This is definitely the shortest of the fairy tales I’ve had to analyze, and there’s not much to it. Basically, it starts with an old woman who is starting to cook a bunch of beans for dinner, and as she’s pouring the beans in a pot, a bean jumps out, then one of the straws that was burning jumped out, and finally a piece of coal jumped out.
Seeing that they didn’t want to risk dealing with the risk of dying by the old woman’s hands, they decide to travel to find a better place. Coming across a short body of water, the straw sets himself down to be a bridge for the others, then the coal goes first to cross. The straw gives way with both straw and coal dying in the river, while the bean laughs so hard he bursts, and a traveling tailor finds him, and sows the bean shut with a black thread, indicating that that’s how beans got their black seam.
That’s it. Nothing too grand, except for the bean’s sociopathy at seeing his friends die horrible and gruesome deaths, and seeing as there’s nothing really to write home about, it’s a bit more like a rerun of “The Travelling Musicians”, except there’s no real opponent, no bandits. Just a small river, with the straw and the coal drowning. This was probably a very short tale used as an ice breaker when one would tell kids fairy tales between longer tales. Is there some deeper meaning to it? Not really.
Therefore, I think it best to also analyze the next tale, in that case, which is a bit longer: Briar Rose. This story is also commonly known as “Sleeping Beauty”, very famously adapted into the Disney cartoon movie. The original tale is one that is pretty dark, and puts consent into question, and the Brothers Grimm version is the cleanest version of the story. The first written “version” of the fairy tale is actually Italian, whereas the Grimm version is based more off of the story of Brynhild. Actually, this story nearly didn’t make it in the book because both the italian Giambattista Basile of Italy and Charles Perrault of France wrote their own versions of the story in their books of fairy tales.
The Brothers Grimm version starts off with the king and queen being good and benevolent, but are infertile as a couple. As the Queen takes pity upon a fish and puts it back in the river, the fish blesses the King and Queen with a daughter, and so excited at the birth of their daughter, they decide to show her to everyone in the kingdom, so he has a celebration. In this version of the story, there are thirteen fairies, but the King has enough for only twelve of them, so he invites them, without telling the last one, which is named the “evil” fairy, but I can get where she’s coming from. They could have at least told her that there was a celebration, and ask her if she’s fine staying behind.
During the celebration, each of the fairies are blessing the girl, and just as the last one is about to, the angry fairy crashes the party, and curses the girl with death by spindle. Then the one fairy who didn’t yet give her gift, puts a clause on the curse, saying the entire kingdom will sleep for one hundred years. The king tosses all the spindles of the kingdom in a fire, and they live on for fifteen years. Once Briar Rose turned 15, her parents were away and she was exploring the castle, when she came across another room, where an old lady was spinning with a spindle, and tricked Briar into pricking her finger, and so, she fell asleep. Then, everything in the castle fell asleep. Her parents who just arrived home, the servants, (including a kid being scolded by a cook) the dogs, the horses, even the pigeons and the flies all fell asleep.
A hundred years passed, and a large number of princes tried to reach her, but they all died stuck to the thorns that protected the castle. When the exact day of the hundred years passed, one prince managed to make it through, because flowers had bloomed instead of thorns. For some odd reason, everyone had everything ready for a celebration, and the prince kissed her, causing her to wake up, along with the entire castle, with the two living happily ever after. It is a very cute story that is very Disney.
The Italian version has Briar (Called Talia in this version) prick her finger with a splinter of a flax instead of a spindle. This time the father, who is a Lord in this version, sets her upon the throne, and he abandons the house. A king that is passing by a little later finds the house, goes in and rapes the sleeping Talia. She gets pregnant, gives birth to twins, and one of the babies suckles on her finger removing the splinter, waking her from her sleep.
Afterwards, when the king comes back, she develops a bad case of Stolkholm and falls for him. This time, there’s a second part that has him consider her his true love, and his Queen grows jealous when he says their names in his sleep, and she lures Talia over to take her kids, cook them and feed them to the King. The cook refused to cook the children, and she is tricked into thinking that she is feeding the kids to the King. When she is about to have Talia burned alive, the King pushes the Queen into the fire instead, and he marries Talia. This is a twisted version of the fairy tale.
The French version has some differences, but Perrault did not like the Italian immoral consent issues. The changes involve there being seven good fairies instead of the twelve in the Grimm version, and the evil fairy was instead an incel for about fifty years, everyone thinking that she was either cursed, or dead. The story then follows the German version, until the last good fairy comes and explains that she will put the kingdom in an enchanted sleep, so that Briar would wake up with her family, so the fairy would give the parents a chance to kiss their daughter, before letting the spell take effect.
In this version, when the Prince arrives with a hunting party, he sees her beauty and falls to his knees before her, which causes the curse to break. The two then start chatting about stuff, and they fall in love with each other during the discussions, and decide to get married. They then get two children, a daughter named Aurore (Morning in French, but this is also where the Disney movie got the name of the princess, instead of calling her Briar.
Briar is her name the fairies used to hide her.) And a son named Jour (Day in French.) The second part differs completely from the Italian version. Basically the kingdom goes to war against an ogre kingdom, and the Ogress Queen Mother demands to cook and eat Aurore, but the cook refuses, and switches in a lamb to feed her instead, She demands Jour, but the cook switches a kid (baby goat) in instead, and reuniting the children with Briar Rose.
When the King returns, the Ogress is frightened, and throws herself into a tub of vipers she prepared for Briar and the children, and she dies. The King and Briar live happily ever after. We see a bit more of a chivalric influence on the story, and it is far less brutal, and there is respect with consent. The combination between the French and German versions are what Disney used for their animated movie.
It is one of the most famous fairy tales, and a rather enjoyable one. There are far more versions from many nations and cultures, that it is hard to name them all. But it is a rather enjoyable story, and it’s a good thing that the Brothers Grimm put it in their books, since they were concerned about it being too much like the French and Italian version, and only accepted it when they remembered the Norse myths.
I imagine Walt Disney and his staff had a difficult time creating a plot for the 1959 animated film given the different and differing versions of the story. But when they adapted fairy tales, they tended to prefer using the Grimm version, and that's the one his version most resembles.
This story is so interesting because each retelling of the story seems to have a different point to make. The story is versatile enough to be used for several different messages. Even the newest retelling, the movie Maleficent, sticks to the core elements while twisting it into a new message about what love means. (Although let's not talk about the sequel. 🥴)