It was not until the second edition of 1819 that there was a clear editorial change of policy that led to the refinement of the tales, especially by Wilhelm, who became the major editor from 1816 onward. The break in policy was not a sudden one; rather, it was gradual, and Jacob was always of the opinion that the tales should not be altered very much and tried to resist embellishment. But he was occupied by so many other projects that he did not object vociferously to Wilhelm’s changes as long as his brother preserved what he felt to be the essence of the tales. However, Wilhelm could not control his desire to make the tales more artistic to appeal to middle-class reading audiences. The result is that the essence of the tales is more vivid in the two volumes of the first edition, for it is here that the Grimms made the greatest effort to respect the voices of the original storytellers or collectors.
It is important to remember that the Grimms did not travel about the land themselves to collect the tales from peasants, as many contemporary readers have come to believe. They were brilliant philologists and scholars who did most of their work at desks. They depended on many different informants from diverse social classes to provide them with oral tales or literary tales that were rooted in oral traditions. Although they did at times leave their home—for example, to find and write down tales from several young women in Kassel and Münster and from some lower-class people in the surrounding villages—they collected their tales and variants primarily from educated friends and colleagues or from books. At first, they did not greatly alter the tales that they received because they were young and inexperienced and did not have enough material from other collectors to make comparisons. And, indeed, this is why the first edition of 1812/15 is so appealing and unique: the unknown tales in this edition are formed by multiple and diverse voices that speak to us more frankly than the tales of the so-called definitive 1857 edition, which had been heavily edited by Wilhelm over forty years. These first-edition Grimms’ tales have a beguiling honesty and an unusual perspective on human behavior and culture, and it is time we know more about their history.
Little-Known History about the Quest of the Brothers Grimm
In the past twenty-five years, scholars of folklore, conversant in German and familiar with the biographies and collecting practices of the Brothers Grimm, have made great progress in exposing false notions about their works and have also added immensely to our knowledge and understanding of how the Grimms shaped the folk and fairy tales that they collected. However, the general English-speaking public is not fully aware of all the facts and how important it is to know just how drastically the Grimms began changing their tales after the publication of the first edition of the Kinder- und Hausmärchen, which included scholarly annotations as well as an appendix with notes about the beliefs of children. Moreover, most people do not know how the Grimms more or less “stumbled” onto folklore and accidentally became world famous as the foremost collectors of folk and fairy tales.
Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859) did not demonstrate a particular interest in folk or fairy tales during their youth in the small towns of Hanau and Steinau in Hesse, where they spent their childhood. Certainly, they were familiar with them, but they were schooled in a traditional classical manner that included learning Greek and Latin. In fact, there were few if any books of folk or fairy tales for children to read in those days, and there is no evidence that they were exposed to any of them. Their father, Philip Wilhelm Grimm, a prominent district magistrate in Hanau, provided them with private tutors so that they could pursue a classical education, but he died suddenly in 1796 and left his large family in difficult pecuniary circumstances. Their mother had to depend on financial aid from relatives to support Jacob, Wilhelm, and their three younger brothers (Carl, Ferdinand, and Ludwig) and a sister (Lotte). Socially disadvantaged, the Grimms sought to compensate for their “handicap” by demonstrating unusual talents and distinguishing themselves in their studies at school.
In 1798 the Brothers were sent to attend the Lyzeum in the nearby city of Kassel, where they proved themselves to be precocious and ambitious students. They prepared to study law at the University of Marburg and hoped eventually to find secure employment as civil servants so that they could help support their family. Philology and folklore were not on their minds or on their agenda. They intended to follow diligently in their father’s footsteps. In the end, however, their paths diverged, and neither of the brothers became a lawyer or magistrate.
While studying at the University of Marburg from 1802 to 1806, the Grimms were inspired and mentored by Friedrich Carl von Savigny, a young professor of jurisprudence, who opened their eyes to the historical, philological, and philosophical aspects of law as well as literature. It was Savigny’s historical approach to jurisprudence, his belief in the organic connection of all cultural creations of the Volk (understood as an entire ethnic group) and to the historical development of this Volk, that drew the attention of the Grimms. Savigny stressed that the present could only be fully grasped and appreciated by studying the past. And he insisted that the legal system had to be studied through an interdisciplinary method if the relationship between laws, customs, beliefs, and values were to be fully grasped.. For Savigny—and also for the Grimms—culture was originally the common property of all members of a Volk. The Germanic culture had become academically divided over the years into different disciplines such as religion, law, literature, and so on, and its cohesion could be restored only through historical investigation. The Brothers eventually came to believe that language rather than law was the ultimate bond that united the German people and were thus drawn to the study of old German literature—though they remained in agreement with Savigny’s methods and desire to create a stronger legal sense of justice and community among the German people.
The Grimms had always been voracious readers of all kinds of literature and had digested popular courtly romances in their teens. During their university years they turned more and more to a serious study of medieval and ancient literature. Since literature and philology were not yet fully recognized fields at German universities, however, they set their sights on becoming librarians and independent scholars of German literature. They began collecting old books, tracts, calendars, newspapers, and manuscripts, wrote about medieval literature, and even debated with formidable professors and researchers of old Germanic and Nordic texts by writing contentious essays and editing scholarly collections of ancient sagas and legends. They made a brotherly pact to remain and work together for the rest of their lives, and together they cultivated a passion for recovering the “true” nature of the German people through their so-called natural Poesie, the term that the Grimms often used to describe the formidable ancient Germanic and Nordic literature. Yet these were difficult times, and their plans to gain recognition and respect through their academic work were not easily realized.
By 1805 the entire family had moved to Kassel, and the Brothers were constantly plagued by money problems and concerns about the future of their siblings. Their situation was further aggravated by the rampant Napoleonic Wars. Jacob interrupted his studies to serve the Hessian War Commission in 1806. Meanwhile, Wilhelm fortunately passed his law exams, enabling him to become a civil servant and to find work as a librarian in the royal library in Kassel with a meager salary. In 1807 Jacob lost his position with the War Commission when the French occupied the city, but he was then hired as a librarian for the new King Jérome, Napoleon’s brother, who now ruled Westphalia. Amid all the upheavals, their mother died in 1808, and Jacob, only twenty-three, and Wilhelm, twenty-two, became fully responsible for their brothers and sister. Yet, despite the loss of their mother and difficult personal and financial circumstances from 1805 to 1812, the Brothers managed to prove themselves as innovative scholars in the new field of German philology and literature.
Thanks to Savigny, who remained a good friend and mentor for the rest of their lives, the Grimms made two acquaintances who were to change their lives: in 1803 they me
t Clemens Brentano, one of the most gifted German romantic poets at that time, and in 1806, Achim von Arnim, one of the foremost German romantic novelists. These encounters had a profound impact on their lives, for Brentano and Arnim had already begun collecting old songs, tales, and manuscripts and shared the Grimms’ interest in reviving ancient and medieval German literature. In the fall of 1805 Arnim and Brentano published the first volume of Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy’s Wonder Horn), a collection of old German folk songs, and they wanted to continue publishing more songs and folk tales in additional volumes. Since they were aware of the Grimms’ remarkable talents as scholars of old German literature, they requested help from them in 1807, and the Brothers made a major contribution to the final two volumes of Des Knaben Wunderhorn, published in 1808. At the same time, Brentano enlisted them to help him collect folk tales, fables, and other stories for a new project that was to focus on fairy tales. The Grimms responded by gathering all kinds of folk tales from ancient books, not just fairy tales, and by recruiting friends and acquaintances in and around Kassel to tell them tales or to record tales from acquaintances. In this initial phase the Grimms were unable to devote all their energies to their research and did not have a clear idea about the profound significance of collecting folk tales. However, the more they began gathering tales, the more they became totally devoted to uncovering the “natural poetry” (Naturpoesie) of the German people, and all their research was geared toward exploring the epics, sagas, and tales that contained what they thought were essential truths about the German cultural heritage. Underlying their work was a pronounced romantic urge to excavate and preserve German cultural contributions made by the common people before the stories became extinct. In this respect their focus on collecting what they thought were “Germanic” tales was a gesture of protest against French occupation and a gesture of solidarity with those people who wanted to forge a unified German nation. It should also be noted, however, that most of their tales were regional and emanated largely from Hesse and Westphalia. There was no such thing as a German nation at that time.
What fascinated or compelled the Grimms to concentrate on ancient German literature was a belief that the most natural and pure forms of culture—those that held communities together like the close-knit ones in Hesse and northern Germany—were linguistic and were to be located in the past. Moreover, in their opinion, “modern” literature, even though it might be remarkably rich, was artificial and thus could not express the genuine essence of Volk culture that emanated organically from people’s experiences and bound the people together. In their letters, essays, and books, written between 1806 and 1812, the Brothers began to formulate their views about the origins of literature based on tales, legends, myths, and pagan beliefs, or what was once oral art and to a certain extent continued to be a precious art form. The purpose of their collecting folk songs, tales, proverbs, legends, anecdotes, and documents was to write a history of old German Poesie and to demonstrate how Kunstpoesie (“cultivated literature”) evolved out of traditional folk material and myths and how Kunstpoesie had gradually forced Naturpoesie (tales, legends, fables, anecdotes, and so on) to recede during the Renaissance and take refuge among the folk in oral traditions. Very early in their careers, the Brothers saw their task as literary historians who were to preserve the pure sources of modern German literature and to reveal the debt or connection of literate culture to the oral tradition. For them the tales were second nature, and their profound significance deserved recognition. As they state in the “Preface” to the 1812 volume:
Wherever the tales still exist, they continue to live in such a way that nobody ponders whether they are good or bad, poetic or crude. People know them and love them because they have simply absorbed them in a habitual way. And they take pleasure in them without having any reason. This is exactly why the custom of storytelling is so marvelous, and it is just what this poetic art has in common with everything eternal: people are obliged to be disposed toward it despite the objections of others. Incidentally, it is easy to observe that the custom of storytelling has stuck only where poetry has enjoyed a lively reception and where the imagination has not yet been obliterated by the perversities of life. In that same regard we don’t want to praise the tales or even defend them against a contrary opinion: their mere existence suffices to defend them. That which has managed to provide so much pleasure time and again and has moved people and taught them something carries its own necessity in itself and has certainly emanated from that eternal source that moistens all life, and even if it were only a single drop that a folded leaf embraces, it will nevertheless glitter in the early dawn.
As their research and correspondence expanded, they also became more aware of how widespread oral storytelling was throughout Europe and of how the cultures of these other European countries at once resembled and differed from their own.
By 1809 the Grimms had amassed about fifty-four tales, legends, animal stories, and other kinds of narratives, and they sent the texts to Brentano, who was living in the Ölenberg Monastery in Alsace. He had told them that he would probably adapt them freely, and that they could also make use of the tales as they wished. Consequently, before they sent him these tales, they copied them. Brentano was not particularly impressed by the tales he received, and never made use of them, though, fortunately, he left them in the monastery. I say fortunately because the Grimms destroyed their texts after using them in their first edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen in 1812. The handwritten texts that the Grimms had sent to Brentano, now referred to as the Ölenberg Manuscript by scholars, were discovered only much later, in 1920, and have provided researchers with important information about the Grimms’ editing process.1 All the tales of the Ölenberg Manuscript, most of them written down by Jacob, were very rough and often fragments. Sometimes they were skeletons of stories. For the most part, however, the raw stories were transformed in their first edition of 1812 by the Brothers into complete tales with clear transitions that corresponded to the Grimms’ philological and poetical concept of the genuine, dialect folk tale. In addition they often retained fragments and nonsensical ditties that they considered valuable for comprehending folk beliefs and customs. The two models they kept in mind were “The Juniper Tree” and “The Fisherman and His Wife,” two tales written down in Hamburg and Pomeranian dialect by the painter Philipp Otto Runge and sent to them by Achim von Arnim, who had published “The Juniper Tree” in 1808 in his short-lived weekly, Zeitung für Einsiedler. The Grimms edited these tales slightly and published them in dialect from the first edition to the last. It should be noted, however, that the Grimms’ editing in 1812 was relatively moderate compared to Wilhelm’s editing in later editions of their tales.
In 1812, Arnim, perhaps Brentano’s closest friend at that time, visited the Grimms in Kassel. At that point, he was aware that Brentano was not about to do anything with their texts, and he also knew that the Grimms had spent an enormous amount of time collecting all sorts of tales, legends, anecdotes, and animal stories, even more than they had sent to Brentano. So he encouraged the Grimms to publish their own collection, which would represent their ideal of “natural poetry,” and he provided them with the contact to the publisher Georg Andreas Reimer in Berlin. Thanks to Arnim’s advice and intervention, the Brothers spent the rest of the year organizing and editing eighty-six tales for publication in volume one of the first edition of 1812.
Although the Grimms had not entirely formalized their concept while they worked on the publication of the first edition, their editorial principles could already be seen in their previous works and were clearly stated in the preface to the first volume of 1812:
We have tried to grasp and interpret these tales as purely as possible. In many of them one will find that the narrative is interrupted by rhymes and verses that even possess clear alliteration at times but are never sung during the telling of a tale, and these are precisely the oldest and best tales. No incident has been added or embellished and changed, for w
e would have shied away from expanding tales already so rich in and of themselves with their own analogies and similarities. They cannot be invented. In this regard no collection like this one has yet to appear in Germany.
Of course, this statement is only relatively true. The Grimms edited the tales that were not their tales and were compelled to make changes because many of the narratives were rough and incomplete. Yet, fidelity to the words and essential features of the tales was a guiding principle, and in the first edition, they refrained from embellishment and making major alterations in substance and plot.
This first volume of 1812 was only fairly well received by friends and critics. Some thought that the stories were too crude, were not shaped enough to appeal to children, and were weighed down by the scholarly notes. Other writers wondered why the Grimms were wasting their time on such trivial stories, and they also felt that there should at least be some illustrations, as did the Grimms themselves. Also, the Brothers entered into a debate with Arnim, who believed that they were too idealistic and too negative in their critique of literary tales and modern literature. Nevertheless, the Brothers were not deterred from following their original philological and poetical strategy of remaining faithful to the etymology of words and language. Even though, as I have already pointed out, there were some differences between Jacob and Wilhelm, who later favored more drastic poetical editing of the collected tales, they largely held to their original goal of salvaging relics from the past. Just how important this goal was can be seen in their debate and correspondence with Arnim between 1812 and 1815, when the second volume of the first edition appeared. In fact their disagreement had actually begun earlier, as can be seen in a very long letter of October 29, 1810, that Jacob had written to Arnim: