Sure enough, the miller’s daughter becomes queen. The imp also demands more and more – first the girl’s ring but finally her firstborn child. Of course, the king just gets greedier, promising to marry the girl if she fulfils his wishes. In return for her necklace, he will make the gold. She is told that, if she doesn’t produce gold by the next morning, she will lose her head! An imp appears and offers to help.
The greedy king believes him and locks the young girl up in a tower overnight. The story involves an ambitious miller who boasts to the king that his daughter can weave straw into gold. But these days, it’s the Brothers Grimm version of Rumpelstiltskin which is read to children the world over – and this one has a far more cheerful ending than many of the versions that went before it. Variants of this fairy tale have been told for more than 1,000 years. The imp Rumpelstiltskin was much more evil in earlier versions of the fairy tale. Of course, in the Disney version, the protagonist and his friends are spared this grisly fate – instead, they turn out to be heroes and end up living happily ever after.
It was used as a warning of the dangers of giving into hysteria and believing outlandish claims. By the 19 th century, such violent versions of the fable began appearing in print. But once they’re here, the wily fox eats all of them. He invites Chicken Little and his buddies back to his home for a rest. Usually, the animals meet a fox who pretends to believe them. In most early versions, the story ends in violence and bloodshed. They all believe his theory and join him on his mission, with the hysteria steadily increasing as the group grows in size. Along the way, he meets a variety of animals. He is determined to tell the king of the impending apocalypse and so sets off on a long journey. The tale was of a young bird who, when an acorn falls on his head, becomes convinced the sky is caving in. Indeed, historians of folk takes believe this one goes back more than 2,500 years and has been used in a wide range of different cultures to warn of the dangers of mass hysteria.įor much of its history, the story upon which Chicken Little was based was passed down orally. And many of the earlier versions were nowhere near as sweet and innocent as the cartoon.
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The 2005 Disney movie might have introduced the story of a chick who fears the sky is caving in to the modern world, but the fable has been around for centuries. The Disney film Chicken Little was inspired by much darker versions from years past.