Who are the Brothers Grimm?

The Brothers Grimm are the brothers Jacob Grimm (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859), who were German fairy tale writers and linguists.

 

They collected folk tales and tales from all over Germany and Europe and published Children's and Household Stories (also known as Grimm's Fairy Tales, German: Kinder- und Hausmärchen) in 1812, becoming world-famous.

 

Major achievements and characteristics

• The Brothers Grimm are widely known as fairy tale writers, but they were actually linguists and philologists. They also made great contributions to German language studies, such as establishing the 'Grimm's Law' regarding German phonetic changes.

 

• Representative fairy tales include ‘Snow White’, ‘Hansel and Gretel’, ‘Rapunzel’, ‘The Bremen Town Musicians’, and ‘The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats’.

 

• When collecting folk tales, the Brothers Grimm tried to preserve the original form of the story as much as possible and pursued a method of minimizing morality or embellishment.

 

• Their fairy tale collections have been translated into over 160 languages and have become a global standard for the study of folk tales.

 

Significance of the Brothers Grimm’s Fairy Tales

• The Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales are not simply stories for children, but works that reflect the spirit and national identity of German and European society at the time.

 

• They collected and recorded fairy tales so that oral stories could be passed down to future generations without disappearing, and are considered pioneers of modern folklore and folk tale studies.

 

Others

• The Brothers Grimm had a great influence on German culture, to the point that they appeared on the German 1000-mark banknote before the introduction of the euro.

 

• 《Children's and Family Stories》 contains human nature and social aspects well, although some of the content has been revised or deleted over time. 

 

Summary: The Brothers Grimm are representative German fairy tale collectors and linguists, and they are figures who have left a great mark on fairy tales and linguistic studies that are loved worldwide.