Fairy Tales--The Brothers Grimm

Cover of Brothers' Grimm Tales from a German Edition Published in Berlin, 1865

The romantic movement in Germany (a movement in the arts that favored a return to nature and a greater focus on national culture, especially folk tales) awakened the Germans' interest in the past of their own country. Although some work in the rediscovery and editing of medieval (from the Middle Ages, 500-1500) German literature had already been started in the eighteenth century, it was the poets and theorists of the next century who first focused national attention on the origins of German culture and literature.

While most of the poets viewed medieval literature mainly as an inspiration for new writing, others turned their attention to the investigation of the past. The Grimm brothers were the most important of these early language and folklore romantic historians.

Sleeping Beauty, 1881

For some years the brothers had been in contact with the romantic poets Clemens Brentano (1778-1842) and Achim von Arnim (1781-1831), who were preparing a collection of German folk songs. Following their own interests in folklore and legends, the brothers brought out their first collection of tales, Kinder-und Hausmärchen (Tales of Children and the Home), in 1812.

These tales were collected by recording stories told by peasants and villagers. Wilhelm put them into written form and gave them a pleasant, childlike style. The collection became known as "Grimm's Fairy Tales," including what are now some of the world's most famous stories, including Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin.

Cinderella by the Fireside

Red Riding Hood Makes a Pretty Nosegay with Wild Flowers from the Glade

In later years their interest in older literature led the Grimm brothers to a study of older languages and their relationship to modern German. Jakob especially began to specialize in the history and structure of the German language. The first edition of his Deutsche Grammatik (German Grammar) was published in 1819.

The brothers, especially Jakob, were also working to document the relationship between similar words of related languages, such as the English apple and the German Apfel. Their creation of the rules for such relationships became known as "Grimm's law." It was later expanded to account for all word relationships in the Indo-European group of languages. The Grimm brothers were not the first to take note of such similarities, but they can be credited with gathering the bulk of linguistic data and working out the details of the rules.

Hansel and Gretel Follow the Path up to the Witches House

From 1840 until their deaths, both brothers continued to work vigorously. After years of collecting and collating, Jacob began to publish his legal tradition project, which had been undertaken with the assistance of volunteers from all parts of the Germanies.

His history of the German language appeared in 1848, and in 1854 reissues of Jacob's legal tradition, mythology, and history of the German language appeared. Wilhelm continued to edit and publish medieval literature and to edit and to refine the Children's and Household Tales.

Wilhelm Grimm died on December 16, 1859 and Jacob Grimm on September 20, 1863.

Snow White's Mother Pricks Her Finger

The principles set out by the Grimms strongly affected the development of folklore studies. They urged fidelity to the spoken text, without embellishments, and though it has been shown that they did not always practise what they preached, the idealized 'orality' of their style was much closer to reality than the literary retellings previously thought necessary.

They believed folklore expressed the true spiritual and moral values of a nation, faithfully preserved by the uneducated rural population, and that it consisted largely of brokendown fragments of ancient myths and religious beliefs. Noticing that the same tale recurs in variants from distant periods and places, they argued that this implies descent from a shared prehistoric culture.

Rumpelstiltskin Visits the Baby He Hopes to Win

The Witch Spies on Rapunzel