The Brothers Grimm
1785-1863 · German · Hanau, Germany
For younger readers
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were brothers who worked in a library and loved words. About two hundred years ago they worried that all the old stories people told each other would be forgotten, so they started writing them down. They collected over two hundred, and then they spent the rest of their lives making them better for children to read.
Life
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were librarians and language scholars, not storytellers. They began collecting folk tales in 1806 as part of a much larger project: proving that German had a deep culture of its own, at a time when Napoleon's armies were occupying their country. They did not travel the countryside gathering stories from peasants, whatever the legend says. Most of their tales came from educated middle-class friends and neighbours in their own drawing rooms, several of them of French Huguenot descent. Over seven editions Wilhelm rewrote the tales steadily, making them longer, more Christian, more moral and considerably more suitable for children than the versions they first wrote down.
Moments from their life
1785
Two brothers, one year apart
Jacob was born in Hanau in January 1785 and Wilhelm thirteen months later. They were the eldest of six surviving children and were inseparable from the start, sharing a bed, then a desk, then a study, for almost their entire lives.
1796
Their father dies
Their father Philipp died suddenly of pneumonia when Jacob was eleven. The family lost its house, its servants and its income overnight, and the boys were sent to an aunt in Kassel to continue their schooling.
1806
Collecting begins under occupation
Napoleon's armies occupied their region, and the brothers began gathering German folk tales as an act of cultural preservation. They wanted to show that German had a literature of its own, deep and old, worth defending.
1812
The first edition
Children's and Household Tales appeared in December 1812 with 86 stories. It had scholarly footnotes, no illustrations, and was not really aimed at children at all. Reviewers complained that it was unsuitable for them.
1819
Wilhelm starts rewriting
From the second edition onward Wilhelm took over the prose and began steadily reshaping it: longer descriptions, more dialogue, more Christian references, and cruelty removed or moved onto stepmothers. He kept doing this through seven editions until 1857.
1837
The Gottingen Seven
Both brothers were professors at Gottingen when the new king revoked the constitution. They were among seven professors who signed a public protest. All seven were dismissed, and Jacob was expelled from the kingdom.
1838
The dictionary that outlived them
Out of work, the brothers began a complete dictionary of the German language. They reached the letter F. It was continued by others and finally completed in 1961, one hundred and twenty-three years later.
1859
Wilhelm dies, and Jacob keeps working
Wilhelm died in Berlin in December 1859. Jacob carried on with the dictionary alone for four more years and died in 1863, at his desk, working on the entry for the word Frucht, meaning fruit.
Things you might not know
- The Grimms were mainly interested in language, not stories. Their biggest project was a German dictionary so enormous that it was not finished until 1961, almost a hundred years after they died.
- They did not collect their tales from peasants in the countryside. Most came from educated friends sitting in their living room, and one of their best sources, Dorothea Viehmann, was of French descent.
- Wilhelm rewrote the tales through seven editions. The stories got gentler, longer and more moral each time. Cruel mothers became stepmothers, largely to protect the idea of motherhood.
In their words
- “These stories are the last echo of ancient myth.”
Stories
Ages 5-10
Snow White
A queen owns a mirror that cannot lie, and one morning it gives her an answer she does not want. Her stepdaughter is sent into the forest to be got rid of, finds a cottage belonging to seven miners, and is warned three times not to open the door. She opens it three times.
10 min readThe Brothers GrimmRead itAges 5-10
Rapunzel
A man steals lettuce from a witch's garden for his pregnant wife, and pays for it with the baby. The girl grows up alone in a tower with no door and no stairs, and does not know that either of those things is strange, until somebody who is not the witch calls up from the bottom.
9 min readThe Brothers GrimmRead itAges 5-10
Hansel and Gretel
Two children are taken into the wood and left there. The first time, Hansel has filled his pockets with pebbles. The second time he only has bread, and birds eat it. Then they find a house made of gingerbread, and the old woman inside is very pleased to see them.
10 min readThe Brothers GrimmRead itAges 5-10
Rumpelstiltskin
A miller cannot bear an awkward silence in front of a king, so he claims his daughter can spin straw into gold. She cannot. A small man can, and his price goes up each night until it is her first child. The tale everybody remembers as being about a wicked imp is really about the two men who never face any consequences at all.
10 min readThe Brothers GrimmRead itAges 4-9
The Frog King
A princess drops her golden ball into a well and promises a frog anything to get it back. She does not mean a word of it. Her father makes her keep every word of it, and the frog is turned back into a prince not by a kiss but by the moment she finally loses her temper.
8 min readThe Brothers GrimmRead it
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