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- The Brothers Grimm were two German folklorists and linguists who are today best known for their Kinder- und Hausmärchen (1812–22). This collection of stories, called Grimm’s Fairy Tales in the English-speaking world, led to the modern study of folklore. They were among the most important German scholars of their time.
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Aug 30, 2017 · The Grimm brothers left an astounding legacy. From well-known stories like Snow White to lesser-known tales, here are our favorite Grimm stories - and some things you may not have known...
- Overview
- Beginnings and Kassel period
Brothers Grimm, German folklorists and linguists best known for their Kinder- und Hausmärchen (1812–22; also called Grimm’s Fairy Tales), which led to the birth of the modern study of folklore. Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm (b. January 4, 1785, Hanau, Hesse-Kassel [Germany]—d. September 20, 1863, Berlin) and Wilhelm Carl Grimm (b. February 24, 1786, Hana...
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were the oldest in a family of five brothers and one sister. Their father, Philipp Wilhelm, a lawyer, was town clerk in Hanau and later justiciary in Steinau, another small Hessian town, where his father and grandfather had been ministers of the Calvinistic Reformed Church. The father’s death in 1796 brought social hardships to the family; the death of the mother in 1808 left 23-year-old Jacob with the responsibility of four brothers and one sister. Jacob, a scholarly type, was small and slender with sharply cut features, while Wilhelm was taller, had a softer face, and was sociable and fond of all the arts.
After attending the high school in Kassel, the brothers followed their father’s footsteps and studied law at the University of Marburg (1802–06) with the intention of entering civil service. At Marburg they came under the influence of Clemens Brentano, who awakened in both a love of folk poetry, and Friedrich Karl von Savigny, cofounder of the historical school of jurisprudence, who taught them a method of antiquarian investigation that formed the real basis of all their later work. Others, too, strongly influenced the Grimms, particularly the philosopher Johann Gottfried von Herder, with his ideas on folk poetry. Essentially, they remained individuals, creating their work according to their own principles.
In 1805 Jacob accompanied Savigny to Paris to do research on legal manuscripts of the Middle Ages; the following year he became secretary to the war office in Kassel. Because of his health, Wilhelm remained without regular employment until 1814. After the French entered in 1806, Jacob became private librarian to King Jérôme of Westphalia in 1808 and a year later auditeur of the Conseil d’État but returned to Hessian service in 1813 after Napoleon’s defeat. As secretary to the legation, he went twice to Paris (1814–15), to recover precious books and paintings taken by the French from Hesse and Prussia. He also took part in the Congress of Vienna (September 1814–June 1815). Meantime, Wilhelm had become secretary at the Elector’s library in Kassel (1814), and Jacob joined him there in 1816.
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By that time the brothers had definitely given up thoughts of a legal career in favour of purely literary research. In the years to follow they lived frugally and worked steadily, laying the foundations for their lifelong interests. Their whole thinking was rooted in the social and political changes of their time and the challenge these changes held. Jacob and Wilhelm had nothing in common with the fashionable “Gothic” Romanticism of the 18th and 19th centuries. Their state of mind made them more Realists than Romantics. They investigated the distant past and saw in antiquity the foundation of all social institutions of their days. But their efforts to preserve these foundations did not mean that they wanted to return to the past. From the beginning, the Grimms sought to include material from beyond their own frontiers—from the literary traditions of Scandinavia, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Scotland, England, Serbia, and Finland.
Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano were good friends of the brothers and wanted to publish folk tales, so they asked the brothers to collect oral tales for publication. The Grimms collected many old books and asked friends and acquaintances in Kassel to tell tales and to gather stories from others.
- Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm
- 1812
The brothers are among the best-known storytellers of folktales, popularizing stories such as "Cinderella" (" Aschenputtel " ), "The Frog Prince" (" Der Froschkönig "), "Hansel and Gretel" (" Hänsel und Gretel " ), "Town Musicians of Bremen" (" Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten "), "Little Red Riding Hood" (" Rotkäppchen "), "Rapunzel", "Rumpelstiltski...
- Cinderella and the Ruthless Pigeons. In the story we all know, Cinderella attends the ball with the help of her fairy godmother. She flees before the spell expires at midnight but leaves behind a glass slipper that the besotted prince discovers.
- Little Red Riding Hood and the Sexual Predator. Many already suspect that the Big Bad Wolf is a parable for those who prey on children, but few know how misogynistic the original tale is.
- Hansel and Gretel Encounter Cannibalism. The tale of Hansel and Grendel was inspired by a great famine that devastated Europe during the 14th century.
- Snow White and the Cannibalistic Queen. In the original version of the myth, Snow White's evil stepmother is actually her real mother, who sends assassins to kill Snow White so she can eat her liver and lungs.
The stories the Brothers Grimm first collected are brusque, blunt, absurd, comical, and tragic, and are not, strictly speaking, “fairy tales.” In fact, the Grimms never intended the tales to be read by children.
The goose girl. The story of the youth who went forth to learn what fear was. The valiant little tailor. Mother Hulda. The jew among thorns. Grimms' fairy tales: Children's and Household Tales. The brothers Grimm. The most beautiful stories of Grimm. List of Grimms' fairy tales.
