Question:
This is an interesting thread. Last fall I took a children's literature class and one thing we studied were fairy tales. Most of them are actually really violent and scary, but they have been toned down a lot because they have turned into children's stories (they were actually originally intended for adults).
The story that still creeps me out is Jack and the Bean Stalk.


Answer:
I don't remember Fairy Tales scaring me, but I do remember being scared of the Wizard of Oz...not of the wicked witch , or the wizard, or even the flying monkeys...but of the tornado!!! Actaully, I guess I still am!
Karen- Not much scares me in books or "horror movies", But I do love Clive Barker. I don't think I have read the books of Blood...I'll have to check it out!


Answer:
Fairytales never really scared me as a child, but the one thing I remember scaring me to death was 'Lady Elaine', in Mister Roger's Neighborhood (on TV). I used to see nightmares with her in them, and sometimes, as I tried to go to sleep in the dark, I would close my eyes and see her 'creepy' face. I found her to be one of the most scary creatures on the planet. Of course, I was only 4 or 5 at the time, but the fear was so intense, I still remember the horror I felt till today.


Answer:
Alice in Wonderland. That freaked me out - still does! lol


Answer:
Fairy tales never did scare me - they were exciting but I knew they were pretend. Thinking back - they sure are violent though aren't they?
The childhood story that made a big impact on me was Pinocchio - not that it scared me so much as it made me VERY afraid to tell a lie. I can remember my mom asking "is your nose growing???" and I would worry that it really was. I still can't lie


Answer:
I remember browsing through the Project Gutenberg free book listings, and came across a Brothers Grim compilation (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2591), and there was a story that i remember finding rather creepy growing up.
It was called 'Under the Juniper Tree'
Some exerpts from the beginning of the story, sound similar to the 'Sleeping Beauty' story (Similar to the start of Sleeping Beauty... but)


One winter's day the wife stood uner the tree to peel some apples, and as she was peeling them, she cut her finger, and the blood fell on the snow. 'Ah' signed the woman heavily, 'if i had but a child, as red as blood and as white as snow'.
...
Then she felt comforted and happy again, and before another month had passed she had a little child, and when she saw that it was a white as snow and as red as blood, her joy was so great that she died.
...

** Anyway, the husband gets over it and gets remarried to the Evil Stepmother (in the good old Fairy Tale Tradition), and soon enough... **

'Come with me' she said, and she lifted up the lid of the chest; 'take one out for yourself.' [shes indicating he should take an apple from the chest, since I didn't explain that part]. And as he bent over to do so, the evil spirit urged her, and crash! down went the lid, and off went the little boy's head.


Anyway, the story is pages and see pages 187-195 of the PDF file linked above from the Brothers Grimm stories
.


Answer:
Oh, oh , oh...
The little match girl.
Freezing to death gives me the willies.
And there was another story that had "dogs with eyes as big as saucers"...
The freaking dogs in the drawings were some ugly monster looking dog with HUGE eyes....Took a while to get over that one!


Answer:
scared? nah .. but I thought little mermaid was real! I've always wanted that fins and swiiiim underwater but my father told I need to behave better first. lol, it's funny to remember what I thought was real.
and still do wish!


Answer:
I cannot believe I haven't read almost any of these. I've never even read Little Red Riding Hood, but I've heard the story many times. I don't know if I'd ever read these to my child. I'm looking at the site posted, and just read the first story and if I were a child I know they would probably freak me out!


Answer:
Originally Posted by lizbud
Me too Pam. Did your book have a picture of the ugly troll? Ours did.
I never said anything to anybody, but I always checked out the underpasses
very carefully.
Yes there was a picture Liz and he was horrid looking!!!!