UNESCO sign indicating that the Grimm Family's home in Steinau is a World Heritage site. If you travel in Germany taking a deep dive into the Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm with a Professor of German Literature as your guide, you may be presented with ideas that you probably didn't want to know. During this trip I learned disturbing things about many of my favorite Grimm's fairy tales.
A. The stories are not fairy tales, they are just stories collected from informants.
B. So many aren't even German. Most were gathered from young French refugee women who remembered hearing them from their Huguenot nursemaids.
C. Most of them are so dark and gruesome that I could not stomach the original telling of them.
A. The stories are not fairy tales, they are just stories collected from informants.
B. So many aren't even German. Most were gathered from young French refugee women who remembered hearing them from their Huguenot nursemaids.
C. Most of them are so dark and gruesome that I could not stomach the original telling of them.
Fairy tale fountain in Steinau, Germany. Rapunzel at the top, Little Red Riding Hood in the middle. Why do we call them "fairy" tales. A French writer coined the term long before the Grimm Brothers started their collecting of stories in 1812-1814. The stories were usually told to young girls as cautionary tales. The wisdom imparted was supposed to keep them from doing the stupid things presented in the tales. Thus a "fairy" was equated to a "wise" person.
These tales had already been told and retold, and changed along the way, by many storytellers. The Grimm Brothers collected many versions of the same stories and tried to discern the most original versions to publish. They actually made several editions, including the 1857 where much of the cruder parts were taken away. Critics claim that the sanitized versions are devoid of any value.
These tales had already been told and retold, and changed along the way, by many storytellers. The Grimm Brothers collected many versions of the same stories and tried to discern the most original versions to publish. They actually made several editions, including the 1857 where much of the cruder parts were taken away. Critics claim that the sanitized versions are devoid of any value.
Childhood home of the Grimm Brothers and Family in Steinau, Germany Personally, I am glad that the stories have survived in more child-friendly versions.
The childhood home of the Grimm family is preserved as a museum. It was my favorite museum to visit on my trip. So many of the exhibits had fabulous art. Pity that we were not allowed to take any pictures of the exhibits inside. They displayed so many artistic interpretations of the fairy tales created over the years. I didn't see many that would be unsuitable for children. It was delightful!
The childhood home of the Grimm family is preserved as a museum. It was my favorite museum to visit on my trip. So many of the exhibits had fabulous art. Pity that we were not allowed to take any pictures of the exhibits inside. They displayed so many artistic interpretations of the fairy tales created over the years. I didn't see many that would be unsuitable for children. It was delightful!
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