The first collection of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm was published in 1812 and was called “Children's and Family Tales.” All works were collected from the German lands and processed to give literary quality and some wonderful magic that children liked. It makes no sense to read all the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm at the same age. The list is long, but not all are good, and not all of them will be useful for small children.
Publication of the first book by the Brothers Grimm
In order to publish their book, the Brothers Grimm had to endure many hardships, events unfolded from a completely unimaginable angle. Having printed the manuscript for the first time, they gave it to their friend. However, it turned out that Clemens Brentano was not their friend at all. Looking at the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm gold mine, he simply disappeared from the sight of his friends and, as they subsequently began to suspect, decided to publish fairy tales in his own name. The manuscript was found many years later, after the death of the authors. It contained 49 fairy tales, unique in their kind, heard from the storyteller of Hesse.
Having survived betrayal best friend, The Brothers Grimm came to their senses and decided to publish the book without any frills or expenses: illustrations and decorations. So on December 20, 1812, the first book of the authors was published, the first volume already contained 86 works - this is the first time simple people read the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. The list of fairy tales has increased after 2 years by another 70 children's fairy tales.
Everyone started reading fairy tales!
Absolutely everyone began to read the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, the stories were passed on from mouth to mouth, and gradually the author-storytellers became widely known people, respect and love for whom grew by leaps and bounds. People came to them, helped in whatever way they could, and thanked them for the piece of joy they brought to their beloved children. Inspired by the idea to collect as much as possible folk works, to add a little magic and educational nuances useful to children, the brothers worked tirelessly until the end of their lives. So, over another 20-odd years, the brothers released no less than 7 editions, with abundant illustrations and high-quality covers for those times.
At all times, both children and adults loved to read the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, although some people did not consider them suitable for young children. Too adult plots and sometimes deep reasoning frightened parents. Therefore, the Brothers Grimm were not lazy and edited some of the fairy tales, reorienting them towards the youngest children. This is how they came to us. On our website we tried to add fairy tales in the original children's version only in the best translations into Russian.
And it also happens...
The fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm seriously influenced attitudes towards fairy-tale creativity, if before them fairy tales were often too simple, then the stories of the brothers can be called a literary innovation, a breakthrough. Subsequently, many people were inspired by the search for wonderful folk tales and their publication. The authors of the site also decided to make their contribution to the development and entertainment of modern children.
Among other things, let's not forget that the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm appear neither more nor less, but in international fund UNESCO in the section dedicated to memorable, great works. And such a recognition says a lot and cost two good storytellers Grimm.
Even those who do not like fairy tales are familiar with the plots of Cinderella, Rapunzel and Thumb. All these and hundreds more fairy tales were recorded and revised by two linguist brothers. They are known to the whole world under the names Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.
Family Affair
The sons of lawyer Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, were born a year apart. Jacob was born in early January 1785. The second son in the Grimm family, Wilhelm, appeared a year later, on February 24, 1786.
The young men were orphaned early. Already in 1796, they came under the care of their aunt, who did her best to support their desire to study and new knowledge.
The university for lawyers where they entered did not captivate their inquisitive minds. The Brothers Grimm became interested in linguistics, compiling a German dictionary, and from 1807 they began to write down tales they heard during their travels in Hesse and Westphalia. There was so much “fairytale” material that the Brothers Grimm decided to publish the stories they had recorded and revised.
Fairy tales not only made the brothers famous, but also gave one of the linguists family happiness. Thus, Dorothea Wild, from whose words the stories about Hansel and Gretel, Lady Snowstorm and the story about the magic table were written down, later became Wilhelm’s wife.
The tales turned out to be interesting to a wide range of readers. During the brothers’ lifetime alone, their collections of fairy tales were translated into more than a hundred languages. The success kept Jacob and Wilhelm interested in their work, and they enthusiastically looked for new storytellers.
How many fairy tales did the Brothers Grimm collect?
The initial publication of the collected material by the Brothers Grimm included 49 fairy tales. In the second edition, which consisted of two volumes, there were already 170 of them. Another Grimm brother, Ludwig, participated in the printing of the second part. However, he was not a collector of fairy tales, but skillfully illustrated what Jacob and Wilhelm revised.
After the first two editions of collections of fairy tales, 5 more editions followed. In the final, 7th edition, the Brothers Grimm chose 210 fairy tales and legends. Today they are called “Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm”.
The abundance of illustrations and closeness to the original source made fairy tales a subject for discussion and even debate. Some critics accused linguists of being too “childish” in the details of the published fairy tales.
To satisfy young readers' interest in their work, the Brothers Grimm published 50 edited fairy tales for children in 1825. TO mid-19th centuries, this collection of fairy tales was reprinted 10 times.
Recognition of posterity and modern criticism
The legacy of the Grimm linguists was not forgotten even years later. They are read to children by parents all over the world, and performances are staged based on them. young viewers. The popularity of fairy tales has grown so much over the course of a century and a half that in 2005 UNESCO included the work of the Brothers Grimm in the Memory of the World list.
Screenwriters are playing up the plots of Grimm's fairy tales for new cartoons, films and even TV series.
However, like any grandiose work, the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm are still subject to criticism and various interpretations. Thus, some religions call only a few fairy tales from the brothers’ heritage “useful for children’s souls,” and the Nazis at one time used their stories to promote their inhumane ideas.
Video on the topic
In 1812, a collection of fairy tales entitled “Children's and Family Tales” was published.
These were fairy tales collected in German lands and literary processed by the brothers Jacob And Wilhelm Grimms. Later the collection was renamed, and to this day it is known as “Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm.”
Authors
Jacob Grimm (1785-1863)
Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859)
The Brothers Grimm were men of rich erudition who had wide circle interests. It is enough just to list the types of their activities to be convinced of this. They studied jurisprudence, lexicography, anthropology, linguistics, philology, mythology; worked as librarians, taught at the university, and also wrote poetry and works for children.
Wilhelm Grimm's office
The brothers were born into the family of the famous lawyer Philipp Grimm in Hanau (Hesse). Wilhelm was 13 months younger than Jacob and in poor health. When the eldest of the brothers was 11 years old, their father died, leaving almost no funds. Their mother's sister took the boys into her care and promoted their education. In total, Philip Grimm’s family had 5 sons and a daughter, of which Ludwig Emil Grimm (1790-1863) – German artist and engraver.
Ludwig Emil Grimm. Self-portrait
The brothers were members of the circle of Heidelberg romantics, whose goal was to revive interest in folk culture Germany and its folklore. Heidelberg School of Romanticism oriented artists towards the national past, mythology, and deep religious feeling. Representatives of the school turned to folklore as the “true language” of the people, contributing to their unification.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm left the famous meeting German fairy tales. Main work the lives of the Brothers Grimm - “German Dictionary”. In fact, this is a comparative historical dictionary of all Germanic languages. But the authors managed to bring it only to the letter “F”, and the dictionary was completed only in the 1970s.
Jacob Grimm gives a lecture in Göttingham (1830). Sketch of Ludwig Emil Grimm
In total, during the writers’ lifetime, the collection of fairy tales went through 7 editions (the last one in 1857). This edition contained 210 fairy tales and legends. All issues were illustrated first by Philipp Grote-Johann and, after his death, by Robert Leinweber.
But the first editions of fairy tales were subject to strong criticism. They were judged to be unsuitable for children's reading both in content and because of academic information inserts.
Then, in 1825, the Brothers Grimm published the collection Kleine Ausgabe, which included 50 fairy tales that were carefully edited for young readers. The illustrations (7 copper engravings) were created by brother-painter Ludwig Emil Grimm. This children's version of the book went through ten editions between 1825 and 1858.
Preparatory work
Brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm began collecting fairy tales in 1807. In search of fairy tales, they traveled through Hesse (in the center of Germany) and then through Westphalia (a historical region in northwestern Germany). The storytellers of fairy tales were the most different people: shepherds, peasants, artisans, innkeepers, etc.
Ludwig Emil Grimm. Portrait of Dorothea Fiemann, folk storyteller, from whose stories the Brothers Grimm wrote down more than 70 fairy tales
According to the words of the peasant woman Dorothea Fimann (1755-1815), the daughter of an innkeeper from the village of Zweren (near Kassel), 21 tales were recorded for the second volume and numerous additions. She was the mother of six children. She owns the fairy tales “The Goose Girl”, “The Lazy Spinner”, “The Devil and His Grandmother”, “Doctor Know-It-All”.
Fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood"
Many tales in the collection are common themes from European folklore and are therefore included in the collections different writers. For example, the fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood”. It was literary adapted by Charles Perrault and later recorded by the Brothers Grimm. The story of a girl deceived by a wolf has been common in France and Italy since the Middle Ages. In the Alpine foothills and Tyrol, the fairy tale has been known since the 14th century. and was especially popular.
In fairy tales various countries and localities, the contents of the basket varied: in northern Italy, a granddaughter brought fresh fish to her grandmother, in Switzerland - a head of young cheese, in the south of France - a pie and a pot of butter, etc. In Charles Perrault's work, the wolf eats Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother. The tale concludes with a moral instructing girls to be wary of seducers.
Illustration for the German version of the fairy tale
Among the Brothers Grimm, woodcutters passing by, hearing the noise, kill the wolf, cut its belly and save the grandmother and Little Red Riding Hood. The Brothers Grimm also has a moral to the tale, but it is of a different kind: it is a warning to naughty children: “Well, now I will never run away from the main road in the forest, I will no longer disobey my mother’s orders.”
In Russia there is a version of P. N. Polevoy - full translation version of the Brothers Grimm, but the retelling by I. S. Turgenev (1866), in which the motive of violating the ban and some details of the descriptions, was removed, became more widespread.
The meaning of "Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm"
Ludwig Emil Grimm. Portrait of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (1843)
The influence of the Brothers Grimm's fairy tales was enormous; from the very first edition they won the love of readers, despite criticism. Their work inspired them to collect fairy tales and writers from other countries: in Russia it was Alexander Nikolaevich Afanasyev, in Norway - Peter Christen Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moo, in England - Joseph Jacobs.
V. A. Zhukovsky in 1826 he translated two fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm into Russian for the magazine “Children's Interlocutor” (“Dear Roland and the Clear Flower Maiden” and “The Briar Princess”).
The influence of the plots of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales can be traced in three fairy tales A. S. Pushkin: “The Tale of dead princess and about the seven heroes" ("Snow White" by the Brothers Grimm), "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish" (the tale "About the Fisherman and His Wife" by the Brothers Grimm) and "The Groom" (the tale of the Brothers Grimm "The Robber Bridegroom").
Franz Hüttner. Illustration “The Stepmother and the Poisoned Apple” (from the Brothers Grimm fairy tale “Snow White”)
Brothers Grimm's fairy tale "About a Fisherman and His Wife"
One fisherman lives with his wife Ilsebil in a poor shack. One day he catches a flounder in the sea, which turns out to be an enchanted prince; she asks to be released into the sea, which the fisherman does.
Ilzebil asks her husband if he asked for anything in exchange for the fish's freedom, and makes him summon the flounder again to wish for a better home. The magic fish grants this wish.
Soon Ilsebil again sends her husband to demand a stone castle from the flounder, then he wants to become a queen, a kaiser (emperor) and a pope. With each fisherman's request for flounder, the sea becomes increasingly gloomy and stormy.
The fish fulfills all her wishes, but when Ilsebil wants to become the Lord God, the flounder returns everything to its previous state - to a miserable shack.
The tale was written down by the Brothers Grimm in the dialect of Vorpommern (a historical region in the south of the Baltic Sea, located in different eras as part of various states) based on the tale of Philip Otto Runge (German romantic artist).
Apparently, in ancient times, the flounder had the functions of a sea deity in Pomerania, so the fairy tale is an echo of mythology. The moral of the tale is presented in the form of a parable: gluttony and excessive demands are punished by the loss of everything.
Illustration by Anna Anderson “Fisherman Talks to Flounder”
The collection “Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm” also includes legends.
Legend- written legend about any historical events or personalities. Legends explain the origin of natural and cultural phenomena and give their moral assessment. In a broad sense, a legend is an unreliable narrative about the facts of reality.
For example, the legend “Glass of the Mother of God” is the only work from the collection that has never been published in Russian.
Legend “The Glasses of Our Lady”
This legend is included in the second German edition of the book of fairy tales from 1819 as a children's legend. According to a note by the Brothers Grimm, it is recorded from the Westphalian family of Haxthausen from Paderborn (a city in Germany located in the northeast of North Rhine-Westphalia).
Contents of the legend. One day the cab driver got stuck on the road. There was wine in his cart. Despite all his efforts, he could not move the cart.
At this time, the Mother of God passed by. Seeing the poor man’s futile attempts, she turned to him with the words: “I’m tired and thirsty, pour me a glass of wine, and then I’ll help free your cart.” The driver readily agreed, but he did not have a glass to pour wine into. Then the Mother of God picked a white flower with pink stripes (field bindweed), which looked a little like a glass, and gave it to the cab driver. He filled the flower with wine. The Mother of God took a sip, and at that very moment the cart was freed. The poor man moved on.
Convolvulus flower
Since then, these flowers have been called “the glasses of the Mother of God.”
One evening a young drummer walked alone across a field. He approaches the lake and sees three pieces of white linen lying on the shore. “What a thin linen,” he said and put one piece in his pocket. He came home, forgot to think about his find and went to bed. But as soon as he fell asleep, it seemed to him as if someone was calling him by name. He began to listen and heard a quiet voice that said to him: “Drummer, wake up, drummer!” And the night was dark, he could not see anyone, but it seemed to him as if some figure was rushing in front of his bed, first rising up, then falling down.
What do you want? - he asked.
Once upon a time there lived a poor shepherd boy. His father and mother died, then his superiors sent him to the house of a rich man, so that he would feed and raise him. But the rich man and his wife had an evil heart, and with all their wealth they were very stingy and unkind to people and were always angry if anyone took advantage of even a piece of their bread. And no matter how hard the poor boy tried to work, they fed him little, but beat him a lot.
Once upon a time there lived an old miller at the mill; He had neither a wife nor children, and he had three servants. They stayed with him for several years, so he said to them one day:
I have already become old, I should now sit on the stove, and you go wander around the world; and whoever brings me home the best horse, I will give the mill to him, and he will feed me until I die.
The third worker was a filler at the mill, and they all considered him a fool and did not assign the mill to him; Yes, he himself didn’t want that at all. And all three of them left, and, approaching the village, they said to Hans the Fool:
In ancient times, when the Lord God was still walking the earth, it happened that one evening he was tired, night overtook him, and he had nowhere to spend the night. And there were two houses along the road, one opposite the other; There was one big and beautiful, and the other was small and unsightly in appearance. Big house belonged to the rich man, and the little one to the poor man. The Lord thought: “I won’t bother the rich man, I’ll spend the night with him.” The rich man heard them knocking on his door, opened the window and asked the stranger what he needed.
A long time ago there lived a king in the world, and he was famous throughout the entire earth for his wisdom. Everything was known to him, as if someone was sending him news about the most secret things through the air. But he had strange custom: every noon, when everything was cleared from the table and no one else remained, a reliable servant brought him another dish. But it was covered, and even the servant did not know what was on this dish; and not a single person knew about it, for the king opened the dish and began to eat only when he was completely alone.
It went on like this for a long time, but one day curiosity overcame the servant, he could not control himself and took the dish to his room. He closed the doors properly, lifted the lid from the dish, and saw a white snake lying there. He looked at her and could not resist trying her; he cut off a piece and put it in his mouth.
Once a woman with her daughter and stepdaughter went out into the field to cut grass, and the Lord God appeared to them in the form of a beggar and asked:
How can I get closer to the village?
“If you want to know the way,” the mother answered, “look for it yourself.”
And if you are worried that you won’t be able to find your way, then take a guide.
A poor widow lived alone in her hut, and in front of the hut she had a garden; There were two rose trees growing in that garden, and white roses were blooming on one, and scarlet ones on the other; and she had two children, similar to these pink trees, one was called Snow White, and the other was Scarlet Flower. They were so modest and kind, so hard-working and obedient, that there were never others like them in the world; only Snow White was even quieter and more gentle than Scarlet Flower. Alotsvetik jumped and ran more and more through the meadows and fields, picking flowers and catching butterflies; and Snow White - she mostly sat at home near her mother, helped her with the housework, and when there was no work, read something out loud to her. Both sisters loved each other so much that if they went somewhere, they always held hands, and if Snow White used to say: “We will always be together,” then Scarlet Flower would answer her: “Yes, while we are alive, we will never let’s part” - and the mother added: “Whatever one of you has, let him share it with the other.”
Once upon a time there lived a beautiful queen. One day she was sewing by the window, accidentally pricked her finger with a needle and a drop of blood fell on the snow lying on the windowsill.
The scarlet color of blood on the snow-white cover seemed so beautiful to her that the queen sighed and said:
Oh, how I would like to have a child with a face as white as snow, with lips as scarlet as blood and curls as black as pitch.
