From 1810 onwards, they traveled through Germany, village by village, town by town, compiling folk poems, legends, and fairy tales. The tales compiled by the Brothers Grimm have been repeatedly adapted for theatrical, film, and television productions and translated into over one hundred languages.
Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, known as the Brothers Grimm, are actually folklorists and linguists. These brothers, who lived a life full of difficulties, brought to light the stories of German folk culture that were about to disappear as a result of their long work and made them known all over the world with the book they wrote. Let's take a closer look at who the Brothers Grimm are and see some of the tales they brought to world literature.
Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm, the eldest of the Grimm Brothers, was born on January 4, 1785, and the younger Wilhelm Carl Grimm was born on February 24, 1786, in Hanau, Hessen, Germany. The father of the Grimm family of 6 children was a lawyer and civil servant. After the death of the father and a few years later of the mother, the burden of the siblings fell on the shoulders of the eldest child, Jacob.
Both Jacob and Wilhelm were people who were interested in art and literature. Following their father's footsteps, they studied law at the University of Marburg to become civil servants. During their university education, they met names such as Clemens Brentano, Friedrich Karl von Savigny, and Johann Gottfried von Herder, and they ignited the history, folk poetry, and folklore fire in them.
The next period was very difficult for both the Brothers Grimm and Germany. The country was politically very turbulent. The Brothers Grimm began working in some public libraries during this period. Even if they barely made a living, the research they did during their time in the library ignited the fire in them and caused them to hit the road.
The Brothers Grimm embarked on a journey to get to know the German folk culture a little better, which they learned by reading books. Village by village, town by town, they toured the German borders and talked to the people. In conversations by the fire, they listened to folk tales that had sunk into oblivion and took notes on even the smallest details.
Folk tales are beautiful and funny, but not scientifically valuable. At this point, the linguist identities of the Grimm Brothers came into play. They also took note of the special accents, pronunciation styles, idioms, and utterances of each region where they learned folk tales. Thus, the forgotten stories of German folk culture and even the culture itself emerged.
The Brothers Grimm, Kinder- und Hausmärchen, published in 1812, all of these researches, were collected in a book known as Grimm's Tales. There are 211 fairy tales in the last edition of this book, which had 7 editions until 1857. When Jacob Grimm died in 1863 and Wilhelm Grimm in 1859, they left such a legacy behind them.
What nation do the Brothers Grimm fairy tales belong to?
The fairy tales announced to the whole world with the book written by the Brothers Grimm are a product of German folk culture. But since we are talking about the past period, we should think about German folk culture more broadly than we do today. From this point of view, Grimm's Tales can be considered the common heritage of all European nations at some point.
Some of the known Grimm Tales:
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- Cinderella
- Rapunzel
- Hansel and Gretel
- Town Musicians of Bremen
- Sleeping Beauty
- Pied Piper of Hamelin
- The Frog Prince
- Red Riding Hood
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs:
In the well-known version of the fairy tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which has been adapted to the cinema and theater countless times, our princess young girl is jealous of her stepmother, she is told to run away instead of being killed by the hunter, and she goes and starts living with the dwarves. The stepmother finds out about this and gives our daughter a poisoned apple. Our daughter, who is thought to be dead, falls while being carried in her glass coffin and comes to her senses with the apple piece coming out of her throat. Hear this, the king sentenced his father to dance with hot iron shoes until his stepmother died.
Cinderella:
Although it has hundreds of different narratives, in the most well-known version of the Cinderella tale, our young girl, who is persecuted by her stepmother and step-sisters, one day goes to a ball with the help of a fairy and makes the prince fall in love with her. When it's time to go home, he runs away, leaving one of his shoes behind. Prince checks all the young girls of the country with this shoe, finally finds our girl, and gets married.
Rapunzel:
In the Brothers Grimm version of Rapunzel, a man constantly steals lettuce from the neighboring witch's garden. When he is caught, he agrees to give his newborn daughter to the witch. The witch takes the girl and locks her in a tower. Over the years, the girl grows, her hair grows. A prince passing by hears our daughter's voice and climbs up to the tower to save our young girl by climbing her long hair.
Hansel and Gretel:
In the Brothers Grimm version of the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale, a woodcutter family decides to leave their children in the forest because they can no longer care for them. Hearing this, children draw their way with white pebbles. Meanwhile, because they are hungry, they start to eat a house made of candy. The witch who owns the house catches the children, and just as she is about to throw them into the oven, she falls and dies. The children follow the stones back home and live happily ever after.
Town Musicians of Bremen:
A donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster, escaped from the house due to the persecution they saw and crossed paths somehow, chased a band of thieves on their way to establish a music band and settled in that house, and lived happily.