Treasure trove of fairy tales uncovered.

From a link in USA Today, a story in the UK's Guardian:  Lying untouched under lock and key for over 150 years (not unlike Sleeping Beauty, come to think of it), 500 fairy tales have been discovered in Regensburg, Germany.  The tales were collected by Franz Xaver von Schonwerth in Bavaria at the same time the Grimm Brothers were compiling their stories.  One of Schonwerth's new-old stories, "The Turnip Princess," is included in the article.  Here's the link:  http://tinyurl.com/7k8sygz



Woodcut depicting
Lifestyle Elf from original
fairy tale.

 Although you won't find it in the Guardian article, cultural historians who have examined this treasure trove are convinced that they may well have found the first recorded instance of one of the world's most enduring fairy tales, the "It's Not a Diet, It's a Lifestyle."  Interestingly, as with so many fairy tales--the Little Mermaid, for example--the ending of the original story is considerably darker than the tale that survived.  The story begins as it does today: a little elf comes to the princess to assure her that it won't be a diet but rather a "lifestyle" change that will magically produce the svelte figure which in turn will win the prince.  However, in the original version, once the princess realizes that hidden inside the "lifestyle" is a miserable diet and a lot of huffing and puffing around the castle moat, she throws the poor elf out the tower window.  A dwarf magician with a soft heart and an eye for fashion takes pity on the elf and promises that he will be reborn in some really cute shorts.