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Tangled - When Will My Life Begin - Mandy Moore

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Tangled - When Will My Life Begin - Mandy Moore

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Not exactly research...

Tangled - When Will My Life Begin - Mandy Moore

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In the small German town of Trendelburg, a tall tower rises above its surroundings. It's the Trendelburg Tower - and - it's rumored to be the place where Rapunzel was held against her will.

Look for the tower window, in this image It's the place, in the story, through which Rapunzel let down her long, golden hair.

Let's do a bit of digging behind this famous fairy tale, starting with the heroine's name.

Did you know that "Rapunzel" has a special meaning? It's German for the English word "rampion" (a type of plant). Campanula rapunculus - at least one candidate for Rapunzel's namesake - is known as Rapunzel-Glockenblume in German.

What about the story itself?

Rapunzel's tale appears in the Grimm's book called (in German) Kinder und Hausmärchen, gesammelt durch die Brüder Grimm [Children's and Household Tales - Grimms' Fairy Tales], 7th ed., vol. 1 (Göttingen: Verlag der Dieterichschen Buchhandlung, 1857), story 12, at pages 65-69.

But ... the Grimm Brothers did not create this story.

Like many of their other fairy tales, "Rapunzel" was an existing story (via oral tradition or written folklore) before the Grimms published their works. A likely source for "Rapunzel" is Friedrich Schultz (1762-98) who included a similar tale in his Kleine Romane, Volume 5 (published, in Leipzig, during 1790) at pages 269-88. Even that was based on earlier versions of the story:

one in French, called "Persinette," by Mademoiselle de la Force (c 1646-1724) as referenced in Tales, Technology, and Transformations, by Lynn Gelfand, at the bottom of page 129; and

the other in Italian, called "Petrosinella," by Giambattista Basile (first published, in installements, between 1634 and 1636 in Il Pentamerone, at Day 2, Tale 1).

Now that we know a bit about the heroine's name, and where she may have originated, let's examine the tale itself. This version is a translation (from the German) by Professor D. L. Ashliman:

Rapunzel
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

Once upon a time there was a man and a woman who had long, but to no avail, wished for a child. Finally the woman came to believe that the good Lord would fulfill her wish. Through the small rear window of these people's house they could see into a splendid garden that was filled with the most beautiful flowers and herbs. The garden was surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared enter, because it belonged to a sorceress who possessed great power and was feared by everyone.

One day the woman was standing at this window, and she saw a bed planted with the most beautiful rapunzel. It looked so fresh and green that she longed for some. It was her greatest desire to eat some of the rapunzel. This desire increased with every day, and not knowing how to get any, she became miserably ill.

Her husband was frightened, and asked her, "What ails you, dear wife?"

"Oh," she answered, "if I do not get some rapunzel from the garden behind our house, I shall die."

The man, who loved her dearly, thought, "Before you let your wife die, you must get her some of the rapunzel, whatever the cost."

So just as it was getting dark he climbed over the high wall into the sorceress's garden, hastily dug up a handful of rapunzel, and took it to his wife. She immediately made a salad from it, which she devoured eagerly. It tasted so very good to her that by the next day her desire for more had grown threefold. If she were to have any peace, the man would have to climb into the garden once again. Thus he set forth once again just as it was getting dark. But no sooner than he had climbed over the wall than, to his horror, he saw the sorceress standing there before him.

"How can you dare," she asked with an angry look, "to climb into my garden and like a thief to steal my rapunzel? You will pay for this."

"Oh," he answered, "Let mercy overrule justice. I came to do this out of necessity. My wife saw your rapunzel from our window, and such a longing came over her, that she would die, if she did not get some to eat."

The sorceress's anger abated somewhat, and she said, "If things are as you say, I will allow you to take as much rapunzel as you want. But under one condition: You must give me the child that your wife will bring to the world. It will do well, and I will take care of it like a mother."

In his fear the man agreed to everything.

When the woman gave birth, the sorceress appeared, named the little girl Rapunzel, and took her away. Rapunzel became the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years old, the fairy locked her in a tower that stood in a forest and that had neither a door nor a stairway, but only a tiny little window at the very top.

When the sorceress wanted to enter, she stood below and called out:

Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair to me.

Rapunzel had splendid long hair, as fine as spun gold. When she heard the sorceress's voice, she untied her braids, wound them around a window hook, let her hair fall twenty yards to the ground, and the sorceress climbed up it.

A few years later it happened that a king's son was riding through the forest. As he approached the tower he heard a song so beautiful that he stopped to listen. It was Rapunzel, who was passing the time by singing with her sweet voice. The prince wanted to climb up to her, and looked for a door in the tower, but none was to be found.

He rode home, but the song had so touched his heart that he returned to the forest every day and listened to it. One time, as he was thus standing behind a tree, he saw the sorceress approach, and heard her say:

Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair.

Then Rapunzel let down her strands of hair, and the sorceress climbed up them to her.

"If that is the ladder into the tower, then sometime I will try my luck."

And the next day, just as it was beginning to get dark, he went to the tower and called out:

Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair.

The hair fell down, and the prince climbed up.

At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man such as she had never seen before came in to her. However, the prince began talking to her in a very friendly manner, telling her that his heart had been so touched by her singing that he could have no peace until he had seen her in person. Then Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her if she would take him as her husband, she thought, "He would rather have me than would old Frau Gothel." She said yes and placed her hand into his.

She said, "I would go with you gladly, but I do not know how to get down. Every time that you come, bring a strand of silk, from which I will weave a ladder. When it is finished I will climb down, and you can take me away on your horse." They arranged that he would come to her every evening, for the old woman came by day.

The sorceress did not notice what was happening until one day Rapunzel said to her, "Frau Gothel, tell me why it is that you are more difficult to pull up than is the young prince, who will be arriving any moment now?"

"You godless child," cried the sorceress. "What am I hearing from you? I thought I had removed you from the whole world, but you have deceived me nonetheless."

In her anger she grabbed Rapunzel's beautiful hair, wrapped it a few times around her left hand, grasped a pair of scissors with her right hand, and snip snap, cut it off. And she was so unmerciful that she took Rapunzel into a wilderness where she suffered greatly.

On the evening of the same day that she sent Rapunzel away, the fairy tied the cut-off hair to the hook at the top of the tower, and when the prince called out:

Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair.
she let down the hair.

The prince climbed up, but above, instead of his beloved Rapunzel, he found the sorceress, who peered at him with poisonous and evil looks.

"Aha!" she cried scornfully. "You have come for your Mistress Darling, but that beautiful bird is no longer sitting in her nest, nor is she singing any more. The cat got her, and will scratch your eyes out as well. You have lost Rapunzel. You will never see her again."

The prince was overcome with grief, and in his despair he threw himself from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell poked out his eyes. Blind, he wandered about in the forest, eating nothing but grass and roots, and doing nothing but weeping and wailing over the loss of his beloved wife. Thus he wandered about miserably for some years, finally happening into the wilderness where Rapunzel lived miserably with the twins that she had given birth to.

He heard a voice and thought it was familiar. He advanced toward it, and as he approached, Rapunzel recognized him, and crying, threw her arms around his neck. Two of her tears fell into his eyes, and they became clear once again, and he could see as well as before. He led her into his kingdom, where he was received with joy, and for a long time they lived happily and satisfied.

Click on the image for a much-better view of the Trendelburg Tower.

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In the small German town of Trendelburg, a tall tower rises above its surroundings. It's the Trendelburg Tower - and - it's rumored to be the place where Rapunzel was held against her will. Look for the tower window, in this image It's the place, in the story, through which Rapunzel let down her long, golden hair.

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Prezi

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Coming of Age in Folk and Fairy Tales How it Applies to Coming of Age The classic Brother's Grimm's fairytale Little Red Riding Hood and the Slovakian tale The Daughter Of Ulkolak both find their origin in the rebirth of girl into woman.

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Biography

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How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale

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How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale

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From the translator of the first edition himself.

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National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)

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Between 1812 and 1857, seven editions of their tales appeared, each one different from the last, until the final, best-known version barely resembled the first. Given that the first edition has recently been honored in bicentenary celebrations throughout the world, it is perhaps a good time to reexamine what we think we know about the original tales of the Brothers Grimm.

The stories the Brothers Grimm first collected are brusque, blunt, absurd, comical, and tragic, and are not, strictly speaking, "fairy tales." In fact, the Grimms never intended the tales to be read by children. The tales are about children and families and how they reacted to the difficult conditions under which they lived. The Grimms thought the stories and their morals emanated naturally from the German people in an oral tradition, and they wanted to preserve them before the tales were lost forever. In gathering the tales, the Grimms made a unique contribution to folklore, and their Kinder- und Hausmärchen( Children and Household Tales) is even listed by UNESCO in its Memory of the World Registry. It was in large part their first edition, published in two volumes in 1812 and 1815, that inspired folklorists in Europe and Great Britain to gather tales from their oral traditions to preserve as part of their cultural heritage.

This first edition is wholly unlike the so-called definitive edition of 1857. In the process of publishing seven different editions over forty years, the Grimms made vast changes in the contents and style. The stories in the first edition are closer to the oral tradition than the tales of the final, which can be regarded more as a literary collection, because Wilhelm, the younger brother, continually honed the tales so that they would resonate with a growing literary public. Their books would become second in popularity only to the Bible in German-speaking lands. By the twentieth century, they would become the most famous collection of folk and fairy tales in the western world.

When Jacob (b. 1785) and Wilhelm (b. 1786) began collecting folk tales and songs at the beginning of the nineteenth century, they were precocious students at the University of Marburg, still in their teens. They grew up quite fast, plagued by money problems and caring for their siblings-their father died in 1796, leaving the once middle-class family in poverty. Their situation was further aggravated by the rampant Napoleonic Wars. Jacob interrupted his studies to serve the Hessian War Commission, although Wilhelm passed his law exams and found work as a low- paid librarian in the royal library. In 1807, Jacob lost his position with the War Commission, when the French occupied Kassel, but he was then hired as a librarian for the new King Jérome, Napoleon's brother, who now ruled Westphalia. Amidst all the upheavals, their mother died in 1808, and Jacob and Wilhelm became fully responsible for their three younger brothers and sister.

Despite difficult personal problems and meager financial support from 1805 to 1812, the brothers proved themselves to be innovative scholars in the new field of German philology by publishing articles and books on medieval literature. In fact, they would be surprised to learn that they are more famous today for their tales than for their superb philological studies, which include pioneering work on German sound shifts, and the founding of the voluminous German Dictionary in 1854. But it was their training in philology and the demands that they placed on themselves as researchers that assisted their collecting and editing the tales.

In 1808, their friend, the romantic poet Clemens Brentano, asked them to collect all types of folk tales so he could use them in a book of literary fairy tales. In 1810, they sent him fifty-four texts, which they fortunately copied. Fortunately, because Brentano then lost the manuscript in the Ölenberg Monastery in Alsace and never used the Grimms' texts. When they realized that Brentano was not going to use the tales, they decided, upon the advice of another romantic writer and mutual friend, Achim von Arnim, to publish their collection. It had grown to eighty-six tales, which they published in 1812, and then another seventy, which they published in 1815.

What compelled the Grimms to concentrate on old German epics, tales, and literature was a belief that the most natural and pure forms of culture-those which held the community together-were linguistic and based in history. According to them, modern literature, even though it might be remarkably rich, was artificial and thus could not express the genuine essence of Volk culture that emanated naturally from experience and bound the people together. Therefore, all their efforts went toward uncovering stories from the past.

In their preface, the Grimms explained their interest in the culture of the common people, and their intention in recording their tales: "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." In short, the Grimms' first collection was shaped as an archaeological excavation and as a book for adults and for scholars. Their tales were not to be classified as children's stories, not even today.

Although the young Grimms had not entirely formalized their concept of folklore while they worked on the publication of the first edition, they held to their original principle: to salvage relics from the past. They intended to trace and grasp the essence of cultural evolution and to demonstrate how natural language, stemming from the needs, customs, and rituals of the common people, created authentic bonds and helped forge civilized communities. This is one of the reasons why they called their collection of tales an educational manual ( Erziehungsbuch), for the tales recalled the basic values of the Germanic people through storytelling. The Grimms wanted to bequeath the oral tales to the German people, not realizing that these tales would assume relevance in all cultures. Though the tales can be considered part of a German nationalist movement in the nineteenth century, they were also related to tales from many other nations, and this relationship accounts for their international appeal today.

Turning to the tales of the first edition, a reader might notice that many of the stories such as "The Hand with the Knife," "How Some Children Played at Slaughtering," and "The Children of Famine," have nothing to do with fairies or happy endings. Instead, these are stark narratives about brutal living conditions in the nineteenth century. For instance, "The Children of Famine" begins this way:

Once upon a time there was a woman with two daughters, and they had become so poor that they no longer had even a piece of bread to put in their mouths. Their hunger became so great that their mother became unhinged and desperate. Indeed, she said to her children, "I've got to kill you so that I can get something to eat."

In another haunting tale, "The Godfather," a poor man in need of a godfather unknowingly chooses the devil, who may eat him after a visit to the devil's house of horrors. These tales were omitted in later editions. Some tales, such as "Puss in Boots," "Bluebeard," "Princess Mouseskin," and "Okerlo," were also omitted because they were con-sidered too French to be included in a German collection. Though it is impossible to clarify fully why certain tales were deleted or placed in footnotes in later editions, we do know that "Death and the Goose Boy" was omitted because of its baroque literary features; "The Strange Feast," because of its close resemblance to "Godfather Death"; "The Stepmother," because of its fragmentary nature and cruelty; and "The Faithful Animals," because it came from the Siddhi-Kür, a collection of Mongolian tales. From the first edition in 1812/1815 to the final one in 1857, the Grimms received numerous versions of tales already in their collection and new tales from strangers, friends, and colleagues, and they often decided to replace one tale with another version, to delete some of the tales, or to include variants in their footnotes.

In contrast to the final 1857 edition, most of the tales in the first edition are shorter and sparser. They have a rawness that was later to be refined. For example, "Rapunzel" is embellished a great deal in the final edition:

First Edition

Once upon a time there lived a husband and wife who had been wishing for a child for many years, but it had all been in vain. Finally, the woman became pregnant.

Now, in the back of their house the couple had a small window that overlooked a fairy's garden filled with all kinds of flowers and herbs. But nobody ever dared to enter it.

Seventh Edition

Once upon a time there was a husband and wife who for quite some time had been wishing in vain for a child. Finally, the dear Lord gave the wife a sign of hope that their wish would be fulfilled. Now, in the back of their house the couple had a small window that overlooked a splendid garden filled with the most beautiful flowers and herbs. The garden, however, was surrounded by a high wall, and nobody dared enter it because it belonged to a sorceress, who was very powerful and feared by all.

Aside from adding a Christian motif and substituting a sorceress for a fairy, Wilhelm Grimm also concealed a later scene in the first edition when Rapunzel reveals that she apparently had sex with the prince and was impregnated by him. Other differences in the editions show: In the first, Snow White's mother, not her stepmother, wants to kill the beautiful girl out of envy. The terse tale called "The Wild Man," in which a mysterious powerful king helps a boy who has helped him escape from a cage, is embellished and transformed into a very long elaborate tale with the title "Iron Hans." The wild man in the 1812 version is more kind than the stern Iron Hans, who determines the young man's destiny in a coming-of-age story. Likewise, "The Devil in the Green Coat" is given a new title, "Bearskin," and a totally new beginning and meaning. In the 1812 tale, the Grimms portrayed an oppressed, timid young man, abandoned in the woods by his brothers. He accepts the devil's green coat that will enable him to survive for seven years if he doesn't shave or clean himself. In the much longer 1857 version there are echoes of the Napoleonic wars: The protagonist is a discharged and homeless soldier who is treated poorly by his family and then turns to the devil for survival.

All of the tales in the first edition bear the marks of their diverse storytellers who believed in the magic, superstitions, and miraculous transformations of the tales. It may be difficult for us to understand why this is the case, but for the storytellers and writers of these tales, the stories contained truths about the living conditions of their times. The tales in the first edition were collected not from peasants, as is commonly believed, but mainly from literate people whom the Grimms came to know quite well. Evidence shows that these people often obtained their tales from illiterate or anonymous informants. Even if they did not know their informants, the Grimms came to trust almost everyone who contributed to their collection. It is this mutual trust that marks the tales as something special and endows them with a certain humanity, what Germans call Menschlichkeit, and it is this mutual trust among folklorists in the nineteenth century that marks it as the golden age of folk and fairy tales. The tales in the first edition set a certain standard that collectors began to follow and still follow even today.

Though brusque and raw, the Grimms' tales of the first edition still resonate with us today because they indicate how we can transform ourselves and our conditions to live in a better world. As philologists, collectors, translators, researchers, editors, and mediators, the Grimms worked in the hope that their tales would benefit us in unimaginable ways, and, indeed, it is this hope that can still be felt when we read and listen to their tales.

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How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale

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Between 1812 and 1857, seven editions of their tales appeared, each one different from the last, until the final, best-known version barely resembled the first. Given that the first edition has recently been honored in bicentenary celebrations throughout the world, it is perhaps a good time to reexamine what we think we know about the original tales of the Brothers Grimm.

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Thoughts from Japan!

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Hideo Toguchi
Professor of the Faculty of Commerce, Chuo University

When approaching Maihama on the Keiyo Line from Tokyo Station, Tokyo Disneyland comes into view on the right. What especially catches your eye is Cinderella Castle stretching up into the sky. On a dark winter's night it rises like a fantasy. Cinderella! This eternal character is a symbol of eternal dreams and hope for girls. Children the world over have very much identified with this main character, hoping that they, themselves, could become like her one day.

By the way, did you know that Disney's Cinderella isn't actually that of the Grimm fairy tale, but based on the character of Frenchman Charles Perrault? In Perrault's 1697 The Tales of Mother Goose, in addition to Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper (Cendrillon) , other famous stories are told, such as Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding-hood, Blue Beard, and Puss in Boots. The glass slipper can be used as a test to confirm the origins of Disney's Cinderella. This is used in Perrault, in Grimm, the slipper is golden.

The story of Cinderella was already present in Europe's oldest collection of tales, Pentamerone by Italian Giambattista Basile (1634-36), appearing in the story titled Cenerentola, and similar stories can also be found in Japan and China. In Japan's Komebuki to Awabuki, a girl is mistreated by her stepmother, but at a village festival a wealthy man falls in love with her and after confirming the clothes she wore at the festival, they get married. Also, there are other stories such as Japan's Haibo (Cinder Boy), where the leading character is a male. There are actually 500 tales with this storyline throughout the world. And this isn't limited to Cinderella. Debate has continued over the ages as to whether the many folktales with similar storylines have their roots in a single source (such as India), or have naturally sprung up in various places.

Folktales which have been originally passed down by mouth are called Märchen (fairy tales) in German. These can further be divided into three categories, (1) original folktales, (2) animal folktales, and (3) humorous stories and strange tales. Of these, (1) are stories that have a beginning and end, containing set structures like "Once upon a time." to ".and they lived happily ever after," for example. They can be said to be stories which don't specify time, place or characters. Even if the characters in the fairytales have names, the majority would be popular names (with no surname), Hänsel and Gretel for instance. Cinderella is also a plain noun meaning girl covered in cinders. While on this subject, when Westerners talk about fairytales, most will think about tales from (1), and especially magical tales.

The Brothers Grimm (Jacob and Wilhelm) first assessed oral literature as a human cultural heritage, and researched it academically. The results of their diverse research, the roots of folktales and legends, comparing similar tales, motifs and themes, manner of narration etc. became a great model for future researchers. The first volume of the fairytale collection they gathered and edited, Children's and Household Tales was first printed in 1812, with the second volume published in 1815. The final edition (seventh and definitive edition) was printed in 1857 and comprised of 200 stories (as well as 10 religious legends.)

Grimm's Cinderella (Fairytale 21 Aschenputtel) is a story that was already recorded as a handwritten script (テ僕enberger Handscript) before the first printing. Cinderella, along with Snow White and Hänsel and Gretel, could be said to be the three most popular Grimm fairy tales. This could be put down to the high degree of perfection as a fairytale. Now then, let's have a look some characteristics of fairy tales by using Cinderella as an example.

It was a bird who comforted Cinderella when she was mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters, and it was also the bird who gave her the dress for the ball and the golden slippers, as well as punishing the stepsisters at the end. What is this bird? It is a bird with strange powers and connected to the spiritual world. The bird may actually be Cinderella's true mother's spirit. In Perrault's Cendrillon, a fairy appears, and with her magic produces a dress and coach. Disney also uses Perrault's images here.

Be it a bird or fairy, they both exist in the spirit world. A fairy tale is a vast world. That includes the far away universe and supernatural word. Even if you can differentiate between this world and the supernatural world, the two are joined. So, even if something from the spirit world suddenly appears before our eyes, we are not surprised. On the contrary, people from this world travel between the two worlds as if it is a matter of course.

Cinderella has no mother, and her father takes the side of her stepmother, leaving her completely isolated. Many of the main characters in fairy tales are weak and poor. They are the youngest child or stepchild ridiculed by all, driven away like the livestock in The Bremen Town Musicians, and lead an existence like Hop o' my Thumb, or Tom Thumb. In other words, they could be said to have no permanent residence, travelers of this world.

So they are exposed to the evil power of this world and fear of death, as well as being exposed to the fearsome power of the spirit world. From this power of death and evil constantly standing right in front of them, fairy tales are said to be scary. This is not restricted to Grimm, fairy tales are essentially scary. The main characters live in a world which has lost its system of a social promise to guarantee life security. Yet, on reflection, haven't we, in modern times, experienced the collapse of the safety myth, having our financial or career plans wrecked in an instant by an accident or event of some kind? We are also surprisingly similar to the main characters in the fairy tales, existing as travelers.

When mentioning Cinderella's belongings, all she has are rags for clothes. She has been stripped of all her possessions. She has been robbed of blood relationships, money and honor which guarantee safety and assurances in this world, and been condemned to <nothing>. In other words, she doesn't get tired of longing for <possessions> and has become completely free from self-centeredness. So, at that time, the world starts to sparkle anew. She enters new relationships with animals. In order to go the ball she is given the difficult task of gathering a large bowl full of lentils out of ashes by her stepmother, and she is helped out by doves, turtledoves and other small birds. These fairy tale-type helpers symbolize those circumstances.

Cinderella grows a hazel tree with her tears. Upon hearing this, it is an image children never forget. Also, through this laconic expression, years of continuous crying are suggested. This is a wonderful narrative style. In fairy tales there are no longwinded, ineffective passages.

Incidentally, the hazel tree was believed, by the ancient Celts and Germanic people, to be a holy tree giving strength and health. We can also see glimpses of this in the ancient roots of fairy tales. And this tree becomes a helper for Cinderella.

In this way, the casual daily encounters with people and living things represent a deep meaning to the main character. This is no less represented by than the heart of the main character of Kasa-jizo who feels sorry for a jizo statue in the falling snow and gives it a straw lampshade hat. In this way, the poor and isolated enter an omnipresent relationship with all forms of life. That kind of relationship is also beautifully portrayed in fairy tale 24, Mother Hulda. And so, we can teach children the abundance of the world, and that this feeling of coexistence with living things seems to carry a modern significance.

But in order to enter that kind of relationship, a good heart and the power of love cultivated in times of anguish is indispensable. During Cinderella's long perseverance, her heart is purified with tears. Also in fairytale 12, Rapunzel, the power of the married couple's love overcomes the evil spell. Here, love is intensified from a youthful, romantic love into a mature love of a married couple. The heart matures during life's deep setbacks. That is conveyed concisely in fairy tales without redundant psychological descriptions. And the children who read these are guided to the depth of the human heart.

The golden slipper fitted Cinderella perfectly and she happily married the prince. For her, this was a totally unexpected event. This girl with strong perseverance didn't exactly lead a passive existence, but a characteristic of fairy tales is that the downtrodden are chosen as the main character and receive kindness. To put this in religious terms, they become people who receive grace. On the other hand, the strong characters (the majority being the rich and greedy), who plan in advance ways to gain favor, usually experience a miserable failure. Here, the most important point concerning us is that the notion that we unconsciously receive favors is becoming a foundation within us. Aren't we, modern people, also being led by those kinds of unexpected encounters?

In this way, the main characters, in a world of confusion and evil threats, in the end are cleansed, mature, and find justice and happiness, essential items for human beings. To rephrase this, they find themselves. Children, who are in comparatively weaker positions to adults, see these developments and the main characters realize their dreams, and in turn acquire the courage to live. Their wish for justice is realized and order is restored to the world. Fairy tales respond to children's hopes for health and happiness and sense of order.

Everybody, in this world of pleasure and pain, is on a long journey in pursuit of happiness. It is fairy tales that express these symbolic dynamics of life.

Hideo Toguchi
Professor of the Faculty of Commerce, Chuo University

Born in Gunma Prefecture in 1946. Graduated from International Christian University in 1969. Completed his Master's degree (Master of Arts) at Tokyo Metropolitan University Graduate School in 1971. Became an assistant professor at Chuo University in 1978 after working as an assistant professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Economics at Kochi University. Became a professor in 1986. Visiting research fellow at the University of Vienna 1988-89.
Majors in 19th and 20th century German literature and Viennese culture. These days he researches fairy tales, especially those of Grimm.

Major publications include Sacred Things and the Power of Imagination (coauthored, Sairyusha, 1994), and Vienna - Her Unknown Aspects (coauthored, Chuo University Press, 2000). Translations of H. Schipperges' Hildegard of Bingen: (coauthored, Kyobunkwan, 2002), and A. Rieder's The Vienna Woods - Nature, Culture and History (Nansosha, 2007).

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Reading into Grimm fairy tales : Research : Chuo Online : YOMIURI ONLINE?

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Hideo Toguchi Professor of the Faculty of Commerce, Chuo University When approaching Maihama on the Keiyo Line from Tokyo Station, Tokyo Disneyland comes into view on the right. What especially catches your eye is Cinderella Castle stretching up into the sky. On a dark winter's night it rises like a fantasy.

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A deeper look into the genre.

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See the fairy tales in their original language, as well as beautiful original illustrations. Don't be fooled by the icon.

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Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten / The Bremen Town Musicians

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Want to just listen to the fairy tales? You can do that here!

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the brothers grimm lunch break: the complete fairy tales of the brothers grimm

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The Brothers Grimm Lunch Break: The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm by Eric Wagoner on Apple Podcasts

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Download past episodes or subscribe to future episodes of The Brothers Grimm Lunch Break: The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm by Eric Wagoner for free.