Once Upon a Time Part Deux

Hello, I'm Amy, and I'm Rachel, and we're just two millennials who share a passion for the creepy and the spooky, harbor a true love for true crime, and share our favorite spirits. So sit back, have a cocktail, with two creepy ghouls. Ta-da. Ta-da! Alright. Oh, beautiful. Thank you. I'm glad. So I wanted to start off by, as we always do, by talking about the cocktail that I have for this week's episode. And as you know, this is the second part to our Once Upon a Time series on fairy tales based in truth. And so I actually have a few options for you. And one is called the Fair Maiden, and this is, I know, I love that, the title. Thank you, Pinterest. So this beverage is basically just pineapple juice in blue carousel on top. So it's one of those things where it's measured to your heart's desire. So if you really love pineapple, do like a full cup of pineapple, and do a shot and a half of carousel on top. Alright, alright. It's, that's how I looked at it, is just measure with your heart. And the version I made, and I was actually really proud of myself for this, I'm calling it The Fable. Ooh! Do that! And what it is, so it's a half a cup of club soda, and it's, I put it over ice, and then I, this is where I kind of measured it to taste, so start off with a little bit, and then add a little bit more if you're feeling it. And it's a little bit of sweet and sour, trying to utilize ingredients that we've already purchased so far in these beverages. So club soda, I either use a fourth or third cup of sweet and sour, and then I do one shot of blue carousel on top, and this is very much a light beverage. So when I made this, I initially thought, oh, this would be a great beverage for being outside in the hot weather, or when you want to drink, but you don't want to get really drunk or anything. It's just something light, where you're like, oh, I still have an alcoholic beverage. Yeah. So I, it's just very refreshing, but if you feel like this is not strong enough, I would suggest adding in rum of some kind, and you could get, like, fun with this. So if you want to do coconut rum, exactly, you want to add coconut to it to make it more tropical and kind of feel like cruise ship, holiday in the caravan, do it. Or if you want to try just regular or another flavored rum, I think that would pair very nice with it, and it would make it just super refreshing, so that's what I would do. And then this was just something I did for shits and giggles, so I created the Wicked Stepmother shot. And again, I was just utilizing what I had in the cabinet, and I put a half shot of Watermelon Pucker and a half shot of Empress Gin, and the color actually reminded me of Lady Tremaine from Cinderella. Okay. Yeah. Like, the color of her gown is that, like, burgundy, and so that's where I got the inspiration because one of my topics this week is Cinderella. I'm so excited. So, I, it wasn't bad. Okay. It wasn't your favorite? It's not my favorite, but it was something to where if you have these ingredients sitting around, try it out. Just give it a whirl with your fable or your fair maiden. I like that a lot. Did you have a favorite of the three? I think the one I created was my favorite. Okay. I like it. Just because I love bubbles and carbonation, and I just, honestly, I just, I'm the weirdo now to where I drink just sparkling mineral water a lot, and I think that's a sign that I'm getting older because that's what my great-aunts used to drink, and I don't care for sparkling water. I feel like I'm one of the few people that don't care for it at all. You know, I used to think it was just so gross when I was a kid, and I'd be like, why are you drinking that? There's no sugar. There's nothing. I love carbonation. Give me bubbles any day of the week, and then if you can pair it with simple syrup, vodka, and some lime, it's extra tasty. Okay. Okay. I like it. Thank you. That sounds like a perfect pairing for part two of Once Upon a Time series. I love it. So, what fairy tale are we going to be starting out with today, friend? Do I start it off? Yes. Okay. Okay. I couldn't remember. We're going to be talking about Hansel and Gretel. So, just like the fairy tale, the real life story ends with a prolific female baker burning to death in her own oven after being punished by Hansel with the help of his sister, Gretel. Well, that's pretty much where the similarities end as much with most of these fairy tales, as we've come to know. Right. Right. So, let's learn about the case of jilted love, stalking, murder, witchcraft, and gingerbread that inspired the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel. Are you ready? I am so stoked for this. I wish I had gingerbread cookies right now. I wish you did, too. Okay. So, we're going to go way back in time to 1618 in Germany. There lived a woman named Katharina Schrader. Very German last name. I'm just going to call her from Katharina or Katherine. Call her Kat. Kat. Yeah. She was a phenomenal baker. She sold her goodies at various markets and fairs surrounding the German town of Nuremberg. So, her specialty, of course, was gingerbread. I was hesitant. I was going to say schnitzel. Gingerbread. Oh, yeah. But her cakes and cookies also made her regionally famous. Many people bought, or not bought, sought her recipes, but Kat kept those a closely guarded secret, as any good baker does. It was in Nuremberg that Katharina met a gentleman named Hans Metzler. A baker himself, Hans noticed that whenever Kat was in town to sell her cookies and cakes, his sales took a nosedive because she was better. Her baked goods were tastier and therefore more popular than his. He longed to get his hands on her recipe, so he tried a novel approach. He began to flirt with her. Typical man. I know, for real. He showered her with praise and romanced her with small tokens of love, and then he proposed marriage to her. If Kat was his wife, Hans realized she would have to share her recipes with him. Rude. But Katharina was no dummy. She grew suspicious of Hans' motives and called off the romance, leaving Hans a jilted suitor. The muffin shop is closed. At this point, most people would have given up and taken up cobblery or something like that. But if you haven't noticed, Hans was kind of a jerk. Bad Hans. Enraged by her rejection, he spread rumors that she was a bakerhex, a German word for bakery witch. He told the people of Nuremberg that she used potions and witchcraft to make her baked goods so yummy and attempted to ruin her fucking business. Restraining orders didn't exist yet, so Katharina fled from Nuremberg, leaving behind everything except her recipes and moved to a hidden house in a forest near Frankfurt. Even though he was successful at running her out of town, Hans was not through with Katharina just yet, because he's a psycho. He didn't have what he truly wanted, her recipes. Hoping that he could claim her possessions after she was found guilty of bakery witchcraft, he filed charges against her for witchcraft, but at trial she was found innocent and released. Having had quite enough of the nonsense, she left Nuremberg for a second time. Hans just didn't know when to quit, though, so he and his sister Grete followed her to her secluded home in the forest. With his sister as an accomplice, Hans broke into Katharina's home and murdered her. The Metzler siblings then stuffed Katharina's body into her oven and burned her remains. Then they searched the house from top to bottom looking for her recipes. They couldn't find them anywhere, although Katharina had left behind some freshly baked gingerbread, so at least the murderers could indulge in some goodies. So the Metzler siblings were soon arrested for the murder of Katharina, and after trial, Hans insisted again that Katharina was an evil witch who attacked him and tried to eat him. He claimed that he murdered Katharina in self-defense. His sister, Grete, backed up his story. Because this was back when if more than one person fried witchcraft, you had to believe them. So the judge declared them innocent. Hans continued his career as a baker, albeit without her recipes. He never found them. For generations, the people of Nuremberg told stories of Hans and the Baker Hex. The Brothers Graham, when they compiled their first book of folktales, included a version of the story. In this tale, Katharina was truly a wicked witch who preyed on the young children that she kidnapped and baked in her oven. The Metzler siblings, Hans and Grete, were transformed into children. Indeed, Hansel literally means little Hans, and Gretel means little Grete. The villain of the story shifted from the gritty Hans to the innocent Katharina. The poor lady just couldn't fucking catch a break. No kidding. Isn't that awful? That's horrible. Absolutely horrible. I thought this was going to have more of like Sweeney Todd vibes and she was going to be like that was just a great idea. No, she actually ended up being innocent all along, just trying to bake her own stuff and make a living and along comes a man who wants what he thinks is rightfully his. I was trying to think of like a baking joke. All I could think about was like he was trying to get her cookies or her cookie recipe. Cookie recipe. We keep talking about cookies and I'm like now I just really want a cookie. It's cookie time. Yeah, isn't that insane? That's messed up. And super sad. Yeah. You come into my house and try to steal my recipes. She was run off twice and he was like not good enough. Oh, that's a bad relationship. That's an obsession. That is an obsession. It is an obsession. I think it's just being told he can't stand being told no. Yeah, no, I think that's a common theme in a lot of the stories. No means no, but what's it saying? No, two no's mean yes. Oh God. So, that is the story of Katharina Schrader. I don't know how to quite pronounce it. I'm so sorry. But that is the story of the original Hans and Gretel or Hans and Grete as you may want to say. That just further too proves my point that bad Hans. I think that Hans, that name is just like cursed. They're bad, yeah. Think about it. Hans Gruber. Hans Gruber. Hans and frozen. Bad Hans. Yeah. Two for two. Yeah, and then this one makes three, so. Just saying. Hans. Hans. What do you have? I actually enjoy this story. And it wasn't so much, so I wasn't going to be talking about Little Jack Horner. It was more a song and a rhyme. And I only really came to know about this. I was trying to think about how I initially found it when I was a kid. I think I just remember seeing it in like a nursery rhyme book. It just flipped the boy with like the purple thumb. Yeah, so it sounds familiar. It sounds familiar, but honestly the name, I only came to realize that when I watched Puss in Boots The Last Wish. Oh, which I have not seen. It's very cute. And we will have movie recommendations and show recommendations toward the end. But we'll get into that a little bit later. But I will be talking about Little Jack Horner, which is a song and a rhyme. Okay. And I'm going to not really sing it, but here's the rhyme. You can if you want. I will not for the sake of everybody's sanity and ears. So it goes, Little Jack Horner sat in a corner eating his Christmas pie. He put in a thumb and pulled out a plump and said, what a good boy am I. Yes, this rings a bell. And so James Hook and Samuel Arnold wrote this popular English nursery rhyme. It was first mentioned in the 18th century. And it was early associated with the acts of opportunism, especially in politics. Moralists also rewrote and expanded the poem to counter its celebration on greediness. Okay. And the story behind the rhyme, there was someone, it wasn't Jack Horner, but it was in fact Thomas Horner was the name of the character. And Jack was also popular in nursery rhymes. And it would usually reflect how the character was naughty, like usually a naughty person or a naughty child. And the main message behind it was always misbehavior because the boy steals the pie with delight. With delight. Which makes it a little more cruel or sinister. It just made me think of, too, when you were a kid and your parents, before dinner or any meal, not to spoil your appetite, but you always secretly went in and you took a cookie. Especially if your parents just baked them. I was that kid. Admit that fully. I can totally see that. So he sits in the corner, enjoys his pie, and praises himself for pulling out the plum. And the tale behind little Jack Horner is said to tell the story of an actual person, like I said, who steals more than a plum. Oh, two plums. Oh, it's better than that. It's very juicy. So Thomas Horner was the individual that the story is about. And let's go back to medieval England. And this was also, I think, little Jack, I always think of like a chubby cherub. Like, boy. Like, fat baby angel. But Thomas Horner, like we said, an adult. And it goes back to actually the incident during the desolation of monasteries, which was done by the order of King Henry VIII that took place from 1536 to 1541. Okay. And just a little background here. So during this time, King Henry VIII was married to Catherine of Aragon of Spain. And he was wanting an annulment from his marriage. Which, by the way, they had been married at this point for 24 years. Oh, damn. Can you really get an annulment after 24 years? If you're the king. Well, the Pope in Rome said no to this. He was like, I'm not, no, the Catholic Church does not approve of this annulment. We say no. Nay, sir, nay. Well, Henry VIII didn't take kindly to that. And he said, well, then we're separating from the church. And I don't want to have anything to do with you. I'm going to create my own church and make myself the head of the church. And it'll be the Church of England. Sounds about right. Nice title. And then he also had one of his advisors at this time, Thomas Cromwell, who said, you know what? These churches actually have a lot more money and power, almost on par with what the king would have. So they were like, we need to dissolve them, essentially. So that's what became about the dissolution of the monasteries, nunneries, and friars, and this went on across England, Wales, and Ireland. And so because, also, to get back to my whole annulment thing, King Henry VIII wanted a male heir. We all know that was his whole motivation. He had tunnel vision where he was like, I need a son, I need a son. So he wanted to get the annulment in order to marry Anne Boleyn, which eventually that happened. He married her in a secret ceremony, and poor Catherine was tossed to the side. Yeah. So back to at this time, we have the assets and incomes were seized from these religious establishments by the crown. Their property was sold, and the money went to funding the military. This was met with resistance, of course. And then we have our boy Thomas comes into play because he actually worked for the Abbot of Glastonbury. And an Abbot is just the head of an Abbey of Monks. Okay. So, because I at first was like, I only know Abbot and Costello. Yeah. That's all I got for you. But Abbot of Glastonbury, and his name was Richard Whiting. And so, and Thomas was actually, he was the steward to Richard. Okay. And so, and Whiting was the last Abbot of Glastonbury. And he was trying to, Richard Whiting, the Abbot, was trying to earn favor with the king at this time. And he hatched a plan to where he would bake King Henry VIII a very large pie. But the pie would have a surprise filling. Ooh. And the filling. Close. Something much sweeter. But there would be a surprise filling, like I said. The deeds to 12 manor houses. What? And that were in Whiting's possession as the Abbot. And the hope was that this bribe would put him in King Henry VIII's good graces. And I think his motivation was more of, in his mind's eye, that he would keep his position and the Abbot would stay open. I think that's what his whole motivation was for getting the 12 deeds. Okay. So, now we're at Christmas time. And Thomas was sent to deliver this pie. And he didn't know that the pie had the deeds. Didn't know anything. He just thought it was a normal pie. And we don't know for certain whether Thomas was getting a little hankering for a snack and when he cut off a little piece, he found the deeds. Or if somehow during, I'm assuming he was in a carriage, he jostled around and his bum accidentally got into the pie. And lo and behold, he discovered the deeds. And he pulled out the deed to Mel's Manor. Mel's Manor. Mel's Manor. That sounds nice. Got to say it British. Mel's Manor. Henry received the pie with only 11 deeds inside, but was not impressed. The Abbot was seized by the Crown. Richard, Tom's boss, was out of his job and executed. Oh my gosh. That's pretty strange. Yeah, he was. He also did execute his wives. Well, Richard was executed for treason. But shortly after Thomas and his family moved into Wells Manor, when questioned on how Thomas acquired the manor, he claimed he purchased it from the king and had the deed as proof. But many believed Horner stole it and kept it for himself and for many generations his descendants lived in Mel's Manor house. And Mel's Manor was located in Severnstead, England. A lot of land, including a lead mine in the Mendip Hills. And the Latin word for lead is plumbum. Oh, I'm getting it. We're going to come full circle. And in the Middle Ages, people would also just call it plum. Okay. So back in the rhyme, pulling up the plum could mean that our boy Tom pulled out not only the deed, but a lucrative lead mine. That's awesome. So back to the pie. It was not uncommon for people to hide away or sneak items into baked goods in England. It's funny how you're talking about baked goods and now I'm talking about baked goods. I know. But people would also try to smuggle jewels, coins, romantic poems, letters between lovers, have all been baked away into pies and cakes. And this is from sources found in text. And historians believe that the deed was hidden in a pie, but some believe the pie to be a metaphor for a chest where the deeds were stored. So it's possible it wasn't a literal pie. It could have been a chest. Yeah. We don't really know. In the line, Oh, what a good boy am I? Historians believe that the line referred to Tom being very happy with himself after finding the deed. I mean, wouldn't you? Yeah. And here's the last part I want to say, because if I was Tom, I would have been too chicken shit to try to do anything like this. Yeah, I'd be scared. I would be like, I'm not risking it. I mean, I'm not going to risk it to get the biscuits. And the king had no way of knowing that the pie originally held 12 deeds instead of the 11 that he received. And his old boss, Richard, he could not file theft charges because he couldn't admit to bribing the king and he was executed for treason anyway. Yeah, he's already dead. So, I mean, it really was the perfect crime. So did he stay in that manner for a long time? Yeah, for generations. Any update on them? I did not look that further, I think. Okay. But, yeah, he got away with it. So he got away with it? Yeah, he got his own business, Lead Mine Plumbum, which is fun to say, and he got a hell of a manor house with a lot of land for him and his family. That's awesome. I totally enjoy that story. I know, right? Like, when I was researching this, I was like, what a good boy am I? And I kept kind of doing it to myself. Yeah, I know. More of this story than meets the eye. It is. Well, cheers to that one. Clink. Clink. Cheers. Alright, so you ready for my other one? Yes, what is your other one you will be telling us? The Pied Piper of Hamelin. I'm going to start off with a poem by Robert Browning, who did this of The Pied Piper of Hamelin, a child's story. So it goes as such. Excuse me, I get all situated for my talking. When lo, as they reached the mountain side, a wondrous portal opened wide, as if a cavern was suddenly hollowed, and the piper advanced and the children followed. And when all were to the very last, the door in the mountain side shut fast. So are you familiar with The Pied Piper of Hamelin? Does this have rats in it? It does. Or am I thinking about something else? It does. I'll get to that. I just know a little. So, for those unfamiliar with the tale, because I've heard, I think I've seen a picture of him. Yeah, doing a pipe, yeah. The Pied Piper of Hamelin is set for going even further back in 1284 in the town of Hamelin, Lower Saxony, back again in Germany. This town, it's a lot of, it's a lot of folklore from Germany, but I like it. Well, hey, that's where our brother's grandma's from. Yeah, it makes sense. So, this town was facing a rat infestation, and a piper, dressed in a coat of many-colored, bright cloth, appeared. This piper promised to get rid of the rats and return for payment, to which the townspeople agreed. I would too. I hate rats. I hate mice. I just think of bubonic plague. I don't want them anywhere near me. Although the piper got rid of the rats by leading them away with his music, the people of Hamelin reneged on their promise, which is kind of rude. The furious piper left, vowing revenge. So, on July 26 of that same year, the piper returned and led the children away, never to be seen again, just as he did the rats. Oh, that's so creepy. It is. All right, you ready to dig into this, though? Yes. Absolutely. So, it says, nevertheless, one or three children were left behind depending on which version is being told. One of these children was lame and could not keep up, another was deaf and could not hear the music, while a third one was blind and could not see where the other children were going. But if you're blind, you can still hear the music, so I'm not sure about that one. But anyways, the earliest known record of this story is from the town of Hamelin itself. It is depicted as a stained glass window created for the church of Hamelin which dates to around 1300 A.D., so not too far from 15, 16 years later from when this incident actually took place. Although it was destroyed in 1660, several written accounts have survived of the glass, like window glass. The oldest comes from Lunenberg Manuscript which stated, in the year of 1284, between John and Paul on June 26, by a piper, clothed in many kinds of colors, 130 children born in Hamelin were seduced and lost at the place of execution near Copen. Isn't that crazy? And then there's a 1384 entry, which is about 100 years later, and Hamelin's town records also really state it is 100 years since our children left. Crazy, right? Does it say, like, what he did with the children? I'll get to the ideas and theories. So, this supposed street where the children were last seen is today called, oh my gosh, Bungelassenstrasse, Street Without Drums, as no one is allowed to play music or dance there. That's like dirty dancing. Or footloose. Incidentally, it is said that the rats were absent from earlier accounts, meaning there was no such thing as the rats were the problem. And only added to the story around the middle of the 16th century, so a couple hundred years later. Moreover, the stained glass window and other primary written sources do not speak of the plague of rats. If the children's disappearance was not an act of revenge, then what is the cause of the Pied Piper's actions? There have been numerous theories trying to explain what happened to the children of Hamelin. For instance, I like these theories. I like them all. One theory suggests that the children died of some natural cause and that the Pied Piper was actually a personification of death by associating the rats with the Black Death. It has been suggested that the children were victims of the plague. Yet, the Black Death was most severe in Europe between 1348 and 1350, more than half a century after the event in Hamelin. So, it seems like the timeliness hit Hamelin first. Another theory suggests that the children were actually sent away by their parents due to the extreme poverty in which they were living. That could check out. Yeah, that one can check out. Yet, another theory speculates that the children were participants of a doomed children's crusade and might have ended up in modern-day Romania. That actually makes sense though, too. I know. There's also the suggestion that the departure of Hamelin's children is tied to the OSTIDLUNG O-S-T-S-I-E-D-L-U-N-G OSTIDLUNG O-S-T-I-D-L-U-N-G in which a number of Germans left their homes to colonize Eastern Europe. Reflecting on this hypothesis, a project coordinator at the Hamelin Museum says, in this scenario, the Pied Piper played the role of a so-called locator or recruiter. They were responsible for organizing migrants to the East and were said to have worn colorful garments and played an instrument to attract the attention of possible settlers. Yet another suggestion is that this is an account of a dance mania, also known as St. Vitus' Dance. This affliction gripped mainland Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries and has been described as individuals dancing hysterically through the streets for hours, days, and apparently even months until they collapse due to exhaustion or die from heart attack or stroke. But it's just children, so I don't really know. You know what I mean? Dance Vita. And then the last one, another of these darker theories, proposes that the so-called Pied Piper was actually a pedophile who crept into the town of Hamelin to abduct children during their sleep. Perhaps the horrible nature of the children's disappearance is why there are few details on what happened. One of the project coordinators for current day Hamelin Museum ponders, did something happen that officials had been covering up? Something so traumatic that it was transmitted orally for so long in the town's collective memory over decades and even centuries? Historical records suggest that the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin was a real event that took place. This could stoke fear in parents' hearts, worrying whispers that a number of real children have been lost to some frightening unknown force. The transmission of the story undoubtedly evolved and changed over the centuries, although to what extent is uncertain. The mystery of what really happened to those children has never been solved. The story also raises the question if the Pied Piper of Hamelin was based on reality, how much truth is there in other fairy tales that we were told as children? Which we're dissecting today. Right. I mean, that's a cool theme. What is your theory? I have one that I think is the most prominent one, but I think it's very possible that the children were infected with the plague and they died. To me, that makes sense. But I also think because children crusades were actually a thing. So that makes sense to me if the children were collected to go fight for king and country. Yeah. I like the idea. I think it may not have been the actual plague itself. I think they added rats because whatever disease was in Hamelin wasn't something that spread out but it was something similar to that where it only really affected children the most and then they passed away and they added rats later so maybe it had something to do with the plague but it wasn't necessarily the plague. It was like the old Hamelin weird plague of something just in that town. That's my first theory. And then my second theory is the fact that they were so poor that they had to send their kids away to live a better life. Those are my top two. My number one is I think it was a sickness but I think it was a sickness that triggered young people and wasn't the actual plague itself but something very similar. You know what I mean? Exactly. They may not have had the immunities that the adults had or maybe it was something as horrible as they were at school and the school burned down but they don't say that. They just say we just lost 130 children because they don't like to speak of it. Something like that. That's probable too. I've got so many ideas but it's pretty depressing. It's sad anyway you slice it. I want to believe that they were alive and that they weren't killed and that other forces took them away. I like that. That is the tragic story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. That was giving me chills. I don't know if that was giving you chills. I was like nah. My next story is going to be about the classic tale of Cinderella. So what I found is that they do believe that there was a recorded version by the Greek historian slash geographer I read and his name was Strabo S-T-R-A-B-O in the late 1st century B.C.E. or early 1st century C.E. This is considered the earliest known version of the Cinderella tale. The origins can be traced back as far as 6th century B.C.E. Our Cinderella was actually Rhodophis. I'm going to spell that for you because R-H-O-D-O-P-I-S Rhodophis I think it's Rhodophis. I hope her name isn't Rhodopis. That would just be unfortunate. It means rosy cheeks. Some think this was a pseudonym and her real name could have been Dorcha like D-O-R-I-C-H-A but we're going to go with Rhodophis. The pharaoh is the prince charming of this tale and it was said to be one of the Ptolemies. The Ptolemies were a Greek family descended from a general of Alexander the Great and rulers of Egypt from 301 to 330 B.C.E. The last that hit this line was actually Cleopatra. The Cleopatra dynasty or the last of this dynasty was Cleopatra. The story goes that our Cinderella Rhodophis there's different versions I'm going to go through a brief this version and another version Rhodophis was a beautiful servant or slave and she was bathing in the Nile when an eagle sent by the god Zeus and stole her sandal and then dropped it into the lap of the pharaoh. The pharaoh knew this was a sign from the gods and he was determined to find the owner of such footwear and make her his queen. Strabo wrote that she was found in the city of Nucratis and summoned to the palace in Memphis where she would wed pharaoh and become queen. It is said that the third pyramid of Giza was attributed to her. But I'm going to go through a longer it's not super long or anything but the version I found that I like the story. Rhodophis was said to be a Grecian and she was kidnapped by pirates and carried to Egypt where she was sold into slavery. Her new master was a kind old man and he was known to sleep a lot under the trees. So he never knew that the other servants were cruel to Rhodophis because she looked different. Their hair was straight and black but hers was golden and with curls and they all had brown eyes but hers were green. They were all golden brown skin and her skin was pale and it burned really easily. I can relate to this. They would call her Rosie Rhodophis and they would make her work harder than anything else often making demands of her and shouting at her and she had no real friends except for the animals that would keep her company. They were not mice but she had trained the birds to feed from her hand the monkey to sit on her shoulder and a hippo would slide out of the mud into the bank to be near her. Isn't that cute? She would often be down by the river after a hard day's work singing and dancing with her animal companions and during one of these evenings when she was down there doing her thing by the bank the old man actually saw her singing and dancing and thought she was very sweet and talented so he gifted her with a pair of slippers gilded with rose red gold with leather soles and this made the other servants very jealous of her because of her fabulous footwear. Word spread that Pharaoh was actually going to be holding court in Memphis and all of the kingdom was invited to pay homage to him and Redolphus wanted to go but of course the servants knew she wanted to go and they gave her all of this chores to do and impossible tasks and they all got dressed up in their finery that they had and they made their journey to Memphis so they boarded their raft to sail away and just left the saddened Redolphus behind by the banks crying very sad and she started washing clothes in the Nile singing wash the linen, weed the garden grind the grain and our pal the hippo grew tired of this song and splashed away but the splashing soaked her poor slippers so she quickly was doing her best to dry them, do what she could so she ultimately had to leave them on a rock in the sun to dry that's where I leave mine to dry yeah for sure and wouldn't you know it a falcon swooped down and snatched one of her slippers away so poor girl left with only one shoe she just tucked it away in her tunic and of course was now back to being like a muggle and walking around with a muggle walking around with no footwear and she thought it was the god Horus who had taken her shoe and Horus of course was an ancient Egyptian god of kingship healing, protection the sun and sky and he had the head of a falcon or he would take the form of a falcon that's why she thought it was Horus now only with the one shoe she put it away in her tunic went about her business but Pharaoh Amasis was Pharaoh of upper and lower Egypt was sitting in his throne bored out of his mind at the celebration that was going on in his court as everybody was coming to visit him pay homage and he was thinking I would rather be out riding my chariot across the desert I want to be anywhere but here and just when he was daydreaming about this a falcon dropped a rose red slipper into his lap Amasis was surprised and believed this was a sign from Horus as well and he decided right then and there that he needed to find the owner of the slipper and he set about that was what he was determined to do he wanted all the maidens in the land to try on the shoe and whoever it fit that would be the queen of his new queen and just as the servants had arrived the mean ones that didn't like our girl Rhodophis the court had dispersed and the celebrations had ended and Pharaoh was off on his chariot to find the owner of the he looked all over the land with no luck and then decided to take to traveling and searching the Nile so this is where he gets on his own barge and he goes looking at all the fine houses and goes to all the docks to have the ladies try on the slipper no match yet then he pulled up to the home of Rhodophis and the gong and the trumpets were sounded the announcing of his arrival happened and the servant girls all gathered to try on the slipper and Rhodophis poor thing hid in the brush all the servants recognized the shoe and they knew oh this is Rhodophis shoe but we're not going to tell them we're just going to try to fit our fat feet into the slipper that's right would you do the same? I mean my feet are delicate maybe maybe not depends on my mood is the Pharaoh handsome looking you know all these factors matter so Pharaoh saw Rhodophis hiding and asked her to try on the slipper she slid it onto her feet and wouldn't you know it, perfect fit and she took the other one that was hidden in her tunic out, put that on and the Pharaoh announced that she would be his queen the servants cried that she is not even a true Egyptian and Pharaoh responded that she is the most Egyptian of all, her eyes are as green as the Nile, her hair as feathery as papyrus and her skin as pink as the lotus flower oh la la talk about sweeping her off her feet yeah but that is how the story ends and they do believe that this really happened maybe not exactly that's what the earliest Cinderella tale is based on that's a pretty early which I like it it happened in Egypt it's a good Egyptian it's not in Europe it was very different slippers I personally was into it I liked the idea of changing up the animal friends we could have thrown in an elephant maybe a crocodile that would have been cool too but hey, I was really into it I was reading and I was like oh this would be such a great that was really good I do love Cinderella and the different takes on Cinderella the original that the Grimm Brothers wrote people cut their feet yeah it's a lot more like body mutilation from the feet yeah that's bonkers so a lot more body mutilation and gore in that one that is a lot of gore but I also had some recommendations for films and shows and I'm sure you do too and like I said, Puss in Boots The Last Wish, I would recommend that it has a character, Jack Horner in that, or Thomas Horner but he's not so he's pretty sinister in that but that's a good movie that I recommend I actually re-watched it the other night on Netflix Ever After for Cinderella Ever After is so good Drew Barrymore late 90's they make it into a true story and one interpretation has Da Vinci Da Vinci in it good good classic one and then this is one of my favorite mini-series that Hallmark did I think the year was 2000 it was 2000 because I was a kid and I remember this was big on NBC I believe and it was The Tenth Kingdom and I love that movie I always try to watch that first series I should say at least once a year I have it on DVD it's really good you would recognize Diane Weist is in it you have Ed O'Neill it's just very fun it's long but it goes by very fast it mentions all of these little characters all the stories very good film Snow White and the Huntsman I like that one I haven't seen the sequel Winters Warp both on Netflix so if you want the Snow White vibe definitely go with those very good recommendations there's also Snow White A Tale of Terror from 1997 is it horror? a more horror version with Sigourney Weaver I used to like this version I think they changed it up no I do like it because it's darker but the dwarves aren't traditional dwarves I think they're one could be an assassin so they're hiding from the evil queen there's like these men very good the last one I'm going to mention actually it says 2020 on here but that's not right it's from like 2016-2017 it's Gretel no that's something else I was talking about Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters is the one I'm thinking about and that's gory a little bit of horror I like that movie I'm not seeing it that's the movie where if it's on I'll watch it every time it's not an Oscar winner by any means but it's hella entertaining is it gruesome? oh yeah very very gruesome very bloody the brother and sister duo are evil witch hunters oh ok so in this version the baker is a witch the witches are evil for the most part and there is the tale of Gretel and Hansel that's what I was thinking that was made in 2020 it's a moderate Gretel and Hansel yeah Gretel and Hansel that's the newest adaptation I believe that one actually is more of your fantasy thriller horror vibe I didn't watch it but the trailer gruesome unsettling, vicious and dark is what it literally says yes that's definitely the vibe you get from the trailer so those are recommendations I have do you have any that maybe I didn't mention or you could shed some light on I don't know too much I haven't seen too many I haven't even seen have you seen the Grim Brothers show or the movie with Matt Damon it's an awful movie I don't recommend it I've heard the Grim the show was entertaining I've heard really good things I'm not painting it but I think you can watch it on one of the platforms now and then that I watched and that was very entertaining I do like reading books about different versions so the guy who wrote Wicked wrote one about Cinderella that I really enjoyed I think his name is Jerry Maguire not Jerry Maguire Jerry the money Gregory Maguire Wicked is one of my favorite books of his and that's clearly what he got the most off of but it was called Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and I have it and it was pretty good and then he has one called Mirror Mirror that I haven't read yet but that's the take on it and the way he does it from the villain's perspective it has a different take on things I have read Mirror Mirror now that I think about it and it's really well done but yes this makes it seem like the evil stepmother is not really evil at all she's misunderstood I kind of want to re-read it now because I can't really remember what happens I'm actually into those if you want me to bring it to you I can show you I remember enjoying those books on it other than obviously I've seen Tangled which I think is a great adaptation of Rapunzel but now I'm kind of intrigued if they'll start making more of those in the near future I hope so some book recommendations in Tangled I hope so because I love a good fairy tale personally like watching different series and different adaptations out there one of the origin stories that we've talked about today that would be actually kind of cool that would be really cool actually I think they're doing another live action of Snow White but they're going to change up the dwarves I'm intrigued I just saw that Gal Gadot is going to be the evil queen I can see that I'll watch it absolutely I think we did a great two-parter we tried I think that we have other topics that we may be making two-parters on just because there's a lot of information a lot of story, history I think this was fun to do it was we definitely have more to come until then keep it creepy ghouls out