The Grimm Brothers Grimm: The Modern Study Of Fairy Tales

Kyara Heredia

Contrary to popular belief fairytales are not always child-friendly. Many of the original stories collected by the Grimm brothers, Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm and Wilhelm Carl Grimm, were filled with violence, sex, and incest. The brothers Grimm were folklorists and linguists and their book Kinder-und Hausmarchen, known as The Grimm 's Fairy Tales, led to the birth of the modern study of folklore. When the original stories are read and compared to modern adaptations for children it is unbelievable how different some stories to the original folktale version. Many are starting to wonder are these stories really appropriate for my children?

The now-famous Grimm brothers, Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859), were both the oldest

This can be seen in a quote written by Maria Tatar in The Annotated Brothers Grimm, "Historians tell us that fairy tales originated in an age marked by wars, plague, and famine.", (W.W. Norton, 552). This quote specifically explains why the fairy tales are so wild and chaotic. They were created during a time of chaos, poverty, and death and the stories reflect what the townsfolk struggles and obstacles. Today many different scholars are debating the meaning of these stories, for example, Little Red Riding Hood, originally known as Little Red Cap, was believed by british mythologists that she represented the burning sun in the course of a day but when it sets out on its westward journey it is engulfed by the darkness of night ( Tartar 39-41). Many psychoanalytic critics find that preposterous and they had their own way of viewing the tale. Some scholars say that when the wolf ate Little Red that action symbolized pregnancy envy by attempting to put living things in his stomach. Also in the end the wolf was killed by stones and many psychoanalytic critics believe that it symbolizes sterility and by that “he” as in the wolf mocks his usurpation of the pregnant woman’s role. Even ideologists from the Third Reich had something to say about The Grimm’s Fairy Tales. They praised the Grimms’ Nursery and Household Tales as a “sacred book” and

For example most of us know the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In the Disney version of Snow White she is a young, kind,and beautiful princess who was a friend to all animals. Her evil stepmother grows envious of her beauty and her attention from the young Prince and wants to kill her so that she can be the fairest in the land. the stepmother recruits a huntsman to kill Snow White but he takes Mercy on her and Spirits her life and that is when she runs into the dorbz home in the woods. The doors come home to find a strange woman in their surprisingly clean home and they invited her to stay with them to be safe from the evil queen. One day the evil queen comes by disguised as a old woman and gives Snow White a poison apple she bites into it and she falls into a deep sleep. When the dwarfs At home and found Snow White they chase the evil queen up to the top of a mountain and lightning struck it and no one ever saw the queen again. The dwarfs are very sad and put Snow White into a glass coffin and kept watch on her night and day until the prince from the beginning of the story finds her and wakes her up with true love’s kiss and they live happily ever after. Snow White in The Grimm’s Fairy Tales has the same outline of the story but the contents are very different. The story first starts off totally different, Snow White 's mother is watching snowflakes fall while she is