very dark and violent

Today is the birthday of Wilhelm Grimm (books by this author), born in Hanau, Germany (1786), who with his brother Jacob collected and compiled oral folktales from nearby villages. The brothers Grimm published their first volume in 1812. Many of the folktales were very dark and violent. While their original intent was only to preserve their culture's oral folktales, they soon realized children were reading their book and the brothers began adapting the tales to take out out some of the more disturbing imagery. The old stories, which had previously performed the psychological function of preparing young people to deal with the harsh realities of medieval life, ended up as fairly sanitized cautionary tales about morality. They also provided a lucrative franchise for Walt Disney.

We can thank Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm for the tales of Snow White, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Sleeping Beauty, among others.