Not everyone knows, but many cartoons about Disney princesses (and the fairy tales they’re based on) are based on pretty real characters. And sometimes true stories. Let’s talk about them!
“Beauty and the Beast”
Modern researchers claim that the story of Petrus Gonsalvus (birth name Pedro Gonzalez) is based on the tale of Gabriel Suzanne Barbeau de Villeneuve “Belle et La Bête”, a man born in 1537. Canary Islands and suffered from hypertrichosis, that is, increased hairiness.
Even as a child, he was removed from the family for his appearance and treated like an animal: he was kept in a cage, fed raw meat, and at the age of ten King Charles II of France. presented to Henry. his name tied him to the court of the Duchess of Parma and he ordered that he be brought up as a nobleman. And after the death of the monarch, his wife Catherine de Medici married Petrus Gonsalvus to the daughter of one of the courtiers. Her name was Catherine, and they lived together for 40 years and raised seven children. Meanwhile, the four inherited hypertrichosis from their father.
“Rapunzel”
The story of a long-haired girl is believed to be inspired by St. Barbara, a 3rd century Greek saint and martyr. Legend has it that her father was a pagan and locked her in a tower to protect her beauty from the outside world. By then, she had accepted the Christian faith and had refused to marry a pagan they were trying to impose on her, so her father nearly killed her, but Varvara managed to escape. She was later caught again and died from torture without giving up her faith.
At the same time, the stories about Saint Barbara do not mention the length of her hair, although they themselves are still debated: for them, the father drags the daughter to prison, wraps his fist to cut off his daughter’s head. But the same magical scythe, which later appeared in the story about Rapunzel, was borrowed from the Persian epic Shahnameh, according to folklore researchers, in one of the plots the beauty blows her scythe so that a young man can climb out of the window. to the girl.
“Snow White”
According to one of the most popular theories about the origin of Snow White, Countess Margarethe von Waldeck was born in Germany in 1533 and at the age of 16 everyone was talking about her beauty. Then Katharina took her daughter from her stepmother Hatzfeld and moved with her to Brussels, where the countess began an affair with the future king of Spain, Philip II. Of course, neither the stepmother nor the relatives of the heir to the throne approved of this relationship, and soon Margaret von Waldeck was poisoned – she was only 21 years old.
Where are the gnomes in the fairy tale? Their prototype may be children working in the copper mines for the countess’s family.
“Pocahontas”
The chief’s daughter, who was kind to the British colonists, actually existed, but her real story is very different from the version Disney showed us. Firstly, the name of the main character was not Pocahontas, but Matoaca – this is an Indian name meaning “a flower between two streams” or “a bright stream between two hills”. But the nickname “pocahontas” (“little mischievous”) was given to him by his father. Second, he was younger than his animated prototype: Matoaka was ten to twelve years old when John Smith arrived on his land. In fact, researchers know the story of Pocahontas only from the words of a real person and one of the founders of the British colony of Jamestown, John Smith. According to him, the leader’s teenage daughter was captured by the Indians and saved by covering her head when they wanted to crush her skull, but this is believed to be either fiction or a misinterpretation of the ceremony, which was originally intended to honor the ceremony. Be the guest and part of the tribe.
And one more thing: Pocahontas never married John Smith. She was forcibly abducted when she was 17, her father paid a ransom for her, and then married her to colonist John Rolfe to ensure peaceful coexistence with the Indians.
“Cold Heart”
The image of Elsa from “Frozen”, of course, was written from the fairy tale “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen, but the author also had a real prototype – the Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind. They met in 1840, and one of the most popular fairy tale writers fell in love with her, but she did not reciprocate. For this she actually paid the price in the pages of her book, in which she turned her lover into an enemy.
Source: People Talk
I’m Roger Gritton, and I’ve been writing for the The Fashion Vibes for over 5 years now. My specialty is beauty news; I’m passionate about covering the latest trends, products, and innovations in the industry. In my time there, I’ve become known as an authority on all things beauty-related.
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