What are some strange, lesser-known Grimm Fairy Tales?

"Our Lady's Child" - The Virgin Mary offers to raise a poor woodcutter's daughter as her own. The Virgin gives the girl the keys of the 13 doors of heaven, but forbids her to use the 13th--which of course she does, and is banished, voiceless, to earth when she won't tell the truth. A king falls in love with her, they have a son. read more

Below, folklorist Maria Tatar, the translator of the newly published fairy tale collection The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales by Franz Xaver von Schönwerth (Penguin Classics), introduces us to 10 lesser-known fairy tales that are just as beautiful and terrifying as your favorite Perrault classic. read more

Turns out, the white dwarf had been under a nasty fairy’s spell and this whole complicated charade was the only way to lift it. Obviously. Now in truth, this one isn’t really all that different from, say, Cinderella or Snow White. read more