Who doesn’t love a good fairytale?
The Brothers Grimm (or Die Gebrüder Grimm) are two brothers who are famous for their imaginative stories that have captivated the world for centuries. Jacob Ludwig Carl and Wilhelm Carl Grimm were born a year apart (Jacob in 1785 and Wilhelm in 1786) and were both successful linguists, academics and authors who collaborated together on a number of folklore projects, collecting and publishing their versions of original fairy tales.
Their first collection of stories was The Children’s and Household Tales (1812). This German publication was the first in the very popular Grimms’ Fairy Tales, a set of two volumes that are packed with all manner of fairy stories, with Volume One containing 86 stories and Volume Two having 70 tales. So there are plenty of Grimm stories to whet your appetite!
One of the Grimm’s Brothers most famous fairy tales, and one which fits in with today’s theme of Easter and sweets, is Hansel and Gretel. Residing in Volume One, Jacob and Wilhelm published the story of the famous brother and sister who wind up having to escape from a cannibalistic witch who lives in a gingerbread house in the woods. Sound a bit menacing? That is one of the criticisms that the Brothers Grimm received throughout their career that their stories, although labelled as fairy tales and intended for a young audience, were not of a child-friendly nature. It is known that their version of the story of Rapunzel had to be toned down in respect to the sexual references; and also their retelling of the original telling of the folk tale Snow White, which in its first edition depicted a wicked mother, but this was changed to a step-mother instead, thought to be due to not wanting to expose children to the idea of an evil and jealous mother.
The Brothers Grimm are an ongoing literary success. With no publishing houses owning rights to any of the stories or any language institutes to tell them that their grammar or punctuations were incorrect, The Brothers Grimm certainly laid the foundations not only to German folklore, but also the German language itself. Longing for a united Germany, Jacob and Wilhelm threw themselves into their work to try and make a difference in the world. And what a difference they did make! So far the collection has been translated into more than 160 languages, ranging from South African Swahili, to English, to Italian. Their fans are ever-expressive with their love for the Grimm Brothers’ stories, with the Japanese building two theme parks in their honour, and no one can deny the role that Jacob and Wilhelm inadvertently played in launching the Disney brand as the giant that we know today.
Definitely a name that we will still be reading many years from now, The Brothers Grimm will no doubt go on to inspire many authors and filmmakers for generations to come.