CAPTURING magic, myth and the imagination of children for over 200 years, the Grimm brothers are arguably the most iconic writers of the 20th century.
Their books are hugely influential in Western culture and contain timeless, familiar tales that have entertained generations of children, including Snow White, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood.
However, less well known are the origins of these childhood classics. Stories such as Snow White were of a less than whimsical nature, attempting to reflect the culture of the day - a “cruel, “violent” Europe.
“What many people do not realise is that the Grimms’ collection of fairy tales was not intended for children. The first edition even has scholarly annotations,” says Anette Hagan, Senior Rare Books Curator of the National Gallery of Scotland.
“The tales were mainly told among adults, mostly young women, who in turn had heard them from their governesses and servants. Others were simply copied out of older books. There is a dark side to many of them: they reflect the often cruel, violent lives of people in Europe at that time with a central fear of the dangers that lurk in the dark forest.’
The Grimms believed that their collection of fairy tales should be distinctly German in character and mirror the national identity of the time. They were the leading lights of the Romantic movement; a celebration of sentimentality and the supernatural.
However, after limited popular appeal of their first edition in 1812 they embarked on a prolonged effort of rewriting and recasting.
It took a further five editions to move away from scholarly endeavours to turn the folk tales into something deemed accessible to children and more attractive for the adults reading them.
Contemporary adaptations of these stories are distinctly less sexual and violent. In the Grimms’ original, for example, Snow White’s stepmother dies as she is forced to dance in red-hot metal shoes at Snow White’s wedding; Rapunzel’s long hair is used to bring up a prince to her tower cell for a sexual liaison which leads to pregnancy; the Frog Prince is not kissed by the princess but thrown against the wall in anger by her.
The appeal of the brother’s work and the continued interpretation of their stories through film and theatre make their fairytales as relevant and important today as they would have been two centuries ago in informing popular culture.
