Selections from Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales

The oldest brothers Grimm;
 drawn by Emil Ludwig.

       Jakob Ludwig Grimm was a German jurist and philologist; born at Hainau, January 4, 1785. He studied at Marburg, and was chosen professor at Gottingen in 1830, but was on account of his liberal principles removed from that position seven years later. He accepted in 1841 an invitation to Berlin, where he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences. He was the author of several valuable works apart from the collected fairy tales that Americans know him for. He died in 1863.

       Jakob was the oldest of nine children and the second child born into this large German family, 1786, was Wilhelm Karl, a German linguist. It was these two brothers that recorded and condensed the fables and fairy tales that are listed below.

       Emil Ludwig , born in 1790, became a painter and engraver. He was eventually elected professor in the Academy of Painting at Cassel in 1832. This brother died in 1863. He drew the portrait included here of his elder brothers together.

More Links to The Brother's Grimm:

• Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm
• Hanau Germany where Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were born.
• Philipps Universitat Marburg where the brothers attended university.
• The Museum Bruder Grimm Haus where the brothers grew up. The official town website of Steinau an der Straße.

       A fairy tale, wonder tale, magic tale, or Märchen is an instance of a folklore genre that takes the form of a short story. Such stories typically feature entities such as dwarfs, dragons, elves, fairies, giants, gnomes, goblins, griffins, mermaids, talking animals, trolls, unicorns, or witches, and usually magic or enchantments. In most cultures, there is no clear line separating myth from folk or fairy tale; all these together form the literature of preliterate societies.

       A Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be added explicitly as a pithy maxim or saying. 

       Both genres appear in the original collections by the Grimm brothers. In later publications, the fables were removed, especially those texts published for the American market. However, I will attempt to include many more of the fables here in the future. 

       Those of you who only know these old fairy tales because of Walt Disney's retelling of them through film, may be a bit surprised by how many of the elements differ in the original stories? But remember that fairy tales and fables were collected by the brothers from the peasants of their own time, who had a culture different from our own. The stories that every culture tells their own children change, adapt, and evolve. I imagine that what we know today to be "Cinderella" will be somewhat unrecognizable two hundred years from now.

More About The Grimm's History:

• How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale
• The Fairytale Language of the Brothers Grimm
• The Most Beautiful Illustrations from 200 Years of Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales

Selections from The Brother's Grimm Complete Fairy Tales & Fables: Originally transcribed by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: Edited by Kathy Grimm

1. The Frog Prince
2. The Moon 
3. Rapunzel 
4. The Golden Key
5. The Nail
6. Sweet Porridge
7. Cinderella
8. Old Rinkrank
9. The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean
10. The Death of the Hen
11. The Sleeping Beauty
12. The Rabbit's Bride
13. The Dog and the Sparrow
14. Old Sultan
15. Hansel and Gretel
16. The Three Spinners
17. Mr. Korbes
18. The Vagabonds
19. Rumpelstiltskin
20. The Peasant In Heaven
21. The Queen Bee
22. Poverty and Humility Lead to Heaven
23. The Poor Boy in the Grave
24. The Old Grandfather's Corner 
25. The Owl
26. The Bremen Town Musicians 
27. The Hazel Branch
28. The Wonderful Musician
29. The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage
30. The Crumbs on the Table
31. The Rose
32. The Wolf and the Man
33. Gossip Wolf and the Fox
34. The Golden Goose
35. Little Red Riding Hood
36. The Aged Mother
37. The Stolen Pennies
38. The Drummer
39. The Golden Bird 
40. Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs
41. The Ear or Corn
42. The Three Languages
43. The Star Money
44. The Shroud
45. The Flail from Heaven
46. Eve's Various Children
47. The Tailor in Heaven 
48. Little Red Riding Hood