Today’s Wonder of the Day was inspired by Amelia. Amelia Wonders, “Who were the brothers Grimm?” Thanks for WONDERing with us, Amelia!
Have you heard the one about the beautiful young girl forced to live with seven tiny miners to avoid the evil plots of her wicked stepmother? Of course, you have! Everyone knows the tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
But how is it we know Snow White’s tale, as well as those of other fairy tale characters, such as Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty? You can thank two brothers.
The Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, were from Germany. They worked in a library and were really interested in studying old languages. In the 1800s, they started collecting stories that people told in different parts of the country and put them in books.
The Brothers Grimm weren't the ones who penned the stories they have become known for. The stories had been part of a time-honored oral tradition in Germany and passed down from one generation to the next for many years.
The Brothers Grimm talked to their friends and family and wrote the stories that people used to tell a long time ago. They did this to make sure the stories wouldn’t be forgotten. Then, in 1812, they made a book called Children’s and Household Tales that had all the stories in it, which included folklore and fairy tales.
The Brothers Grimm’s book had a lot of different stories in it. Some of the most popular ones are "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "The Frog Prince," "Little Red Riding Hood," and "Hansel and Gretel." They kept adding more stories to the book over the years, so it got bigger and bigger. The first book had 86 stories, but the last one—the seventh edition—had over 200!
Lots of people all over the world like to read the stories that the Brothers Grimm wrote a long time ago. These stories are now written in over 160 different languages! They are really timeless and popular, so there might be different versions of the same story in one language. In the United States, for example, there are more than 120 different editions of Grimm’s Fairy Tales.
Many people like the stories that the Brothers Grimm wrote so much that they’ve made them into movies. Even though some think these stories are just for kids, they weren’t for children back then.
The first versions of Grimm’s Fairy Tales did not have pictures in them, and they were meant for grown-ups to read. Some stories had things like fighting or scary stuff in them that wasn’t really for kids. But as time went on, people changed the stories to make them more like the ones we know now.
The Brothers Grimm wrote about many things like old stories, languages, and history. But the book people know them best for is Grimm’s Fairy Tales. It was a really famous book when they were alive, and people still like to read it today!
