Jacob Grimm (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859) were German scholars of language and folklore. Their collection of Children's and Household Tales, first published in 1812, preserved Snow White, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel and some two hundred other stories, and became one of the most widely read books in the world.
Genres
fairy tales and fables
Two brothers
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were born in Hanau, in Hesse, a year apart, the eldest sons of a lawyer who died when they were children. They studied law together at the University of Marburg, where the jurist Friedrich Carl von Savigny gave them a passion for old manuscripts and the history of language.
They lived and worked together almost all their lives, as librarians in Kassel and later as professors in Göttingen and Berlin.
Collecting the tales
From 1806 the brothers gathered folk tales, mostly from friends and acquaintances in Kassel, many of them young women of educated families, and from storytellers such as Dorothea Viehmann, a tailor's widow.
The first volume of Kinder- und Hausmärchen appeared in 1812 and the second in 1815. Wilhelm in particular rewrote the tales in later editions, making them more suitable for children and more polished in style; the last edition, of 1857, contained 210 stories.
Scholars of German
Jacob Grimm was one of the founders of German philology. His German Grammar described the regular sound changes between Germanic and other European languages, known as Grimm's law.
In 1837 both brothers were among the 'Göttingen Seven', professors dismissed for protesting against the King of Hanover's abolition of the constitution. In Berlin they began the great German Dictionary, which was completed only in 1961.
Anecdotes
Fewer children, more cruelty
Later editions of the tales removed sexual allusions but kept, or even added, violent punishments. In the 1812 version of Snow White, the jealous queen is the girl's own mother; she became a stepmother in 1819.
A dictionary for 123 years
The Deutsches Wörterbuch the brothers began in 1838 had only reached the word Frucht when Jacob died in 1863. Later scholars completed it in 1961, and it filled thirty-two volumes.
Frequently asked questions
Did the Grimms write their fairy tales?
No. They collected them from storytellers and written sources, but they edited and rewrote them, especially Wilhelm, over seven editions.
What is Grimm's law?
A description of regular sound changes between the Germanic languages and other Indo-European languages, set out by Jacob Grimm in 1822.
Who translated the tales into English?
Edgar Taylor in 1823, then Margaret Hunt and Lucy Crane in the 1880s, among many others.