Story Of A Youth Who Went Forth To Learn What Fear Was?

Once Upon a Time “The Story of a Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was”, is a tale of a young man trying to learn fear. In doing so he does amazing feats and gains great treasure. This fairy tale is not as incredibly famous as some classics such as “Snow White” or “The Little Mermaid”. It has less variations, but still has some good adaptations. Some of these are operas and Films. This story begins with two sons, the elder son is wise and great, while the younger brother was very dumb and foolish. Due to his foolishness, his father sends him away. As the young brother, is away, he searches to learn to know what fear is. First he comes across a man who will take money to teach this. The man tells the protagonist to spend the night near …show more content…
There are a number of variations to this story including the opera adaptation by Richard Wagner: Siegfried: Richard Wagner. There was even a web comic adaptation named “No rest for the Wicked” which depicted the story in a cartoonish fashion using its art style. Wagner’s version of the tail has more fantastical theme than the Brother’s Grimm tale. In this version the protagonist is a warrior known as Siegfried, who kills a dragon, and saves a princess from a long sleep. In reading this version of the story, some elements are consistent through each fable. Possibly the most important element is that the protagonist does not know fear, and tries to learn it. Although in the original it is more prevalent. Next is the cause of the hero learning fear. In each story the hero finally learns what fear is, with the cause coming from the damsel of the story. For instance in the original, fear is learned when the queen requisitions the maid to dump fish on him in the middle of the night. In the Opera Siegrid though, fear is struck through him when he sees the maiden, the first woman he has seen in his life. Another characteristic of the story that is consistent is the splitting of the anvil. The original has a anvil splitting competition between the protagonist and a large ghost, both of them wielding axes. Siegfried’s version is a little more lackluster, in that the anvil is struck in half by Siegfried to …show more content…
Many of the most famous fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm were adapted into lighthearted movies. The producer of many of these is of course Disney. One of the most famous fairy tales is the tale of Rapunzel, which was adapted into the animated movie Tangled. It was changed from its original story to a better telling for the prospective audiences. The Story of The Youth Who Went To Learn Fear, does not have one of these hyper-sanitized versions, as the story is as popular as the other fairy tales. Another factor into this is that the original story did not have an intrusive amount of darkness, as many of the other fairy tales had. For instance, in the original story of Sleeping Beauty, the princess is raped while she slept, and is awoken by the pains of giving birth. The boy who went to learn fear, is much more lighthearted in its original form, although it does have some dark sequences. There are hanged men, hurting, and killing in this story, but not to a degree that it would be considered extremely dark.
Of the given variations, the one that would be the most recognizable would be Siegfried. This version of the story is set in a fantastical way which appeals to many audiences. All though though mass media the episodic form of the story was broadcast to many, it was not classically liked, as Siegfried has been around since the nineteenth century. The aforementioned web comic is