A lot of factors mold my character and not just mere genetics. Through various settings that I’ve been through, go with it remarkable and unremarkable experiences. This has taught me the value of stewardship, prudence, cheerfulness and charity.

            I’ve lived most of my life in an urbanized area. Where I used to reside, were families of average class. A place that is very accessible to schools, public market, malls and hospitals. We had a big and active community. The Catholic Church which positioned in the center of Villamonte where most people spent their Sunday morning to pray for Spiritual food or healing. Recently, changes took place; my family now is staying near the boundary of the city, almost rural. Where I live, are people of mixed socio-economic status. The place can be barely accessible when it comes to colleges/universities and hospitals, for it will reach you an-hour to travel. By God’s grace, we live in abundance but not in terms of financial matters. I was raised seeing and knowing both of Roman Catholic and superstitious beliefs. The former talks about Father God, Jesus Christ, Mother Mary, angels and saints while the latter talks about wicked spirits and supernatural beings. But that doesn’t literally mean I have to conform in their ways, for I cannot deny in myself the curiosity within me. I would like to believe in the case that every wide reader is a Bible-reader, as one of them; I had known that the Holy book warned me of the world’s ideas, of false testimonies and of the truth.

            What keeps me going until now, despite of being broke, is faith. No past praying for because I know everything that happened, is happening and is about to happen is God’s will. I let God to be the driver of my life, therefore, whatever afflictions that I may struggle, I believe, Jesus is not just with me, but fights for me. So I need not worry. Someday, in God’s time, I could be a member of missionary acts foundation. Doing 2 great things I long the most; travel and share. I could be a travel writer whom I could spread God’s love through books. A businesswoman, too, who could share God’s blessings through a foundation. May God shower upon me strength, understanding and above all, wisdom. May I then, patiently wait for all these to come in His due time.

“Judge me, o Lord; for I have walked in mine integrity:

I have also trusted in the Lord; therefore I shall not slide.

"Examine me, o Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.” – Psalm 26:1-2

Elias, your Alias

My manong IBARRA'S FRIEND ELIAS, I have prepared you the missing Chapter of the Noli Me Tangere, which I got from the book Jose Rizal: Life, Works and Writings. I have italicized the very words that moved me a lot. I trust the story below will be of help to you so you wouldn’t be at loss of what to say, in case someone might ask the love story of your chosen pseudonym.

In the original manuscript of the Noli Me Tangere, there was a chapter entitled "Elias and Salome" which follows Chapter XXIV - "In The Woods". This particular Chapter on Elias and Salome was deleted by Rizal so that it was not included in the printed novel. His reason for doing so was definitely economic. By reducing the pages of the manuscript, the cost of printing would correspondingly be reduced. The missing chapter runs as follows:

In a nipa hut by the placid lake, Salome, a winsome girl in her early teens, sat on a bamboo batalan, sewing a camisa of bright colors. She was waiting for Elias to arrive. She was beautiful "like the flowerets that grow wild not attracting attention at first glance but whose beauty is revealed when we examine them carefully". When she heard footsteps, she laid aside her sewing, went to the bamboo stairway where Elias stood carrying a bundle of firewood and a bunch of bananas which he placed on the floor, while he handed a wiggling dalag to the girl.

Salome noticed her lover was sad and pensive. She tried to console him; asking about the girls at the picnic which the Guardia Civil soldiers disturbed, looking for him. He told her in a gay mood that there were many beautiful girls, among whom was Maria Clara, the sweetheart of a rich young man who had just returned from Europe.

Afterwards, Elias rose, preparing to leave. Speaking in a soft voice, he said: "Good-bye Salome. The sun is setting, and it won't appear good for the people to know that night overtook me here." He paused for a moment, then continued: "But you've been crying. Don't deny it with your smile. You've been crying."

She was crying, for soon she would leave this house where she grew up. She explained: "It is not right for me to live alone, I'll go to live with my relatives in Mindoro. Soon I'll be able to pay the debt my mother left me when she died…to give up this house in which one was born and had grown up is something more than giving up one's being. A typhoon will come, a freshet, and everything will go to the lake…"

Elias remained silent for a moment; then he held her hands, and asked her: "Have you heard anyone speak ill of you? Have I sometimes worried you? Not that either? Then you are tired of my friendship and you want to drive me away…"

She answered "No, don't talk like that. I am not tired of your friendship. God knows that I am satisfied with my lot. I only desire health that I may work. I don't envy the rich, the wealthy, but…"

"But what?"

"Nothing. I don't envy them as long as I have your friendship."

"Salome," replied the youth with bitter sorrow. "You know my cruel past and that my misfortune is not of my own making. If not for the fatality that at times keeps me thinking, with bitterness, if it were not that I don't want my children to suffer what my sister and I suffered, you would have been my wife in the eyes of God. But for the sake of this very love, for the sake of this future family, I have sworn to end with myself the misfortune that we have been inheriting from father to son, and it is better that it should be so, for neither you nor I would wish to hear our children lament our love, which would only bequeath them misery. You do well to go to the house of your relatives. Forget me, forget a love so mad and futile. Perhaps you'll meet there one who is not like me."

"Elias," exclaimed the girl reproachfully.

"You have misunderstood me. In my words, there is no complaint against you. Take my advice, go home to your relatives…Here you have no one but me, and the day when I fall into the hands of my pursuers, you will be left alone for the rest of your life. Improve your youth and beauty to get a good husband, such as you deserve, for you don't know what it is to live among men."

"I was thinking that you might go with me," Salome said softly.

"Alas," rejoined Elias shaking his head. "Impossible, and more so than ever…I haven't yet found what I came here to seek - it's impossible. Today, I forfeited my liberty."

Elias then narrated what happened earlier at the picnic that morning; how he was saved by Ibarra from the jaws of a crocodile. To show his gratitude, he vowed to repay the good deed done by Ibarra, even to the extent of sacrificing his life. He explained that anywhere he would go, even to Mindoro, the past would still be discovered, sooner or later.

"Well then," Salome said, looking at him tenderly: "At least, when I'm gone, live here, stay in this house. It will make you remember me; and I will not think in the distant land that the hurricane had carried my hut to the lake. When my thoughts turn to these shores, the memory of you and of my house will appear to me together. Sleep where I have slept and dream – it will be as though I were beside you."

"Oh," exclaimed Elias, waving his hand in desperation, "Woman, you'll make me forget."

After disengaging himself from her tender embrace, he left with a heavy heart, following the lonely path lined with the shadows of the somber trees in the twilight. She followed him with her gaze, listening sadly to the fading footsteps in the gathering darkness.

I got this message from Sir Geoff of the Jesus Daily page. From the bottom of my hypothalamus, I thank him.

Hi Robele,

In the book of Matthew, it says that we are to seek God's kingdom first, and that He will take care of our needs....

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things (what you will eat or drink or clothes) will be given to you as well." Matthew 6:33

God tells us not to worry about what we will eat or drink or wear. I know I find it hard not to worry about some things. And I know also that God's word is true. So I pray that you will seek his kingdom and righteousness first, and that God will provide for you.

I'd like to pray for you right now;

"Heavenly Father, you are a gracious God who made each one of us, and loves us, and who meets the needs of those who love you and seek after your kingdom. I pray for Robeles, that you fill him with your Holy Spirit and help him to seek after your kingdom and your righteousness, and also that you meet his needs according to your perfect timing. I pray this in the powerful name of Jesus, Amen."

God bless you, Robeles!
Geoff

Faith

This is taken from the book entitled Seeds of Revolution authored by Sonia S. Daquila, 2003 outstanding teacher of the Philippines.

Imagine yourself attending a philosophy class at the University of Santo Tomas; a professor talked about scholasticism or neoThomism. With much enthusiasm the professor cited protozoan which were struck by the radiation rays and evolved into what we are now, human beings.

She said, "...there is nothing now that cannot be reconciled between science and religion, and we call this scholasticism or neo-Thomism."

One curious student asked:

"Professor, how can we possibly explain parthenogenesis or virgin birth? Scientifically, we know that the sex of the fetus is determined by the intermingling of the mother's and father's chromosomes.

If the father yields Y (for a male has XY pair and so he gives our neither X or Y) and pairs it with mother's X (female has a constant pair XX and thus she gives out X all the time) it will be a boy; and if the father pairs his X with the mother's X, it will be a girl.

We also know that the only source of Y is man. Therefore, parthenogenic baby (which very rarely happens) develops without male intervention. Conclusively, parthenogenic baby ought to be female.

Now, could you reconcile science and mystery in the birth of Jesus Christ?

Remember Professor that Jesus is a male. Thus, the pairing is XY. Where do you think the Y came from?"

The professor turned red and started tongue lashing at the seemingly innocent probinsiyana.

Conscious, Not Anymore

Whenever I don't have someone to chat with, I always visit the Jesus Daily page in my social networking account. I have posted there things that bother me, things that I thanked for and things that had happened. I would love to share this comment from Kathy Sorrell. Thanks to her.

"I am getting really black...everytime I would look at the mirror and see my face...now, I am so conscious." i said

At length she said:

"But you don't know that ... The Bible says we will have a new body. If we do have color in heaven... you're going to love, love, love, it! Everything in heaven will be "Out of this world!" lol It will be wonderful! God made you and He thinks you are beautiful and you are. So stop! Think about Jesus and get your eyes off of yourself. Saying that in love.... Dive into the Bible and get to know Jesus and how much He loves you. Start reading in the book of Matthew in the New Testament. Read the Psalms is the book of prayers when we don't know how to pray. Proverbs give us wisdom... how to act in every situation. .... Genesis tells about God creating the heavens and the earth, all of creation and the first man and the first woman. Adam and Eve.... It tells that Adams son, Cain built the first city... they didn't really live in caves. David lived in caves as he was running and hiding from King Saul who was jealous of him and wanted to kill him because David was to be the next king.... There are so many wonderful stories in the Bible. Just dive in and start really living... God has a plan for your life.. a wonderful plan for your life. He even planned each day of your life before you were born. Ask Him each day what are Your plans for today, Lord. Get in step with God and start living that life He has planned for you. When things get tough.. run into His arms.. He will protect you and give you His perfect peace... if you will trust Him. Lean hard on Jesus... He will see you through all of the hard things in your life. Give them to God, your heavenly Father... But first give your life to Jesus as your Lord and Savior and He opens the door for you to know God. Now, chin up... and just be your wonderful self and start looking forward to your new life in Jesus... Don't look back anymore. Wipe the slate clean, forgive those who have hurt you and start a new day, a new beginning, a new life with Jesus. You will be amazed at all He has for you. The Bible says His blessings are new every morning. They may be the kindness of a friend, a smile of a child, the beautiful morning air and the sound or sight of a bird in flight. Not all blessings are material. You will even begin to love yourself and see yourself as God sees you. Ask Him to help you to see yourself as He sees you. Ask Him to help you understand His Word, the Bible. I am praying for you... now grow... grow where you are planted. :)"

Almost Incredible

Another goth disney stories. I owe every bit of letters to Melita Linaker. Thanks to her.

10 Disney Movies With Horrific Origins

As many people know by now, some of Disney’s much loved animated musicals, beloved and enjoyed by so many happy little children for the past eighty years, have truly horrific origins involving rape, cannibalism, torture and other very nasty happenings. Some people believe Disney improved the original stories, making them more accessible and enjoyable to the general public, others are of the opinion that Disney mauled them, or at least failed completely to do them justice.
Here are ten examples of some of the lesser-known origins of Disney’s movies, some going back in history to sources that many people are unaware of, others revealing origins that haven’t previously been discussed in such detail on the internet.
Whatever your own personal opinions of these disturbing origins and Disney’s popular renditions of them, I hope you enjoy reading this list as much as I enjoyed writing it.

10

Pinocchio: Corpses and Murder

Original: Pinocchio Kills the Cricket, the Fairy is a Walking, Talking Corpse and Pinocchio Dies
In the very first version of Pinocchio, the marionette is punished by death for being such a naughty boy. Pinocchio teases Gepetto mercilessly and runs away, Gepetto chases him but is caught by a police officer who throws the old man in prison, believing he is abusing the puppet. When Pinocchio returns to Gepetto’s house he meets a hundred year old cricket who tells him naughty boys turn into donkeys. Pinocchio throws a hammer at the cricket and kills it.
Pinocchio ends up nearly getting burned as fire wood, he then bites off an evil cat’s paw and meets a beautiful blue haired fairy who tells him she is dead and waiting for people to take her body away. Pinocchio then gets hung from a tree by the cat with the mutilated paw and the cat’s companion the fox, and they watch as Pinocchio suffocates to death. The End.
The editors weren’t too happy with this ending, so the author added a second part to the story. Here, the beautiful dead fairy rescues Pinocchio and they start living together, but Pinocchio takes up his wicked ways again and eventually turns into a donkey. He is sold to the circus, where he goes lame.
Pinocchio is then brought by a musician, who desires to kill him, skin him, and turn him into a drumhead. The musician ties rocks to the donkey’s neck and lowers him into the ocean to drown. As he drowns, fish eat the flesh off his bones, and the wooden marionette skeleton is left. Pinocchio swims away, but is swallowed by a giant shark, in whose stomach he finds Gepetto sitting at a table trying to eat live fish which keep wriggling out of his mouth. After they escape, Pinocchio busies himself with caring for Gepetto, and eventually as a reward for being a good lad, looking after his father and working hard, he is rewarded by being turned into a real boy.

9

Dismemberment in Aladdin

Original: Cassim Gets Dismembered
Who the hell is Cassim you ask? Cassim is Aladdin’s long lost father in Disney’s direct-to-video third Aladdin movie; Aladdin and the King of Thieves. In the movie, Cassim, who is the leader of the infamous Gang of Forty Thieves, gives up his wicked ways to attend Aladdin and Jasmines long awaited wedding. Some concepts for the movie were inspired by Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, a tale from 1001 Nights.
In the original version, Ali Baba learns the secret words into and out of the Forty Thieves magical secret treasure trove. Ali Baba reveals the words to his brother Cassim, who rushes to the trove to greedily collect as much gold as he can carry. In his excitement though, he forgets the magic words to get out of the cave. The thieves return, find Cassim and kill him. They divide his corpse into quarters and place the dismembered portions outside the opening of their cave as a warning to future robbers.
When Ali Baba discovers the macabre warning sign, he collects the portions of his brothers’ body and carries them home with him. He asks a slave girl, Morgiana, to make it look as if Cassim died of natural causes. Morgiana finds a skilled tailor, who expertly sews the pieces of Cassim’s corpse back together. The thieves discover where Ali Baba lives, but the slave girl ends up tricking them into killing two of their own, and she kills the rest by pouring boiling oil into the jars where they are hiding. The leader is the only one left, and Morgiana stabs him to death during dinner at Ali Baba’s house. Now that’s one loyal slave!

8

Murderous Cinderella

Original: Cinderella Kills Her Step-Mother
By now, most of us know about the Grimm’s version of Cinderella, where the Prince spreads tar on the palace steps in the hopes that Cinderella will get stuck as she tries to flee. His plan fails however, and only her shoe is left sticking in the tar. Her sisters, who are “beautiful but black of heart” both attempt to fool the Prince into marrying them. One sister slices off her big toe so that she may fit the slipper, the other slices off her own heel. Their deceit is unmasked when Cinderella’s enchanted birds point out the blood on their stockings to the Prince. The sister’s eyes are pecked out as punishment for their cruelty and deceit. Though this is an excellent version of Cinderella, this is not the version Disney actually based their movie on.
Disney’s Cinderella was based on a very tame story by Charles Perrault, published 1697. Perrault’s version plays out almost exactly like the Disney version. However, both Perrault’s and Grimm’s versions contain elements from The Cat Cinderella, published in 1634, by Giambattista Basile. Though tame for a Basile fairy tale, it is worth noting that in this version, Cinderella confides in her seemingly kind Governess about the cruelty of her step-mother. The Governess tells Cinderella that to fix her problem she will need to kill her step-mother by slamming the lid of a large wooden chest down on her step-mothers throat, which will break her neck.
Cinderella must then convince her father to marry the Governess. Cinderella kills her step-mother and the marriage goes ahead. It turns out though that the Governess was hiding her own seven beautiful daughters out of sight, and when she produces them, Cinderella’s father loses interest in his own daughter. They all start to mistreat Cinderella, abusing her and calling her names, and she is sent to the kitchens to work as a servant (she is now given the name ‘Cat Cinderella’. previously her name was Zezolla). The rest of the story carries like a traditional Cinderella tale, and actually has a happy ending all round, but it’s nice to know that Cinderella wasn’t always so innocent.

7

Sleeping Beauty Sleeps Amongst Corpses

Original: Sleeping Beauty Slumbers Amongst Hundreds of Rotting Corpses Trapped in a Briar Hedge
In the Brothers Grimm tale of Briar Rose, a wise woman curses the baby princess so that in her fifteenth year she will prick her finger on a spindle and fall down dead. Another wise woman weakens the curse so that, instead of dying, the princess will fall asleep for a hundred years. Surely enough, in her fifteenth year, the girl pricks her finger and falls into a deathlike sleep, which quickly spreads throughout the entire kingdom until even the flies on the wall slumber. A briar hedge grows up around the castle and, over the years, hundreds of young men from faraway lands try to make their way through the brambles to ‘gaze upon’ the sleeping princess.
However the brambles are so thick that the young men get trapped in the thorns and die slow miserable deaths. On the hundredth year a prince rides by and the brambles turn into flowers and open for him because the curse has finally run out. The prince finds the Sleeping Beauty and kisses her as she awakens.
As mentioned in a previous Listverse list, the Brothers Grimm took inspiration for Briar Rose from Sun, Moon and Talia, written by Giambattista Basile. In this tale, a king rapes the princess as she sleeps. She is impregnated and gives birth to twins. One of the babies sucks the enchanted splinter from beneath her fingernail and she awakens. The queen attempts to have the babies slaughtered and fed to their father, and attempts to burn Talia alive, but the king saves the day just in time, the queen is burned in Talia’s place, and they all live happily ever after.

6

Little Mermaid Mayhem

Original: The Little Mermaid Kills the Prince
In the Hans Christian Andersen story that Disney based their movie on, the little mermaids tongue is cut out. She has to live in horrific pain and her feet bleed ceaselessly, then the prince marries another woman anyway. The little mermaid has a choice; she can kill the prince and turn back into a mermaid, or throw herself into the ocean and die. Unable to kill the prince, she commits suicide.
Though The Little Mermaid is an Andersen original, he took inspiration from a tale called Undine, by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué. In Undine, a knight marries a water spirit and she gets a human soul. Undine’s spirit relatives are mischievous and at times quite evil, and they begin to complicate the marriage. It doesn’t help that Undine lets her husband’s ex-girlfriend, Bertilda, who is also Undines half-sister, live with them at the castle. The knight falls in love with Bertilda, and they both begin to treat Undine badly which makes her uncle, a powerful water spirit, very angry.
Undine commits suicide by throwing herself into a raging river to save her husband and Bertilda from the wrath of her uncle. She loses her human soul and becomes a spirit again. The knight believes she is dead and marries Bertilda, but this is a big no-no if you have previously been married to a water spirit. Undine is forced by spirit protocol to return in her water nixie form and kill her ex-husband! After he is buried, a tiny stream appears and circles his grave; thus, Undine and the knight remain together forever in death.

5

Snow White Tortured

Original: Snow White is Tortured and Made into a Slave
In the brothers Grimm tale of Snow White, the evil Queen orders a hunter to bring back Snow White’s lungs and liver as proof of the Princess’s demise. The huntsman brings back the entrails of a pig and the Queen, believing them to be the liver and lungs of Snow White, greedily devours the glistening organs.
The Queen tries to kill Snow White three times: First she pulls Snow Whites corset so tight that she passes out. Second she brushes Snow Whites hair with a poisoned comb, which causes her to fall into a deathlike sleep, the dwarfs remove the comb and she awakens. Finally, the Queen poisons an apple which Snow White eats and apparently dies. The dwarfs place her corpse in a glass coffin where a passing Prince finds her and decides to take her home with him. As the coffin is moved, the piece of apple falls from Snow Whites throat and she awakes. At the wedding, the Queen is put into red hot iron shoes and made to dance until she dies.
Grimm’s borrowed ideas for their tale of Snow White from a story called The Young Slave, written by Giambattista Basile in 1634. In this story, a baby is cursed to die in her seventh year by a fairy. When the girl turns seven, her mother is combing her hair and the comb becomes lodged in the girl’s skull, apparently killing her. The mother places the girl into seven crystal coffins, placed one inside the other, and locks her in a chamber in the castle. The mother eventually dies of grief, and entrusts the key to the chamber to her brother, telling him never to unlock the door. The brother’s wife gets hold of the key, opens the door, and finds a beautiful young woman inside the glass coffins (the girl continued to grow as she slept).
The wife thinks her husband is keeping the girl locked in the room to have sex with her, so drags her out by her hair, which dislodges the comb and breaks the spell. The wife cuts of the girl’s hair off and whips her bloody with the tresses. She then makes the girl her slave and beats her daily, giving her black eyes and making her mouth so bloody it looks as though she’s been “eating raw pigeons.” The young woman decides to kill herself but as she is sharpening the blade she tells her story to a doll. Her uncle overhears and the plot is revealed. He sends his wife away, gets medical attention for his niece, and then marries her off to a rich man.

4

Hercules Self-Immolation

Original: Hercules Burned Himself Alive
Zeus, God of the sky, disguises himself as a man called Amphitryon. Why? So Zeus could have sex with Alcmene, Amphitryon’s hot wife! Zeus impregnates Alcmene after raping her. The real Amphitryon has sex with Alcmene the same night and also impregnates her, thus, she is pregnant with two babies both from different fathers! (This is physically possible incidentally.) One of the twins (Zeus’s son) is Heracles (this was the original spelling, which means “Glory of Hera.” He was given this name pretty much just to annoy Hera).
When Heracles grows up he becomes a great warrior and marries the beautiful princess Megara. They have two beautiful babies whom Heracles then slaughters when he is driven into temporary madness by Hera. Some mythologies say Heracles also killed Megara, others say he gave her to Iolaus, who was not only Heracles nephew, but also his young lover! (Heracles was a symbol of sexual prowess, having love affairs with multiple men and women.)
Later, when the centaur Nessus tries to rape Heracles fourth wife Deianeira, Heracles shoots him with arrows poisoned with the blood of the Hydra. As he dies, Nessus tells Deianeira to collect his spilled blood and semen and use it as a love potion. When Deianeira eventually begins to worry about Heracles faithfulness, she smears the potion onto a sacrificial tunic which Heracles then dons.
The venom of the Hydra (which entered Nessus’s blood when the poisoned arrow pierced him) begins to burn Heracles skin and he tears the shirt off but his skin rips off as well, exposing his bones. Deianeira hangs herself in horror. To end his excruciating agony, Heracles has a funeral pyre built and his friend Philoctetes lights the fire. Heracles burns himself alive, but instead of dying, the immortal part of his body is left after his human flesh burns away and Heracles returns to Olympus as an immortal, reconciles with Hera and presumably lives happily ever after.

3

Fox and the Hound Deaths

Original: The Fox and the Hound: They All Die Miserably
Copper hates Chief; a younger, faster hunting dog who is taking Coppers place in the pack. After Chief saves their Master from an attacking bear during a hunt, Coppers hate and jealousy grow steadily stronger. The Master heaps praise on Chief but ignores Copper, who cowered in fear when the bear attacked. Tod is a fox who delights in taunting the chained dogs and driving them into a frenzy. One day Chief breaks his chain and trails Tod. Tod leads the dog onto a railroad track and Chief is hit by a train and killed. The Master swears vengeance and trains Copper to ignore all other foxes except Tod.
Tod meets an older vixen and they have a litter, but the Master and Copper find the den and gas the baby foxes. The vixen is then caught in a leg trap and killed.
Tod meets another vixen and has more babies, but again his family is slaughtered by the Master. One winter, there is a rabies outbreak among the foxes, who are now scavengers. One of the infected foxes attacks a group of human children and the Master puts poison out to try and kill as many foxes as possible. A human child eats the poison and dies.
Tod escapes many more attempts on his life, but one day Copper hunts Tod so relentlessly that Tod drops dead of exhaustion. Copper is almost dead himself, but the Master nurses him back to health. They enjoy some new found popularity, but the Master starts drinking again and eventually ends up having to go into a nursing home. The master takes his shotgun and shoots Copper dead, weeping as he does so. The End.

2

Torture and Death in the Hunchback

Original: Quasimodo Gets Tortured, Esmeralda Gets Tortured and then Everybody Dies
Frollo doesn’t try to drop the deformed baby down a well like in the Disney movie. In Victor Hugo’s dark original Frollo actually rescues the baby from being burned alive by four women who think it is a demon. Frollo adopts the baby and names him Quasimodo. Frollo is eventually driven mad with lust to dominate a beautiful fifteen year old gypsy girl called Esmeralda and makes Quasimodo kidnap her.
Quasimodo is caught in the act and arrested by the handsome soldier Phoebus, whom Esmeralda falls in love with. Quasimodo is publicly tortured and left exposed in the pillory. Phoebus (who’s already engaged but he’s a total slut) arranges a ‘private rendezvous’ between him and Esmeralda, but Frollo pays Phoebus to let him hide in the shadows and spy on them. Esmeralda, overcome by lust, gives up her vow of chastity to Phoebus, who gets right down to business. Overcome with jealousy, Frollo emerges from the shadows, stabs Phoebus in the back and flees into the night. Esmeralda is charged with the attempted murder, tortured into giving a false confession in a subterranean dungeon, and sentenced to hang.
Quasimodo rescues her as she is led to the gibbet and hides her in Notre Dame, where Frollo tries to rape her. After Quasimodo again intervenes, Frollo gives Esmeralda up and there is a brief and bloody battle during which Frollo tells her he will rescue her if she will ‘give her love’ to him. She refuses and he hands her over to the troops. Frollo watches as Esmeralda is executed, and laughs hysterically as she writhes at the end of the rope. Quasimodo then throws Frollo from the heights of Notre Dame.
Quasimodo then crawls into the crypt where the corpses of executed criminals are left to rot and wraps himself around Esmeralda’s decaying cadaver. Eventually their two skeletons are found, wrapped in an eternal embrace.

1

Pocahontas Raped and Killed

Original: Pocahontas was Kidnaped, Raped and Murdered
The two Disney movies about the curvaceous, scantily-clad Native Indian beauty are based on sterilized and falsified English accounts of the early history of the Virginia Colony. Pocahontas was only around ten years old when Smith first made contact with the Powhetans. It is true that he was captured by the tribe, but in his original account of the event Smith relates that he was treated very kindly. It wasn’t until many years later, when Pocahontas’s name became known in England, that Smith fabricated the story about her rescuing him from execution.
When Pocahontas was seventeen, she was captured by the English and held for ransom. Her husband Kokoum was killed and Pocahontas was raped repeatedly and consequently impregnated. She was forcefully converted to Christianity, baptized Rebecca, and quickly married off to an English tobacco farmer named John Rolfe to make the pregnancy appear legitimate. In 1615 the Rolfe’s travelled to England and Pocahontas was laced into a corset and presented to the public as a ‘symbol of the tamed Virginia savage’.
After two years in England the Rolfe’s had begun their journey home to Virginia when Pocahontas suddenly started to vomit violently after dinner, she then began to convulse. Before they had even sailed off the river Thames Pocahontas had died, horribly and painfully. English historical accounts are ‘unsure of the cause of death’, speculating that she may have succumbed to pneumonia, tuberculosis, or even smallpox. However, in their book The True Story of Pocahontas; The Other Side of History Linwood Custalow and Angela L. Daniel postulate that during her time in England, Pocahontas learned of the English intentions to obliterate the Native Indian Tribes and forcefully take their lands. Afraid that Pocahontas might reveal their political strategies, her murder was swiftly plotted and she was poisoned before she could reach home and report what she had learned. Pocahontas was only twenty-two years old when she died.

Melita Linaker Melita is a 24-year-old 100% authentic home-grown Kiwi. She is an obsessive fairy tale fanatic and a social hermit who loves nature. Passionate about all things mysterious, she enjoys reading and writing about the bizarre, the unexplained, the macabre and the fantastical.

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Top 10 Gruesome Fairy Tale Origins

Fairy tales of the past were often full of macabre and gruesome twists and endings. These days, companies like Disney have sanitized them for a modern audience that is clearly deemed unable to cope, and so we see happy endings everywhere. This list looks at some of the common endings we are familiar with – and explains the original gruesome origins. If you know of any others, be sure to mention it in the comments – or if you know of a fairy tale that is just outright gruesome (in its original or modern form), speak up.

10

The Pied Piper

In the tale of the Pied Piper, we have a village overrun with rats. A man arrives dressed in clothes of pied (a patchwork of colors) and offers to rid the town of the vermin. The villagers agree to pay a vast sum of money if the piper can do it – and he does. He plays music on his pipe which draws all the rats out of the town. When he returns for payment – the villagers won’t cough up so the Pied Piper decides to rid the town of children too! In most modern variants, the piper draws the children to a cave out of the town and when the townsfolk finally agree to pay up, he sends them back. In the darker original, the piper leads the children to a river where they all drown (except a lame boy who couldn’t keep up). Some modern scholars say that there are connotations of pedophilia in this fairy tale.

9

Little Red Riding Hood

The version of this tale that most of us are familiar with ends with Riding Hood being saved by the woodsman who kills the wicked wolf. But in fact, the original French version (by Charles Perrault) of the tale was not quite so nice. In this version, the little girl is a well bred young lady who is given false instructions by the wolf when she asks the way to her grandmothers. Foolishly riding hood takes the advice of the wolf and ends up being eaten. And here the story ends. There is no woodsman – no grandmother – just a fat wolf and a dead Red Riding Hood. The moral to this story is to not take advice from strangers.

8

The Little Mermaid

The 1989 version of the Little Mermaid might be better known as “The big whopper!” In the Disney version, the film ends with Ariel the mermaid being changed into a human so she can marry Eric. They marry in a wonderful wedding attended by humans and merpeople. But, in the very first version by Hans Christian Andersen, the mermaid sees the Prince marry a princess and she despairs. She is offered a knife with which to stab the prince to death, but rather than do that she jumps into the sea and dies by turning to froth. Hans Christian Andersen modified the ending slightly to make it more pleasant. In his new ending, instead of dying when turned to froth, she becomes a “daughter of the air” waiting to go to heaven – so, frankly, she is still dead for all intents and purposes.

7

Snow White

In the tale of snow white that we are all familiar with, the Queen asks a huntsman to kill her and bring her heart back as proof. Instead, the huntsman can’t bring himself to do it and returns with the heart of a boar. Now, fortunately disney hasn’t done too much damage to this tale, but they did leave out one important original element: in the original tale, the Queen actually asks for Snow White’s liver and lungs – which are to be served for dinner that night! Also in the original, Snow White wakes up when she is jostled by the prince’s horse as he carries her back to his castle – not from a magical kiss. What the prince wanted to do with a dead girl’s body I will leave to your imagination. Oh – in the Grimm version, the tale ends with the Queen being forced to dance to death in red hot iron shoes!

6

Sleeping Beauty

In the original sleeping beauty, the lovely princess is put to sleep when she pricks her finger on a spindle. She sleeps for one hundred years when a prince finally arrives, kisses her, and awakens her. They fall in love, marry, and (surprise surprise) live happily ever after. But alas, the original tale is not so sweet (in fact, you have to read this to believe it.) In the original, the young woman is put to sleep because of a prophesy, rather than a curse. And it isn’t the kiss of a prince which wakes her up: the king seeing her asleep, and rather fancying having a bit, rapes her. After nine months she gives birth to two children (while she is still asleep). One of the children sucks her finger which removes the piece of flax which was keeping her asleep. She wakes up to find herself raped and the mother of two kids.

5

Rumpelstiltskin

This fair tale is a little different from the others because rather than sanitizing the original, it was modified by the original author to make it more gruesome. In the original tale, Rumpelstiltskin spins straw into gold for a young girl who faces death unless she is able to perform the feat. In return, he asks for her first born child. She agrees – but when the day comes to hand over the kid, she can’t do it. Rumpelstiltskin tells her that he will let her off the bargain if she can guess his name. She overhears him singing his name by a fire and so she guesses it correctly. Rumpelstiltskin, furious, runs away, never to be seen again. But in the updated version, things are a little messier. Rumpelstiltskin is so angry that he drives his right foot deep into the ground. He then grabs his left leg and rips himself in half. Needless to say this kills him.

4

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

In this heart warming tale, we hear of pretty little goldilocks who finds the house of the three bears. She sneaks inside and eats their food, sits in their chairs, and finally falls asleep on the bed of the littlest bear. When the bears return home they find her asleep – she awakens and escapes out the window in terror. The original tale (which actually only dates to 1837) has two possible variations. In the first, the bears find Goldilocks and rip her apart and eat her. In the second, Goldilocks is actually an old hag who (like the sanitized version) jumps out of a window when the bears wake her up. The story ends by telling us that she either broke her neck in the fall, or was arrested for vagrancy and sent to the “House of Correction”.

3

Hansel and Gretel

In the widely known version of Hansel and Gretel, we hear of two little children who become lost in the forest, eventually finding their way to a gingerbread house which belongs to a wicked witch. The children end up enslaved for a time as the witch prepares them for eating. They figure their way out and throw the witch in a fire and escape. In an earlier French version of this tale (called The Lost Children), instead of a witch we have a devil. Now the wicked old devil is tricked by the children (in much the same way as Hansel and Gretel) but he works it out and puts together a sawhorse to put one of the children on to bleed (that isn’t an error – he really does). The children pretend not to know how to get on the sawhorse so the devil’s wife demonstrates. While she is lying down the kids slash her throat and escape.

2

The Girl Without Hands

Frankly, the revised version of this fairy tale is not a great deal better than the original, but there are sufficient differences to include it here. In the new version, a poor man is offered wealth by the devil if he gives him whatever is standing behind his mill. The poor man thinks it is an apple tree and agrees – but it is actually his daughter. The devil tries to take the daughter but can’t – because she is pure, so he threatens to take the father unless the daughter allows her father to chop off her hands. She agrees and the father does the deed. Now – that is not particularly nice, but it is slightly worse in some of the earlier variants in which the young girl chops off her own arms in order to make herself ugly to her brother who is trying to rape her. In another variant, the father chops off the daughter’s hands because she refuses to let him have sex with her.

1

Cinderella

In the modern Cinderella fairy tale we have the beautiful Cinderella swept off her feet by the prince and her wicked step sisters marrying two lords – with everyone living happily ever after. The fairy tale has its origins way back in the 1st century BC where Strabo’s heroine was actually called Rhodopis, not Cinderella. The story was very similar to the modern one with the exception of the glass slippers and pumpkin coach. But, lurking behind the pretty tale is a more sinister variation by the Grimm brothers: in this version, the nasty step-sisters cut off parts of their own feet in order to fit them into the glass slipper – hoping to fool the prince. The prince is alerted to the trickery by two pigeons who peck out the step sister’s eyes. They end up spending the rest of their lives as blind beggars while Cinderella gets to lounge about in luxury at the prince’s castle.

Contributor: JFrater

Jamie Frater Jamie is the founder of Listverse. He spends his time working on the site, doing research for new lists, and cooking. He is fascinated with all things morbid and bizarre.