Grimms' Fairy Tales

Grimms' Fairy Tales, originally known as the Children's and Household Tales (German: Kinder- und Hausmärchen, pronounced [ˌkɪndɐ ʔʊnt ˈhaʊsmɛːɐ̯çən], commonly abbreviated as KHM), is a German collection of fairy tales by the Grimm brothers or "Brothers Grimm", Jacob and Wilhelm, first published on 20 December 1812. Vol. 1 of the first edition contained 86 stories, which were followed by 70 more tales, numbered consecutively, in the 1st edition, Vol. 2, in 1815. By the seventh edition in 1857, the corpus of tales had expanded to 200 tales and 10 "Children's Legends". It is listed by UNESCO in its Memory of the World Registry.

For the comic series, see Grimm Fairy Tales (comics).
Not to be confused with Grimm Tales (disambiguation) or Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics.
Grimms' Fairy Tales
Title page of first volume of Grimms' Kinder- und Hausmärchen (1819) 2nd ed.
AuthorJacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Original titleKinder- und Hausmärchen
(lit. Children's and Household Tales)
CountryGermany
LanguageGerman
Genre
Published1812–1858
TextGrimms' Fairy Tales at Wikisource

Origin

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were two of 10 children from Dorothea (née Zimmer) and Philipp Wilhelm Grimm. Philipp was a highly regarded district magistrate in Steinau an der Straße, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) from Hanau. Jacob and Wilhelm were sent to school for a classical education once they were of age, while their father was working. They were very hard-working pupils throughout their education. They followed in their father's footsteps and started to pursue a degree in law, and German history. However, in 1796, their father died at the age of 44 from pneumonia. This was a tragic time for the Grimms because the family lost all financial support and relied on their aunt, Henriette Zimmer, and grandfather, Johann Hermann Zimmer. At the age of 11, Jacob was compelled to be head of the household and provide for his family. After downsizing their home because of financial reasons, Henriette sent Jacob and Wilhelm to study at the prestigious high school, Lyzeum, in Kassel. In school, their grandfather wrote to them saying that because of their current situation, they needed to apply themselves industriously to secure their future welfare.[1]

Shortly after attending Lyzeum, their grandfather died and they were again left to themselves to support their family in the future. The two became intent on becoming the best students at Lyzeum, since they wanted to live up to their deceased father. They studied more than twelve hours a day and established similar work habits. They also shared the same bed and room at school. After four years of rigorous schooling, Jacob graduated head of his class in 1802. Wilhelm contracted asthma and scarlet fever, which delayed his graduation by one year although he was also head of his class. Both were given special dispensations for studying law at the University of Marburg. They particularly needed this dispensation because their social standing at the time was not high enough to have normal admittance. University of Marburg was a small, 200-person university where most students were more interested in activities other than schooling. Most of the students received stipends even though they were the richest in the state. The Grimms did not receive any stipends because of their social standing; however, they were not upset by it since it kept the distractions away.[1]

Professor Friedrich Carl von Savigny

Jacob attended the university first and showed proof of his hard work ethic and quick intelligence. Wilhelm joined Jacob at the university, and Jacob drew the attention of Professor Friedrich Carl von Savigny, founder of its historical school of law. He became a prominent personal and professional influence on the brothers. Throughout their time at university, the brothers became quite close with Savigny and were able to use his personal library as they became interested in German law, history, and folklore. Savigny asked Jacob to join him in Paris as an assistant, and Jacob went with him for a year. While he was gone, Wilhelm became very interested in German literature and started collecting books. Once Jacob returned to Kassel in 1806, he adopted his brother's passion and changed his focus from law to German literature. While Jacob studied literature and took care of their siblings, Wilhelm continued on to receive his degree in law at Marburg.[1] During the Napoleonic Wars, Jacob interrupted his studies to serve the Hessian War Commission.[2]

In 1808, their mother died, and this was especially hard on Jacob as he took the position of father figure, while also trying to be a brother. From 1806 to 1810, the Grimm family had barely enough money to properly feed and clothe themselves. During this time, Jacob and Wilhelm were concerned about the stability of the family.

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 and Wilhelm sought to collect these stories in order to write a history of old German Poesie and to preserve history.[1]

Composition

The first volume of the first edition was published in 1812, containing 86 stories; the second volume of 70 stories followed in 1815. For the second edition, two volumes containing the Kinder- und Hausmärchen (KHM) texts were issued in 1819 and the appendix was removed and published separately in the third volume in 1822, totaling 170 tales. The third edition appeared in 1837, the fourth edition in 1840, the fifth edition in 1843, the sixth edition in 1850, and the seventh edition in 1857. Stories were added, and also removed, from one edition to the next, until the seventh held 210 tales. Some later editions were extensively illustrated, first by Philipp Grot Johann and, after his death in 1892, by German illustrator Robert Leinweber.

The first volumes were much criticized because, although they were called "Children's Tales", they were not regarded as suitable for children, both for the scholarly information included and the subject matter.[3] Many changes through the editions – such as turning the wicked mother of the first edition in Snow White and Hansel and Gretel (shown in original Grimm stories as Hänsel and Grethel) to a stepmother, were probably made with an eye to such suitability. Jack Zipes believes that the Grimms made the change in later editions because they "held motherhood sacred".[4]

They removed sexual references—such as Rapunzel's innocently asking why her dress was getting tight around her belly, and thus naively revealing to the witch Dame Gothel her pregnancy and the prince's visits—but, in many respects, violence, particularly when punishing villains, become more prevalent.[5]

Popularity

The brothers' initial intention of their first book, Children's and Household Tales, was to establish a name for themselves in the world. After publishing the first KHM in 1812, they published a second, augmented and re-edited, volume in 1815. In 1816 Volume I of the German Legends (German: Deutsche Sagen) was published, followed in 1818, Volume II. However, the book that established their international success was not any of their tales, but Jacob's German Grammar in 1819. In 1825, the Brothers published their Kleine Ausgabe or "small edition", a selection of 50 tales designed for child readers. This children's version went through ten editions between 1825 and 1858.

In 1830, Jacob became a professor at University of Göttingen and in 1835, Wilhelm also became a professor. During these years Jacob wrote a third volume of German Grammar and Wilhelm prepared the third revision of the Children's and Household Tales.[1]

In 1837, King Ernst August II revoked the constitution of 1833 and was attempting to restore absolutism in the Kingdom of Hanover. Since Göttingen was a part of Hanover, the brothers were expected to take an oath of allegiance. However, the brothers and five other professors led a protest against this and were heavily supported by the student body since all of these professors were well renowned. Jacob left Göttingen immediately and Wilhelm followed him to Kassel a few months later.[6]

In Kassel, the Grimms devoted themselves to researching and studying. A close friend of theirs, Bettina von Arnim, was also a talented writer. Savigny and others convinced the King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm IV, to allow the brothers to teach and conduct research at the University of Berlin. In March 1841, the brothers did just this and also continued to work on the German Dictionary.[6]

Influence

Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children and Household Tales) is listed by UNESCO in its Memory of the World Registry.[2]

The Grimms believed that the most natural and pure forms of culture were linguistic and based in history.[2] The work of the Brothers Grimm influenced other collectors, both inspiring them to collect tales and leading them to similarly believe, in a spirit of romantic nationalism, that the fairy tales of a country were particularly representative of it, to the neglect of cross-cultural influence.[7] Among those influenced were the Russian Alexander Afanasyev, the Norwegians Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, the English Joseph Jacobs, and Jeremiah Curtin, an American who collected Irish tales.[8] There was not always a pleased reaction to their collection. Joseph Jacobs was in part inspired by his complaint that English children did not read English fairy tales;[9] in his own words, "What Perrault began, the Grimms completed".

W. H. Auden praised the collection during World War II as one of the founding works of Western culture.[10] The tales themselves have been put to many uses. Adolf Hitler praised them so strongly that the Allies of World War II warned against them, as Hitler thought they were folkish tales showing children with sound racial instincts seeking racially pure marriage partners;[11] for instance, Cinderella with the heroine as racially pure, the stepmother as an alien, and the prince with an unspoiled instinct being able to distinguish.[12] Writers who have written about the Holocaust have combined the tales with their memoirs, as Jane Yolen in her Briar Rose.[13]

Three individual works of Wilhelm Grimm include Altdänische Heldenlieder, Balladen und Märchen ('Old Danish Heroic Songs, Ballads, and Folktales') in 1811, Über deutsche Runen ('On German Runes') in 1821, and Die deutsche Heldensage ('The German Heroic Saga') in 1829.

The Grimm anthology has been a source of inspiration for artists and composers. Arthur Rackham, Walter Crane, and Rie Cramer are among the artists who have created illustrations based on the stories.

English-language collections

"Grimms' Fairy Tales in English" by D.L. Ashliman provides a hyperlinked list of 50 to 100 English-language collections that have been digitized and made available online. They were published in print from the 1820s to 1920s. Listings may identify all translators and illustrators who were credited on the title pages, and certainly identify some others.[14]

Translations of the 1812 edition

These are some translations of the original collection, also known as the first edition of Volume I.

  • Zipes, Jack, ed., tr. (2014) The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: the complete first edition.[15]
  • Loo, Oliver ed., tr. (2014) The Original 1812 Grimm Fairy Tales. A New Translation of the 1812 First Edition Kinder- und Hausmärchen Collected through the Brothers Grimm[16]

Translations of the 1857 edition

These are some translations of the two-volume seventh edition (1857):

List of stories by the Brothers Grimm
Grimm Brothers
Further information: List of fairy tales

The code "KHM" stands for Kinder- und Hausmärchen. The titles are those as of 1857. Some titles in 1812 were different. All editions from 1812 until 1857 split the stories into two volumes.

This section contains 201 listings, as "KHM 1" to "KHM 210" in numerical sequence plus "KHM 151a". The next section "No longer included in the last edition" contains 30 listings including 18 that are numbered in series "1812 KHM ###" and 12 without any label.

Volume 1
Monument to brothers Grimm in the market place in Hanau. (Hessen, Germany)
Frontispiece used for the first volume of the 1840 4th edition

Volume 2
Frontispiece used for the second volume of the 1840 4th edition. The portrait by Ludwig Emil Grimm bears resemblance to the storyteller Dorothea Viehmann.

The children's legends (Kinder-legende)
First appeared in the G. Reimer 1819 edition at the end of volume 2.

  • Saint Joseph in the Forest (Der heilige Joseph im Walde): KHM 201
  • The Twelve Apostles (Brothers Grimm) (Die zwölf Apostel): KHM 202
  • The Rose (Die Rose): KHM 203
  • Poverty and Humility Lead to Heaven (Armut und Demut führen zum Himmel): KHM 204
  • God's Food (Gottes Speise): KHM 205
  • The Three Green Twigs (Die drei grünen Zweige): KHM 206
  • The Blessed Virgin's Little Glass (Muttergottesgläschen) or Our Lady's Little Glass: KHM 207
  • The Little Old Lady (Das alte Mütterchen) or The Aged Mother: KHM 208
  • The Heavenly Marriage (Die himmlische Hochzeit) or The Heavenly Wedding: KHM 209
  • The Hazel Branch (Die Haselrute): KHM 210

Removed from final edition
  • 1812 KHM 6 Von der Nachtigall und der Blindschleiche (The Nightingale and the Slow Worm) also (The Nightingale and the Blindworm)
  • 1812 KHM 8 Die Hand mit dem Messer (The Hand with the Knife)
  • 1812 KHM 22 Wie Kinder Schlachtens miteinander gespielt haben (The Children Who Played Slaughtering)
  • 1812 KHM 27 Der Tod und der Gänsehirt (Death and the Goose Keeper)
  • 1812 KHM 33 Der gestiefelte Kater (Puss in Boots)
  • 1812 KHM 37 Von der Serviette, dem Tornister, dem Kanonenhütlein und dem Horn (The Napkin, the Knapsack, the Cannon Shell, and the Horn)
  • 1812 KHM 43 Die wunderliche Gasterei (The Strange Inn/The Wonderly Guesting Manor)
  • 1812 KHM 54 Hans Dumm (Hans Stupid)
  • 1812 KHM 62 Blaubart (Bluebeard)
  • 1812 KHM 66 Hurleburlebutz
  • 1812 KHM 70 Der Okerlo (The Okerlo)
  • 1812 KHM 71 Prinzessin Mäusehaut (Princess Mouse Skin)
  • 1812 KHM 72 Das Birnli will nit fallen (The Pear Doesn't Want to Fall)
  • 1812 KHM 73 Das Mörderschloss (The Murder Castle)
  • 1812 KHM 77 Vom Schreiner und Drechsler (The Carpenter and the Turner)
  • 1812 KHM 82 Die drei Schwestern (The Three Sisters)
  • 1812 KHM 85A Schneeblume (Snow Flower)
  • 1812 KHM 85D Vom Prinz Johannes (Fragment) (Prince Johannes)
  • Die Prinzessin auf der Erbse (The Princess and the Pea)
  • Der Faule und der Fleißige (The Sluggard and the Diligent)
  • Der gute Lappen (Fragment) (The Good Rag)
  • Die heilige Frau Kummernis (The Holy Woman Kummernis)
  • Die Krähen (The Crows)
  • Der Löwe und der Frosch (The Lion and the Frog)
  • Der Räuber und seine Söhne (The Robber and His Sons)
  • Der Soldat und der Schreiner (The Soldier and the Carpenter)
  • Die treuen Tiere (The Faithful Animals)
  • Das Unglück (The Accident)
  • Der wilde Mann (The Wild Man)
  • Der Schmied und der Teufel (The Smith and the Devil)

Explanatory notes
  1. A derivative work is Grimm's Fairy Tales, with 212 Illustrations by Josef Scharl (New York: Pantheon Books, 1944) [repr. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1948][18]
  2. Translated from Kinder- und Hausmärchen gesammelt durch die Brüder Grimm (Munich: Winkler, 1949). Manheim believed this to be a reprint of the second, 1819 edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen, but it was in fact a reprint of the 7th, 1857 edition[19]
  3. See Luke&McKay&Gilbert tr. (1982), p. 41 for details of the edition used.
  4. "The Little Donkey"[21][22] is the more precisely translated title.
  5. Aliases: "The Gifts of the Little People";[26] "The Little Folks' Presents".[25] This is the type tale of AT 503, and "The Gifts of the Little People" is its official English title, insofar as Hans-Jörg Uther has published it,[24] and most folklorists tend to follow it.
German Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Wikisource has original text related to this article:

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Grimm's Fairy Tales.
  1. Zipes, Jack (2002). The Brothers Grimm : from enchanted forests to the modern world. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0312293801. OCLC 49698876.
  2. Zipes, Jack. "How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale", Humanities, March/April 2015
  3. Maria Tatar, The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales, p15-17, ISBN 0-691-06722-8
  4. "Grimm brothers' fairytales have blood and horror restored in new translation". the Guardian. 2014-11-12. Retrieved 2021-03-30.
  5. Maria Tatar, "Reading the Grimms' Children's Stories and Household Tales" p. xxvii-iv, Maria Tatar, ed. The Annotated Brothers Grimm., ISBN 0-393-05848-4
  6. Zipes, Jack (2002). The Brothers Grimm : from enchanted forests to the modern world. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0312293801. OCLC 49698876.
  7. Acocella, Joan (16 July 2012). "Once Upon a Time". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2021-03-30.
  8. Jack Zipes, The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm, p 846, ISBN 0-393-97636-X
  9. Maria Tatar, p 345-5, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, ISBN 0-393-05163-3
  10. Maria Tatar, "Reading the Grimms' Children's Stories and Household Tales" p. xxx, Maria Tatar, ed. The Annotated Brothers Grimm, ISBN 0-393-05848-4
  11. Maria Tatar, "-xxxix, Maria Tatar, ed. The Annotated Brothers Grimm, ISBN 0-393-05848-4
  12. Lynn H. Nicholas, Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Web p 77-8 ISBN 0-679-77663-X
  13. Maria Tatar, "Reading the Grimms' Fairy Stories and Household Tales" p. xlvi, Maria Tatar, ed. The Annotated Brothers Grimm, ISBN 0-393-05848-4
  14. D. L. Ashliman, "Grimms' Fairy Tales in English: An Internet Bibliography", ©2012-2017. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  15. Zipes tr. (2014).
  16. Loo, Oliver (2014). The Original 1812 Grimm Fairy Tales. A New Translation of the 1812 First Edition Kinder- und Hausmärchen Collected through the Brothers Grimm. Vol. 2 vols. (200 Year Anniversary ed.). ISBN 9781312419049.
  17. Hunt tr. (1884).
  18. Luke&McKay&Gilbert tr. (1982), p. 43.
  19. Maria Tatar, The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987), pp. xxii, 238 n. 22.
  20. Luke&McKay&Gilbert tr. (1982).
  21. Zipes tr. (2014), 2: 456ff.
  22. Ashliman (1998–2020). #144 "The Little Donkey"
  23. Turpin tr. (1907), p. 17–21.
  24. Uther (2004), p. 288.
  25. Hunt tr. (1884), pp. 298–301.
  26. Zipes tr. (2003).
Bibliography
(Translations)
(Other)
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