Children's and Household Tales (German: Kinder- und Hausmärchen) is a collection of German fairy tales first published in 1812 by the Grimm brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm. The collection is commonly known in the Anglosphere as Grimm's Fairy Tales.
In honor of the 200th Anniversary of the Grimms' fairy tales, this book brings to life their timeless magic in an all-new translation alongside art by some of the most treasured children's illustrators from the 1820s to the 1950's. Twenty-seven of the most famous and enchanting tales - from "Cinderella" and "Snow White" to "Sleeping Beauty" and "Hansel and Gretel" , are brought together for the first time in a format that combines the original tales with the glorious international artwork they inspired. The book also includes introductions to the tales and extended biographies of the artists. Discover firsthand the power of the Grimms' tales, which have fascinated children and adults for centuries.
- Noel Daniel
I thoroughly enjoying researching into this book, the book itself was presented beautifully, brightly coloured which drew my attention, it almost looked like a mysterious fairytale book. I found it really interesting to re-read all the stories I used to read as a child, which brought back memories. I find it all quite interesting to my research findings.
The Frog Prince
In the tale, a spoiled princess reluctantly befriends the Frog Prince (meeting him after dropping a gold ball into a pond), who magically transforms into a handsome prince. Although in modern versions the transformation is invariably triggered by the princess kissing the frog, in the original Grimm version of the story the frog's spell was broken when the princess threw it against a wall in disgust.
The story in popular culture
A popular phrase related to this story is, "You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your handsome prince." It is used to encourage those who seek true love. Heiner states that it is unclear when this element was added to the story. Maria Tatar's The Annotated Brothers Grimm merely attributes it to "modern versions of the story", without becoming more specific.
Brothers Grimm Fairytales
Rapunzel
A lonely couple, who want a child, live next to a walled garden belonging to a witch. The wife, experiencing the cravings associated with the arrival of her long-awaited pregnancy, notices arapunzel plant (or, in some versions[7] of the story, rampion), growing in the garden and longs for it, desperate to the point of death. One night, her husband breaks into the garden to gather some for her; on a second night, as he scales the wall to return home, an evil witch named Dame Gothel catches him and accuses him of theft. He begs for mercy, and she agrees to be lenient, on condition that the then-unborn child be given to her at birth. Desperate, he agrees. When the baby is born, Dame Gothel takes her to raise as her own, and names her Rapunzel, after the plant her mother craved. She grows up to be the most beautiful child in the world with long golden hair. When she reaches her twelfth year, Dame Gothel shuts her away in a tower in the middle of the woods, with neither stairs nor a door, and only one room and one window. When she visits her, she stands beneath the tower and calls out:
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb the golden stair".
Cinderella
A wealthy gentleman's wife lay on her deathbed, and called her only daughter to her bedside. She asked her to remain good and kind, and told her that God would protect her. She then died and was buried. A year went by and the widower married another woman, who had two daughters of her own. They had beautiful faces and fair skin, but their hearts were cruel and wicked. The stepsisters stole the girl's fine clothes and jewels and forced her to wear rags. They banished her into the kitchen to do the worst chores, and gave her the nickname "Aschenputtel" ("Ashfool".) Despite all of this the girl remained good and kind, and would always go to her mother's grave to cry and pray to God that she would see her circumstances improve.
One day, the gentleman visited a fair, promising his stepdaughters gifts of luxury. The eldest asked for beautiful dresses, while the younger for pearls and diamonds. His own daughter merely asked for the first twig to knock his hat off on the way. The gentleman went on his way, and acquires presents for his stepdaughters. While passing a forest he got a hazel twig, and gave it to his daughter. She planted the twig over her mother's grave, watered it with her tears and over the years, it grew into a glowing hazel tree. The girl would pray under it three times a day, and a white bird would always come to comfort her.
The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids
A mother goat leaves her seven children at home while she ventures into the forest to find food. Before she leaves, she warns her young about the Big Bad Wolf who will try to sneak into the house and gobble them up. The Big Bad Wolf will pretend to be their mother and convince the kids to open the door. The young children will be able to recognize their true mother by her white feet and sweet voice.
The mother goat leaves and the seven kids stay in the house. Before long, they hear a voice at the door that says "Let me in children, your mother has something for each and every one of you". His gruff voice betrays him and the kids do not let him in. A little while later, they hear another voice at the door: "Let me in children, your mother has something for each and every one of you". This time the voice is high and sweet like their mother's. They are about to let him in when the youngest kid looks under the crack in the door and notices the Big Bad Wolf's big, black feet. They refuse to open the door, and the Big Bad Wolf goes away again.
The Big Bad Wolf goes to the bakery and buys some flour, smearing it all over his coat, turning his black feet white. He returns to the children's house, and says "Let me in children, your mother has something for each and every one of you". The kids see his white feet and hear his sweet voice, so they open the door. The Big Bad Wolf jumps into the house and gobbles up six of the kids. The youngest child hides from the wolf and does not get eaten.
Later that day, the mother goat returns home from the forest. She is distraught to find the door wide open and all but one of her children missing. She looks around and sees the Big Bad Wolf, fast asleep under a tree. He had eaten so much, he could not move. The mother goat calls to her youngest child to quickly get her a pair of scissors, a needle and some thread. She cuts open the Big Bad Wolf's belly and the six children spring out miraculously unharmed. They fill the Big Bad Wolf's belly with rocks, and the mother sews it back up again. When the Big Bad Wolf wakes up, he is very thirsty. He goes to the river to drink, but falls in and drowns under the weight of the rocks. The Family lived happily ever after.
Rumpelstiltskin
In order to make himself appear more important, a miller lies to a king, telling him that his daughter can spin straw into gold. (Some versions make the miller's daughter blonde and describe the "straw-into-gold" claim as a careless boast the miller makes about the way his daughter's strawlike blonde hair takes on a goldlike luster when sunshine strikes it.) The king calls for the girl, shuts her in a tower room filled with straw and a spinning wheel, and demands that she spin the straw into gold by morning or he will cut off her head (other versions have the king threatening to lock her up in a dungeon forever). She has given up all hope until an imp-like creature appears in the room and spins the straw into gold for her in return for her necklace. When the king takes the girl, on the next morning, to a larger room filled with straw to repeat the feat, the imp spins in return for the girl's ring. On the third day, when the girl has been taken to an even larger room with straw and told by the king that he will marry her if she can fill this room with gold or kill her if she cannot, the girl has nothing left with which to pay the strange creature. He extracts from her a promise that her firstborn child will be given to him, and spins the room full of gold a final time.
The king keeps his promise to marry the miller's daughter. But when their first child is born, the imp returns to claim his payment: "Now give me what you promised." The now-queen offers him all the wealth she has if she may keep the child. The imp has no interest in her riches, but finally consents to give up his claim to the child if the queen is able to guess his name within three days. Her many guesses over the first two days fail, but before the final night, her messenger (though he does not know the significance of his mission) comes across the imp's remote mountain cottage and watches, unseen, as the imp hops about his fire and sings. In his song's lyrics, "tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, I'll go to the king's house, nobody knows my name, I'm called "Rumpelstiltskin," he reveals his name.
When I first found out that the series "Grimm" was based off the old German fairy tales written by the Grimm Brothers, I came across this interesting and wonderfully presented book in the library. I had no trouble finding it, and indeed there were a lot of books on the Grimm brothers, which all weighed out to show the same structure and written text. The book itself just explains a bit about the Grimm Brothers, when they first published their German version ( 1812 ) of classic fairytales, such as Cinderalla, Rapunzel , Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and many more. It was an interesting read, as I am very familar with some of these fairytales, and even old ones that my parent's would read to me as a child. Most of the fairytales
I was unfamiliar with, but most I knew.
It was an interesting way to get a bit of
background knowledge into the two
Brothers, and observe how "Grimm"
got the inspiration based on the
old Fairytales of the time.