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Some stories are such classics, they were told at least once in everyone's childhood. Stories like 'Snow White,' 'Sleeping Beauty,' and 'Peter Pan' have been told to us all at some point, whether as a bedtime story, an outlandish parody, or even more likely in a Disney film. However, almost all of these stories have a dark and gruesome original version. Red Riding Hood's grandmother meets a gruesome fate, Pinocchio calls the police, and Sleeping Beauty's love story is actually quite horrifying.
Click on for more shocking revelations about your favorite childhood stories and fairy tales.
Pinocchio was introduced back in 1883, and originally runs away from his creator Geppetto. The police pick up the puppet, and arrest his maker on allegations of abuse. The puppet later kills Jiminy Cricket, and is lynched on a tree.
The classic story was first told by Giambattista Basile, who in 1528 published a twisted tale about a king who impregnates the titular princess in her sleep.
In early versions, the wolf chops up Red's grandmother, and stores her skin in the pantry cupboard...
In the original, the queen orders her huntsman to kill Snow White, and to bring back her liver and lungs for the queen to eat...
...When the evil monarch unwittingly turns up to Snow White's wedding, she's forced to dance to death in hot iron shoes.
The original tale of Hua Mulan sees our warrior come home to find her father dead, and her mother remarried a pestering khan also asking her to be his concubine. She becomes overwhelmed and kills herself.
...The prince returns to the tower, only to have his eyes poked out by the evil witch.
In 'The Goose Girl,' a maid swaps identities with a princess to marry a prince. She even kills the talking horse to hide the evidence.
She is eventually stripped naked and thrown into a spike-filled barrel, and rolled around until death.
In early interpretations of this tale, the Pied Piper takes the kids on a military campaign, and never returns them to their parents.
In Hans Christian Andersen's original story, the Little Mermaid suffers with every step she takes as a human. The prince marries someone else, which actually kills the mermaid.
In the original 'Beauty and the Beast,' Belle arrives at the castle only to find a begging Beast who pleads for marriage. Belle keeps refusing, until the Beast nearly keels over from heartbreak. Her tears fall on his body, turning him into a prince.
The story of Bluebeard follows the blue-bearded goon whose wives keep disappearing. Eventually, it's revealed that he's kept their corpses hanging from hooks in a locked room.
In the book, the Fox leads one of the owner's dogs onto a railroad, where it's fatally struck by a train. Another dog is trained to chase the fox until the fox dies, and the dog partly recovers, before being put down by its owner.
See also: The enchanted forests that look like they're straight out of a fairy tale
The dark origins of classic fairy tales
Gruesome details hidden in your favorite childhood stories
LIFESTYLE Halloween
Some stories are such classics, they were told at least once in everyone's childhood. Stories like 'Snow White,' 'Sleeping Beauty,' and 'Peter Pan' have been told to us all at some point, whether as a bedtime story, an outlandish parody, or even more likely in a Disney film. However, almost all of these stories have a dark and gruesome original version. Red Riding Hood's grandmother meets a gruesome fate, Pinocchio calls the police, and Sleeping Beauty's love story is actually quite horrifying.
Click on for more shocking revelations about your favorite childhood stories and fairy tales.