Read The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm for Free Online

man defeats a king and takes his daughter for his wife. On the other hand, the Grimms were very much disposed toward presenting the underdog in positive ways and toward publishing animal tales in which the weak almost always triumph over the strong who abuse their power. This can be seen in a major group of animal tales in the first edition, such as “The Wolf and the Seven Kids,” “The Sparrow and His Four Children,” “Old Sultan,” “Loyal Godfather Sparrow,” “The Fox and the Geese,” “The Wren and the Bear,” and “The Faithful Animals.” In many tales the protagonists who respect animals, birds, and fish and are kind to them are later helped by them. There is a strongbond between humans and talking animals in the Grimms’ collection. In general the Brothers show a predilection for collecting tales that focus on the cooperation of brothers, brothers and sisters, and humans and animals who work to overcome evil. It is striking how much this theme of cooperation among underdogs who work together to attain justice is central to the narratives in the first edition and often reinforced in the later editions of Kinder- und Hausmärchen . Unfortunately, many of the best tales in the first edition were excluded or shunned in later editions.
    In many respects the unknown original tales in the present republication of the first edition read like startling “new” tales that are closer to traditional oral storytelling than the final collection of 210 tales in the 1857 edition. This is not to minimize or discredit the changes that the Grimms made but to insist that the history of the Grimms’ tales needs to be known to fully comprehend the accomplishments of the Grimms as folklorists. In every edition of their tales, they began with “The Frog King,” also known as “The Frog Prince,” and ended with “The Golden Key.” The reason they did this is, in my opinion, because “The Frog King”—and there are two different versions in the first edition—is an optimistic tale about miraculous regeneration, love, and loyalty and signals to readers that the tales in the collection will bring hope to readers and listeners despite the conflicts filled with blood and gore. The final tale, “The Golden Key,” is highly significant because it leaves readers in suspense and indicates that tales are mysterious treasures. We just need the right key to discover and appreciate them. In this respect, however, the tales that are to be rediscovered and will become known are never the end of our quest to understand the mysteries of life, only the beginning. And so it is with the unknown original tales of the Brothers Grimm. They are only the beginning.
    Notes
    1 . See Franz Schultz, Die Märchen der Brüder Grimm in der Urform (Frankfurt am Main: Frankfurter Bibliophilen-Gesellschaft, 1924); Joseph Lefftz, “Die Märchenhandschrift der Brüder Grimm im Kloster Ölenberg,” Elsassland 4 (1924): 361–65; Joseph Lefftz, ed., Märchen der Brüder Grimm. Urfassung nach der Originalhandschrift der Abtei Ölenberg im Elsaß (Heidelberg: Schriften der Elsaß-LothringischenWissenschaft, 1927); and Heinz Rölleke, ed., Die älteste Märchensammlung der Brüder Grimm. Synopse der handschriftlichen Urfassung von 1810 und der Erstdrucke von 1812 (Cologny-Geneva: Fondation Martin Bodmer, 1975).
    2 . Reinhold Steig and Herman Grimm, eds., Achim von Arnim und die ihm nahe standen , vol. 3 (Stuttgart: J. G. Cotta’schen Buchhandlung, 1904): 237.
    3 . Ibid., 269.
    4 . Kinder- und Hausmärchen gesammelt durch die Brüder Grimm [1812/1815, Erstausgabe], ed. Ulrike Marquardt and Heinz Rölleke, vol. 2. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1986): viii–ix.
    5 . André Jolles, Einfache Formen: Legende/Sage/Mythe/Spruch Kasus/Memorabile, Märchen/Witz . (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche