Fairytales

By The Brothers Grimm

The Brothers Grimm, Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859), were born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, in the German state of Hesse. Throughout their lives they remained close friends, and both studied law at Marburg University. But they were best (and universally) known for the collection of over two hundred folk tales they made from oral sources and published in two volumes of 'Nursery and Household Tales' in 1812 and 1814. Although their intention was to preserve such material as part of German cultural and literary history, and their collection was first published with scholarly notes and no illustration, the tales soon came into the possession of young readers. This was in part due to Edgar Taylor, who made the first English translation in 1823, selecting about fifty stories 'with the amusement of some young friends principally in view.' They have been an essential ingredient of children's reading ever since.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9781257687213

The Brothers Grimm

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were born during the 1780s in Hanau, Germany, and studied law at Marburg university. After leaving education, they worked as diplomats and librarians in Kassel. In 1837 they were dismissed from their professorships at the University of Göttingen for refusing to swear allegiance to the new King of Hanover, but were later invited to join the Academy in Berlin, by Frederick William IV of Prussia, where they remained for the rest of their lives. Individually, and as a collaborative team, the brothers were two of the greatest scholars that Germany has produced. Aside from their folktales, they produced many different volumes of research, as well as anthologies of verse and song, and two of Germany's most important linguistic texts, the Deutsche Grammatik (German grammar) and the Deutsche Wörterbuch (German dictionary). Wilhelm died in 1859, at the age of 73, and Jacob died in 1863, at the age of 78.