Death in Children's Literature, and Cinema and its Translation KINDER- UND JUGENDKULTUR, -LITERATUR UND -MEDIEN THEORIE – GESCHICHTE – DIDAKTIK Herausgegeben von Hans-Heino Ewers, Gabriele von Glasenapp und Michael Staiger BAND 124 Veljka Ruzicka Kenfel / Juliane House (eds.) Death in Children's Literature and Cinema, and its Translation Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbiblio-thek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Printed by CPI books GmbH, Leck ISSN 1435-4721 ISBN 978-3-631-81437-6 (Print) E-ISBN 978-3-631-83179-3 (E-PDF) E-ISBN 978-3-631-83180-9 (EPUB) E-ISBN 978-3-631-83181-6 (MOBI) DOI 10.3726/b17389 © Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Berlin 2020 All rights reserved. Peter Lang – Berlin · Bern · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems. This publication has been peer reviewed. www.peterlang.com Table of Contents Veljka Ruzicka Kenfel and Juliane House Introduction ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 7 Helena Cortés Gabaudan The Treatment of Death in German Literature and its Reflection in Early Children’s Literature ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 17 María Jesús Barsanti Vigo Death and its Causes in Current German Literature for Young Readers: Towards a Typology ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 43 María José Corvo Sánchez The Conception of Death in Die Kinder- und Hausmärchen and its Reception in Spanish� A Study of Schneewittchen and Dornröschen �������������� 71 Isabel Mociño González and Eulalia Agrelo Costas The Topic of Death in Galician Literature for Children and Young Adults ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 101 Celia Vázquez García The Immortality of Death and its Permanent Presence in Children’s Literature ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 139 Beatriz Mª Rodríguez and Cayetana Álvarez Raposeiras Back to Life: Death in Translated 20th Century Children’s Fiction and Film ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 161 Lourdes Lorenzo García and Ana Pereira Rodríguez The Reaper’s Kind Face: Treatment of Death through Dual Addressee (adults/children) Films and their Translations �������������������������������������������������� 201 María José Corvo Sánchez University of Vigo The Conception of Death in Die Kinder- und Hausmärchen and its Reception in Spanish. A Study of Schneewittchen and Dornröschen Abstract This paper focuses on two popular tales by the Brothers Grimm that deal with death: Schneewittchen and Dornröschen. Its objective is to evaluate the image of death they offer to Spanish children by analysing the content related to this topic in the original texts with the adaptations created by Disney: Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. It has entailed an arduous search for information in different library catalogues and bookshops, YouTube channels and a variety of other internet sites, informal conversations with relatives, friends and children’s educators from different parts of Spain, and a proper study of the wide-ranging bibliography, both primary and secondary. Keywords: Popular tales, death, Brothers Grimm, Disney Classics, original text, adaptation 1. Introduction This paper arises from our interest in the following questions: Which of the tales by the Brothers Grimm that deal with death have been passed on to Spanish children? How have they been relayed into Spanish? And how is death treated in them? In order to find concrete answers to those initial questions, in these pages we put forth a study with a clear objective: to analyze the conception of death in the tales by the Brothers Grimm that are best known by Spanish children. Our aim is to determine how this topic is approached in them and to establish whether or not Spanish receivers perceive the same meaning as in the original German version. The topic of death has been present in German children’s literature for centuries through popular tales, which were originally passed on orally and only later, from the 19th century onwards, set down in writing. Children listened to them – and other traditional stories– told by their elders, and in this way they were confronted with the subject of death, which would later become a social and educational taboo in western society until the 1970’s and 80’s, with the arrival of a current known as critical realism. 72 María José Corvo Sánchez At this time, death becomes once again the object of literary production. It is approached from a realist perspective, in order to encourage young readers to reflect on this everyday reality and perhaps to find possible individual solutions –with better understanding and support1. As a result, it is also at this time when the topic begins to be the subject of research in children’s literature. This is the framework for this paper, which we put forth as novel research intended to contribute to the scant body of informative and research papers that relate children’s literature and death –such as some papers in Oittinen & Roig (2016), Koutsompou-Kotsopoulou (2015), Arnal et al. (2014), Arnal (2012), Sasser (2008), Montoya (2007), Ensberg (2006), Lage & Lana (1996) and, more specifically, Heinrichs (1991). In particular, this paper covers the area of study that focuses on the contrast between the German original and the product that reaches the Spanish receiver. In order to achieve our aim, on the following pages we will briefly introduce the work of the Brothers Grimm and, in the first place, we will justify why we have limited the scope of our study to the tales of Schneewittchen2 and Dornröschen. Then we will deal with the particular aspects of the reception of these tales in Spain, which will allow us to defend the texts of the versions on which the central analysis of the paper is based. The analysis itself is then presented, gathering up the relevant aspects of the content related to death in the original tales and in their Spanish adaptations. This will make it possible to interpret the image of death in the tales and determine how this image is offered to the receiving Spanish children, before moving on to the general conclusions of the paper. We are obviously bringing forth a complex study. As we will see, besides reading the works we have analyzed in detail and watching the films, it has entailed an arduous search for information in different library catalogues and bookshops, YouTube channels and a variety of other internet sites – blogs, education websites, etc. It has also involved informal conversations with relatives, friends and children’s educators from different parts of Spain, and a proper study of the wide-ranging bibliography, both primary and secondary, that we have included in the final section of the paper. 1 2 The paper by Barsanti included in this volume deals with the production of this type of literature in German. The topic that we are dealing with was approached quite differently in the history of German children’s literature in the years before this time, as we can clearly see in the paper by Cortés, also included in this volume. Schneewittchen is the correct German spelling of this name. However, it will also be cited as Sneewittchen in this paper, according to its original spelling: please see Rölleke 1985: 235–244. A Study of Schneewittchen and Dornröschen 73 2. Die Kinder- und Hausmärchen In the year 1812, Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859) Grimm published the first edition of Die Kinder- und Hausmärchen3, followed by six additional editions that incorporated new popular tales; the final edition went to press in 1857. Together, these works contain over 200 texts4, including tales and other Kinderlegenden, or legends for children, that were collected from the German oral tradition. They had managed to survive mainly because of wandering storytellers who narrated these stories in exchange for food and shelter: they delighted the adults and, at the same time, amused the children with the elements of fantasy in their stories, which served to entertain the listeners and also to teach them right from wrong. These were crude stories, including violence, sex and no happy endings, which had very little to do with the innocent children’s stories that have reached our days. Their purpose was to illustrate life in the Middle Ages in order to instruct the audience, composed both of adults and children. The Brothers Grimm depicted medieval harshness and cruelty so explicitly in their tales that they were widely criticized and their value as works for children was questioned. Regarding the tales, it is true that they were not always stories for children since they were not collected for that purpose, but as a part of the popular folklore for the general public that could not be allowed to sink into oblivion. To illustrate this fact, here are two brief examples of the correspondence between Jacob Grimm and the writer Achim von Arnim. On January 28th 1813 Jacob wrote in a letter to Achim von Arnim: “Sind denn diese Kindermärchen für Kinder erdacht und erfunden? ich glaube dies so wenig, als ich die allgemeinere Frage nicht bejahen werde: ob man überhaupt für Kinder etwas eigenes einrichten müsse?”; about its title von Arnim suggested that the observation “für Ältern zum Wiedererzählen nach eigener Auswahl” should be added as not 3 4 From now on, Die KHM. The manuscript copies of this work belong to the library of the University of Kassel, and since 2005 they are part of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme. They can be consulted in the edition compiled by Rölleke in 1985, based on the third edition published by the Brothers Grimm, dating from 1837. It is a complete edition that includes tales from the first two editions that disappeared from the third one onwards, as well as certain comments and observations by the Brothers Grimm. This is the edition we have worked with, and from which we have taken the different original fragments included in the study. 74 María José Corvo Sánchez all Hausmärchen (stories for the house) could be seen as Kindermärchen (stories for children) (Ewers 2008: 114). Faced with criticism from the society of their time, from the second edition onwards the German writers made different modifications, both to the language and to the content of the work, in order to soften some of the more violent and gruesome aspects. These included certain punishments inflicted on some characters, as well as other matters that were rejected by society at the time. For instance, they introduced the stepmother figure to “cover up” for the mothers in the original versions of some tales, such as Snow White because they did not agree with the motherly image that prevailed in the19th century.5 These tales are part of European popular literature –like Perrault’s versions from the 17th century– where death has always been a very common issue. According to Ruzicka-Lorenzo (2016): In this way, death with a more or less cruel morphology could be found in stories such as Little Red Riding Hood (where the wolf devours her Grandmother and her herself, though both are later saved by the hunter), the Wolf and the Seven Young Goats (the wolf devours the kids, but again they are saved at the end of the tale by their own mother, who opens the wolf ’s stomach with some scissors) or Hansel and Gretel (the witch wants to eat Hansel, but Gretel manages to free her brother and kill the witch in the fiery oven). Especially impacting is the story of Blue Beard, whose wives appear dead, hanging from the wall of a bedroom full of coagulated blood. (Ruzicka-Lorenzo 2016: 26) In them, death takes on very different forms. In some of them it is even the central subject of the tale, and in many cases it represents the punishment that certain characters will receive for their wickedness or cruelty. The presence of death in these tales and, more specifically, the cruelty that sometimes goes hand in hand with it has led them to be known as the “cruel tales” of children’s literature. 3. Delimiting the study: Which tales do Spanish children know? The popular tales collected by the Brothers Grimm, with their straightforward organization of the world into good and evil, have turned Die KHM into the most published and the most famous German book of all times. Translated into over 160 languages, nowadays it is undoubtedly one of the main touchstones in children’s literature worldwide. 5 We cannot delve into this aspect here, as it would distract us from our main topic of study. A Study of Schneewittchen and Dornröschen 75 The international fame and recognition of this collection of tales, which also include their positive reception in Spain6, is due in no small measure to the film adaptations made by Walt Disney of some of the stories. This circumstance makes their reception by Spanish children today quite similar to, if not exactly the same as, reception by children in other parts of the planet. In fact, as we all know, children nowadays –at least in the Western world7– generally come into contact with these tales as listeners, as viewers and/or as readers. As listeners, they listen to audio books, or simply to the “particular” version that parents, relatives, teachers or storytellers pass on to them when they are young and they have not yet learned to read –even if in most cases the adults themselves have never read the original version. As viewers, they know the tales through their audiovisual adaptations8 and/or as readers, through some of the countless text adaptations that exist nowadays, marketed mainly as storybooks for young children. In the context of Spain, parents, relatives and teachers today are able to provide children with many different ways of accessing these stories. There are storybooks and animation films, as well as an enormous array of textual and visual material that can be easily found on the internet and either bought or used for free9. 6 7 8 9 In 1998 the publishing house Rudolf Steiner S.L. published the first edition of the work in Spanish, under the title Cuentos infantiles y del hogar. It was a translation of the 1857 edition by the Brothers Grimm, which was the final and complete one. In later editions it has been called Todos los cuentos de los hermanos Grimm. In Spain, the work has also been the object of study and partial translations, as in the work by Mª Teresa Zurdo, published in 1999 by Cátedra, which includes the translation of a selection of tales grouped in different cycles, such as fairy tales, period tales, animal tales, etc. Which is the one we are mostly referring to in this paper. Audiovisual means are the new storytellers for the vast majority of boys and girls, according to Ambrós and Breu, who argue that “Sólo una pequeña parte del imaginario de la cultura que se ha definido como literatura infantil llega a través de libros o álbumes” (2007: 103). On the internet there are countless websites, YouTube channels and education portals that under different names –classic tales, popular tales or traditional children’s tales– offer some of the tales by the Brothers Grimm, together with a wide array of material for children: other children’s stories, short stories, video stories, interactive stories –with digital reading material for the new generations of children– fables, legends and other reading texts, riddles, games, pastimes, songs, jokes, tongue twisters, cooking recipes, etc. Some of them are: http://www.rinconcastellano.com/ cuentos/grimm/index.html; http://www.bosquedefantasias.com/cuentos-clasicospopulares; http://www.manosalarte.com/cuentospopulares.html; http://www.britesa. 76 María José Corvo Sánchez Given the nature of this paper, since it would be impossible to analyze all the tales by the Brothers Grimm that deal with the topic of death, bearing in mind the different characteristics of the receiving children, we will limit the scope of our study to the tales that we can safely assume all, or almost all, Spanish children know. In order to determine that, we must say that a review of the enormous amount of material in libraries, bookshops and the internet on the tales by the Brothers Grimm gives us a general idea of which tales Spanish children might know. Among the most frequently repeated titles are Rapunzel, Hänsel und Grethel (Hansel and Gretel), Das tapfere Schneiderlein (The Valiant Little Tailor), Aschenputtel (Cinderella), Rotkäppchen (Little Red Riding Hood), Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten (The Bremen Town Musicians), Dornröschen (Sleeping Beauty), Der gestiefelte Katter (Puss in Boots) and Schneewittchen (Snow White). This confirms that Spanish children are only familiar with a very limited number of the tales collected by the Brothers Grimm. In addition, it allows us to continue working in this direction in order to determine which of those are best known by the vast majority of children. The answer is none other than those that were adapted to the silver screen, brought audiences flocking to the cinema, and later, marketed in this country as animated feature films, entered most Spanish homes –on television, in VHS tapes, DVDs and Blu- ray, depending on the times. This format is seen as the most attractive, and it is usually preferred by families in general and children in particular10. A look at the history of animated films will show that in Spain this type of films have served to popularize the stories of Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and Puss in Boots11. The first four, respectively, were made into films by Disney12: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Cinderella com/cuentos/ cuentos%20cl.html; http://www.guiainfantil.com/servicios/Cuentos/ cuentos_clasicos.html; http://www. cuentoscortos.com/; http://www.educapeques. com/cuentos-infantiles- cortos/cuentos-clasicos-infantiles/, etc. 10 This is such an obvious conclusion that it does not require any field work. It is enough to draw on our own experience and on different conversations held with relatives, friends and children’s educators throughout Spain. 11 The website http://www.filmaffinity.com/es/movie-group.php?group-id=829 lists all the cinema adaptations based on the tales by the Brothers Grimm that have been produced. The link http://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film918917.html allows individual access to the technical information, film reviews, trailers, images and to the online purchase of films marketed in Spain. 12 The link http://www.sensacine.com/especiales/cine/especial-18500215/ provides a brief introduction to all the Disney animated films. A Study of Schneewittchen and Dornröschen 77 (1949)13, Sleeping Beauty (1959) and Tangled (2010); the latter was translated into Spanish as Enredados14. Puss in Boots is well known thanks to the 2011 DreamWorks adaptation of the tale by the same title15. The fact that these stories have been adapted for the screen and disseminated internationally as animated films has made them so recognizable that nowadays it is almost impossible not to be aware of them. They continue to be adapted for theater, advertising, videogames, comics, etc., and their characters have practically become household names since they appear in all kinds of consumer goods, like clothes, stationary, kitchen utensils, etc. However, among all of them, only two are really of interest in this analysis of the conception of death in the original German works: the ones based on the tales Dornröschen and Schneewittchen, that is, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. As we will see in our study, death is present in both cases and it has a main role in the development of the plot. We have not included the film Cinderella because it is also based on the version by Perrault and it does not deal directly with the topic of death, which, in contrast, is repeatedly referred to in the Grimm tale through Cinderella’s visits to her mother’s grave16. We have also excluded all the rest because in those cases the tales by the Brothers Grimm are only an excuse for the film. For instance, we can see some of the original elements of the story of Rapunzel, such as the main character’s long hair or the tower, but the story itself bears no resemblance to the original, not even the title. The same is true of the film Puss in Boots, released by DreamWorks in 2011, which tells the adventures of the puss in boots to get hold of the magic beans, that is, it is based on the character by the Brothers Grimm, but it tells a different story that weaves two 13 This film even has a sequel, Cinderella II: Dreams Come True (2002), released directly on video and DVD. The title was translated as La Cenicienta 2: ¡La magia no termina a medianoche! in Spain, and as Cenicienta 2: Un sueño hecho realidad in Latin America. 14 This film also has a sequel: Tangled ever after (2012), translated as Enredados para siempre in Spanish. 15 When the film Puss in Boots was released, the character of the puss in boots was already well-known by children because it was featured in the saga Shrek, also by DreamWorks Animation, which started in 2001. In fact, this series draws on many literary sources and, besides the puss, it also features characters from many other tales, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Sleeping Beauty (see Romea 2008: 98). 16 The tale of Cinderella by Charles Perrault can be found in its Spanish version both in independent editions and as part of complete editions of the tales. See, for example, under Perrault in the final bibliography section. 78 María José Corvo Sánchez tales into one: the German tale and Jack and the Beanstalk by Hans Christian Andersen. Before focusing on the analysis that constitutes the central part of this paper, we will now explain in detail some additional aspects of how these tales reach Spanish children, in order to support the texts we have chosen to compare with the original tales in the analysis itself. 4. Schneewittchen and Dornröschen in Spanish Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are well known internationally as two of the most famous, the best or the loveliest tales by the Brothers Grimm17. Besides being included in the Spanish editions of Die KHM18, in Spain these tales have been the object of countless textual adaptations, both in book format and online19. These adaptations have been based both on the original version by the Brothers Grimm and also on the later version by Disney, which is the best known nowadays. As we mentioned earlier, years after their publication, the tales by the Brothers Grimm gained increasing popularity thanks to the Disney animation films Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Sleeping Beauty. The first, known as Blancanieves y los siete enanitos in Spain and Blanca Nieves y los siete enanos in Latin America, was Disney’s first animated feature film, released in 1937. Sleeping Beauty, or La Bella Durmiente, was their sixteenth classic film, and it was released in 1959, already in the second half of the 20th century. As in all the stories by Disney, even though the adaptations are not defined by being truly faithful to the original text, the tales by the Grimm brothers are more than a mere excuse for the film. 17 That is how they are introduced, for instance, on the website http://www.grimmstories. com/es/grimm_cuentos/index, which collects the tales by the Brothers Grimm adapted into 18 languages. They can even be read in parallel in more than one language. For instance, the story of Snow White can be read simultaneously in English and Spanish via the following link: http://www.grimmstories.com/language. php?grimm=053&l=en&r=es. More specifically, they are described as “Los cuentos más famosos de los hermanos Grimm”, “The best fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm” or “Die schönsten Märchen der Brüder Grimm” in Spanish, English and German, respectively. 18 See footnote number 6. 19 They are included in all the websites about classical or popular tales that we have mentioned. See footnote number 9. A Study of Schneewittchen and Dornröschen 79 In summary, Blancanieves y los siete enanitos20 tells the story of a young princess who is rejected by her vain stepmother and is treated like one of the servants. She is kind, sweet and innocent, and she dreams of finding her true love. The queen, jealous of her youth and beauty, begins to see her as a rival and decides to get rid of her. The charming Snow White manages to avoid death; frightened, she goes into the forest and finds shelter in a little house. There she meets the owners, seven welcoming dwarfs, and she soon wins their affection. She lives happily with them for a time, looking after the house and her new family in the midst of nature, until one day the queen finds out that she is still alive. Furious, she decides to kill the girl herself with a poisoned apple and a spell: she will fall into a deep sleep, from which only a kiss of true love will be able to awaken her. Disregarding other linguistic aspects that distinguish the English and Spanish versions of the film21, in Blancanieves Disney maintains the essence of the original story. However, there are certain elements that are different. For instance, the wicked stepmother asks the huntsman to kill Snow White and bring her heart, not her liver and her lung, as in the German version. In the tale, she tries to kill Snow White herself no less than three times –first with a colorful silk lace, then with a poisoned comb and finally with the poisoned apple– and not just once with the apple, as in the Disney story. Finally, originally Snow White does not awaken from her deep sleep with a kiss of true love, as Disney chose, but because the piece of the poisoned apple is dislodged from her throat when the servants that are carrying her body to the prince’s castle stumble on some brush. In the same way, Disney’s La Bella Durmiente22 differs from the original in several aspects. Although they do not change the important events significantly, 20 Available in Spanish on http://gnula.nu/animacion/ver-blancanieves-y-los-sieteenanitos-1937-online/ and in Latin American Spanish on https://gloria.tv/?media=2 80328&language=3SsSaAhCEfb. The first dubbed version of this film in Spanish had very low quality. In 1964, the Mexican actor Edmundo Santos directed a new dubbed version with very prestigious opera singers, which was distributed to cinemas all over Latin America and Spain –where dubbing for animated films did not exist yet. When the film was remastered, however, Disney refused to pay royalties again to those famous dubbing actors and chose to redub the film, both in Spanish and Latin American Spanish. That is why there are now different versions of this film. 21 Which are dealt with by Lorenzo-Pereira (1999). 22 The Disney story of Princess Aurora is available in Latin American Spanish, for example, on the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4fMh6DePS0. 80 María José Corvo Sánchez they do alter the development of the story, as we shall see in the following summary of the plot in both versions. The original tale begins with a king and a queen who express their sorrow because they have no children, and a frog predicts they will have a daughter. The prediction comes true, a baby girl is born, and the king orders a great feast, to which he invites his relatives and friends, and twelve of the thirteen wise women in the kingdom, as he only has twelve gold plates. The thirteenth woman comes to the feast and, furious at not having been invited, casts an evil spell on the newborn, who shall die on the day of her fifteenth birthday by prickling herself with a spindle. This happens before the twelfth wise woman has expressed her wish, so she is able to soften it, turning the girl’s death into a deep sleep for one hundred years. Then, the king orders all spinning wheels to be banished from the castle, and the girl grows up beautiful and happy until the day the spell is fulfilled. On that day she falls into a deep sleep, together with everything that breathes or moves in the castle: all the people, the animals and even the fire on the hearth. A hedge of thorns surrounds the castle and hides it completely from view. With time, the legend of the young princess sleeping in the castle spreads and many young princes attempt to rescue her, only to die trapped in the thorns. When the one hundred years have passed, a prince is able to enter the castle, because the thorns turn into beautiful flowers23. There he finds that everything is silent and everyone is asleep in the same places they were before the spell. He also finds the princess sleeping in the little room in the tower where she had prickled herself with the spindle. Moved by her beauty, he kisses her, she wakes up and immediately the castle comes back to life. In contrast to the original tale, in the film the characters have names and the princess lives away from her family in a little house in the forest, where she meets her beloved prince on the day of her sixteenth birthday. In the Spanish version, the princess’ name is Aurora and she has three fairy godmothers, Flora, Fauna and Primavera, who live with her in the forest to keep her safe from the spell cast by Maléfica, the wicked fairy. She had not been invited to the celebration of the girl’s birth because “Aquí sólo queremos a las buenas personas” (Disney 1985: 5), as Primavera said, so she put a spell on Aurora, who would die on her sixteenth birthday by prickling her finger with the spindle of a spinning wheel. Although Primavera had softened the spell and turned her death into a deep sleep from which she would wake with a kiss of love, the fairies protect her, keeping her away from the castle, until the 23 The blooming flowers are a metaphor for life. A Study of Schneewittchen and Dornröschen 81 day in which Aurora turns sixteen. Believing they have avoided the spell, on that day they take Aurora to the castle to be reunited with her parents, King Estéfano and Queen Flor. Unfortunately, Maléfica also awaits them there, and before the day is over, she manages to make the spell come true. The three fairies make everyone fall asleep in the palace and rescue Prince Felipe, kidnapped by Maléfica. Finally, he gives Aurora a kiss of love and she awakens. The film ends with a dance of celebration. Interestingly, these two films are the first and last animated feature films made by Disney in his life. In Spain they were released on 6 October 1941 and on 3 October 1960 –a year after their release in the U.S.–, respectively. Disney’s distribution policy prevented them from reaching Spanish video stores until much later, in the nineties, after the re-release of Blancanieves in 1992. After this re-release and a ceaseless advertising campaign, Blancanieves reached Spanish video stores on 5 October 1994 and sold over 1,300,000 VHS tapes, making it one of the most successful videos in history. Besides the success in sales, which has made these films an effective means of transmission for the tales of the Brothers Grimm, there is another particularly interesting fact. Walt Disney was, above all, a businessman and, as such, he always sought the success of his products. To this end, he came up with the brilliant idea –or advertising strategy– of publishing what we call “the book of the film”, in order to promote his films. These books are his most effective merchandising tool: Para el lector siempre se trata de una experiencia imperfecta, un recordatorio, un mero reflejo de la experiencia original, que es el visionado del film animado. El psicoanálisis considera la repetición un elemento esencial en el desarrollo de la psique infantil, y quizá este tipo de libros no hagan más que explotar este modelo. La experiencia repetitiva de leer el libro una y otra vez, por un lado, afianza un lugar privilegiado para la narración animada en el recuerdo y la formación del niño, y, por otro, inevitablemente frustra el deseo del niño de repetir la experiencia original –el libro nunca será más que un reflejo imperfecto del film en el que se basa– y, por tanto, crea la necesidad psíquica de volver a visionar el film. Funciona, por tanto, como el producto de merchandising más efectivo del mercado. (Pérez 2009: 143–4) In general, these books are not very different from the narratives on which they are based. They usually present a visual design that copies almost exactly the narrative development of the animated film. For this reason, the illustrations are essential and have a fundamental role in the books. They typically consist in double-page spreads accompanied by short texts. 82 María José Corvo Sánchez That is the case of Blancanieves and La Bella Durmiente del Bosque24. Together with the films and the countless versions that have been based on them25, these two Disney books are the most frequently consumed products by Spanish children, and serve to confront them with many topics, including the topic of death. They are short text narratives that summarize the discourse and the plot of the film narratives, which, as we know, are the versions children are most familiar with. For this reason, in the analysis we are going to present in the following section, we will also use the official Disney editions of these “books of the film” in order to contrast the different aspects related to the topic of death in the original versions of the tales and in the Spanish versions that reach children in Spain. Before that, it is important to point out that the range of possibilities available to Spanish children to discover the stories Schneewittchen and Dornröschen also encompasses a large number of visual adaptations in Spanish and/or in Latin American Spanish. They include, at least, those based on: 1) The original version26, 24 These are the titles of the books of the films in Spanish; in the copy of Blancanieves that we have used, published by Ediciones Gaviota, the interior title page also reads Blancanieves y los siete enanitos. 25 Other text adaptations based on the original are also available in the market, but they are far less popular nowadays. 26 In the case of La Bella Durmiente, for instance, an example is the story available on: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pel%c3 %adcula+la+bella+durmiente+ Disney+en+espa%c3 %b1ol&view=detail&mid=234A57088BB3BF1673C1234A570 88BB3BF1673C1&FORM=VIRE. There is also a short Japanese film (21:15) in Latin American Spanish available on: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pel%c3 %adc ula+la+bella+durmiente+Disney+en+espa%c3 %b1ol&&view=detail&mid=0CC5F3E 03599DC3C042C0CC5F3E03599DC3C042C&rvsmid=234A57088BB3BF1673C1234 A57088BB3BF1673C1&fsscr=-1320&FORM=VDFSRV. This is a “modernized” adaptation of Sleeping Beauty by the Brothers Grimm, which differs from the original, for instance, in details like the following: The princess will sleep for an indefinite period of time “until the world ends”, according to the witch’s spell, and until the roses that surround the castle bloom again, according to the legend. On the day of her birthday, her parents are going to buy her a present and she does not go with them because she wants to finish a song she is composing on her lyre. On a winter day, a prince comes near the castle and hears the melody of the princess’ lyre… He finds the bedroom and when he sees her, he leans over to kiss her. She is surrounded by a rosebush and he pricks his finger with a thorn. A drop of blood falls on the princess’ lips and she awakens. Happily, she tells him that she has been waiting for him for a hundred years. She gets up, they kiss and everyone awakens. Cannon balls, drums, trumpets and fireworks, wedding and banquet. Final scene: the bride and groom kiss. A Study of Schneewittchen and Dornröschen 83 2) The Disney version27, 3) A combination of both28 and 4) Free adaptations29. 27 Like the story using dolls in which Barbie is Princess Aurora. Available in Latin American Spanish on https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pel%c3 %adcula+la+ bella+durmiente+Disney+en+espa%c3 %b1ol&&view=detail&mid=C9BA4BFF8B9 C40E583EDC9BA4BFF8B9C40E583ED&rvsmid=234A57088BB3BF1673C1234A5 7088BB3BF1673C1&fsscr=-1320&FORM=VDFSRV. In the case of Blancanieves, an example is the short film slightly over ten minutes in length (10:44) in Latin American Spanish, available on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zpbvOPe5y8, which ends with the young couple’s wedding and the stepmother’s death, killed by the attack of fury that overcomes her when she finds out that Snow White is still alive. There is also the short film lasting 12 minutes and 39 seconds in Latin American Spanish, available on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5BHVLag-8Y, with an ending that gives certain relevance to the king, Snow White’s father: when he finds out everything that has happened while he was away, he breaks the magic mirror and expels the stepmother from the kingdom; after that, he is reunited with Snow White, who returns to the castle, marries the prince in a “magical wedding” and they all “lived happily ever after.” 28 Like the Japanese film dubbed into Spanish and Latin American Spanish, available on https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pel%c3 %adcula+la+bella+durmiente+en+e spa%c3 %b1ol&&view=detail&mid=0E8F4D3613A1F7DDF8270E8F4D3613A1F7D DF827&rvsmid=00CA556AC1D742F6EB9B00CA556AC1D742F6EB9B&fsscr=0& FORM=VDFSRV and on https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pel%c3 %adcula+ la+bella+durmiente+Disney+en+espa%c3 %b1ol&&view=detail&mid=3102EDEEC ED654899E943102EDEECED654899E94&rvsmid=234A57088BB3BF1673C1234A5 7088BB3BF1673C1&fsscr=0&FORM=VDQVAP, respectively. 29 Like the modernized version of Snow White in the Japanese film available in Spanish on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cQQfH61dBw. Here, Snow White is brought up by her nurse, Doris, and grows up with her friend Claus, who leads her to the forest to save her from the evil queen and take her to his uncle’s castle in the neighboring country. The action, the oneiric elements and the relevant roles of certain animals, like wolves and a bear, make this one a particular version. In the end, the wolves kill the evil queen and the bear is the one who awakens Snow White, as he shakes the glass coffin and it falls to the floor. “Y al cabo de un tiempo, Blancanieves y el príncipe se casaron y viviron felices para siempre”, with this sentence the narrator brings the story to an end, as the audience watch Snow White, the prince and Claus say goodbye to the dwarfs and arrive at the palace, where they will begin their new life. 84 María José Corvo Sánchez 5. Analysis of the death-related content in the tales Now that we have introduced the tales to which we have limited our field of study, Schneewittchen and Dornröschen, we will go on to analyze the presence of the topic of death in each of them. To do that, we will contrast the original texts, in which the child is explicitly confronted with death, with the best known nonoriginal versions, the Disney adaptations, using the texts of the books based on the films. 5.1. Dornröschen Sleeping Beauty by the Brothers Grimm is a short tale30 in which death is explicitly referred to in the following three situations: 1. The spell cast on the princess, 2. The transformation of death in the spell into a deep sleep for one hundred years and 3. The death of the princes in the thorns that surround the castle. All three of them are present both in the film and in the book by Disney. To illustrate this fact, Table 1 contrasts how children are explicitly confronted with death in these situations in the original version by the Brothers Grimm –through the words tot hinfallen, Tod and eines traurigen Todes sterben– and in the “book of the film” –through the words: morir, volver a la vida and mortal. As we can see, the princes’ “sad” death in the thorny hedge –”und eines traurigen Todes gestorben wären”. (p. 227)–, becomes, in the eyes of the Spanish viewers and readers, death by poisoning, which is supposed to be quicker and less painful. This death is the result of a spell cast by Maléfica, as one more of her attempts to defeat prince Felipe. It is part of the prince’s adventure to save the princess in Disney’s adaptation, where death is present very explicitly, as we can see at different times: when Maléfica turns herself into an enormous dragon to finish the prince off, or “terminar con el príncipe” (p. 46); when the fairies fear that Maléfica, in the shape of the enormous dragon, will succeed in killing the prince: “–Ay, le va a matar! – gritó Flora, llena de angustia.” (p. 47); when the prince kills the dragon: “Haciendo acopio de todo su valor y reuniendo todas sus fuerza, el príncipe lanzó su espada que fue a clavarse en medio del corazón del monstruo, que cayó al abismo convertido en una bola de fuego. La sangre que brotó de su herida tomó la forma de Maléfica. La reina del mal había sido vencida.” (p. 49), and when the prince arrives at the castle to waken Aurora and thinks that the city seems to be dead: “[…] el príncipe se sintió sobrecogido 30 A little over three pages long in Rölleke’s edition (pp. 225–228). A Study of Schneewittchen and Dornröschen 85 Table 1. Explicit death in Sleeping Beauty. (Original, Grimm) (Book of the film, Disney) The spell cast on the princess “die Königstochter soll sich in ihrem La princesita Aurora morirá al cumplir los fünfzehnten Jahr an einer Spindel dieciséis años. Sí, se pinchará el dedo con el stechen, und tot hinfallen” (pp. 225-256) huso de una rueca y eso hará que muera. (p. 6) The transformation of death in the spell into a deep sleep for one hundred years Da trat die zwölfte hervor, die noch einen El hada Primavera se acercó adonde estaba la Wunsch übrig hatte: zwar konnte sie den reina con la pequeña en brazos y anunció con bösen Ausspruch nicht aufheben, aber voz solemne: sie konnte ihn doch mildern, und sprach –Aurora, mi deseo es que si el presagio de “es soll aber kein Tod sein, sondern ein Maléfica llega a cumplirse, tú no mueras, hunderjähriger tiefer Schlaf, in welchen sino que quedes profundamente dormida. die Königstochter fällt”. (p. 226) Volverás a la vida cuando recibas el primer beso de amor. (p. 7) The death of the princes in the thorns that surround the castle (…) daß er von seinem Großvater […] Maléfica lanzó un nuevo maleficio y al gehört, wie viele Königssöhne schon instante crecieron en torno al castillo versucht hätten, durch die Dornenhecke enormes redes de espinos que contenían un zu dringen aber darin hängen geblieben, mortal veneno und eines traurigen Todes gestorben y que se extendían por todas las salidas del wären. (p. 227) castillo. (p. 44) por la inmovilidad que reinaba, como si toda la ciudad estuviese muerta, […]” (p. 50). This sublimation of the magical element in Disney’s adaptation makes it more spectacular, and this is also evident in the most important moment in the story, the princess’s death, as well as in the stepmother’s death. In contrast with the original, in which the princess pricks her finger with the spindle and falls into a deep sleep, in Disney’s story her death is treated explicitly since Maléfica believes the spell has been fulfilled: Kaum hatte sie aber die Spindel angerüht, so ging der Zauberspruch in Erfüllung, und sie stach sich damit. In dem Augenblick aber, wo sie den Stich empfand, fiel sie auch nieder in eienen tiefen Schlaf. (Grimm, p. 226) En cuanto Aurora rozó con la yema de sus dedos la punzante aguja del huso, lanzó un grito y cayó al suelo desmayada como si la hubiese fulminado un rayo. […] –¡Ahí teneis a vuestra princesita! –dijo, riendo siniestramente–. ¡Habíais creído que podíais vencerme? ¡Pues ya veis que no es así! ¡Mi venganza se ha cumplido al fin! ¡Nadie puede vencer a Maléfica! (Disney, pp. 33–34) 86 María José Corvo Sánchez 5.2. Schneewittchen Blancanieves is a longer tale31 and it includes many aspects related to death. These aspects are referred to in an explicit way, through terms like muerte, morir, viva, ataúd, degollar, enterrar, etc. They can be summarized into the following points, according to the plot of the original story: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. Snow White’s mother dies. The stepmother tells the huntsman to kill Snow White. The huntsman does not kill Snow White. The huntsman kills a young boar. The queen believes she is eating Snow White’s lung and liver. Snow White tells the dwarfs that the queen had told the huntsman to kill her, but he had spared her life: “regalado la vida” (p. 238) The queen finds out that Snow White is still alive. The queen becomes obsessed with Snow White’s death and she finds no rest. Snow White is (almost) suffocated to death by a silk lace. The dwarfs find Snow White on the ground, and she seems to be dead. The queen becomes furious when the mirror tells her that Snow White is still alive in the seven dwarfs’ house. Snow White (almost) dies from a poisoned comb. For the second time, the dwarfs find Snow White on the ground, and she seems to be dead. For the second time, the mirror tell the queen that Snow White is still alive in the seven dwarfs’ house. Hearing that, the stepmother, full of rage, says once again that Snow White must die, even if it costs her own life. The perfect appearance of the poisoned apple and her deadly effect on anyone who eats it. Snow White bites the apple and “dies”. The dwarfs find Snow White dead. The dwarfs mourn Snow White’s death. The dwarfs do not bury Snow White, because she seems to be alive, and make her a glass coffin to watch over her. The forest animals also mourn Snow White’s death. 31 Almost ten pages in Rölleke’s edition (pp. 235–244). A Study of Schneewittchen and Dornröschen 22. 23. 24. 25. 87 Snow White’s body does not decay. The dwarfs feel sorry for the prince and give him the glass coffin. Snow White comes back to life. The wicked stepmother dies. Disney’s adaptation introduces a few new situations or moments, omits some of the points listed above, and in many of them agrees with the original, although there may be small differences that are worthy of comment. More specifically, Disney introduces three new moments that contribute to distinguishing this version from the original. In the first, the animals sense that Snow White is in danger, they attack the old witch when she offers her the apple, and go in search of the seven dwarfs to warn them about the tragedy: “–Una bruja… Una manzana envenenada… ¡Blancanieves en peligro! Todos corrían hacia la casa.” (p. 105). The second reveals the prince’s pain when he finds out his beloved is dead: “Qué dolor para el príncipe volver a encontrar a su amada sin vida en una urna de cristal!” (p. 125). The third one describes the dwarfs’ happiness when they see that Snow White has come back to life: “Bonachón, que estaba de guardia en el claro aquella mañana, salió como una flecha para anunciar la maravillosa noticia a sus hermanos. Los enanitos llegaron corriendo. Su felicidad era inmensa. ¡Blancanieves estaba viva!” (p. 127) The situations that are omitted in Disney’s adaptation include those listed in points 4, 5, 9–15 and 23 above: (4) The huntsman kills the animal and removes a lung and the liver: “Und weil gerade ein junger Frischling daher gesprungen kam, stach er ihn ab, nahm Lunge und Leber heraus, und brachte sie als Wahrzeichen der Königin mit.” (p. 237) (5) The evil woman makes the cook boil the organs, which she believes belong to Snow White, and eats them: “Der Koch mußte sie in Salz kochen, und das boshafte Weib aß sie auf, und meinte sie hätte Sneewittchens Lunge und Leber gegessen. (p. 237)/ Die Königin aber, nachdem sie Sneewittchens Lunge und Leber glaubte gegessen zu haben, dachte nichts anders als wieder die erste und allerschönste zu sein […].” (p. 239) (9–15) “[…] und es für tot hinfiel.”, “[…] wie erschraken sie, als sie ihr liebes Sneewittchen auf der Erde liegen fanden, und es regte und bewegte sich nicht, als wär es tot.”, “[…] denn sie sah wohl daß Sneewittchen wieder lebendig geworden war.” (p. 240), “[…] als das Gift darin wirkte, und das Mädchen ohne Besinnung niederfiel.”, “Als sie Sneewittchen wie tot auf der Erde liegen sahen […] und fanden den giftigen Kamm, und wie sie ihn herausgezogen, kam Sneewittchen wieder zu sich, und erzählte ihnen was vorgegangen war.”, “Als sie den Spiegel so 88 María José Corvo Sánchez reden hörte, zitterte und bebte sie vor Zorn. ‘Sneewittchen soll sterben’, rief sie, ‘und wenn es mein eigenes Leben kostet’.” (p. 241) (23) The dwarfs give the coffin to the prince out of pity because he says he will not be able to live without seeing Snow White: “Da sprach er ‘so schenkt mir ihn, denn ich kann nicht leben ohne Schneewittchen zu sehen […].’ “ (p. 243) In some cases, however, the omission is merely verbal since these aspects are shown through the images in the film and through the illustrations in the books based on the film. Some examples of this type of omission are the ones mentioned in points 20, 21 and 22 above: (20) and (22). In the original, the state of Snow White’s body, fresh and unspoiled, is the reason why the dwarfs decide not to bury her: “[…] es sah noch so frisch aus, wie ein lebender Mensch, und hatte noch seine schönen roten Backen.” (pp. 242–3), “Nun lag Sneewittchen lange lange Zeit in dem Sarg, und verweste nicht, sondern sah aus als wenn es schliefe, denn es war noch so weiß als Schnee, so rot als Blut, und so scharzhaarig wie Ebenholz.” (p. 243). In Disney’s adaptation, the dwarfs decide to keep her, and in this way: “La princesa no abandonaría su reino del bosque” and “ellos podrían contemplar su cara y ella velaría por la casa como antaño.” (p. 120) (21) “Und die Tiere kamen auch, und beweinten Sneewitchen, erst eine Eule, dann ein Rabe, zuletzt ein Täubchen.” (p. 243), although in Disney’s adaptation the animals are different. In the remaining points, the adaptation agrees with the original to a greater or lesser extent. They coincide completely in points 632, 733 and 1734 and only partially in points 1–3, 8, 16, 18, 19, 24 and 25, as we show briefly in Table 2, where we contrast both versions, using the original text by the Brothers Grimm and the “book of the film” by Disney. 32 See pages 238 and 64 in both stories, respectively. 33 See pages 239 and 68 in both stories, respectively. 34 See pages 242 and 106 in both stories, respectively. A Study of Schneewittchen and Dornröschen 89 Table 2. Differences between the original text and Disney’s adaptation regarding death. (Original, Grimm) (Book of the film, Disney) 1 The mother dies soon after Snow White is born. (p. 236) The queen dies after an illness when Snow White is a child. (p. 3) 2 The huntsman must bring Snow White’s lung and liver as proof of her death. (pp. 236-7) The stepmother asks the servant to bring her Snow White’s heart as proof. (p. 14) 3 The huntsman lets her go, convinced that she will die anyway because the wild animals will devour her: “[…] ‘so lauf hin, du armes Kind’. ‘Die wilden Tiere werden dich bald gefressen haben’ dachte er, und doch wars ihm als wär ein Stein von seinem Herzen gewälz, weil er es nicht zu töten brauchte.” (p. 237) The servant asks her to forgive him for having accepted the order to kill her and confesses he would rather die himself than kill her. He will kill a doe in her place so the queen will not suspect anything and thus they will both save their lives, “ambos saldremos con vida”. (p. 27) 8 The queen’s obsession is due to jealousy: “Und da sann und sann sie aufs neue, wie sie es umbringen wollte; denn so lange sie nicht die schönste war im ganzen Land, ließt ihr der Neid keine Ruhe. Und als sie sich endlich etwas ausgedacht hatte, färbte sie sich das Gesicht, und kleiderte sich wie eine alte Krämerin, und war ganz unkenntlich.” (p. 239) The witch queen is moved by hate: “Consultó un viejo libro de hechizos […]. El odio guiaba su mano. […] bebió de un trago aquel mejunje diabólico. Se volvió bajita, jorobada, fea y con harapos. ¡Una perfecta bruja! Se rió perversamente al contemplar su nuevo aspecto. –¡Blancanieves, ahí tienes a tu madrastra! ¡No podrás reconocerla! ¡Es verdad, ahora eres la más bella, pero no por mucho tiempo! ¡Voy a ocuparme de ti! Volvió a abrir el libro de hechizos para encontrar la mejor manera de deshacerse de su odiada rival.” (pp. 71-72) 16 The text describes the result of the poisoning process and the deadly effect of the apple: “[…] ging sie in eine ganz verborgene einsame Kammer […] und machte da einen giftigen giftigen Apfel. Äußerlich sah er schön aus, weiß mit roten Backen, daß jeder, der ihn erblickte, Lust darnach bekam, aber wer ein Stückchen davon aß, der mußte sterben.” (p. 241) The text describes the process of making the poisoned apple and the witch queen expresses her deadly wish: “Fue a la despensa y escogió una hermosa manzana que envenenó cuidadosamente. Primero la sumergió en un líquido que le dio un bonito color rojo. Luego la pinchó varias veces con una fina aguja para infiltrarle un veneno mortal. ‘Cuando Blancanieves muerda esta fruta diabólica, todo habrá acabado’.” (p. 75) 90 María José Corvo Sánchez Table 2. Continued (Original, Grimm) (Book of the film, Disney) 18 The dwarfs find Snow White lying on the ground and desperately try different solutions to wake her up, until they finally accept that she is dead.35 For the dwarfs, Snow White “sleeps”: “Volvieron en silencio a casa, donde nada había cambiado. Su querida princesa yacía en el suelo, bella hasta en este sueño del cual ya no despertaría.” (p. 118) 19 The dwarfs mourn her death for three long days (p. 242). Their sorrow is expressed more lightly: “Las lágrimas inundaban sus consternados rostros.” (p. 118) 24 Snow White expels the poisoned apple when the servants that are carrying her coffin stumble on some brush, and she comes back to life. (p. 243) Love wakes her up when the prince kisses her closed eyes –in the film he kisses her lips–: “¡Un estremecimiento, una sonrisa; el amor acababa de despertar a Blancanieves!” (p. 125) 25 Death is the punishment for her wickedness: the malevolent stepmother attends Snow White’s wedding and she is forced to put on a pair of red- hot iron shoes that burn her feet and dance to her death. (p. 244) Disguised as an old witch, the stepmother is hit by lightning when she is being chased by the dwarfs and the animals of the forest, and she falls to the bottom of a cliff: “El mismo cielo había vengado a Blancanieves.” (p. 117) 6. Interpretation: the image of death in the tales Considering the analysis above, in this section we will attempt to determine the image of death that is offered in the original German tales and the way this topic is treated in the “product” consumed by Spanish children. In order to do that, we will refer back to some of the different aspects mentioned on the previous pages and we will try to answer the following questions: what role does death play, and what kind of death is represented in Schneewittchen and Dornröschen? Are they cruel deaths? And to what extent are Spanish children aware of it all? In the first place, the analysis shows that the topic of death is highly present in these texts in both of the versions we have studied, the original text and the 35 “Die Zwerglein, wie sie Abends nach Haus kamen, fanden Sneewittchen auf der Erde liegen, und regte sich kein Atem mehr, und es war tot. Sie hoben es auf, suchten ob sie was Giftiges fänden, schnürten es auf, kämmten ihm die Haare, wuschen es mit Wasser und Wein, aber es half alles nichts; das liebe Kind war tot, und blieb tot.” (p. 242) A Study of Schneewittchen and Dornröschen 91 Disney adaptation. It also allows us to verify our initial premise: death is, indeed, one of their main themes since the plots revolve undeniably around the deaths of their protagonists. Initially, it might seem that the topic of death carries greater weight in Snow White. However, this first impression is only due to the fact that Snow White is a longer tale, which allows for the presence of a greater number of situations related to this topic. In Sleeping Beauty, death is also the central theme of the tale from its opening lines and, according to Heisig, it is developed in the tale by the Brothers Grimm along the following four stages: El cuento se abre con la temática de la realidad de la muerte. El rey y la reina, sabiendo que un día habrán de morir desean con pasión un hijo. El miedo de morir sin hijo es un miedo de morir para siempre […]. En segundo lugar, con el nacimiento de la criatura y el banquete fatídico, se informa que la vida empieza bajo la maldición de la muerte […]. En tercer lugar, el cuento sigue adelante, la muerte es traída por una vieja hilandera. Esta figura se remonta a otras parecidas en la ‘Panchatantra’, una colección de cuentos hindúes en la cual la hilandera es la imagen de Maya, la diosa que hila el velo de la ilusión […]. Esto nos lleva enseguida a la cuarta y última faceta del nivel cósmico del cuento: la muerte no es un término sino un estado de animación suspendida. De nuevo, no se trata de una teoría lógicamente presentada, sino de la dramatización de un deseo –esto es, el deseo de la inmortalidad–. Del mismo modo que el rosal muere en el invierno y renace en la primavera por el suave beso el sol, así la bella durmiente se despierta de su sueño invernal transformada en una fértil doncella primaveral; así también nosotros esperamos despertarnos un día más allá de la muerte. Esa esperanza espontánea –si bien es acrítica y sin pruebas– crea la ilusión de una resurrección enriquecida por haber sufrido una muerte que, según la perspectiva de los vivos, no es más que un hechizo malvado.” (1976: 45–47) The Spanish reader, however, is not aware of the full scope of this development since the beginning of the Disney story is different from that of the original: “Del rey Esteban y la reina Flor había nacido una hija que era la más linda princesita que se había visto jamás.” (p. 1). Spanish children know nothing about the king and queen’s yearning to have children, because they are only told that they want to have a daughter –and not a son– in order to arrange her marriage to the neighboring king’s son and thus unite both kingdoms: “Desde hacía tiempo, los dos monarcas, Esteban y Humberto, habían decidido casar a sus hijos para unir sus dos reinos, y el nacimiento de la pequeña colmaba sus deseos”. (p. 2) The idea of resurrection discussed by Heisig –so typical in Christian cultures– is also present in Snow White. In the words of Montoya: Si los adultos creen en la resurrección de Jesucristo, los niños creen en la resurrección de los personajes ficticios, quienes están dotados de una vida eterna y de la facultad 92 María José Corvo Sánchez de resucitar sin que la muerte los haya afectado en lo más mínimo. Éste es el caso de Blancanieves, quien resucitó ante el príncipe después de vomitar la manzana envenenada, del mismo modo como la bella durmiente fue despertada de un sueño (muerte) que se prolongó durante cien años. (2007: 24) The second question that also becomes obvious after this analysis is that both tales, in their original versions as well as in their adaptations, transmit the same idea regarding the death of their young protagonists: we could describe it as “apparent death” or “death through sleep”. This is because they are the embodiment of goodness in the tales, so death takes place only apparently, in order to allow them to finally “resurrect” or wake up magically and begin a new life. This is so in both tales, and the protagonists then begin their lives with their beloved princes in a new kingdom. According to Bettelheim, the “lethargy” experienced by both heroines also has other connotations: Tanto si se trata de Blancanieves en su ataúd de cristal o de Bella Durmiente que yace en su cama, el sueño adolescente de eterna juventud y perfección es tan sólo eso: un sueño. […] Si no queremos cambiar ni desarrollarnos, podemos permanecer tranquilamente sumidos en un sueño semejante a la muerte. Durante el transcurso del sueño, la belleza de las heroínas es fría, es el aislamiento propio del narcisismo. Este ensimismamiento, que excluye el resto del mundo, no comporta sufrimiento alguno, pero tampoco ofrece ningún conocimiento ni sensaciones nuevas. (Bettelheim 1994: 274) And, in harmony with the tale’s happy ending, we find the awakening to love and a happy life. In both cases, this idea is clearly given more prominence in the Disney versions. We can see that when we compare the following texts that conclude Sleeping Beauty: Und da wurde die Hochzeit des Königssohns mit dem Dornröschen in aller Pracht gefeiert, und sie lebten vergnügt bis an ihr Ende. (Grimm, p. 228) Aurora y Felipe seguían bailando sin enterarse de lo que ocurría a su alrededor. Su amor les absorbía por completo. (Disney, p. 56) In the case of Snow White, the original tale also concludes with Snow White’s wedding to the prince –”mit großer Pracht und Herrlichkeit angeordnet” (p. 243)–, but the final lines are for the stepmother’s death, dancing in her red-hot iron shoes: “[…] da mußte sie die feuerroten Schuhe anziehen, und darin tanzen, daß ihr die Füße jämmerlich verbrannten: und sie durfte nicht aufhören bis sie sich tot getanzt hatte.” (p. 244). Disney’s version, however, reveals an undisguised attempt to emphasize the victory of love from the very moment when Snow White opens her eyes: “¡Qué dolor para el príncipe volver a encontrar a su amada sin vida en una urna de cristal! Se inclinó sobre su dulce rostro y besó sus ojos cerrados. ¡Un estremecimiento, una sonrisa; el amor acababa de despertar a A Study of Schneewittchen and Dornröschen 93 Blancanieves!” (p. 125). And this scene is followed by the happy –not sad– farewell from the seven dwarfs and her going away “con el príncipe, que la condujo a su palacio de los confines del mundo, donde ella sería su reina” (p. 127), and thus the story ends, before the image of the castle where they are going to live. Although these deaths are not real, but only apparent, and although the stories have happy endings, the analysis carried out also allows us to infer, in the third place, that both tales are very cruel, and that the degree of cruelty is greater in the original versions than in Disney’s adaptations. The fact that the stories revolve around the death of their protagonists, as we have said, already makes them cruel. In this sense, the cruelty is greater in the original tales, where both protagonists are younger than in the Disney versions: a six-year-old girl in the case of Snow White and a fifteen-year-old girl in the case of Sleeping Beauty. The degree of cruelty in the original versions is greater than in the adaptations in many moments, and it is so both because of the events that are narrated and because of the words used in the development of the plots. In the first group we find all the situations that were omitted in the Disney versions. In the case of Sleeping Beauty, one of these situations is the type of death that met the princes among the thorny bushes that prevented them from entering the castle during the one hundred years the spell lasted. These deaths represent the fact that they were not yet mature enough to culminate the action they had started, according to Bettelheim, who sees these princes as earlier versions of the hero: “los predecesores del héroe”, “las encarnaciones anteriores e inmaduras del propio héroe” (1994: 213). In any case, the “sad” death of those princes becomes in the eyes of the Spanish readers and viewers, death by poisoning, which is supposed to be faster and less painful, as we have mentioned earlier. In the case of Snow White, Disney omitted several situations to soften their version. For example, there is no explicit reference to the death of the animal –a doe, whose organs must substitute Snow White’s as proof of her death before the queen. This death is explicitly described in the original, where the huntsman slits the throat of a young boar and removes a lung and the liver –on page 237, as we have already mentioned earlier. The death of the animal at the hands of a man symbolizes a sacrifice: the boar is sacrificed so that Snow White may live. There is also no mention of the fact that the wicked stepmother makes the cook boil the organs that she believes belong to Snow White in order to eat them. Finally, the Disney version does not include either of the two murder attempts between the first one, by the huntsman, and the last one, when Snow White finally bites the apple and dies –which take place in the situations described above in points 9–15. 94 María José Corvo Sánchez Therefore, Spanish children are unable to fully comprehend the cruel reality told in the story, which is none other than fulfilling the wish to kill a six- year-old girl in up to four occasions, in four different and extremely cruel ways: one at the hands of a huntsman, who must slit her throat and remove a lung and the liver, and three at the hands of her own stepmother, who first tries to suffocate her and then poisons her not once, but twice. What happens to the wicked stepmother when she goes to the young couple’s wedding in Sleeping Beauty is also terribly cruel: she is forced to put on red-hot iron shoes and dance in them until she drops dead. The cruelty of this punishment is a symbol of the meaning this death has in the tale: on the one hand, it is restitutory punishment for all the harm she has done, and on the other, it is also liberating, since this death will allow the protagonist to live a happy new life, as we have also seen earlier. From this perspective, it represents a happy ending: the good heroes live and the wicked villains die. Therefore, this death –like the view of the castle at the end of the Disney version or the wedding celebration in both versions of Sleeping Beauty– takes the place of the traditional closing formulas that usually mark the end of a tale, like “… y vivieron felices y comieron perdices” in Spanish, or the German “... und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute.” Rather than referring to the timelessness of the tales, these formulas represent the happiness of the protagonists, who must not suffer any death, for this would mean the failure of the hero in the story (Bettelheim 1994: 213). In the second place, the events that Disney’s adaptation of Snow White shares only partially with the original tale are also much crueler in the original. They are related to points 1–3 in the earlier list: (1) the original Snow White never meets her mother, but in the Disney version she becomes an orphan much later; (2) the huntsman must remove two vital organs from her, a lung and the liver, and not just the heart, as in the adaptation; and (3) the huntsman lets her go and feels released from the queen’s command because he is convinced that Snow White will die anyway, while in the Disney version, the servant is repentant. He begs her forgiveness for having accepted the order to kill her and explains that he will deceive the queen by killing a doe, so that both of them can remain alive. Regarding the language used, in the Grimm version the vocabulary is determined by the description of real, physical situations, which leads to a more realistic representation of the events. This makes it harsher than Disney’s description, which in turn seems less cruel. That is the case in the events surrounding Snow White’s “death” and “resurrection”. In the first case, Snow White falls dead to the ground and that is where the dwarfs find her, lying on the ground, when they return from the mine. Saddened, they will mourn her death for three days. In contrast, in the Disney A Study of Schneewittchen and Dornröschen 95 version: “[…] (Blancanieves) sintió un extraño malestar. Sus ojos se cerraron y se derrumbó suavemente en el suelo, donde quedó sin vida a los pies de la bruja” (p. 106). Thus, for Spanish readers, Snow White dies “softly,” especially in the book of the film, where they only see part of her arm on the ground. In addition, they are told that, for the dwarfs, she is “asleep”; although they also mourn her loss, they cry inconsolably for a period of time, which we imagine much shorter than in the original. Regarding Snow White’s “resurrection”, the situation is also more realistic in the original, where the piece of apple is expelled due to a physical cause: the coffin bearers stumble on some brush. In the adaptation, however, she “comes back to life” magically since love is what wakes her up. The magic element is a recurrent device in Disney’s story La Bella Durmiente del Bosque, mainly at the service of the three fairies, Fauna, Flora and Primavera, and of Maléfica. Disney uses it to represent the two moments in which the adaptation differs most clearly from the original by the Brothers Grimm, which are especially significant because they are the two occasions on which the adaptation is crueler than the original. The first moment reproduces the princess’s death. In the original, this death is not described explicitly: the princess pricks herself with the spindle and falls into a deep sleep. However, in Maléfica’s view, the spell is fulfilled in the Disney story, as we have already mentioned: –¡Ahí tenéis a vuestra princesita! –dijo, riendo siniestramente–. ¡Habíais creído que podíais vencerme? ¡Pues ya veis que no es así! ¡Mi venganza se ha cumplido al fin! ¡Nadie puede vencer a Maléfica! Lanzó unas siniestras carcajadas, levantó los brazos y desapareció, envuelta en terribles llamaradas. (Disney, p. 34) The second moment describes the prince’s ordeal to rescue his beloved. His fight against Maléfica, who has turned herself into a dragon, begins in the most spectacular way, as described in the following passage: Se oyó entonces un terrible trueno, seguido de relámpagos, y sobre el castillo surgió una intensa llamarada. Cuando el humo se disipó, apareció la enorme y monstruosa figura de un dragón, que no era sino la propia Maléfica, que había concentrado al máximo todos sus poderes, decidida a terminar con el príncipe. (Disney, p. 46) The glorification of the magic element in all these situations contributes to the spectacular effect pursued by Disney, first through the images in the film and later in the story. This effect is also achieved in Blancanieves, more specifically in points 8 and 16 listed in Table 2 above: they describe, respectively, the “espectacular transformación” (p. 72) of the queen into an ugly hunchbacked witch and the process of making the apple. And it is also achieved in the pursuit of the witch by the dwarfs and the animals, which leads to her death: 96 María José Corvo Sánchez Hubo un estruendo y la hechicera creyó en su victoria. Pero provenía del cielo y no de la tierra. De un cielo que de repente se había oscurecido y en el que estalló una tormenta amenazante. Se sucedían truenos y relámpagos. Una luz violenta iluminó el bosque. Cuando se apagó, la roca estaba todavía allí, pero la bruja había desaparecido. (Disney, p. 114) Therefore, in contrast with the original, where the queen’s death is the result of a physical punishment imposed upon her because of her wickedness, in Disney’s adaptation there is a certain magical element that justifies her death as the result of the greatest punishment, a punishment coming from the heavens, as if it were divine retribution. Images are also the device used by Disney to verbally omit certain sad situations, like the events surrounding Snow White’s burial and wake, which we have already listed above in points 20–22. The modifications in the content in the Disney version in order to sweeten the tale, on the one hand, and the search for the spectacular on the other, also alter the tale’s didactic component. Especially striking is Disney’s didactic interest in helping children navigate their emotions in different moments related to death, so that they can identify with certain characters and feel what the characters feel. That is the case, for example, of the awe that the prince in La Bella Durmiente del Bosque feels when confronted with the stillness that envelops the castle or, in the tale of Blancanieves, the pain the prince feels when he finds out his beloved is dead, and the happiness the dwarfs feel when she comes back to life. In the same way, children must learn to fear danger, so that they can defend themselves by asking for help if necessary. In the tale, the animals feel that Snow White is in grave danger and, after attacking the old witch when she offers her the apple, they go in search of the dwarfs to warn them of the tragedy. In this case, in the end, they are the ones who defeat the wicked stepmother and thus become more important in the story for children, who also identify them as heroes. Something similar happens also in La Bella Durmiente del Bosque, where the prince receives much-needed help from the three fairies to defeat Maléfica and her followers. Among all the lessons, Disney’s suggestion that one must count on the help of others to overcome dangerous situations is, without a doubt, a novel idea for children compared with the original German texts. 7. Conclusions Die KHM is a work that belongs to a set of texts known as children’s classics, which everyone is familiar with, but hardly anyone has ever read. Their international A Study of Schneewittchen and Dornröschen 97 recognition is due, to a great extent, to the animation films created by Disney on the basis of some of these tales, and this means that nowadays, when the Brothers Grimm are mentioned, most people immediately think of the Disney versions. That is the case of the German tales specifically studied in this paper, two very well known “Disney Classics” for most people today, who generally speaking – at least outside German-speaking countries– identify them with the work of Disney and believe they tell the true stories of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. On these pages we have analyzed these stories and compared the content related to the topic of death in the original texts with the adaptations created by Disney, in order to evaluate the image of death they offer to Spanish children. The analysis shows mainly that the topic of death is highly present in these texts in both of the versions that were studied, where it takes on different roles, as the main topic and also as a secondary topic. In both versions it is present from the beginning, representing a starting point for the action – although in the case of Snow White it appears later because the protagonist becomes an orphan at a slightly older age–, and in both cases the plot develops around the death of the protagonists. As a secondary topic, other deaths come into play in these tales and perform different functions that we have also mentioned. For instance, the death of the princess in the thorny hedge resolves the “exit from scene” of characters who have already fulfilled their role in the story. As a whole, they are symbolic deaths. We have mentioned a mother’s death, animal sacrifice, apparent death, the death of immature characters that represent earlier incarnations of the hero, and death as a result of punishment. All of them have a different symbolic meaning to illustrate that it is possible to overcome adversity, that it is possible to begin a new life, that the wicked must receive their punishment, and that love conquers all. In particular, in the product that most Spanish children know, Disney altered certain contents, concealing some aspects and enhancing others with spectacular scenes. Therefore, the topic of death is presented in a softer way, less sad and less cruel, and cloaked in spectacular effects. The intended audience are obviously children, so Disney does not explain the meaning of the symbols related to death in the German tales and certainly achieves a very effective result. It is true that the variety of deaths represented does not allow children to develop a clear representation of the concept of death. However, it is possible to conclude that, taking advantage of the lessons taught in these tales, children can begin to understand certain aspects of the reality of death in a subconscious way. In addition, the variety of ways in which this topic is represented largely blurs the concept and, as a result, it does not convey fear or frighten, not even when the young protagonists die, since their deaths are not final, but only a transition. 98 María José Corvo Sánchez Children are not frightened either by the cruelty associated with death in these tales: they are fascinated by the things that frighten adults, and they understand in an almost subconscious way that deaths and death threats are part of and allow the development of the plot of these stories, which is none other than the heroines’ road to happiness. This is true even in the case of the cruel death of Snow White’s stepmother –which is also extremely cruel in the original– because it has a moral role: the harm caused to Snow White on this road requires an atonement in the eyes of the children. They feel rewarded by the punishment because it is a final death – in contrast to the protagonist’s death– and it allows the story to have a happy ending, so they do not “suffer” in any way because of it. In this sense, we agree with Bettelheim, who expresses it in the following words regarding the original version: El niño sabe lo que necesita oír. Un adulto, al leer la historia de Blancanieves a un niño de siete años, y deseoso de no perturbar la mente infantil, terminó el relato con la boda de Blancanieves. Entonces, el pequeño, que conocía perfectamente la historia, preguntó: «¿Y qué pasó con los zapatos que mataron a la reina perversa?». El niño siente que el mundo funciona perfectamente y que se puede sentir seguro en él únicamente si sabe que las personas malvadas encuentran siempre su castigo. (1994: 178) Something similar happens also with the deaths of the princes trapped in the thorns in La Bella Durmiente. In this case, they are secondary characters that have no relevance for the main action, so children are able to forget them quickly and their deaths do not cause them any suffering.36 With the animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney blazed a new trail in the evolution of fairy/popular tales and ancient legends towards audiovisual means –the first step in their evolution had been the shift from the oral to the written tradition. This trail has also been followed by others, making it possible for us to be familiar with many tales from the past thanks to the “magic” of films. In the case of Disney, this magic has another unique characteristic. His vision as a businessman lead him to extend it to the book format, which charmed all children, viewers and readers, entertaining and teaching them in a subconscious way about countless aspects of their growth in life: language, emotions, moral values, etc. And death. 36 Our perception of cruelty in these tales concurs with that of many other researchers that have expressed themselves in similar terms. Their opinions are available on http:// www.maerchengesellschaft.ch/documents/maerchen_grausamkeiten.pdf A Study of Schneewittchen and Dornröschen 99 References Ambrós, Alba & Breu, Ramón. 2007. Cine y educación: el cine en el aula de primaria y secundaria. Barcelona: Editorial Graó. Arnal Gil, J., Etxaniz Erle, X., López Gaseni, J. M. 2014. Estrategias para desmitificar la muerte a través del álbum y el libro ilustrado infantil. In Anuario de investigación en literatura infantil y juvenil, 12, 7–17. Arnal Gil, Javier Ignacio. 2012. El tratamiento de la muerte en el álbum infantil. 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