Brothers Grimm

thumb|upright=1|Wilhelm Grimm (left) and Jacob Grimm, depicted by [[Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann (1855).|alt=Oil painting depicting Wilhelm Grimm (left) and Jacob Grimm seated side by side, shown in half-length profile against a dark background, painted by Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann in 1855.]]

The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors whose work in folklore, linguistics, and literary scholarship shaped the development of modern folkloristics and the study of the German language. Born in Hanau and raised in Steinau, they were educated in Kassel and at the University of Marburg, where they developed a lasting interest in medieval literature and German cultural history. The first collection of folk tales, Children's and Household Tales (), was published in 1812. The Grimms are among the best-known story tellers of European folktales, and their work popularized such stories as "Cinderella", "The Frog Prince" (Der Froschkönig), "Hansel and Gretel" (Hänsel und Gretel), "Rapunzel", "Rumpelstiltskin" (Rumpelstilzchen), and "Snow White" (Schneewittchen).

Kinder- und Hausmärchen was based on stories gathered largely from educated, urban acquaintances. They expanded and revised the collection throughout their lives, refining the language and themes of the tales and producing one of the most influential works in world folklore. Alongside this work, they published studies on Germanic and Scandinavian legends, medieval texts, and the history of language. The brothers began a definitive German dictionary (Deutsches Wörterbuch) in 1838, an ambitious historical dictionary that remained uncompleted at their deaths. Their scholarship and their methods for documenting oral traditions established lasting standards for the study of folklore.

The rise of romanticism in the 19th century revived interest in traditional folk stories, which to the Grimm brothers represented a pure form of national literature and culture. With the goal of researching a scholarly treatise on folk tales, the brothers established a methodology for collecting and recording folk stories that became the basis for studies in folklore; between 1812 and 1857 their collection of Kinder- und Hausmärchen went through many editions and modifications, and grew from 86 stories to more than 200. The Grimms' tales grew steadily in popularity and have since been translated widely, adapted in literature and film, and examined in political, educational, and psychological contexts. Their work continues to influence research in folklore and the history of the German language.

Biography

Early lives

thumb|Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm lived in this house in [[Steinau an der Straße|Steinau from 1791 to 1796.|alt=Exterior of the Brüder Grimm House in Steinau, a half-timbered historic building with a steep tiled roof.]]

Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm and Wilhelm Carl Grimm were born on 4 January 1785 and 24 February 1786, respectively, in Hanau in the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel, within the Holy Roman Empire (present-day Germany), to Philipp Wilhelm Grimm, a jurist, and Dorothea Grimm (née Zimmer), daughter of a Kassel city councilman.

In 1791, the family moved to the countryside town of Steinau during Philipp's employment there as a district magistrate (). The family became prominent members of the community, residing in a large home surrounded by fields. Biographer Jack Zipes writes that the brothers were happy in Steinau and "clearly fond of country life". Later, they attended local schools.

In 1796, Philipp Grimm died of pneumonia, causing great poverty for the large family. Dorothea was forced to relinquish the brothers' servants and large house, depending on financial support from her father and sister, who was then the first lady-in-waiting at the court of William I, Elector of Hesse. Jacob was the eldest living son, forced at age 11 to assume adult responsibilities (shared with Wilhelm) for the next two years. The two brothers then followed the advice of their grandfather, who continually exhorted them to be industrious.

Marburg

thumb|Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm in an 1843 drawing by younger brother [[Ludwig Emil Grimm|alt=Pencil drawing showing Wilhelm Grimm (left) and Jacob Grimm in side profile, drawn by their younger brother Ludwig Emil Grimm in 1843.]]

After graduation from the , the brothers attended Marburg University. The university was small with about 200 students, and there they became painfully aware that students of lower social status were not treated equally. They were disqualified from admission because of their social standing and had to request a dispensation to study law. Wealthier students received stipends, but the brothers were excluded even from tuition aid. Their poverty kept them from student activities or university social life, but their outsider status worked in their favor and they pursued their studies with extra vigor. The brothers dedicated themselves with great enthusiasm to their studies, of which Wilhelm wrote in his autobiography, "the ardor with which we studied Old German helped us overcome the spiritual depression of those days."

Jacob was still financially responsible for his mother, brother, and younger siblings in 1805, so he accepted a post in Paris as Savigny's research assistant. On his return to Marburg he was forced to abandon his studies to support the family, whose poverty was so extreme that food was often scarce, and take a job with the Hessian War Commission. In a letter to his aunt from this time, Wilhelm wrote of their circumstances: "We five people eat only three portions and only once a day".

Kassel

Jacob found full-time employment in 1808 when he was appointed court librarian to the King of Westphalia and went on to become a librarian in Kassel. After their mother's death that year, he became fully responsible for his younger siblings. He arranged and paid for his brother Ludwig's studies at art school and for Wilhelm's extended visit to Halle to seek treatment for heart and respiratory ailments, after which Wilhelm joined Jacob as librarian in Kassel According to Zipes, at this point "the Grimms were unable to devote all their energies to their research and did not have a clear idea about the significance of collecting folk tales in this initial phase." In 1812 they published their first volume of 86 folk tales, , followed quickly by two volumes of German legends and a volume of early literary history. In 1830 both brothers were overlooked when the post of chief librarian came available, which disappointed them greatly. the Grimms aided the revival with their folklore collection, built on the conviction that a national identity could be found in popular culture and with the common folk ().

They collected and published their tales as a reflection of German cultural identity. In the first collection, though, they included Charles Perrault's tales, published in Paris in 1697 and written for the literary salons of an aristocratic French audience. Scholar Lydie Jean says that Perrault created a myth that his tales came from the common people and reflected existing folklore to justify including them—even though many of them were original.

But Tatar argues that the Grimms appropriated as uniquely German stories, such as "Little Red Riding Hood", that had existed in many versions and regions throughout Europe, because they believed that such stories reflected Germanic culture. Furthermore, the brothers saw fragments of old religions and faiths reflected in the stories, which they thought continued to exist and survive through the telling of stories.

Methodology

When Jacob returned to Marburg from Paris in 1806, their friend Brentano sought the brothers' help in adding to his collection of folk tales, at which time the brothers began to gather tales in an organized fashion. At Brentano's request, they printed and sent him copies of the 53 tales that they collected for inclusion in his third volume of .

The brothers gained a reputation for collecting tales from peasants, although many tales came from middle-class or aristocratic acquaintances. Wilhelm's wife, Henriette Dorothea (Dortchen) Wild, and her family, with their nursery maid, told the brothers some of the more well-known tales, such as "Hansel and Gretel" and "Sleeping Beauty". Several of the storytellers were of Huguenot ancestry, telling tales of French origin such as those told to the Grimms by Marie Hassenpflug, an educated woman of French Huguenot ancestry, Other tales were collected from Dorothea Viehmann, the wife of a middle-class tailor and also of French descent. Despite her middle-class background, in the first English translation she was characterized as a peasant and given the name . with whom Wilhelm had a long correspondence.

thumb|Stories such as "[[Sleeping Beauty", shown here in a Walter Crane illustration, had been previously published and were rewritten by the Brothers Grimm.

Writing

From 1807 onward, the brothers added to the collection. Jacob established the framework, maintained through many iterations; from 1815 until his death, Wilhelm assumed sole responsibility for editing and rewriting the tales. He made the tales stylistically similar, added dialogue, removed pieces "that might detract from a rustic tone", improved the plots, and incorporated psychological motifs. In the later editions Wilhelm polished the language to make it more enticing to a bourgeois audience, eliminated sexual elements, and added Christian elements. After 1819 he began writing original tales for children (children were not initially considered the primary audience) and adding didactic elements to existing tales. He worked to modify plots for many of the stories; for example, "Rapunzel" in the first edition of clearly shows a sexual relationship between the prince and the girl in the tower, which he edited out in subsequent editions.

Themes and analysis

thumb|left|"Hansel and Gretel" (1909), illustrated by [[Arthur Rackham, was a "warning tale" for children.

The stories in include scenes of violence that have since been sanitized. For example, in the Grimms' original version of "Snow White", the Queen is Little Snow White's mother, not her stepmother, but still orders her Huntsman to kill Snow White (her biological daughter) and bring home the child's lungs and liver so that she can eat them; the story ends with the Queen dancing at Snow White's wedding, wearing a pair of red-hot iron shoes that kill her. Another story, "The Goose Girl", has a servant stripped naked and pushed into a barrel "studded with sharp nails" pointing inward and then rolled down the street. In the stories, a woman's personality is often represented by her attitude toward spinning; a wise woman might be a spinster and Bottigheimer writes that the spindle was the symbol of a "diligent, well-ordered womanhood". In some stories, such as "Rumpelstiltskin", spinning is associated with a threat; in others, spinning might be avoided by a character who is either too lazy or not accustomed to spinning because of her high social status.

The tales were also criticized for being insufficiently German, which influenced the tales that the brothers included and their use of language. But scholars such as Heinz Rölleke say that the stories are an accurate depiction of German culture, showing "rustic simplicity [and] sexual modesty". However, this disregards the fact that they were collectors, not authors of the tales. Another possible influence is found in stories such as "The Twelve Brothers", which mirrors the brothers' family structure of several brothers facing and overcoming opposition. Some of the tales have autobiographical elements, and according to Zipes the work may have been a "quest" to replace the family life lost after their father died. The collection includes 41 tales about siblings, which Zipes says are representative of Jacob and Wilhelm. Many of the sibling stories follow a simple plot where the characters lose a home, work industriously at a specific task, and in the end find a new home.

Editions

Between 1812 and 1864, was published 17 times: seven of the "Large edition" () and ten of the "Small edition" (). The Large editions contained all the tales collected to date, extensive annotations, and scholarly notes written by the brothers; the Small editions had only 50 tales and were intended for children. Emil Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm's younger brother, illustrated the Small editions, adding Christian symbolism to the drawings, such as depicting Cinderella's mother as an angel and adding a Bible to the bedside table of Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother. and a second volume with 70 additional tales was published late in 1814 (dated 1815 on the title page); together the two volumes and their 156 tales are considered the first of the (annotated) Large editions. A second expanded edition with 170 tales was published in 1819, followed in 1822 by a volume of scholarly commentary and annotations. Upon the brothers' deaths, the copyright went to Wilhelm's son Hermann Grimm, who continued the practice of printing the volumes in expensive and complete editions, but after 1893, when copyright lapsed, various publishers began to print the stories in many formats and editions.

Philology

thumb|300px|left| (German Legends) included stories such as "[[Pied Piper of Hamelin", shown here in an illustration by Kate Greenaway.]]

While at Marburg University, the brothers came to see culture as tied to language and regarded the purest cultural expression in the grammar of a language. They moved away from Brentano's practice—and that of the other romanticists—who frequently changed original oral styles of folk tale to a more literary style, which the brothers considered artificial. They thought that the style of the people (the ) reflected a natural and divinely inspired poetry ()—as opposed to art poetry (), which they saw as artificially constructed. As literary historians and scholars they delved into the origins of stories and attempted to retrieve them from the oral tradition without loss of the original traits of oral language.

thumb|upright|Frontispiece of 1854 edition of German Dictionary ()

The brothers strongly believed that the dream of national unity and independence relied on a full knowledge of the cultural past that was reflected in folklore. But over the course of the many modifications and revisions, the Grimms sought to reintroduce regionalisms, dialects, and Low German to the tales—to reintroduce the language of the original form of the oral tale.

As early as 1812 they published (The Two Oldest German Poems of the Eighth Century: The Song of Hildebrand and Hadubrand and the Wessobrunn Prayer); the Wessobrunn Prayer is a ninth-century German prayer, while the Song of Hildebrand and Hadubrand is the earliest-known German heroic song. Jacob undertook most of the work of collecting and editing the legends, which he organized according to region and historical (ancient) legends but Zipes says that the collection, translated to French and Danish in the 19th century but not to English until 1981, is a "vital source for folklorists and critics alike".

Less well known in the English-speaking world is the Grimms' pioneering scholarly work on a German dictionary, the , which they began in 1838. Not until 1852 did they begin publishing the dictionary in installments. Furthermore, the brothers made a science of folklore and generated a model of study that "launched general fieldwork in most European countries". During the Third Reich the Grimms' stories were used to foster nationalism and the Nazi's decreed Kinder- und Hausmärchen was a book each household should own; later in occupied Germany the book was banned for a period.

Simultaneously, in the US, the 1937 release of Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs shows the triumph of good over evil, innocence over oppression, according to Zipes: a popular theme that Disney repeated in 1959 during the Cold War with the production of Sleeping Beauty. The Grimms' tales have provided much of the early foundation on which the Disney empire was built.

In the 20th century educators debated the value and influence of teaching stories that include brutality and violence, causing some of the more grim details to be sanitized. The publication of Bruno Bettleheim's 1976 The Uses of Enchantment brought a new wave of interest in the stories as children's literature, with an emphasis on the "therapeutic value for children".

Teaching and interpretation

20th-century educators debated the value and influence of teaching stories that include brutality and violence, and some of the more gruesome details were sanitized. The publication of Bruno Bettelheim's 1976 The Uses of Enchantment brought a new wave of interest in the stories as children's literature, with an emphasis on the "therapeutic value for children".

Popular culture and legacy

Nevertheless, children remain enamored of the Grimms' fairy tales with the brothers themselves embraced as the creators of the stories and even as part of the stories themselves. The film The Brothers Grimm imagines them as con artists exploiting superstitious German peasants until they are asked to confront a genuine fairy-tale curse that calls them to finally be heroes.

The movie Ever After shows the Grimms in their role as collectors of fairy tales, though they learn to their surprise that at least one of their stories (Cinderella) is true. Grimm follows a detective who discovers that he is a Grimm, the latest in a line of guardians who are sworn to keep the balance between humanity and mythological creatures. Ever After High imagines Grimm Brothers (here called Milton and Giles) as the headmasters of the Ever After High boarding school, where they train the children of the previous generation of fairy tales to follow in their parents' footsteps.

In the 10th Kingdom miniseries, the brothers are trapped for years in the fairy-tale world on the 9 Kingdoms, where they witnessed the events that they would record as stories upon finally making it back to the real world. The Sisters Grimm book series follows their descendants, Sabrina and Daphne Grimm, as they adapt to life in Ferryport Landing, a town in upstate New York populated by fairy-tale people.

Separate from the previous series is the Land of Stories book series which also features the idea of "Sisters Grimm". In The Land of Stories, the Grimm Brothers' female descendants are a self-described coven determined to track down and document creatures from the fairy-tale world that cross over to the real world. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were, in this story, chosen by Mother Goose and others to tell fairy tales so that they might give hope to the human race.

The university library at the Humboldt University of Berlin is housed in the Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Center (); among its collections is a large portion of the Grimms' private library.

Collaborative works

(The Two Oldest German Poems of the Eighth Century: The Song of Hildebrand and Hadubrand and the Wessobrunn Prayer)—ninth century heroic song, published 1812
(Children's and Household Tales)—seven editions, between 1812 and 1857
(Old German Forests)—three volumes between 1813 and 1816
(Poor Heinrich by Hartmann von der Aue)—1815
(Songs from the Elder Edda)—1815
(German Sagas)—published in two parts between 1816 and 1818
(Irish Elf Fairy Tales)—Grimms' translation of Thomas Crofton Croker's Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland, 1826
(German Dictionary)—32 volumes published between 1852 and 1960

Notes

References

Sources

External links

"The Brothers Grimm Were Dark for a Reason" by Jennifer Wilson. A review of Ann Schmiesing’s The Brothers Grimm: A Biography, published in The New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2024.
Translated by Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes.
. Translated by Margaret Raine Hunt.