Volksmärchen der Deutschen

The first English translation was Popular Tales of the Germans (1791) by Thomas Beddoes, which contained five of the stories: "Richilda", "The Book of the Chronicles of the Three Sisters", "The Stealing of the Veil", "Elfin Freaks" ("Legenden von Rübezahl"), and "The Nymph of the Fountain". This book was published anonymously, and the translation was traditionally attributed to William Beckford.[7] Other early translations include "The Elopement" in the magazine The German Museum (1801),[lower-roman 1] and several of the "Legenden von Rübezahl" printed by S. Fisher (1804–1805).[lower-roman 2]

In the early nineteenth century, some French translations of the Volksmärchen were translated into English. "The Lost Veil" and "Melechsala" were translated in Tales (1805) from Isabelle de Montolieu's Recueil de contes (1803),[8] an abridged version of "The Spectre-Barber" ("Stumme Liebe") was translated in Tales of the Dead (1813) from Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès' Fantasmagoriana (1812),[9] and another abridged translation of "Stumme Liebe", by Isabelle de Montolieu, was translated as "The Dumb Lover" in La Belle Assemblée (1814).[10][11]

A number of direct translations were published in the 1820s, as part of an increased British interest in German Romanticist literature.[12][13] This included two stories in Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations (1823),[lower-roman 3] one of the "Legends of Rübezahl" in Endless Entertainment (1825),[lower-roman 4] one story in Thomas Roscoe's The German Novelists (1826),[lower-roman 5] three of the "Legends of Rübezahl" with extensive footnotes in The Odd Volume (1826),[lower-roman 6] with another story in The Odd Volume: Second Series (1827),[lower-roman 7] "The Elopement" in The United States Review and Literary Gazette (1827),[lower-roman 8] three stories in Thomas Carlyle's German Romance (1827),[lower-roman 9] and the "Legends of Rubezahl" in Foreign Tales and Traditions (1829).[lower-roman 10] In the 1830s, Julia Emily Gordon completed an unpublished translation of The Books of the Chronicles of the Three Sisters,[lower-roman 11] and new abridged translations of "The Spectre Barber" were published in the Royal Lady's Magazine (1831)[lower-roman 12] and The Decameron of the West (1839).[lower-roman 13][17][12][18][19][20]

The 1840s saw a revival of interest in German traditions following the marriage of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840, which may have led to the subsequent new translations of Musäus' work.[12] This included The Three Sisters: A Story (1842),[lower-roman 14] "Libussa" in Tales from the German (1844),[lower-roman 15] three stories in Legends of Rubezahl, and Other Tales (1845),[lower-roman 16] two in The Enchanted Knights; or The Chronicle of the Three Sisters (1845),[lower-roman 17] seven in Select Popular Tales from the German of Musaeus (1845),[lower-roman 18] "The Elopement" in Sharpe's London Magazine (1846),[lower-roman 19] two in The Nymph of the Well and The Barber's Ghost (1848),[lower-roman 20] one appended to Schinderhannes, the Robber of the Rhine (1848),[lower-roman 21] Melechsala (1848),[lower-roman 22] a light-hearted free verse poem version of the "Chronicles of the Three Sisters" as The Arm! – the Sword! – and the Hour! Or, the Legend of the Enchanted Knights (1850),[lower-roman 23] The Stolen Veil; or, the Tale à la Montgolfier (1850),[lower-roman 24] and two in Libussa, Duchess of Bohemia; also The Man Without a Name (1852).[lower-roman 25][12][22][23][24][25][26]

A number of new translations were published in the 1860s, including The Three Sons-in-Law (1861),[lower-roman 26] Mark Lemon's Legends of Number Nip (1863),[lower-roman 27] and a new translation by him of the "Chronicles of the Three Sisters" in Fairy Tales (1868).[lower-roman 28] A few more followed, such as one in Wonder-World Stories (1877),[lower-roman 29] all five "Legends of Rübezahl" in Number Nip; or the Spirit of the Giant Mountains (1884),[lower-roman 30] Harriet Pinckney Huse's Roland's Squires (1891),[lower-roman 31] "The Treasure Seeker" in Andrew Lang's The Crimson Fairy Book (1903),[lower-roman 32] one Volksmärchen Rübezahl tale in The Brown Fairy Book (1904),[lower-roman 33] two stories in Magic Casements: A Second Fairy Book (1907),[lower-roman 34] and an abridged version of the first of the "Legends of Rübezahl" in The Greatest Adventure Stories Ever Told (1945).[lower-roman 35][12][27][28]

More recently, Fritz Eichenberg adapted the first of the "Legends of Rübezahl" as Poor Troll (1983), Janet Ritch translated The Elopement (1989) for the Victoria University Library,[lower-roman 36] Jack Zipes translated "Libussa" in Spells of Enchantment: The Wondrous Fairy Tales of Western Culture (1991),[30] and Piri Korngold Nesselrod retold the five "Legends of Rübezahl" in Rübezahl: The Adventurous Mountain Spirit (1999).[31]

They were also translated into French a number of times, including as Contes populaires des Allemands (1803) by J. Lefèvre,[32] translations of three of the stories by Isabelle de Montolieu (1803–1805),[33][11] and another complete translation with an introduction by Charles Paul de Kock (1826)[34] among others.[35]