A recent report by yours truly (https://www.werewolves.com/the-ancient-origins-of-fairy-tales/) was all about how our most common fairy tales have a much older pedigree than previously believed; as established by linguistics experts they predate the Greek myths and many religious texts. They did not historically exist in the forms by which most of us know them today, however, the “sanitized” versions, the “safe” versions, scrubbed free of all the blood by the Victorians. In modern terminology, they were “Disney-fied.” But according to recent studies, it is psychologically healthy for kids to read such stories in their original forms, as it helps prepare them for life in the real world, teaching them about fear and how to process it while couched in a safe context.
The author of this linked article stresses that the fairy tales as recorded by the likes of Hans Christian Anderson contain a “richness” and “complexity” lacking from the animated feature films they inspire. This is true, but it is important to note that even the stories of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson are rendered less terrible than they appear in their original form. (Some of the Grimm stories remain pretty close to the originals.) If you really want to prepare your kids for the horrors of the world—and if you don’t, they’re going to learn about them the hard way—spend a little time and dig up the earlier versions of Snow White and Cinderella. A nightmare every now and then can be a GOOD thing.