Scared the shit out of me…

Another one: “The Inchcape Rock.”

I had to look up The Inchcape Rock. Gave me chills!

(As a side note, when I was in sixth grade, the old nun who was our homeroom teacher would bark at anyone with unkempt hair, "Go comb your hair! You look like the wreck of the Hesperus!&quot LOL!!

Dumbo's mother rocked him with her truck through the bars of 'cage' she was in. Too sad.

Cried too.

I cried. Thank you some_of _us_are_sane.

The Snow Queen, The Wild Swans............... so many of his stories are dark, but I love them nonetheless.

A prayer.

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the lord my soul to take.



Who thought it was a good idea to teach that to little kids?

Hansel and Gretel was right up there too.

angel standing by. That frightened me.

remembered a Little Lulu cartoon!

James Whitcomb Riley
1849 –
1916
Little Orphant Annie’s come to our house to stay,
An’ wash the cups an’ saucers up, an’ brush the crumbs away,
An’ shoo the chickens off the porch, an’ dust the hearth, an’ sweep,
An’ make the fire, an’ bake the bread, an’ earn her board-an’-keep;
An’ all us other childern, when the supper things is done,
We set around the kitchen fire an’ has the mostest fun
A-list’nin’ to the witch-tales ‘at Annie tells about,
An’ the Gobble-uns ‘at gits you
Ef you
Don’t
Watch
Out!

Onc’t they was a little boy wouldn’t say his prayers,—
So when he went to bed at night, away up stairs,
His Mammy heerd him holler, an’ his Daddy heerd him bawl,
An’ when they turn’t the kivvers down, he wasn’t there at all!
An’ they seeked him in the rafter-room, an’ cubby-hole, an’ press,
An’ seeked him up the chimbly-flue, an’ ever’wheres, I guess;
But all they ever found was thist his pants an' roundabout--
An’ the Gobble-uns’ll git you
Ef you
Don’t
Watch
Out!

An’ one time a little girl ‘ud allus laugh an’ grin,
An’ make fun of ever’one, an’ all her blood an’ kin;
An’ onc’t, when they was “company,” an’ ole folks was there,
She mocked ‘em an’ shocked ‘em, an’ said she didn’t care!
An’ thist as she kicked her heels, an’ turn’t to run an’ hide,
They was two great big Black Things a-standin’ by her side,
An’ they snatched her through the ceilin’ ‘fore she knowed what she’s about!
An’ the Gobble-uns’ll git you
Ef you
Don’t
Watch
Out!

An’ little Orphant Annie says when the blaze is blue,
An’ the lamp-wick sputters, an’ the wind goes woo-oo!
An’ you hear the crickets quit, an’ the moon is gray,
An’ the lightnin’-bugs in dew is all squenched away,--
You better mind yer parents, an’ yer teachers fond an’ dear,
An’ churish them ‘at loves you, an’ dry the orphant’s tear,
An’ he’p the pore an’ needy ones ‘at clusters all about,
Er the Gobble-uns’ll git you
Ef you
Don’t
Watch
Out!

he had me read poetry aloud to him. He liked James Whitcomb Riley. I found a book of Riley's poetry in the back room of the library where I worked. He liked, "When the frost is on the punkin and the fodders in the shock." He also loved poetry by Poe. He was four years old. Go figure.

Memorized the whole thing.

My gramma was German, and she used to take me on her lap and read stories from this very gruesomely illustrated book of German language stories, like a little boy who refused to stop sucking his thumbs, so a tailor came along with huge shears and cut off his thumbs (much blood spurting), or another little boy who refused to eat his soup and got as skinny as a piece of string until he died, or a kid who played with matches and burned herself up, or another kid who never cut his hair or fingernails. The stories were pretty short, but my gramma read them in this really dramatic German, V E R Y S L O W L Y, milking every phrase, making them as scary as possible and pointing to each detail in the pictures, describing them in German and English.

I wish I still had that book ... I used to beg her to read me those stories! Yikes!

This may have been it.

My guess is, that was a book that was read to her as a child, in the 1800s. I don't remember what happened to all those books ... lots of classics, but also some novels by authors no one ever heard of. My gramma 'loved' books ... she never got rid of a book ... and I loved trying to read them as a little kid.

I'll bet that edition might be a collectors' item now.

I remember that illustration, and the story about the kid who burned herself up playing with matches. It must have creeped me out because I remember it. Either it was in English or I just remember the pictures. It might be this book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struwwelpeter

It scared the bejesus out of me at a very impressionable age. I've never been the same.

The future looks pretty bleak, unfortunately.

Old, scary witch eating little children, run, run. To this day deep, dark forests make me uncomfortable 😳

The Pied Piper runs a close second.

tells of falling stars, etc. Every time I saw a falling star, I would be nervous that the end was near. I cried when I read The Little Match Girl"

When I was 6 or 7 I had nightmares with a monster chasing me every night. Then one night I turned and killed my monster. I have not have another nightmare in over 60 years. I hardly ever remember my dreams anyway.

Because the Witch made the King marry her daughter in order to find his way out of the Forest; otherwise, he would die.

I became obsessed with forced marriages after that.

Bible story about the prophet Elisha who was angry at children taunting him for being bald and he got very angry and had God make two female bears come growling out and kill all the children.

took place? Hahahahah. I guess Noah brought them.

The Brothers Grimm certainly lived up to their name.

One creepy one was "The Twelve Dancing Princesses". A king can't figure out why his daughters' shoes are all worn out every morning when they've supposedly been sleeping. He enlists a soldier who gets an invisibility cloak from an old woman to follow them and see what they're up to. He follows them to a castle ballroom where they dance all night.

....several princes to find out where they went but if they failed they were executed. The princesses drugged the princes' wine so they were never found out where the girls were going and were subsequently executed. I think that part was sanitized a bit in Grimm's editions published in the US and the princes just vanished.

Parents took me to see "The Ten Commandments" when I was 7. Pretty heavy fare for a kid, it was visually captivating -- until the curse on the firstborn and that creepy green stuff came down from the sky and slithered along the ground. I didn't get the concept of 'firstborn', I just knew there was some of that green stuff with my name on it. I slept with the lights on for months.


.

So did Cinderella. I lost my father to divorce and my stepmother was awful. Her daughters were treated as though they were princesses. My mother remarried as well( twice when I was young), and my stepfathers never cared for me at all. My twin brother fared slightly better, but not much.
To me, those stories were based on real miseries, but I hoped the "happily ever after part" would one day come true.

dream has come true. We love you

Once we get ban all the ogres and wicked tricksters from the land.
Thank you for your kind words.

On election night 1876, grave robbers tried to break into Lincoln’s tomb. The marble proved to be too difficult, and they didn’t get the body. The guy in charge of the tomb moved the casket to a basement and covered it with boards. Later, he had it buried in the basement.

Twenty-five years later they were finishing the final Lincoln tomb. Lincoln, his wife and deceased sons were going to be buried in front of the tomb, in a cage of rebar, and covered in tons of cement — no more worries about grave robbers.

Before they reburied him, the workers thought they should have a peek. The description of the perfectly preserved (except that he had turned black) body scared the living hell out of nine year old me.

too.

Andersen's definitely had a dark side, but I much preferred them

Grimm's fairy tales are primarily collections of folklore, while Hans Christian Andersen's tales are original works. The Brothers Grimm focused on preserving and compiling traditional stories, often editing them for a wider audience. Andersen, on the other hand, crafted his own narratives, exploring themes of morality, introspection, and social commentary.

FWIW per AI

sorry.