Welcome

Hello there, welcome to The Nursery's Dark Side. I would like to begin by assuring you that this blog is not about child abuse of any sort, rather, the title is derived from the subject matter I will be discussing: fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and their origins.

But, I hear you ask, how can these wonderful little tales, which colour the lives of children across the world, be 'dark'? Well, let me tell you that the majority of nursery rhymes and fairy tales have the most appallingly dark origins. Take Ring Around the Rosy, a popular children's game where 'we all fall down'! The song originated during the European bubonic plague epidemic of 1348 - 1350. I will go into further details of this rhyme later. Another charming classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, has Snow White's step mother, the evil queen, punished at the end of the story by being forced to wear a pair of iron shoes, heated until they were red hot, and dance until she died.

A word of warning to parents who may be wanting to show this blog to their children, the weeks I deal with fairy tales, I will be using, where I can, the original Brothers Grimm story. While these stories were written for children, first published in Germany in 1812, they can be quite violent, and do not necessarily follow the 'happily ever after' pattern of modern adaptions. I will leave it up to your discretion whether or not to show the stories on this blog to your children.

This blog will be updated weekly, with a new nursery rhyme or fairy tale posted every Sunday evening (AEST), starting tonight. 

Finally, I hope you enjoy reading about the origins of popular rhymes and tales. It is a subject that has always interested me, and I hope that I can write well enough to hook you in and take you along with me.

Farewell then,

Jewels