Grimms’ Fairy Tales

In 1812, the Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, published in Germany the first of its seven editions of their collection of short stories called Children’s and Household Tales, commonly known today as Grimms’ Fairy Tales. It leaves a fairytale-like feeling to see the table of contents, as the names clearly resemble those of well-known person-alities: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, Hansel and Gretel, and the Frog King. Converted mostly from spoken sources, the 210 stories in the Grimms’ collection represent an anthology of fairy tales, animal fables, rustic farces and religious allegories that remain unrivalled to this day.

Such lasting fame would have shocked the humble Grimms. During their lifetimes the col-lection sold modestly in Germany, some hundred copies annually to begin with. The early editions were not even to serve children. At first, the brothers declined to consider illustra-tions, and academic footnotes occupied nearly as much space as the tales themselves. Jacob and Wilhelm deemed themselves as patriotic folklorists instead of entertainers of children. They began their work at a time when Germany had been overrun by the French under Napoleon, who was intent on suppressing local culture. Workaholic, unmarried and living in an overcrowded apartment, the brothers created this collection of fairy tales in an effort to preserve Germany’s oral heritage, which is on the verge of extinction.

For much of the 19th century, teachers, parents and religious figures, especially in the United States, criticised the Grimms’ collection for its unprocessed, savage descriptions. Irritated adults objected to the horrifying punishments imposed on the stories’ villains. In the original Snow White, the evil stepmother is forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes until she drops dead. Even today some protective parents shy away from reading the Grimms’ tales because of their reputation for violence.

Regardless of its sometimes negative criticism, Grimms’ Fairy Tales gradually took root with the public. The brothers had not anticipated the advent of their work would coincide with a boom of children’s literature in Europe. English publishers led the way, issuing high-quality picture books such as Jack and the Beanstalk and handsome folktale collections, all to satisfy a newly literate audience seeking virtuous material for the nursery. Noticing these new audiences, the brothers began to refine and polish their stories, which had their origins centuries earlier in unadorned peasant tales. In the Grimms’ hands, cruel mothers became nasty stepmothers, unmarried lovers were made chaste, and the incestuous father was recast as the devil.

By the 20th century, Grimms’ Fairy Tales had taken up bookshelves in children’s bedrooms. The stories read like dreams come true: handsome lads and beautiful damsels, armed with magic, triumph over giants and witches and wild beasts. They outsmart the malevolent, selfish adults. The hero and heroine naturally fall in love and live happily ever after. And parents keep reading because they approve of the finger-wagging lessons inserted into the stories: keep your promises, don’t talk to strangers, work hard, and obey your parents. According to the Grimms, the collection served as ‘a manual of manners’.

In total about two score of people verbalised tales to the Grimms. Many of the narrators visited the Grimms’ house in Kassel. The brothers particularly welcomed the visits of Dorothea Viehmann, a widow who often came to town on foot to sell her products grown in her garden. As an innkeeper’s daughter, Viehmann had grown up listening to stories from travellers on the road to Frankfurt. Among her treasures was ‘Aschenputtel’ – Cinderella. Marie Hassenpflug, a 20-year-old friend of their sister Charlotte, came from an educated French-speaking family. Marie’s wonderful stories blended motifs from the oral tradition and from Perrault’s influential 1697 book, Tales of My Mother Goose, which contained elaborate versions of Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty, among others. Many of these had been adapted from earlier Italian fairy tales.

Given that many of the Grimms’ tales originate throughout Europe, even in the Middle East and beyond, it is worth asking: How German are they? Very, says scholar Heinz Rolleke. Love of the underdog, rustic simplicity, creative energy – these are Teutonic traits. In medieval Germany, when many of the tales began to be told by word of mouth, the coarse texture of life also coloured the narratives. Throughout Europe children were often neglected and abandoned, like Hansel and Gretel. Convicted witches were burned at the stake, like the wicked mother-in-law in The Six Swans. ‘The brutality in the stories was not the Grimms’ illusion,’ Rolleke points out. ‘It mirrored the law-and-order institutions of the past.’

The editorial fingerprints left by the Grimms contradicted the particular values of conserva-tive Christian middle-class Germans in the 19th century. Yet that did not preclude the tales from being accepted by almost every culture and nationality in the world. What has contrib-uted to this widespread and enduring popularity? Bernhard Lauer points to the ‘universal style’ of the writing: ‘You have no concrete descriptions of the land, or the clothes, or the forest, or the castles, so that these stories are not bound by time and place.’ ‘The tales make it possible for us to express ‘‘our utopian longings’’,’ says Jack Zipes of the University of Minnesota, whose full translation of these fairy tales in 1987 has seized the basic spirit of the original work. ‘They show a striving for happiness that none of us knows but that we sense is possible. We can identify with the heroes of the tales and become in our minds the masters and mistresses of our own destinies.’

Fairy tales act as an exercise for the unconscious, psychoanalysts contend. Bruno Bettelheim is famous for valuing the therapeutic effects of the Grimms’ stories, calling fairy tales the ‘great soothers’. By confronting fears and phobias, symbolised by witches, heartless stepmothers and hungry wolves, children find they can master their anxieties. There has been much debate about Bettelheim’s theory, but most young readers show little interest in practising their unconsciousness. In fact, Grimms’ Fairy Tales please in many ways, some of which seem to reflect our emotions and interests as we read. This flexibility in interpretation makes them applicable to almost any era and culture.

Questions 27 – 32

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?

In boxes 27–32 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

• 27.The first edition of Grimms’ Fairy Tales sold more widely in England than in Germany.

TRUEFALSENOT GIVEN

• 28.The Grimm brothers believed they would achieve international fame.
• 29.The brothers were forced to work in secret.
• 30.Some parents today still think Grimms’ Fairy Tales are not suitable for children.
• 31.Adults like reading the Grimms’ tales for reasons different from those of children.
• 32.The Grimms based the story Cinderella on the life of Dorothea Viehmann.

Questions 33 – 35

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 33–35 on your answer sheet.

Questions 36 – 40

A reflect the living conditions of people under the old system.

B help children deal with their mental problems.

C reflect the specific values of part of the middle class.

D tell of the simplicity of rural life in Germany.

E encourage people to believe that they can do anything.

F make people aware of the heroes in real life.

G encourage people to believe in the power of nature.

H avoid details about the characters’ social settings.

• 36.Heinz Rolleke says the Grimms’ tales are ‘German’ because they
• 37.Heinz Rolleke says the abandoned children in the tales
• 38.Bernhard Lauer says the writing style of the Grimms’ tales is universal because they
• 39.Jack Zipes says the pursuits of happiness in the tales
• 40.Bruno Bettelheim says the therapeutic value of the tales means that they

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