The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World

This summer I resolved to learn a little more about fairy tales, specifically about the people who have written or transcribed them.  Probably the most famous of these people are the Brothers Grimm (Wilhelm and Jacob), so I've begun my reading with Prof. Jack Zipes' study (pictured above).  This book is more than a biography as it covers not only the brothers' life stories but also the impact that their tales have had on German readers (scholars & common readers)--and the reasons that they have had such an impact.

Do you know about the 2005 movie, The Brothers Grimm, that starred Heath Ledger?  (See the link below for the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3QkwDld1d4


    That is not the real story.

However, contrary to what we "know," neither did the Brothers Grimm go out to the farms and forests and collect stories from German peasants.  As Prof. Zipes points out, the brothers gathered their stories from literate, middle-class storytellers who came to their house.  (Wilhelm even married one of the storytellers, Dortchen Wild, a pharmacist's daughter.)  The brothers then collected different versions of these stories, revising and editing them for publication.  Wilhelm continued to rework these stories as the audience of the collections changed from adults to children.  Here is a link to a comparison of different versions of "Hansel and Gretel":
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm015a.html

You may also read different versions of "Snow White" here:
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm053.html
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0709.html#snowwhite

Prof. Zipes therefore discusses the Grimms' tales as literary fairy tales, works that draw on both orality and print.  Although the Grimms' tales occupy a unique position in German and world culture, they are also very much a type of literature that was very popular in the 19th century.

Arthur Rackham's illustration below is from an English translation of "Snow White" (1909).  In this version, she is called Snowdrop.


Prof. Zipes also points out that the most well-known stories, the ones that we think of when we think about the Brothers Grimm's fairy tales, do not represent all of the stories that the brothers collected, revised, and edited.  Here are links to some other stories.  We may talk about "Godfather Death" in class: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm044.html.  Prof. Zipes discusses "The Maiden Without Hands" at length:  http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm031.html  Another story that he alludes to is "Frau Trude" :  http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm043.html

To see Justin Chen's art inspired by "The Maiden Without Hands," go to this link:
http://jkhc.blogspot.com/2009/02/maiden-without-hands-click-image-for.html

In fact, when we think about the most well-known stories, we may really be thinking about versions by Walt Disney or one of the many 20th-century writers for children!  

Prof. Zipes seems to be most interested in the historical and cultural context of the Grimms' stories.  Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm lived from 1785 to 1863 and 1786 to 1859.  During their lifetime, Germany was not one country.  It was divided up into different, independent states such as Hanover and Prussia, and, during the early 1800s, these states became satellites of France.  In other words, they were ruled by members of Napoleon's family.  As a result, the Grimms sought to preserve German culture and were very much in favor of German unification.  Their family situation complicated their political and cultural activism.  Since their father had died when they were boys, Jacob and Wilhelm also had to struggle to survive in a world where money and social standing were essential.  Both men trained as lawyers and worked in a variety of professions.  Yet ultimately they were successful.  They were able to pursue their cultural activism and publish a number of works, including the beginnings of a German dictionary as well as their anthologies of fairy tales.  The brothers were proud of their success and attributed it to their values (hard work, love of family, Protestant piety).  Prof. Zipes suggests that their stories reflected both the larger political and cultural context and the brothers' personal situation. 

Below is a map of Europe so that you may see where Germany is:


  Also, below is a picture of Kassel, the city that the Grimms called home.  It is now described as "the capital of the German fairy tale route":


Prof. Zipes concludes by showing how central the Grimms' tales are to Germans.  The stories are truly a common cultural currency and represent a different kind of popular culture, that is, folk culture.  As examples of folk culture, they played a key role in Germans' efforts to rehabilitate themselves after WWII and, in East Germany, to establish and support Communism. Late twentieth century authors in West Germany reworked these stories for adults and children both as satire and as stories that continued the Grimms' tradition of political and cultural activism.  Some of these reworkings are poems!  German pop psychology draws on the Grimms' tales in ways that intrigue yet infuriate Prof. Zipes.   He considers these pop psychologists' readings to be very limited and limiting.

It is always interesting to see how people from other cultures look at our readings...and at literature in general. 

Below is a picture of a sculpture of the Frog Prince.

And here is an image from a German comic "Frau mit Frosch" (Woman with Frog) about a businesswoman and her modern-day frog prince:

I tried to look for illustrations of some of the more outrageous modern-day adaptations, but they aren't online yet.  In more than one story, the fairy tale heroine starts a union for workers, and one even emigrates to America because our country has no kings or princes.  One hero is helped by an elf named Xram...Marx backwards.  And these were the adaptations from capitalistic West Germany!  The communist East Germans' adaptations were more traditional.