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Fairy tales are so ingrained in popular culture — thanks to a thousand children's books and good old Walt Disney — that almost everyone can recite a handful by heart: Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the Bean Stalk, The Pied Piper, Hansel and Gretel and so on.

But the stories we know today are the product of hundreds of years of reworking, reimagining and, in some cases, sanitization. Cinderella's stepsisters no longer slice their heels off to squeeze into the slippers, and the Little Mermaid happily adapts to life on land without the pain of a thousand knives each time she takes a step. (But what a musical number that could have been.)

Jack Zipes, one of the world's foremost experts on fairy tales, editor of the "Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales", joined MPR News host Euan Kerr to discuss fairy tales' long-lasting power and influence. To listen to the full conversation, use the audio player above.

But how well do you know your fairy tales?

Five things you might not know about classic fairy tales

1) It wasn't quite a fairy tale ending for "The Frog King"

The story of "The Frog King" has been used to teach a lesson about inner beauty for generations. Only after kissing the frog — thus admitting that looks don't matter — is the princess rewarded with her prince. But the brothers Grimm had a very different ending in their first version: The prince only magically appeared after the princess chucked the frog against the wall. 

2) Prince Charming didn't always have a magic kiss

The Disney ending as we know it from "Snow White" involves a life-saving kiss from the prince. It's a kiss so magical it revives Snow White from her death-like slumber, which she entered after eating a poison apple. 

But in the earlier version from the brothers Grimm, there's a more practical ending — and a precursor to the Heimlich maneuver. 

According to the "Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales," which is edited by Zipes, "in the Grimms' tale [the prince] convinces the dwarfs to give him the coffin. When his men carry it, they stumble. The jolt causes the piece of poisoned apple to be released from the sleeping princess's throat."

3) Little Red Riding Hood wasn't always so lucky

Charles Perrault included a version of Little Red Riding Hood in his 1697 collection, drawing on folktales from around Europe. In those tales, and Perrault's interpretation, neither Red nor her grandmother made it out alive. 

It wasn't until the Grimms rolled out their spin that readers got a happy ending. The brothers introduced a gamekeeper character who saved the little girl and her grandmother, and filled the wolf's belly with stones instead.

4) Cinderella didn't get her glass slippers until 1697

The rags-to-riches story at the heart of Cinderella has its earliest roots in China, but the most well-known version was published in France in 1697 by Charles Perrault. 

Perrault gave his fairy tale heroine her glass slippers, which became one of the most recognizable fairy tale tropes. (He also added the pumpkin-turned-carriage that ferries her to and from the ball.) In other variants, Cinderella's shoes are made of fur, gold and embroidered silk. After all, the only thing that matters is the fit.

5) The evil stepmothers were once just evil mothers

Many of the evil stepmother characters in fairy tales were once mothers. When the Grimms first published their version of "Hansel & Gretel" in 1812, the woman who cast the starving children out into the woods to fend for themselves was their mother. 

This was changed seven years later, when they released a new version featuring a stepmother instead. Changing mothers to stepmothers made the fairy tales' cruelties more palatable to the audience — but also gave rise to the "evil stepmother" trope.

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Little Red Riding Hood wasn't always so lucky, and "The Frog King" had a very different ending.

Jack Zipes, one of the world's foremost experts on fairy tales, and editor of the "Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales", explains the long-lasting power and influence of the stories we hear as children.

A fairy tale kiss? Not so much. Five things you might not know about classic fairy tales

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