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The Worlds of Gilbert and Sullivan

Jacob Ludwig Carl, and Wilhelm Carl Grimm were two German brothers. Jacob was born in 1785, and William in 1786. Their home town was Hanau, in Hessen, Northern Germany, near to Frankfurt; and they both studied in Marburg. They then worked in Kassel as librarians. Jacob also assisted in diplomatic missions.

But in 1840 Frederick William IV of Prussia invited them to settle  in Berlin and become members of the Academy of Sciences. Jacob is thought of as one of Germany's greatest scholars, and the founder of the scientific study of the German language and medieval German literature. His works - the Deutsche Grammatic and his initiation of the Deutsches Wörtebuch (finally completed by other scholars in 1961) are considered by some to be equivalent to Dr Johnson's great work, or to the Oxford English Dictionary.

One great ambition of the two brothers was to assemble the entire oral traditional German folk stories. They were determined to get information from interviewed peasants, not from written documents. Many of these collected stories, for example Cinderella or Rumplestiltskin have analogous counterparts in other languages and cultures. However, the Grimm brothers' collection is thought to be the most extensive. Their publication of Kinder - und Hausmärchen (Children's and Houshold Tales) is almost certainly the most famous collection of folk-tales in the world today.

Many are tales we know from updated versions in story books, films and videos. Some are sinister, vicious and bloodthirsty; most are fantastic with magic, witches and giant monsters; several are stories of love, hatred, and incest; others are full of fun. All are entertaining and enthralling. Reading the book one is impressed by how they have inspired many others to re-tell the stories. Some versions containing radical alterations, and of course many have been adapted for younger children.

There is a story told of a visit by that other famous writer of fairy tales, Hans Christian Anderson. He once set out full of high spirits from Copenhagen to Berlin (no mean feat in those days) to meet these 'fellow artists'. Enquiring at their flat, he faced a cool reception from two people who obviously didn't know him or his work. The incredulous, stammering Hans looked down self-consciously from his inelegant height, at these small, very serious, grim faced Grimms, and beat a wounded weeping retreat.

In our book¹ there 54 tales. These include such famous stories as: Rose Bud (The Sleeping Beauty); Snow Drop (Snow White); Hansel and Grettel (with a difference); The Frog Prince; The Goose Girl; Ashputtel (Cinderella with a difference); and others we all know and love. 

We have selected two for our Website - Tom Thumb, and Rumpel-Stilts-Kin. Hope you like our résumés, and will get the book out to read and enjoy yourselves . . .

1. Footnote: For further information about these stories see MusicSmiles Bibliography. Return to story.

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