Fairy Tale Spotlight: Fear the Woodsman

When you sit down and read a Grimm, Andersen, or Perrault fairy tail, you are probably reading something that has been passed down from person to person for many generations until it ultimately took the form of the story you are presently reading. In ancient times, people saw things that they had difficulty explaining. Even if they did understand it, the later generations would not identify with it in the same way. Tales often originated from strange stories of humans encountering otherworldly beings. There is a stroke of truth still hidden in them which is why we find them so endearing.

As these stories continued to persist, they were often filtered through the cultural political correctness of the day and also softened for children. I have many times rejected the Woodsman character from Little Red Riding-Hood for his contrived entry as a means to keep children from getting upset. He was never there in the older versions and does not need to be there now. Little Red dies. She always dies. There was never a chance of rescue after being masticated by the Big Bad Wolf.

Although it may have come earlier, I am more familiar with the Woodsman's entry in the Grimm version. It really doesn't belong there. It defeats the purpose of the tale by adding a random encounter with a hero who isn't even introduced until that point. The original story is more about prevention. The Woodsman turns the story into the act of hoping for blind luck. You can still entertain the Wolf, because there is a chance you'll make it. This is ridiculous.

Fiction is always at its best when it is completely honest with both itself and its audience. When you alter a story to make certain audiences more comfortable, it turns it into something trivial. You can get about the same entertainment by just downing a sedative and going to sleep. These works of fiction ignore the actual dangers of the world and focus on silly things that don't matter.

Fiction was never meant to have an agenda. It was meant to tell entertaining stories. If the stories are honest in their portrayal, it provides insight. People learn about themselves and the world around them from that inspiration. They can even add to it. If the story forces a narrative based on an agenda, it always shows. People know when it's happening and will either out rightly reject it... or just accept it along with a very mediocre and pointless view of the world around them.

The Woodsman's only purpose is to make a very clear evil... unclear. He comes in and blurs reality so that nothing is certain. And once nothing is certain, you may be opening your mind to a forced narrative. In reality, the Woodsman is merely a tool for evil people trying to change reality and make it far more uninteresting. It promotes cynicism. And once the Woodsman has you in his grasp, he will be more than happy to feed you to his pet Wolf.

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