The Grimm Brothers!!!

By MK.

So how many of you have grown up reading fairy tales? Like Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White or The Bremen Musician? I’m pretty sure a lot of you have. I know I have! Why-my family has a book that’s the complete collection of the Grimm Brothers Fairy Tales. It’s four inches thick, good God.

You all have probably read them but how about the originals? They’re a lot more…>ahem< gruesome then you think they are. For Cinderella her step-sisters cut off (1) a toe and (2) a heel to get their foot in the slipper and then are blinded at the wedding. ^[1] For Snow White she isn’t woken up by a kiss, she’s woken up by the poisonous apple dropping out of her mouth^[2] and the prince falls in love with her CORPSE^[3]!!!!! Dear lord what the heck Prince Charming?! Then Little Red Riding Hood...her grandmother didn’t get rescued, and the wolf died.^[4] Hansel and Gretel got abandoned and burnt the house owner,^[5] and the Bremen Musicians…didn’t become musicians^[6]...or reach Bremen.

As you can see, very gruesome stories. Oh and Snow White was murdered by her MOTHER!!!! Of course the stories have been rewritten and reprinted over the years and people have given their own twist to the stories. The brothers Grimm, however, wrote them down word by word, from the old women and the servants and whomever else they got their stories from.

Brother #1 Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm

·         Eldest

·         Born January 14, 1785

·         Died September 20, 1863

·         German

·         Never married

·         Had illness when younger but grew out of it

Brother #2 Wilhelm Carl Grimm

·         Youngest

·         Born February 24, 1786

·         Died December 16, 1859

·         German

·         Married

·         Had four children 

·         Healthy in boyhood but struck with illness when younger

They sound nice don’t they? At least they gave us the fairy tales we have nowadays. Even if they are a lot more…different then we all think they are.  I think I’ve made my point, Ja?

Tschüss!

^[1] They got blinded by two turtledoves.

^[2] The coffin was very heavy and they hit it on a tree by accident.

^[3]Corpse=dead body

^[4] They filled his belly with rocks and dumped him into the river. So they drowned him.

^[5] She was a witch…but still…it’s not nice to burn someone alive.

^[6] They stayed in that house, for the rest of their days.