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 Jacob
and Wilhelm Grimm - famous for their classical collections of folk
songs and folktales, especially for KINDER- UND HAUSMÄRCHEN (Children's
and Household Tales); generally known as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which
helped to establish the science of folklore. Stories such as 'Snow
White' and 'Sleeping Beauty' have been retold countless times, but
the Brothers Grimm first wrote them down. In their collaboration
Wilhelm selected and arranged the stories, while Jacob, who was
more interested in language and philology, was responsible for the
scholarly work.
"What a tender young creature! What a nice plump mouthful
- she will be better to eat than the old woman."
(from 'Little Red-Cap')
Jacob Grimm was born in Hanau. His father, who was educated in
law and served as a town clerk, died when Jacob was young. His mother
Dorothea struggled to pay the education of the children. With financial
help of Dorothea's sister, Jacob and Wilhelm were sent to Kasel
to attend the Lyzeum. Jacob then studied law at Marburg. He worked
from 1816 to 1829 as a librarian at Kasel, where his brother served
as a secretary. Between 1821 and 1822 the brothers raised extra
money by collecting three volumes of folktales. With these publications
they wanted to show, that Germans shared a similar culture and advocate
the unification process of the small independent kingdoms and principalities.
Altogether some 40 persons delivered tales to the Grimm's. One
of the most important informants was Marie Hassenpflug, a 20-year-old
friend of their sister, Charlotte, from a well-bred, French-speaking
family. Marie's stories blended motifs from the oral tradition and
Perrault's Tales of My Mother Goose (1697).
 The
brothers moved to Göttingen in 1830, Wilhelm becoming assistant
librarian and Jacob librarian. In 1835 Wilhelm was appointed professor,
but King Ernest Augustus dismissed them two years later for protesting
against the abrogation of the Hanover constitution. In 1841 they
became professors at the University of Berlin, and worked with DEUTSCHES
WÖRTERBUCH. Its first volume appeared in 1854. The work, 16 volumes,
was finished in the 1960s.
The Grimm's made major contributions in many fields, notably in
the studies of heroic myth and the ancient religion and law. They
worked very close, even after Wilhelm married in 1825. Jacob remained
unmarried. Wilhelm died in Berlin on December 16, 1859 and Jacob
four years later on September 20, 1863. He had just finished writing
the dictionary definition for Frucht.
The Grimm's came over a century after Madame d'Aulnoy and Charles
Perrault, who between them first created and popularised the literary
fairy tale. The Grimm's were more intent on capturing the genuine
oral tradition - earlier Ludwig Tieck and Johann-Karl Musaeus relied
more on the gothic tradition than folklore.
Kinder- und Hausmärchen was published in two volumes (1812-1815)
- the final edition was published in 1857 and contained 211 tales;
a further 28 had been dropped from earlier editions, making 239
in total. They had written down most of the tales from oral narrations,
collecting the material mainly from peasants in Hesse. The first
edition included stories in 10 dialects as well as High German.
Among the best-known stories are "Hansel and Gretel," "Cinderella,"
"Rumpelstiltskin," "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," and "The
Golden Goose." The stories include magic, communication between
animals and men and moral values, teachings of social right and
wrong.
 The
brothers are generally treated as a team, though Jacob concentrated
on linguistic studies and Wilhelm was primarily a literary scholar.
German Romanticism and its interest in mythology, folklore and dreams
affected the brothers. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm argued that folktales
should be collected from oral sources, which aimed at genuine reproduction
of the original story. Their method also became the model for other
scholars. However, in practice the tales were modified, and in later
editions of the fairytales Wilhelm's editing and literary aspiration
were more prominent.
From his first book, ÜBER DEN ALTEDEUTSCHEN MEISTERGESANG (1811)
Jacob Grimm supported the theory about the unique relationship between
the 'original' German language and the folktales, whose origins
were coeval with the origins of German culture.
While collaborating with Wilhelm Jakob turned to study of philology,
producing the DEUTSCHE GRAMMATIK. Jakob's views on grammar influenced
deeply the contemporary study of linguistics, Germanic, Romance,
and Slavic. The work is in use even now. In 1822 Jacob devised the
principle of consonantal shifts in pronunciation known as Grimm's
Law. He illustrated the changes in Germanic by citing contrasting
cognates in Latin, Greek, or Sanskrit.
In Jacob Grimm's DEUTSCHE MYTHOLOGIE fairy tales are traced in
the pre-Christian era, in ancient faith and superstitions of the
Germanic peoples. The archaic pre-medieval Germany was seen representing
a Golden Age, a period of comparative harmony and happiness before
it was lost. This romantic view of the history owed much to Bible's
tale of Eden or perhaps also Arthurian legends.
Both brothers argued that folktales should be recorded and presented
in print in a form as close as possible to the original mode. In
practice they modified folktales in varying ways. In "The Snow White"
the violence was removed in later editions: the original end of
the story has the wicked Queen forced to put on red-hot iron slippers
and dance till she dies. In "Hansel and Gretel" the witch ends up
in the oven and is baked alive. At the end of World War II, allied
commanders banned the publication of the Grimm tales in Germany
in the belief that they had contributed to Nazi savagery.
Leading German Romantics: J.W. Goethe, Novalis, Friedrich
Schiller. - Note: In Finland Elias Lönnrot (1802-1884),
who created the Finnish national epic Kalevala, collected the
material - ballads, lyrical songs and incantations - from oral
sources as the Grimm's. - Poet William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
studied Irish legends and tales, which he published with George
Russell and Douglas Hyde in Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish
Peasantry (1888). - Although Grimm's Fairy Tales is in fact much
closer to genuine folk tales, the Brothers Grimm probably rival
Hans Christian Andersen as the best-known tellers of fairy tales.
Their stories have been utilized by many modern fantasists, including
Tanith Lee, Robin McKinley, and Patricia Wrede.
For further reading: Grimm Brothers and the Germanic Past,
ed. by Elmer H. Antonsen (1990); The Hard Facts of the Grimms'
Fairy Tales by Maria M. Tatar (1990); The Brothers Grimm and Folktale,
ed. by James M. McGlathery (1991); The Brothers Grimm and Their
Critics by Christa Kamenetsky (1992); Grimm's' Fairy Tales by
James M. McGlathery (1993); The Reception of Grimm's' Fairy Tales,
ed. by Donald Haase (1993) - Film: The Wonderful World
of the Brothers Grimm (1962), dir. by Henry Levin, George Pal,
starring Laurence Harvey, Karl Boehm, Claire Bloom, Barbara Eden
- an account of the lives of the brothers, supplemented by three
stories, "The Dancing Princess," "The Cobbler and the Elves,"
and "The Singing Bone."
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