By Jovan Stipić

After the Bible, the collection of stories by the Grimm Brothers has become the most read book in the world. Found in almost every home, for nearly 200 years, they have taught children, the young and the old, that wickedness is always punished and goodness rewarded no matter how cruel and unfair the world may seem. 

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were born in Hanau, a town of the Holy Roman Empire, in 1785 and 1786, respectively. They had seven other siblings, out of whom three died in infancy. 

When they began collecting stories in the early 19^th century, they were precocious students in their teens attending Marburg University. Back then, taking care of one’s family, be it financially or otherwise, meant you had to grow up fast. Whether they wanted to or not, the two boys did. The Napoleonic Wars and the death of their mother in 1808 made their situation even more dire as they had to take care of their three younger siblings. 

The need for money first led them to collect the stories they are now famous for. A particular poet Clements Brentano asked them to compile all kinds of folk tales they could get their hands on and thus help preserve them for future generations. 

Brentano, unfortunately, lost the manuscript and never published the stories they had collected, opting instead to publish his book of folk songs. Fortunately, they had copied all their findings into a private collection and published them a few years later.

Even then, it is a small miracle that they did, as it wasn’t until another romantic poet and a mutual friend named Achim von Arnim made them do it. Not for the money they had previously needed, but in the hopes of preserving German folklore for future generations. Thus, in 1812 the very first version of the text was published, boasting 86 stories. 

Funnily enough, they were not meant for children, but rather the Grimm Brothers had collected them for scholars and learned men of the time as a sort of literary archaeological dig where they could dissect times long past. It was even mentioned in the preface: 

“It was perhaps just the right time to record these tales since those people who should be preserving them are becoming more and more scarce. . .  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.”

This is further proven by stories such as “The Children of Famine”, “The Hand with the Knife”, and the like, which spoke of brutal living conditions of the 19^th century. Yet by the final edition published in 1857, most of the darker motifs were either removed altogether or made brighter. 

Though darker, there is a certain beauty in that very first edition as the footprints and original voices of the diverse storytellers from whom the Grimm Brothers collected their stories could be felt in each tale. There, we find a large misconception of the modern age, where we think that the brothers collected their stories from the common folk, which is completely untrue. 

They came from literary men the brothers befriended over the years, which is also why they tried so hard to preserve their original voices in that first edition. It is essential for an author, or an artist in general, to keep their unique voice intact, even if it is told by someone else.

The other learned men of the time with whom the brothers worked with collected those stories orally from complete strangers who were completely illiterate and sometimes anonymous.

Yet that blind trust between folklorists is exactly why the 19^th century is considered the golden age of the folk tale. 

Much more so than simple stories for children, they speak to all ages because they indicate how we can do better and be better with the hope of making the world a better place. So much so that the words “Once upon a time…” have become a synonym for warmth and love.