A Brief History of the Brothers Grimm
The myriad of fairy tales I’ve been told since my youth is almost impossible to count. Like butter on toast, each story has melted into my consciousness (as I’m sure they have yours) and stained it with some of the most magical memories of bedtime stories and sitting in front of the telly watching the likes of Ariel, The Sleeping Beauty and so many more. Even though the intimate details of each tale might escape my ageing brain, the true heart of each tale still remains.
Not so long ago, struck by a moment of nostalgia, I picked up one of my father’s many leather bound, gilded bordered books. The book was called Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and in it was at least 60 folk tales; some of which I’ve never heard of, others I hadn’t seen since my childhood.
Upon opening up the book, I realised that I had never, in my life, ever read a fairy tale before. Instead, each story that I have come to know entered my mind via osmosis, whether it was sitting in a classroom, or lying in bed, or watching those splendid water-coloured Disney films.
Grimm’s Fairy Tales is generally accepted as being the most accurate collection of fairy tales. The brothers, Wilhelm and Jakob Grimm spent 13 years, travelling from village to village in Germany, accumulating these mystical folk tales. Most, if not all of the stories were passed on to them through speech, in which the brothers later meticulously and painstakingly transcribed with utter faithfulness into an anthology they originally coined, Children’s and Household Tales. Interestingly, one of their greatest sources for these folk tales was Wilhelm’s wife, Dortchen Wild.
The Brothers Grimm saw their collection as more of a work of science than a piece of fantastical literature it later became. Of course, their anthology has gone through significant beautification, i.e. watered down, since it was first published in the early 18th century; it is no longer referred to as ‘Household Tales’ but instead, Fairy Tales.
The purpose of their research was to preserve and honour a tradition they felt was slowly fading away. And this line of thought was only further illustrated in the preface of their collection’s second edition:
“So it seemed to us when we considered how little was left of what had bloomed in earlier times, and how even that little was almost lost. That little consisted of some popular ballads, a few legends, and these innocent Household Stories…Our first care in transcribing the stories was for faithfulness and truth. We have added nothing of our own, nor have we altered the character of either the narrative or the speech.”
In many ways, the anthology was created not for the enjoyment of children but for serious adults, and to a certain extent, for scholars. The literary nature of each tale, at times, reads like a historical account; they are rarely descriptive or graceful, but instead, forthright and abrupt in manner. That is not to say they lack any entertainment factor. Quite the contrary, I found each tale extremely entertaining, but not for the reasons you’d expect, and I’ll get back to this in a minute (in Fairy Tales, Unedited Pt. II).
Throughout their lives, the brothers lived and worked attached to the hip. From birth and well into adulthood, they lived under the same roof, shared the same working desk, and at one point, even shared the same bed. In 1859, Wilhelm Grimm, the younger of the two, passed away, and in a heartfelt and loving tribute, Jakob Grimm wrote:
“In the slowly unfolding years of youth, one bed and one study room served for two. We worked at the same table; afterwards in our student years our two tables and two beds stood in the same room. In later life, one room still held the two tables. And at the last, to the very end, our two rooms were next to each other…Thus also, it seems our last beds will lie close to one another…In speaking of him, I cannot avoid speaking of myself.”
Four years after the death of his brother, Jakob Grimm passed away. And just as they had lived together, side-by-side throughout their lives, the Brothers Grimm were laid to rest next to one another as Jakob had predicted in his written tribute to Wilhelm.
Next in the series: Fairy Tales, Unedited Pt. II
