The Brothers Grimm Were Scholars First: How Jacob and Wilhelm Collected Snow White, Hansel and Gretel and More

The Brothers Grimm, Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were German scholars of language and folklore who collected and published Children's and Household Tales (Kinder- und Hausmärchen), first in 1812, the book that gave the world its best-known versions of Snow White, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel and many other fairy tales. They revised and expanded the collection throughout their lives, and it became one of the most influential works in world folklore.

Two brothers from Hanau

Jacob was born on 4 January 1785 and Wilhelm on 24 February 1786 in Hanau, in the German state of Hesse-Kassel, into an educated Protestant family. Their father, a local official, died of pneumonia in 1796, when Jacob was eleven, and the family lost its income and home. With the help of an aunt, the two boys went to school in Kassel, where they studied hard and stayed extremely close for the rest of their lives, living and working together.

Librarians with a mission

The brothers studied law but became more interested in old German literature and language. Jacob became a court librarian in 1808, and both later worked as librarians in Kassel, jobs that paid little but left them plenty of time for research. The rise of Romanticism had revived interest in traditional folk stories, which the Grimms saw as a pure form of national culture. They set out to record these tales as a scholarly project.

Where the stories really came from

The Grimms gained a reputation for collecting tales from peasants, but in fact many came from educated, middle-class or aristocratic acquaintances. Dortchen Wild, a pharmacist's daughter and childhood friend who later married Wilhelm, and her family and their nursery maid told the brothers some of the best-known tales. Some stories also had French or other foreign roots, which is one reason critics later argued about how "German" the collection really was.

Softening the tales

The first edition was meant for scholars, and it was not always gentle. Some reviewers complained that not every tale was suitable for children because of scenes of violence and sexuality, so Wilhelm reworked the stories in later editions, polishing the language and changing plots. Many tales grew to twice their original length. In the Grimms' original "Snow White", for example, the queen who orders the girl killed is her own mother, not a stepmother. The later, softer versions are the ones that spread around the world.

Scholars of the German language

The fairy tales were only part of their work. Jacob also wrote important studies of German grammar and mythology. In 1837 the brothers lost their university posts in Göttingen after joining six other professors, the "Göttingen Seven", in a political protest. Short of money, they began a huge project in 1838: a complete German Dictionary (Deutsches Wörterbuch). It was far from finished when they died; others completed it long afterwards. In 1840 they were given posts in Berlin, where they spent their last years.

Their legacy

Thanks to the Grimms, stories that might have been forgotten were written down and read in countless languages. Walt Disney's Snow White (1937) and many later films used their tales. The brothers also helped found the scientific study of folklore and of the German language.

Learn with the Grimms: English phrases

Phrase	Meaning	Example
happily ever after	happy for the rest of their lives	And they lived happily ever after.
a wicked stepmother	a cruel stepmother (fairy-tale type)	She plays the wicked stepmother in the play.
a trail of breadcrumbs	small clues that lead somewhere	The emails left a trail of breadcrumbs.
to let down your hair	to relax and enjoy yourself	It's Friday—time to let your hair down.
a Cinderella story	an unexpected success from a humble start	The small team's win was a Cinderella story.

Try this: Write three English sentences about your favourite fairy tale, using "happily ever after" and "a Cinderella story".