Many children's stories and nursery rhymes relate to horrific things, like "Ring a Ring o' Roses," a rhyme about London's Great Plague. Some of these horrific tales do some good, whilst scaring our kids, by teaching them important life lessons. Others cause children to have terrifying nightmares.
The following are five examples of terrifying children's stories, which still scare kids today.
'The Girl Who Trod on the Loaf' by Hans Christian Andersen
Andersen loved writing tales about naughty girls and their punishments. In this case, a poor girl became conceited after getting a better life. When she went to visit her poverty-stricken mother through the mud, she dropped the loaf of bread for her family and stood on it to keep her shoes clean. She was sucked into the mud and is taken to Hell, where she becomes a statue and goes through several horrific torments, while listening to her mother crying and people telling her how horrible she was.
'The Hobyahs' collected by SV Proudfit
A brave little dog named Turpie kept barking at night as the Hobyahs came out of the forest to his elderly owner’s hut. The old man threatens the poor dog with dismemberment each day for his barking. Eventually he cuts off Turpie’s head and the barking ceases leading to the owners’ demise. The story had illustrations of the poor dog’s dismembered parts, which had only tried to protect his owners from the Hobyahs.
'The Water-Babies' by Charles Kingsley
The story is about little chimney sweep who was chased out of town. He ends up under the water with a group of other young children. The Guardian says this is about social reform and not only did the story have an effect on children, it reformed legislation about the suffering of young children, forced to work in chimneys to keep them clean. The story is discomforting for both children and adults to read.
'Max and Moritz' by Wilhelm Busch
Max and Moritz is the story of two naughty boys who play mean-spirited pranks on the neighbours, including removing planks from a bridge, making local chicken eat strings so they die entangled together and almost killing a tailor. They come to a bad end when they slit open sacks of farmers’ corn and end up stuffed into those sacks and ground into pieces. Not the most charming story for a child to read!
'The Tale of Tom Kitten' by Beatrix Potter
The tale of a kitten called Tom who explores the space between the walls of his home. He is eventually rolled in dough, ready for rats to eat him. The story gives children the idea that animals they have positive reactions to could be anything but positive.
