The Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales

** Image ID #1171153 Unavailable **

We all know the Grimm Brothers. You surely know the Fairy Tales they wrote. Cinderella, Rumplestiltskin, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel,Snow White and The Frog Prince just to name a few. Oh, how we love those happily ever after tales! Our children, grandchildren will love them as well as we have as well as the children before us.

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm grew up in the
1800's in Germany. Their father died suddenly
and they became a poor family. The boys loved
stories and collected stories they had heard
plus wrote their own and became famous authors
of fairy tales. Their characters consisted of
witches, servant girls, soldiers, stepmothers,
dwarfs, wolves, devils, princesses, princes,
kings, queens and talking animals.

Grimm's Fairy Tales pervades world culture.
The collection of fairy tales has been
translated into 160 languages. The stories
have been done into plays, movies, operas,
painting, advertising and children's books.
Cinderella and Snow White have been in
Disney's versions and Cinderella has her
own castle in Disney Land. How cool is that?
To me, I live in a fantasy world in my mind
and I am Cinderella's biggest fan.

Grimm's Fairy Tales weren't really geared
toward children. They were entertainment
back in early 1800's Germany.When you
read the stories, you can actually see the
castles, petrified forest and feel all
the magic, evil and triumphant as the
stories come to life.

Children love these fairy tales as
bedtime stories. The stories read like
dreams come true. Little girls and big
girls want to be princesses. Magic wins
out against trolls, witches, goblins and
demons. The prince is the hero who
rescues the damsel in distress and they
fall in love and live happily ever.
Sigh.

In the Grimm's original "Snow White", the
evil stepmother is forced to dance in red hot
iron shoes until she falls dead. This would
be offensive to young children and that part
was edited. At the time, Jacob and Wilhelm
were viewed as patriotic folklorists, not
entertainers of children. Germany had been
overrun by the French and Napoleon and were
suppressing local culture. The Brothers
Grimm were trying to save the endangered
oral tradition of Germany. They were serious
scholars of medieval literature and were
loved for the tales they spun.



The Grimm Brothers were working on a
German Dictionary when they died. The
Dictionary was uncompleted.

In their final fairy tale, they wrote
about a poor boy who is out collecting wood
in a wintry forest on his sled. In the snow,
he finds a key by an iron box. The boy
inserts the key and turns it. He lifts the
lid. The story ends here. Unfinished. Maybe
this was the key to the imagination. A
reader can discover what wonderful, magical
things await them. Writers can finish the
story for themselves. Sounds like a writing
prompt to me. Have to love the Brothers
Grimm.

One more thing. In Grimms original Cinderella,
the one stepsister tried on Cinderella glass
slipper. Of course, it didn't fit. The mother cut
off her little toe but it still didn't fit. Birds pecked
out her eyes. No wonder fairy tales were edited
for little children. Grimma had the right idea
and the fairy tales were great and fantasy. I was entertained by them as a little girl. They will always live forever in our hearts.