Fairy Tales for Halloween

The first scary story I ever heard was read to me on a cassette tape by my grandma when I was three years old. In the story, a Scottish folk tale called "The Hobyahs," the villains are ostensibly the bogeymen of the title. However, I always found the callous, dog-dismembering old man to be much more frightening.

(read "The Hobyahs" on Project Gutenberg)

The tale of Mr. Fox shows up in collections of English fairy tales, but has connections to "The Robber Bridegroom," collected by the Grimms, and to Charles Perrault's "Bluebeard." What I love about this story, besides its Gothic imagery, is the heroine's pluck and bravery (described as "high spiritedness" in my print edition).

(Read "Mr. Fox" for yourself here)

The great Angela Carter wrote her own take on the Bluebeard story, which can be found in her fantastic short story collection The Bloody Chamber. Neil Jordan later adapted it as a film, The Company of Wolves. Loosely based on the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, it's one of my favorites.

still from The Company of Wolves (1984)