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http://www.ibtimes.com/brothers-grimm-facts-9-quotes-stories-fairy-tales-author-wilhelms-birthday-2319562

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Their tales have been translated and sold in over 150 languages

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http://www.kateforsyth.com.au/kates-blog/seven-fascinating-things-about-the-grimm-brothers

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The brothers lost their jobs by signing a protest against the King.  http://www.associatesdegree.com/2011/01/13/15-little-known-facts-about-the-brothers-grimm/

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SEVEN FASCINATING THINGS about the Grimm Brothers

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6. The Grimm brothers published many other books apart from fairy tales, including writings on linguistics, folklore, and the beginning of the first detailed German dictionary. This was not finished until 120 years after their deaths.

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http://www.kateforsyth.com.au/kates-blog/seven-fascinating-things-about-the-grimm-brothers

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http://forreadingaddicts.co.uk/authors/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-brothers-grimm/7443

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The original tales are gruesome and rewritten all the time.

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https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/who-were-the-brothers-grimm

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SEVEN FASCINATING THINGS about the Grimm Brothers

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6. The Grimm brothers published many other books apart from fairy tales, including writings on linguistics, folklore, and the beginning of the first detailed German dictionary. This was not finished until 120 years after their deaths.

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1837-1841. Professors Grimm join five of their university colleagues in a formal protest against a constitutional violation of Ernst August, King of Hannover. The seven professors (Die Göttinger Sieben) are fired. The Grimm brothers receive many offers for new positions, and finally accept appointments at the University of Berlin.

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Wilhelm Grimm was a 19th century German author who, along with brother Jacob, published Grimms' Fairy Tales, a collection famous for stories like Cinderella and Rapunzel.

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Have you heard the one about the beautiful girl who is forced to live with seven miners to the evil plots of her stepmother? Of course, you have! Everyone knows the tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

But how is it that 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 from Germany.

The Brothers Grimm, otherwise known as Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, were German librarians who also specialized in philology, which is the study of language in historical texts. During the early 19 th century, they became interested in cultural research and began to collect and publish .

The Brothers Grimm didn't actually write any of the stories their name has become synonymous with. Instead, these stories existed as part of a longstanding in Germany and had been passed down from one generation to another for many years.

The Brothers Grimm interviewed friends and relatives, writing down these stories to save them from extinction . Eventually, they published their collection of and fairy tales as Children's and Household Tales in 1812.

In addition to the famous tales mentioned previously , the collection contained many other famous tales, including The Frog Prince, Little Red Riding Hood, and Hansel and Gretel. The collection , which would over time become known as Grimm's Fairy Tales, was republished many times, eventually growing from an initial collection of 86 stories to over 200 stories in the seventh .

To date, the fables and fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm have been translated into more than 160 different languages. The stories are so and popular that one language can have many versions. In the United States, for example, you can find more than 120 different editions of Grimm's Fairy Tales.

The enduring popularity of these stories can be seen in the number of the stories that have been made into movies. Even though many people would consider these popular fairy tales to be children's stories, they weren't originally meant for kids.

The earliest editions of Grimm's Fairy Tales did not contain illustrations and were targeted at adults. Many of the stories contained violence and other dark content not meant for children. Over time, many of the stories were modified to resemble to the tales we know today.

Although the Brothers Grimm published many other works, including books about mythology, linguistics, and medieval studies, Grimm's Fairy Tales was their enduring, signature work. It was a bestseller during their lifetimes and has maintained its popularity throughout the ages.

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Have you heard the one about the beautiful girl who is forced to live with seven miners to the evil plots of her stepmother? Of course, you have! Everyone knows the tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

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SEVEN FASCINATING THINGS about the Grimm Brothers

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6. The Grimm brothers published many other books apart from fairy tales, including writings on linguistics, folklore, and the beginning of the first detailed German dictionary. This was not finished until 120 years after their deaths.

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It's the 200th anniversary of the books that brought us Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin and 200 other stories: Kinder- und Hausmärchen or Children's and Household Tales, first published by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 1812.

Almost all of us know some of Grimms fairy tales - or we think we do. But did you know that in the original Grimms version of Cinderella, the nasty stepsisters cut off part of their feet to try to fit them into the lost shoe? Or that it was originally Snow White's birth mother who wanted her dead, not her stepmother?

You can discover these grim (pun intended) tidbits and more at "The House in the Wood: Magical Tales from Grimm," a free exhibit at the Osborne Collection at the Lillian H. Smith branch of the Toronto Public Library, running until Dec. 8. Then follow up with lighter fare at the Canadian Opera Company's GrimmFest, a series of talks, performances and Dean Burry's family-friendly opera The Brothers Grimm, Dec. 4 to 8.

Meanwhile, Harvard professor Maria Tatar, editor, translator and annotator of the bicentennial edition of The Annotated Brothers Grimm, divulged some surprising facts about Grimms tales in a recent interview, as did the Osborne Collection's Martha Scott.

1. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm didn't intend their collection of fairy tales to be for children at all. It was part of a scholarly project to identify and preserve the true spirit of the Germanic people.

2. But Edgar Taylor, an Englishman, translated and published the stories in England in 1823, where kids loved them. German Popular Stories was so popular it inspired the Grimms to edit their collection for family reading. The rest is history: today their stories underpin literary and popular culture in the western world.

3. The Grimms didn't wander the countryside, braving woods and weather to glean tales from peasants in crumbling hovels. Their sources were mostly educated, middle-class women who were especially good raconteurs. Many came to the Grimms' home and recounted stories in genteel comfort, except for one retired soldier, who told his in exchange for old clothes.

4. The Grimms kept adding to and editing the collection, publishing a final, seventh edition in 1857. It's the basis for most versions of Grimms tales published today and contains 210 stories. As well as the familiar magical stories, it also has many cautionary and religious tales, jokes and fables.

5. Once they saw their collection would become popular family reading, the brothers made them more suitable for a respectable middle-class audience. One of the first things Wilhelm did was take out the sexy bits. In the first edition of Rapunzel, it's Rapunzel's pregnancy that alerts the witch to her princely visitor. "Tell me, Godmother, why my clothes are so tight and they don't fit me any longer," she says. By the seventh edition, there's no allusion to Rapunzel's sexual activity: "Tell me, Godmother, why is it that you are so much harder to pull up than the young prince?"

6. One of the stories the Grimms eliminated after their first edition was Hans Dumm, a about a man who has the power to make women pregnant simply by wishing them so.

7. The Grimms changed the stories in other ways, too, adding Christian references and folksy expressions, and emphasizing gender roles their audience would approve. They elaborated on and expanded scenes of violence, often choosing versions with nastier, rather than nicer, endings.

8. In some versions of Rumpelstiltskin, Rumpelstiltskin escapes on a flying ladle or even just runs off, as he does in Grimms first edition. In the 1857 edition, however, he screams and "in his rage he stamped his right foot so hard that it went into the ground right up to his waist. Then in his fury he seized his left foot with both hands and tore himself in two."

9. In the French Cinderella, Cinderella forgives her stepsisters and finds good husbands for them. Not so in the Grimms version. First, both sisters cut off parts of their feet to fit them into the shoe, and the prince only notices they're not the right girls when a dove tells him there's blood dripping. When at last the prince finds Cinderella, doves peck out the stepsisters' eyes.

10. No fairy godmother! That's right, in the Grimms version of Cinderella, it's a little hazel tree Cinderella has watered with her tears that provides the necessary ballgown.

11. Don't bother kissing the frog. In Grimms The Frog King, the frog is transformed not by a kiss but when the princess hurls it against her bedroom wall. Instantly, she's confronted with a comely prince and the two go to bed together. In later editions, the Grimms were more "proper," and "at her father's bidding" the prince becomes the girl's "dear companion and husband."

12. The cruel stepmothers in Snow White and Hansel and Gretel were natural mothers in Grimms' early editions. The Grimms probably thought they should preserve the sanctity of motherhood for their family audience.

13. Partly because of the Grimms' original intent to preserve a truly Germanic folk literature, the Nazis tried to appropriate Children's and Household Tales for their own ideological purposes.

14. Writers such as Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter and Anne Sexton revisited and revised Grimms fairy tales in short stories, poems and novels. This had the salutary effect of casting a critical, analytical eye on the tales and their influence, especially on gender conditioning.

15. As long as there have been fairy tales there have been adaptations. In fact, says Tatar, there is no "original" to a fairy tale. So, when Jon Scieszka wrote the parody The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, he was changing the terms but not the tale. Fairy tales attract the cultural values of their time and place, and different versions tell us as much about the values of the teller as they do about the tale they're based on.

16. It's a happy coincidence of name that the brothers Grimm tell "grim" tales. In German and in English, "grim" means ferocious, cruel, angry or harsh.

17. Are they really so grim? Tatar says almost all 210 tales end "happily ever after." An exception is The Children Who Played Butcher With Each Other.

18. Almost all the tales celebrate wits, courage and resilience.

19. Last summer, a German archivist discovered 500 "new" fairy tales that had been collected by Franz Xaver von Schönwerth, a colleague of the Grimms. In that collection are male versions of the Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White stories, Tatar says. Did the Grimms know these versions and leave them out of their collection? We might never know . . .

20. The newest version of Grimms fairy tales is by Philip Pullman, Grimm Tales for Young and Old. As well as giving us storytelling that's supple, engaging and "as clear as water," Pullman includes some background for each story. Highly recommended.

Deirdre Baker teaches children's literature at the University of Toronto.
Quotations are taken from Tatar's translations in The Annotated Brothers Grimm: The Bicentennial Edition. "The House in the Wood: Magical Tales from Grimm" runs at the Lillian H. Smith branch of the Toronto Public Library until Dec. 8, Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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Grimms Fairy Tales: 20 things you didn't know | The Star

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It's the 200th anniversary of the books that brought us Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin and 200 other stories: Kinder- und Hausmärchen or Children's and Household Tales, first published by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 1812. Almost all of us know some of Grimms fairy tales - or we think we do.

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Biography Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm

Philipp and Dorothea Grimm had 9 children, but only six survived infancy. Their first son Friedrich died 1784 aged 3 months. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were the oldest sons in the family. The famous brothers studied, worked and led a close life together. Even the fact that Jacob remained a batchelor and Wilhelm had his own family didn't change their close relationship.

1785 - Jacob Ludwig Carl was born 4th January in Hanau.

1786 - Wilhelm Carl Grimm was born 24th February in Hanau.

1791 - Philipp Grimm became a magistrate in Steinau, the town where he was born and his father was a pastor for 47 years. The family moved to Steinau an der Strasse, a village on the Kinzig about 50 km north-east of Hanau.
Their aunt Juliane Schlemmer, née Grimm, taught the boys the ABC, to read and write, as well as religion. When the family moved to Steinau, she sold her house in Hanau and lived with the Grimms in Steinau. Tante Schlemmer, as the boys fondly called her, had an important impact on the Brothers Grimm's education. She developed the brothers' intellectual capacities from their early childhood.

1796 - Philipp Grimm died on 10th January in Steinau, Tante Juliane Schlemmer died 10th December, a terrible blow to the Grimms.

1798-1802 - Jacob and Wilhelm were sent to Kassel for a better school education. They attended the "Luceum Fridericianum", their aunt Henriette Zimmer in Kassel supported them during this time.

1802-1805 - Jacob studied law at the university in Marburg, Wilhelm joined him one year later. Their professor Friedrich von Savigny opened his private library for the enquiring students. This awakened their interest in Germany's past and the structure of German languages. Due to von Savigny, the brothers got to know romantic poets such as Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano. After the Grimm Brothers had finished their law studies they worked in various positions as clerks and librarians inKassel, continuing with linguistic studies.

1806 - From 1806 they collected and wrote down fairy tales which they heard in Kassel and its surroundings. Dorothea Viehman in Kassel and two Huguenot families told the brothers tales of the region and of French origins. Jacob's interests were more of research nature while Wilhelm put the stories and tales they heard into a pleasantly written style.
Even many Germans are not aware that the Brothers Grimm's work included more than collecting fairy tales and folk legends. The brothers' primary goal was linguistic research. Especially Jacob's comprehensive studies of history and structure of the German languages of the past became known as Grimm's Law.

Errected 1896 - Jacob (standing) & Wilhelm (sitting) Grimm The Brothers Grimm memorial on the market place in Hanau

The memorial marks the start of the fairy-tale road
(Deutsche Märchenstraße)

1812 - The brothers published the first volume of Grimm's Kinder und Hausmärchen (Tales of Children and the Home).

1825 - Wilhelm married Dorothea Wild, daughter of a pharmacist in Kassel. They had 4 children.

1829-1837 - Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm worked as librarians and professors at the university of Göttingen.

1835 - The first edition of the German Mythology was published.

1837 - King Ernest Augustus of Hanover annulled the liberal constitution which was implemented 1833. The Göttingen Seven (7 professors of the university including the Brothers Grimm) raised a protest against the abrogation. All professors lost their positions, Jacob Grimm and two others were deported. Jacob went back to Kassel. Wilhelm & his family followed soon after.

1838 - The Grimm Brothers began to work on a German lexicon. The Deutsches Wörterbuch became very extensive with 33 volumes. It is considered the standard work of origin and history of German words. The dictionary was not completed until 1960!

1840/41 - The King of Prussia invited the brothers to Berlin. Jacob became a member of the Academy of Science and professor, Wilhelm received a position as professor as well. Lecturing and working on the German Dictionary kept them busy. They both lived in Berlin until they died.

1848 - Jacob Grimm was elected into the Frankfurt National Parliament. He did not play a big part in the 1848 revolution, as he was not made to be a politician. However, Jacob Grimm had a liberal mind, and his biggest wish was an united Germany with freedom and human rights for all its residents.

1859 - Wilhelm Grimm died on 16th December in Berlin.

1863 - Jacob Grimm died on 20th September in Berlin

Despite their various professions and scientific work, the Grimm Brothers continued updating their fairy tale collection during their lifetime. Grimm's Kinder & Hausmärchen where translated into almost all European languages.
For their scientific work the Grimms are acknowledged as the founders of German philology.

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Grimm Brothers - Biography & Facts about the famous fairy-tale collectors

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Once upon a time, many fairy tales, collected by the Grimm Brothers, begin with this phrase. For centuries, children around the world have been listening to the Brother Grimms' fairy tales spellbound. 2012 was the 200th anniversary of the first publication of Grimm's Märchen.

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It's the 200th anniversary of the books that brought us Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin and 200 other stories: Kinder- und Hausmärchen or Children's and Household Tales, first published by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 1812.

Almost all of us know some of Grimms fairy tales - or we think we do. But did you know that in the original Grimms version of Cinderella, the nasty stepsisters cut off part of their feet to try to fit them into the lost shoe? Or that it was originally Snow White's birth mother who wanted her dead, not her stepmother?

You can discover these grim (pun intended) tidbits and more at "The House in the Wood: Magical Tales from Grimm," a free exhibit at the Osborne Collection at the Lillian H. Smith branch of the Toronto Public Library, running until Dec. 8. Then follow up with lighter fare at the Canadian Opera Company's GrimmFest, a series of talks, performances and Dean Burry's family-friendly opera The Brothers Grimm, Dec. 4 to 8.

Meanwhile, Harvard professor Maria Tatar, editor, translator and annotator of the bicentennial edition of The Annotated Brothers Grimm, divulged some surprising facts about Grimms tales in a recent interview, as did the Osborne Collection's Martha Scott.

1. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm didn't intend their collection of fairy tales to be for children at all. It was part of a scholarly project to identify and preserve the true spirit of the Germanic people.

2. But Edgar Taylor, an Englishman, translated and published the stories in England in 1823, where kids loved them. German Popular Stories was so popular it inspired the Grimms to edit their collection for family reading. The rest is history: today their stories underpin literary and popular culture in the western world.

3. The Grimms didn't wander the countryside, braving woods and weather to glean tales from peasants in crumbling hovels. Their sources were mostly educated, middle-class women who were especially good raconteurs. Many came to the Grimms' home and recounted stories in genteel comfort, except for one retired soldier, who told his in exchange for old clothes.

4. The Grimms kept adding to and editing the collection, publishing a final, seventh edition in 1857. It's the basis for most versions of Grimms tales published today and contains 210 stories. As well as the familiar magical stories, it also has many cautionary and religious tales, jokes and fables.

5. Once they saw their collection would become popular family reading, the brothers made them more suitable for a respectable middle-class audience. One of the first things Wilhelm did was take out the sexy bits. In the first edition of Rapunzel, it's Rapunzel's pregnancy that alerts the witch to her princely visitor. "Tell me, Godmother, why my clothes are so tight and they don't fit me any longer," she says. By the seventh edition, there's no allusion to Rapunzel's sexual activity: "Tell me, Godmother, why is it that you are so much harder to pull up than the young prince?"

6. One of the stories the Grimms eliminated after their first edition was Hans Dumm, a about a man who has the power to make women pregnant simply by wishing them so.

7. The Grimms changed the stories in other ways, too, adding Christian references and folksy expressions, and emphasizing gender roles their audience would approve. They elaborated on and expanded scenes of violence, often choosing versions with nastier, rather than nicer, endings.

8. In some versions of Rumpelstiltskin, Rumpelstiltskin escapes on a flying ladle or even just runs off, as he does in Grimms first edition. In the 1857 edition, however, he screams and "in his rage he stamped his right foot so hard that it went into the ground right up to his waist. Then in his fury he seized his left foot with both hands and tore himself in two."

9. In the French Cinderella, Cinderella forgives her stepsisters and finds good husbands for them. Not so in the Grimms version. First, both sisters cut off parts of their feet to fit them into the shoe, and the prince only notices they're not the right girls when a dove tells him there's blood dripping. When at last the prince finds Cinderella, doves peck out the stepsisters' eyes.

10. No fairy godmother! That's right, in the Grimms version of Cinderella, it's a little hazel tree Cinderella has watered with her tears that provides the necessary ballgown.

11. Don't bother kissing the frog. In Grimms The Frog King, the frog is transformed not by a kiss but when the princess hurls it against her bedroom wall. Instantly, she's confronted with a comely prince and the two go to bed together. In later editions, the Grimms were more "proper," and "at her father's bidding" the prince becomes the girl's "dear companion and husband."

12. The cruel stepmothers in Snow White and Hansel and Gretel were natural mothers in Grimms' early editions. The Grimms probably thought they should preserve the sanctity of motherhood for their family audience.

13. Partly because of the Grimms' original intent to preserve a truly Germanic folk literature, the Nazis tried to appropriate Children's and Household Tales for their own ideological purposes.

14. Writers such as Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter and Anne Sexton revisited and revised Grimms fairy tales in short stories, poems and novels. This had the salutary effect of casting a critical, analytical eye on the tales and their influence, especially on gender conditioning.

15. As long as there have been fairy tales there have been adaptations. In fact, says Tatar, there is no "original" to a fairy tale. So, when Jon Scieszka wrote the parody The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, he was changing the terms but not the tale. Fairy tales attract the cultural values of their time and place, and different versions tell us as much about the values of the teller as they do about the tale they're based on.

16. It's a happy coincidence of name that the brothers Grimm tell "grim" tales. In German and in English, "grim" means ferocious, cruel, angry or harsh.

17. Are they really so grim? Tatar says almost all 210 tales end "happily ever after." An exception is The Children Who Played Butcher With Each Other.

18. Almost all the tales celebrate wits, courage and resilience.

19. Last summer, a German archivist discovered 500 "new" fairy tales that had been collected by Franz Xaver von Schönwerth, a colleague of the Grimms. In that collection are male versions of the Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White stories, Tatar says. Did the Grimms know these versions and leave them out of their collection? We might never know . . .

20. The newest version of Grimms fairy tales is by Philip Pullman, Grimm Tales for Young and Old. As well as giving us storytelling that's supple, engaging and "as clear as water," Pullman includes some background for each story. Highly recommended.

Deirdre Baker teaches children's literature at the University of Toronto.
Quotations are taken from Tatar's translations in The Annotated Brothers Grimm: The Bicentennial Edition. "The House in the Wood: Magical Tales from Grimm" runs at the Lillian H. Smith branch of the Toronto Public Library until Dec. 8, Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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Grimms Fairy Tales: 20 things you didn't know | The Star

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It's the 200th anniversary of the books that brought us Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin and 200 other stories: Kinder- und Hausmärchen or Children's and Household Tales, first published by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 1812. Almost all of us know some of Grimms fairy tales - or we think we do.

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SEVEN FASCINATING THINGS about the Grimm Brothers

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6. The Grimm brothers published many other books apart from fairy tales, including writings on linguistics, folklore, and the beginning of the first detailed German dictionary. This was not finished until 120 years after their deaths.

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If you're gazing into a crystal ball to find out the opening day of Into the Woods (spoiler alert: It's December 25) planning a road trip to Storybrooke, Maine, setting of TV's Once Upon a Time, or waiting to get your next fix of detective work from NBC's Grimm, you'll know one thing for sure: fairy tales are hot. Is it because we're all yearning for a little fantasy escapism these days? Or is it the wonderful eye-candy made possible by modern special effects? Maybe it's finally seeing strong female characters after sitting through so many estrogen-deficient superhero movies. Whatever the reason, it's as clear as Cinderella's glass slipper that our entertainment owes a lot to the Brothers Grimm. Although the duo is famous for sharing the classic tales bearing their name, here are five facts that you might not have known about them:

The Brothers Grimm didn't write the fairy tales.

Despite the fact that Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are often associated with Snow White and Rapunzel, the brothers didn't actually write any of those stories. In fact, the stories existed long before the two men were born in Germany in the mid 1780s. The fairy tales, in fact, were part of a rich oral tradition − passed down from generation to generation, often by women seeking to pass the time during household chores. But as industrialization took root, local traditions changed and scholars, like Jacob and Wilhelm, began a quest to save the stories from extinction. They interviewed relatives and friends, collecting whatever tales they could, sometimes embellishing them (although they insisted they did not). In 1812, Jacob and Wilhelm published the stories as part of a collection titled Nursery and Household Tales, or what is now referred to as Grimm's Fairy Tales.

The stories were not intended for kids.

Originally, Grimm's Fairy Tales were not meant for children. The stories routinely included sex, violence, incest, and copious footnotes. Worse yet, they didn't even have illustrations. Initially aimed at adults, the early editions of Nursery and Household Tales contained remarkably dark elements. In its original version, for example, Rapunzel gets pregnant by the prince after a casual fling. In Cinderella, the stepsisters cut off their toes and heels to try to fit into the slipper. These sort of scenes (and many others) were eventually revised once the stories became popular among children.

Jacob and Wilhelm faced deportation and bankruptcy.

In 1830, King Ernest Augustus demanded oaths of allegiance from all professors in Gottingen, a university city where Jacob and Wilhelm taught Germanic studies. The brothers refused to pledge to the king and, along with five other professors, the "Gottingen Seven" were made to leave the city. Jobless and branded as political dissidents, the brothers were forced to borrow money from friends as they worked on their story collection.

"Grimm's Fairy Tales" was a publishing blockbuster.

The Grimm's collection of fairy tales was in its 7th edition when Wilhelm Grimm died in 1859. By that point, the collection had grown to 211 stories and included intricate illustrations. Jacob − who had lived with Wilhelm and his wife − died in 1863. According to biographers, Jacob was deeply distraught after the death of his brother, with whom he had held a close bond throughout his life. Some claim their collection has only been outsold by Shakespeare and the Bible.

The Grimms worked on more than fairy tales.

University-trained philologists (the study of language in historical texts) and librarians, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published more than fairy tales. They wrote books about mythology, and published scholarly works on linguistics and medieval studies. They also worked on compiling an ambitious German dictionary, although both brothers died before they were able to finish the entry for the letter F.

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With the new movie version of "Into the Woods" and TV shows like "Once Upon a Time" and "Grimm," it's as clear as Cinderella's glass slipper that fairy tales are hot thanks, in part, to the German brothers who made them so popular.

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It's the 200th anniversary of the books that brought us Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin and 200 other stories: Kinder- und Hausmärchen or Children's and Household Tales, first published by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 1812.

Almost all of us know some of Grimms fairy tales - or we think we do. But did you know that in the original Grimms version of Cinderella, the nasty stepsisters cut off part of their feet to try to fit them into the lost shoe? Or that it was originally Snow White's birth mother who wanted her dead, not her stepmother?

You can discover these grim (pun intended) tidbits and more at "The House in the Wood: Magical Tales from Grimm," a free exhibit at the Osborne Collection at the Lillian H. Smith branch of the Toronto Public Library, running until Dec. 8. Then follow up with lighter fare at the Canadian Opera Company's GrimmFest, a series of talks, performances and Dean Burry's family-friendly opera The Brothers Grimm, Dec. 4 to 8.

Meanwhile, Harvard professor Maria Tatar, editor, translator and annotator of the bicentennial edition of The Annotated Brothers Grimm, divulged some surprising facts about Grimms tales in a recent interview, as did the Osborne Collection's Martha Scott.

1. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm didn't intend their collection of fairy tales to be for children at all. It was part of a scholarly project to identify and preserve the true spirit of the Germanic people.

2. But Edgar Taylor, an Englishman, translated and published the stories in England in 1823, where kids loved them. German Popular Stories was so popular it inspired the Grimms to edit their collection for family reading. The rest is history: today their stories underpin literary and popular culture in the western world.

3. The Grimms didn't wander the countryside, braving woods and weather to glean tales from peasants in crumbling hovels. Their sources were mostly educated, middle-class women who were especially good raconteurs. Many came to the Grimms' home and recounted stories in genteel comfort, except for one retired soldier, who told his in exchange for old clothes.

4. The Grimms kept adding to and editing the collection, publishing a final, seventh edition in 1857. It's the basis for most versions of Grimms tales published today and contains 210 stories. As well as the familiar magical stories, it also has many cautionary and religious tales, jokes and fables.

5. Once they saw their collection would become popular family reading, the brothers made them more suitable for a respectable middle-class audience. One of the first things Wilhelm did was take out the sexy bits. In the first edition of Rapunzel, it's Rapunzel's pregnancy that alerts the witch to her princely visitor. "Tell me, Godmother, why my clothes are so tight and they don't fit me any longer," she says. By the seventh edition, there's no allusion to Rapunzel's sexual activity: "Tell me, Godmother, why is it that you are so much harder to pull up than the young prince?"

6. One of the stories the Grimms eliminated after their first edition was Hans Dumm, a about a man who has the power to make women pregnant simply by wishing them so.

7. The Grimms changed the stories in other ways, too, adding Christian references and folksy expressions, and emphasizing gender roles their audience would approve. They elaborated on and expanded scenes of violence, often choosing versions with nastier, rather than nicer, endings.

8. In some versions of Rumpelstiltskin, Rumpelstiltskin escapes on a flying ladle or even just runs off, as he does in Grimms first edition. In the 1857 edition, however, he screams and "in his rage he stamped his right foot so hard that it went into the ground right up to his waist. Then in his fury he seized his left foot with both hands and tore himself in two."

9. In the French Cinderella, Cinderella forgives her stepsisters and finds good husbands for them. Not so in the Grimms version. First, both sisters cut off parts of their feet to fit them into the shoe, and the prince only notices they're not the right girls when a dove tells him there's blood dripping. When at last the prince finds Cinderella, doves peck out the stepsisters' eyes.

10. No fairy godmother! That's right, in the Grimms version of Cinderella, it's a little hazel tree Cinderella has watered with her tears that provides the necessary ballgown.

11. Don't bother kissing the frog. In Grimms The Frog King, the frog is transformed not by a kiss but when the princess hurls it against her bedroom wall. Instantly, she's confronted with a comely prince and the two go to bed together. In later editions, the Grimms were more "proper," and "at her father's bidding" the prince becomes the girl's "dear companion and husband."

12. The cruel stepmothers in Snow White and Hansel and Gretel were natural mothers in Grimms' early editions. The Grimms probably thought they should preserve the sanctity of motherhood for their family audience.

13. Partly because of the Grimms' original intent to preserve a truly Germanic folk literature, the Nazis tried to appropriate Children's and Household Tales for their own ideological purposes.

14. Writers such as Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter and Anne Sexton revisited and revised Grimms fairy tales in short stories, poems and novels. This had the salutary effect of casting a critical, analytical eye on the tales and their influence, especially on gender conditioning.

15. As long as there have been fairy tales there have been adaptations. In fact, says Tatar, there is no "original" to a fairy tale. So, when Jon Scieszka wrote the parody The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, he was changing the terms but not the tale. Fairy tales attract the cultural values of their time and place, and different versions tell us as much about the values of the teller as they do about the tale they're based on.

16. It's a happy coincidence of name that the brothers Grimm tell "grim" tales. In German and in English, "grim" means ferocious, cruel, angry or harsh.

17. Are they really so grim? Tatar says almost all 210 tales end "happily ever after." An exception is The Children Who Played Butcher With Each Other.

18. Almost all the tales celebrate wits, courage and resilience.

19. Last summer, a German archivist discovered 500 "new" fairy tales that had been collected by Franz Xaver von Schönwerth, a colleague of the Grimms. In that collection are male versions of the Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White stories, Tatar says. Did the Grimms know these versions and leave them out of their collection? We might never know . . .

20. The newest version of Grimms fairy tales is by Philip Pullman, Grimm Tales for Young and Old. As well as giving us storytelling that's supple, engaging and "as clear as water," Pullman includes some background for each story. Highly recommended.

Deirdre Baker teaches children's literature at the University of Toronto.
Quotations are taken from Tatar's translations in The Annotated Brothers Grimm: The Bicentennial Edition. "The House in the Wood: Magical Tales from Grimm" runs at the Lillian H. Smith branch of the Toronto Public Library until Dec. 8, Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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Grimms Fairy Tales: 20 things you didn't know | The Star

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It's the 200th anniversary of the books that brought us Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin and 200 other stories: Kinder- und Hausmärchen or Children's and Household Tales, first published by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 1812. Almost all of us know some of Grimms fairy tales - or we think we do.

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If you're gazing into a crystal ball to find out the opening day of Into the Woods (spoiler alert: It's December 25) planning a road trip to Storybrooke, Maine, setting of TV's Once Upon a Time, or waiting to get your next fix of detective work from NBC's Grimm, you'll know one thing for sure: fairy tales are hot. Is it because we're all yearning for a little fantasy escapism these days? Or is it the wonderful eye-candy made possible by modern special effects? Maybe it's finally seeing strong female characters after sitting through so many estrogen-deficient superhero movies. Whatever the reason, it's as clear as Cinderella's glass slipper that our entertainment owes a lot to the Brothers Grimm. Although the duo is famous for sharing the classic tales bearing their name, here are five facts that you might not have known about them:

The Brothers Grimm didn't write the fairy tales.

Despite the fact that Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are often associated with Snow White and Rapunzel, the brothers didn't actually write any of those stories. In fact, the stories existed long before the two men were born in Germany in the mid 1780s. The fairy tales, in fact, were part of a rich oral tradition − passed down from generation to generation, often by women seeking to pass the time during household chores. But as industrialization took root, local traditions changed and scholars, like Jacob and Wilhelm, began a quest to save the stories from extinction. They interviewed relatives and friends, collecting whatever tales they could, sometimes embellishing them (although they insisted they did not). In 1812, Jacob and Wilhelm published the stories as part of a collection titled Nursery and Household Tales, or what is now referred to as Grimm's Fairy Tales.

The stories were not intended for kids.

Originally, Grimm's Fairy Tales were not meant for children. The stories routinely included sex, violence, incest, and copious footnotes. Worse yet, they didn't even have illustrations. Initially aimed at adults, the early editions of Nursery and Household Tales contained remarkably dark elements. In its original version, for example, Rapunzel gets pregnant by the prince after a casual fling. In Cinderella, the stepsisters cut off their toes and heels to try to fit into the slipper. These sort of scenes (and many others) were eventually revised once the stories became popular among children.

Jacob and Wilhelm faced deportation and bankruptcy.

In 1830, King Ernest Augustus demanded oaths of allegiance from all professors in Gottingen, a university city where Jacob and Wilhelm taught Germanic studies. The brothers refused to pledge to the king and, along with five other professors, the "Gottingen Seven" were made to leave the city. Jobless and branded as political dissidents, the brothers were forced to borrow money from friends as they worked on their story collection.

"Grimm's Fairy Tales" was a publishing blockbuster.

The Grimm's collection of fairy tales was in its 7th edition when Wilhelm Grimm died in 1859. By that point, the collection had grown to 211 stories and included intricate illustrations. Jacob − who had lived with Wilhelm and his wife − died in 1863. According to biographers, Jacob was deeply distraught after the death of his brother, with whom he had held a close bond throughout his life. Some claim their collection has only been outsold by Shakespeare and the Bible.

The Grimms worked on more than fairy tales.

University-trained philologists (the study of language in historical texts) and librarians, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published more than fairy tales. They wrote books about mythology, and published scholarly works on linguistics and medieval studies. They also worked on compiling an ambitious German dictionary, although both brothers died before they were able to finish the entry for the letter F.

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With the new movie version of "Into the Woods" and TV shows like "Once Upon a Time" and "Grimm," it's as clear as Cinderella's glass slipper that fairy tales are hot thanks, in part, to the German brothers who made them so popular.

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It's the 200th anniversary of the books that brought us Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin and 200 other stories: Kinder- und Hausmärchen or Children's and Household Tales, first published by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 1812.

Almost all of us know some of Grimms fairy tales - or we think we do. But did you know that in the original Grimms version of Cinderella, the nasty stepsisters cut off part of their feet to try to fit them into the lost shoe? Or that it was originally Snow White's birth mother who wanted her dead, not her stepmother?

You can discover these grim (pun intended) tidbits and more at "The House in the Wood: Magical Tales from Grimm," a free exhibit at the Osborne Collection at the Lillian H. Smith branch of the Toronto Public Library, running until Dec. 8. Then follow up with lighter fare at the Canadian Opera Company's GrimmFest, a series of talks, performances and Dean Burry's family-friendly opera The Brothers Grimm, Dec. 4 to 8.

Meanwhile, Harvard professor Maria Tatar, editor, translator and annotator of the bicentennial edition of The Annotated Brothers Grimm, divulged some surprising facts about Grimms tales in a recent interview, as did the Osborne Collection's Martha Scott.

1. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm didn't intend their collection of fairy tales to be for children at all. It was part of a scholarly project to identify and preserve the true spirit of the Germanic people.

2. But Edgar Taylor, an Englishman, translated and published the stories in England in 1823, where kids loved them. German Popular Stories was so popular it inspired the Grimms to edit their collection for family reading. The rest is history: today their stories underpin literary and popular culture in the western world.

3. The Grimms didn't wander the countryside, braving woods and weather to glean tales from peasants in crumbling hovels. Their sources were mostly educated, middle-class women who were especially good raconteurs. Many came to the Grimms' home and recounted stories in genteel comfort, except for one retired soldier, who told his in exchange for old clothes.

4. The Grimms kept adding to and editing the collection, publishing a final, seventh edition in 1857. It's the basis for most versions of Grimms tales published today and contains 210 stories. As well as the familiar magical stories, it also has many cautionary and religious tales, jokes and fables.

5. Once they saw their collection would become popular family reading, the brothers made them more suitable for a respectable middle-class audience. One of the first things Wilhelm did was take out the sexy bits. In the first edition of Rapunzel, it's Rapunzel's pregnancy that alerts the witch to her princely visitor. "Tell me, Godmother, why my clothes are so tight and they don't fit me any longer," she says. By the seventh edition, there's no allusion to Rapunzel's sexual activity: "Tell me, Godmother, why is it that you are so much harder to pull up than the young prince?"

6. One of the stories the Grimms eliminated after their first edition was Hans Dumm, a about a man who has the power to make women pregnant simply by wishing them so.

7. The Grimms changed the stories in other ways, too, adding Christian references and folksy expressions, and emphasizing gender roles their audience would approve. They elaborated on and expanded scenes of violence, often choosing versions with nastier, rather than nicer, endings.

8. In some versions of Rumpelstiltskin, Rumpelstiltskin escapes on a flying ladle or even just runs off, as he does in Grimms first edition. In the 1857 edition, however, he screams and "in his rage he stamped his right foot so hard that it went into the ground right up to his waist. Then in his fury he seized his left foot with both hands and tore himself in two."

9. In the French Cinderella, Cinderella forgives her stepsisters and finds good husbands for them. Not so in the Grimms version. First, both sisters cut off parts of their feet to fit them into the shoe, and the prince only notices they're not the right girls when a dove tells him there's blood dripping. When at last the prince finds Cinderella, doves peck out the stepsisters' eyes.

10. No fairy godmother! That's right, in the Grimms version of Cinderella, it's a little hazel tree Cinderella has watered with her tears that provides the necessary ballgown.

11. Don't bother kissing the frog. In Grimms The Frog King, the frog is transformed not by a kiss but when the princess hurls it against her bedroom wall. Instantly, she's confronted with a comely prince and the two go to bed together. In later editions, the Grimms were more "proper," and "at her father's bidding" the prince becomes the girl's "dear companion and husband."

12. The cruel stepmothers in Snow White and Hansel and Gretel were natural mothers in Grimms' early editions. The Grimms probably thought they should preserve the sanctity of motherhood for their family audience.

13. Partly because of the Grimms' original intent to preserve a truly Germanic folk literature, the Nazis tried to appropriate Children's and Household Tales for their own ideological purposes.

14. Writers such as Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter and Anne Sexton revisited and revised Grimms fairy tales in short stories, poems and novels. This had the salutary effect of casting a critical, analytical eye on the tales and their influence, especially on gender conditioning.

15. As long as there have been fairy tales there have been adaptations. In fact, says Tatar, there is no "original" to a fairy tale. So, when Jon Scieszka wrote the parody The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, he was changing the terms but not the tale. Fairy tales attract the cultural values of their time and place, and different versions tell us as much about the values of the teller as they do about the tale they're based on.

16. It's a happy coincidence of name that the brothers Grimm tell "grim" tales. In German and in English, "grim" means ferocious, cruel, angry or harsh.

17. Are they really so grim? Tatar says almost all 210 tales end "happily ever after." An exception is The Children Who Played Butcher With Each Other.

18. Almost all the tales celebrate wits, courage and resilience.

19. Last summer, a German archivist discovered 500 "new" fairy tales that had been collected by Franz Xaver von Schönwerth, a colleague of the Grimms. In that collection are male versions of the Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White stories, Tatar says. Did the Grimms know these versions and leave them out of their collection? We might never know . . .

20. The newest version of Grimms fairy tales is by Philip Pullman, Grimm Tales for Young and Old. As well as giving us storytelling that's supple, engaging and "as clear as water," Pullman includes some background for each story. Highly recommended.

Deirdre Baker teaches children's literature at the University of Toronto.
Quotations are taken from Tatar's translations in The Annotated Brothers Grimm: The Bicentennial Edition. "The House in the Wood: Magical Tales from Grimm" runs at the Lillian H. Smith branch of the Toronto Public Library until Dec. 8, Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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Grimms Fairy Tales: 20 things you didn't know | The Star

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It's the 200th anniversary of the books that brought us Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin and 200 other stories: Kinder- und Hausmärchen or Children's and Household Tales, first published by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 1812. Almost all of us know some of Grimms fairy tales - or we think we do.

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Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are best known for their collection of fairy tales, but there's so much more to their story. From getting kicked out of work at a college, and writing a dictionary, there are so many interesting, but little known facts about the Grimm brothers. Read on to learn more about this talented linguistic pair.

1. They came from a family of 9 kids: History only remembers two of the brothers Grimm, but there were actually several. The Grimm family had 9 kids, though only 6 survived infancy.

2. Most of their siblings were boys: In their large family, there were many brothers Grimm. They had only one sister in a family of boys.

3. Male figures died early in their lives: Both their father and grandfather died early, leaving the family in dire straits. The Grimm brothers seem to favor stories with female characters at the focus, and scholars believe this may be due to the loss of these male figures in their lives.

4. Their main focus was linguistic research: Jacob and Wilhelm were really just focused on researching linguistics, and the famous Grimm tales are simply a byproduct of the research.

5. Their birth home was destroyed in WWII: When visitors go to the birthplace to see the plaque and statue of the brothers Grimm, they are actually across the street from the home where they were born - the original home was destroyed in WWII.

6. Jacob Grimm created Grimm's Law: As part of their linguistic research, Jacob studied the history and structure of past German languages, and how they relate to other languages. His research became known as Grimm's Law.

7. Wilhelm married, but Jacob never did: While working on their research, Wilhelm married and created a family with 4 children, but Jacob remained a bachelor all his life.

8. They wrote a German dictionary: The brothers Grimm laid the foundations for, and began the work on, a humongous German dictionary that was completed over 120 years later.

9. They went from idyllic countryside to financial hardship: While their father and grandfather were alive, the Grimm family enjoyed a lovely countryside life. However, the Grimm brothers' lives changed, and they had to move to a cramped urban residence.

10. They had different approaches to work: Wilhelm and Jacob worked as a perfect team, with Wilhelm focusing on the imaginative and literary side, while Jacob did scholarly work.

11. They lived in poverty: The year their fairy tales were published, they were surviving on 1 meal a day.

12. They were fired from the University of Gottingen for political reasons: The brothers lost their jobs by signing a protest against the King.

13. They were two of the Gottingen Seven: Their dismissal was related to being a part of the Gottingen Seven, a group that protested against the abolition or alteration of the constitution, and refused to swear an oath to the new king of Hanover.

14. They published so much more than fairy tales: The Grimm brothers are responsible for not only fairy tales, but several other works including writings on linguistics, folklore, and a detailed German dictionary.

15. Their stories may be purified: Some scholars believe that the tales may have been purified by those who gave the stories because the Grimms were devout Christians.

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15 Little-Known Facts About the Brothers Grimm - Associate Degree.com

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Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are best known for their collection of fairy tales, but there's so much more to their story. From getting kicked out of work at a college, and writing a dictionary, there are so many interesting, but little known facts about the Grimm brothers.