ErikProuvaire
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ITW Characters and their Fairy TalesI know I read something once about a Grimm Brothers' Fairy Tale that involves characters very similar to the Baker and the Baker's Wife, from which the inspiration for these characters was derived. Does anyone know anything about this? If there is such a fairy tale, which one is it?
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ConverseSneaker
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Hmm....well a lot of things in the Baker and Baker's Wife story are common in fairy-tales...a quest, childless, ect., but I don't think there is an actually fairytale about them. I'll look in my big book of Grimm tales, but I'm pretty sure they were created for the show.
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Baker
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The Baker and his Wife are from many fairy tales - it's not rare at all to find a couple who long for a child and aren't able to have one. In fact, most common fairy tales begin this way (Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Snow White, etc.), which is why the heroines are so special to begin with - because they're "miracle babies." The Baker and his Wife are just another take on this idea - but instead of just suddenly being able to have a baby, it's taken a step further.
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ConverseSneaker
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Well, to be techinical, The Baker and His Wife are from Rapunzel.
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Baker
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Well, there's no mention that Rapunzel's parents were specifically bakers.
Some snippets from various fairy tales...
Rapunzel (Grimm): "There were once a man and a woman who had long in vain wished for a child. At length the woman hoped that God was about to grant her desire."
Sleeping Beauty (Grimm): "A long time ago there were a king and queen who said every day, "Ah, if only we had a child," but they never had one."
There's at least one version of Cinderella that starts in a similar way, and although Snow White's parents aren't specifically barren, it begins with her mother wishing for a child.
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ConverseSneaker
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Well, if the Baker believes his father died in a baking accident, I suppose that would imply his parents were also Bakers.
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Baker
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True, in Into the Woods, Rapunzel's parents are bakers. But in the fairy tale, they are very nonspecific people.
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lovesinging
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I always thought of the Baker and his wife in regards to the gingerbread man. In the fairy tale, the couple can't have a child, so they bake one(that's how I tied it in to ITW) I'm not so sure if that is Brothers Grimm though 
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Baker
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| lovesinging wrote: | | I always thought of the Baker and his wife in regards to the gingerbread man. In the fairy tale, the couple can't have a child, so they bake one(that's how I tied it in to ITW) I'm not so sure if that is Brothers Grimm though |
Oh, true, I'd never thought about that one before!
I don't think The Gingerbread Man is Brothers Grimm - but neither is Jack and the Beanstalk. Jack is an English fairy tale ("Fee fi fo fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman) and the Grimms and their tales were German (although some were versions of French tales too).
But I tend to think of the Baker and the Baker's Wife from ITW as younger, while I imagine the bakers from The Gingerbread Man to be very, very old - which is probably why I never thought of the connection.
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ConverseSneaker
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| lovesinging wrote: | | I always thought of the Baker and his wife in regards to the gingerbread man. In the fairy tale, the couple can't have a child, so they bake one(that's how I tied it in to ITW) I'm not so sure if that is Brothers Grimm though |
Neat Idea!
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