A collection of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. The real fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm

Last December marked the 200th anniversary of the publication of the first volume of the famous fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. At the same time, the press (mostly German-speaking) appeared great amount materials that were dedicated to the glorious brothers and their collection of fairy tales. After reviewing them, I decided to write my own compilation text based on what I read, but I was suddenly involved in the Israeli election campaign. The desire remains...

Let's start with the fact that the great brothers came to fairy tales, in general, by accident. They did not at all consider fairy tales to be their main book. This happens. It happens that great writers do not know what exactly they will be glorified. It happens that the authors do not know that the works that they considered minor will remain from them for centuries. So, for example, Petrarch would be very surprised if he knew that he would enter the treasury of world literature precisely with his sonnets, which he wrote at his leisure, treated them with disdain, as “trifles”, “trinkets”, written not for the public, but for himself, in order "somehow, not for the sake of glory, to relieve a sorrowful heart." He then saw the main business of his life not as light Italian rhymes, but as works in noble Latin. But he went down in history with sonnets, not monumental epic poem"Africa", where the exploits of Scipio are sung...

Especially often this happens with great storytellers. The great French poet and critic, member of the French Academy, Charles Perrault, was a very prolific author, the author of famous scientific papers, practiced law, was a confidant of the financier Jean Colbert, general controller of the Surintenance of Royal Buildings, etc. As a writer, he became famous among his contemporaries for his program texts - the poem "The Age of Louis the Great" and the dialogue "Parallels between ancient and new in matters of art and science." In the salons he was quoted as "The Walls of Troy, or the Origin of Burlesque". What about fairy tales? Perrault was a little ashamed of them. He did not even dare to publish fairy tales under his own name, fearing that they would undermine his established reputation. Trying to protect his illustrious name from accusations of working with a "low" genre, Charles Perrault put the name of his 19-year-old son on the cover.

It should be noted here that the recording of folklore German romantics was not entirely academic. The processing of the text by the publishers of The Fairy Horn has in some cases meant a complete rewriting. Setting themselves the sole goal of rehabilitating the hitherto despised folk song, the publishers freely handle the materials they have collected. They considered it necessary to comb the village beauty and dress her in a new dress before introducing her into decent society. Any current teacher of folklore would give Arnim and Brentano "bad" for such a free handling of the material, But ... for luck German poetry strict teachers did not stand over the Heidelberg romantics, and what would be considered folklore they decided in a close family circle (the poet Achim von Arnim married his sister close friend Bettina Brentano. Bettina von Arnim became his faithful companion in collecting folklore).

In the collection of Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano "Magic Horn of a Boy" folk texts, which do not have authorship, and therefore remade in their own way, coexist and are in the most complex artistic interaction with the author's texts of the compilers. In many ways, the collection is an artistic hoax. For example, the story of the mermaid, which later became widely known, was a figment of Brentano's imagination.

It is important to note this, since the Grimm brothers, yielding to the urgent recommendations of the Heidelberger romantic writers, took the path of making fairy tales more literary. More precisely, Wilhelm took over this work, and Jacob preferred not to participate in it. But more about that later.

And it all started with the fact that Achim von Arnim visited his friends in the city of Kassel in 1812. And he read one of their manuscripts, "measuring the room with steps." At the same time, von Arnim went deep into reading so much that - as the apocrypha say - " did not notice how the tame canary, which seemed to feel great in his thick curls, was balancing on his head, lightly flapping its wings".

This scene has come down to us in the description of the Brothers Grimm. Jacob and Wilhelm were the very friends of Achim von Arnim, whose manuscript he read with such enthusiasm that he did not notice the canary on his head. The brothers Grimm, very prolific writers, treated the opinion of Achim with great respect.
But they were very much surprised that von Arnim preferred a collection of fairy tales to all the other manuscripts they read that evening.

Wilhelm later wrote: “It was he, Arnim, who, having spent several weeks with us in Kassel, prompted us to publish the book! He felt that we should not linger too long on this, as in the pursuit of completeness the matter might drag on too long. " After all, everything is written so cleanly and so beautifully", he said with good-natured irony."

So, on October 18, 1812 — “exactly one year before the Battle of Leipzig” (marked by Jacob Grimm), at the moment when all of Europe is waiting for news from Russia, where Napoleon got stuck, Wilhelm Grimm wrote a preface to their first edition: “ We consider it a good thing when it happens that a storm or other disaster sent down by heaven will beat the whole crop to the ground, and somewhere near a low hedge or bush bordering the road, an untouched place will remain and individual spikelets will remain standing there as they were. The blessed sun will shine again, and they will grow, lonely and imperceptible, no hasty sickle will reap them for the sake of filling rich barns, but at the end of summer, when they are full and ripe, poor, honest hands will find them and, carefully tying, spikelet to spikelet , honoring higher than whole sheaves, they will take it home, where they will serve as food for the whole winter, and perhaps they will give the only seed for future sowing. We feel the same feelings when looking at the richness of German poetry of the past and seeing that nothing living has been preserved from so much, even the memory of it has faded away, and only folk songs Yes, these are naive domestic fairy tales. Places by the stove, by the kitchen hearth, attic stairs, still not forgotten holidays, meadows and forests with their silence, but, above all, a serene fantasy - these are the hedges that saved them and handed them over from one era to another».

The Brothers Grimm associated the need for collecting with the historical awareness of the transience of things, the rapid change in life itself. The writings of the Brothers Grimm are imbued with the pathos of what can be expressed by the phrase "yet". They, who grew up in an era of revolutionary change and Napoleonic Wars, experienced firsthand how stable life plans can turn to dust as time changes rapidly, and that is why they justified the relevance of their scientific intentions by the desire to save as quickly as possible what history can leave unattended.

“For now” is a motivating motive, in an era when, after the Great French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, Europe was changing at an astonishing rate. “So far” it is possible to fix the changing old forms of the language, dialectisms, the names are becoming archaic. "For now" - you can write oral creativity. "For the time being" the brothers can retain traces of the old Germanic law, which have survived despite the success of the Roman laws. "For now" Grimms may try to rescue old German poetry from oblivion. “At some point it will be too late,” notes Jakob Grimm in his work An Appeal to All Friends of German Poetry and History (1811). At least the remnants of the past can be studied “for the time being”, but soon they too will be lost forever.
The pathos associated with “yet” means that any essential moment of the past is worth fixing. It needs to be fixed, if only in order to be able to understand and reconstruct historical relationships.

More from the preface: This naive closeness to us of the biggest and smallest is fraught with an indescribable charm, and we would rather hear the conversation of the stars with a poor child abandoned in the forest than the most exquisite music. Everything beautiful in them looks golden, studded with pearls, even people here are golden, and misfortune is a gloomy force, a terrible cannibal giant, who, however, is defeated, as a good fairy stands nearby, knowing how best to avert misfortune».

The preface to the collection ended with these words: We place this book in benevolent hands, thinking of the great and good power contained in them, and we want it not to get to those who do not want to give even these crumbs of poetry to the poor and weak».

Arnim contacted Reimer's publishing house in Berlin. At the end of September, the brothers sent the manuscript to the publisher. And just before the Christmas holidays of 1812, Jacob was holding a newly published book of Children's and Household Tales.

The first edition of the first volume was about nine hundred copies. The book did not immediately run into success and universal approval. Immediately after the release of the first edition, this collection of fairy tales was subjected to deafeningly harsh criticism. August Wilhelm Schlegel wrote a scathing review. " If someone cleans out a closet filled with different kind stupidity, and at the same time expresses his respect to every junk in the name of "ancient legends", then for reasonable people this is already too much».

The second volume of fairy tales, published in 1815, was not sold out. Approximately one third of the circulation remained unclaimed and was destroyed.

Misunderstood by contemporaries

Something similar happened with many other books by the Brothers Grimm. Their linguistic works, as well as studies in the field of literary history, their study of legends, fairy tales and myths, their works on the history of law, customs and mores, as well as their political activity seldom received such an assessment, which they considered justified.

Jacob and Wilhelm were constantly in conflict with their superiors. They constantly faced the fact that their contemporaries did not recognize their merits.

Completely ignoring their merits, the Elector of Hesse-Kassel in 1829 refused to appoint them to work in his library, which they had counted on for many years. Instead of them, the Marburg professor Johann Ludwig Felkel was appointed director of the library of the elector, whom the Grimm brothers could not take seriously, since he actually considered the shards found in the houses of Kassel to be works of antiquity, which pleased the elector very much. Völkel was also notorious for mistaking worm-eaten walls for Germanic runes. The Grimm brothers were treated unceremoniously. According to rumors, they were aware of the words, not devoid of irony, said by the elector about their departure to Göttingen: “ The Grimms are leaving! Big loss! They never did anything for me!»

Apparently, contemporaries were simply not ready for " respect for the insignificant”- this is exactly what the art historian Sulpis Boassere scornfully responded in 1815 in his letter to Goethe.

And indeed: why was it necessary to deal with obscure samples of medieval poetry found in some piles of old rubbish? Why was it necessary to pedantically delve into not very relevant aspects of German grammar? Why scrupulously study the missed opportunities of historical linguistics? Considering that in those days every lord of a dwarf German state could have a professor or librarian with him, who boldly gave answers to all questions of the universe, offered his universal philosophical concentrate, revealed last secrets being.

Besides, why should enlightened people be interested in stories about ancient heroes and knights, about witches and wizards? Maybe "Children's and Family Tales" directed children along the wrong path and were not suitable for educational purposes? However, the Grimm brothers believed in what they were doing. They were always ready to take the risk of failure - and so it was with each of their new projects.

Almighty god of details

Most of their stories about themselves in the Learned Lexicon of 1831 are devoted to non-heroic research work, not to important discoveries and great scientific achievements, but to childhood and youth. It speaks of a peach tree that grew beyond parental home about the garden they played in, about how they learned to read and write, about childhood illnesses, about military parades, about traveling with relatives in a carriage, and about school years held in Kessel. Scholars inserted into their autobiographies exactly the kind of material that many of their contemporaries must have regarded as irrelevant and irrelevant. Moreover, with a strong propensity for provocation, they declared that child mindfulness and childhood in general are an essential element of their research program. In their opinion, the person who looks at the world with the “pure gaze” of a child also shows interest in trifles and secondary issues that escape the attention of an adult. The brothers believed that it was this openness to the small and insignificant that led to real discoveries and made a scientist a scientist.

« nature explorer, - Jacob Grimm emphasized in his work “On female names associated with flowers, observes with equal attention, and with great success, both the great and the small, since the smallest contains evidence of the largest. Why, for example, he asks, “in history and in poetry should not be collected and studied what seems insignificant?» In his opinion, it is in the details that the key to the world lies, and not in something big, sensational or attracting everyone's attention.

So Wilhelm, in his biographical sketch, dreams of research on something "special", and as an example he cites Pierre Lyon's anatomical treatise on field caterpillars from 1762, which is more than 600 pages long and is a monumental study on a tiny insect.

So characteristic of the Enlightenment, “respect for the insignificant” formed the basis of the attitude towards themselves of the Brothers Grimm - and at the same time served as their defense against criticism from all those who did not want to treat their work with due respect. “It is very easy ... sometimes that which has most clearly manifested itself in life is discarded as not worthy of attention, and instead the researcher continues to indulge in the study of those things that, perhaps, captivate, but in fact do not saturate and nourish.” With these words, Wilhelm Grimm ends the section in his biography on children's perception of the world.

It is this awareness of the transience and dissimilarity of historical epochs, the perception of the past as something fleeting, and the modern as something changing with exceptional speed, which belongs to the fundamental experience - which determines the pathos associated with the "still", requiring fixation of the details of the past, at least for in order to be able to understand and reconstruct historical relationships. Maybe with the help of something insignificant, a person is able to understand that the world was once completely different and was perceived differently. Perhaps a person is able to understand that other values ​​existed earlier, different attitudes dominated, and that the order of things has changed significantly since then. After all, history is transformation. Continuous, never ending transformation.

Transformation of fairy tales

At the beginning, unlike Bren Tano, who freely handled fairy tales, reworked them depending on the artistic task, the Brothers Grimm did not change anything, much less distorted. Of course, while writing down what they heard, they thought about this or that phrase. Of course, there were also differences of opinion. Jacob was more inclined towards scientific certainty. As a publisher, referring to his methods and principles, he wrote: Reworking, refining these things will always be unpleasant for me because they are done in the interests of a falsely understood necessity for our time, and for the study of poetry they will always be an annoying hindrance.". It was not easy for him to yield to Wilhelm, a supporter of artistic and poetic processing. But since the brothers unconditionally recognized the need to preserve everything historical, then already in the process of exposition final version fairy tales, the matter did not reach significant discrepancies. Both carefully approached the tales, trying to write them down almost unchanged, without cutting anywhere, only literary processing, so that they would play again in all their poetic brilliance.

« We tried to keep fairy tales in all their original purity, The Brothers Grimm wrote. — Not a single episode in them is invented, embellished or changed, since we tried to avoid attempts to enrich the already rich fairy tale plots at the expense of any analogies and reminiscences. But, on the other hand, they emphasized: “It goes without saying that the style and construction of the individual parts for the most part belong to us.».

The collection of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm at first did not have a clear intended purpose, since it was conceived as a publication capable of satisfying the needs of all categories of readers - the general reader, and people of science, and people of art.

The second edition prepared by Wilhelm (1819) differed significantly from the first. In the future, Wilhelm continued the literary editing of the collection, following the path of "fabulous stylization", giving it greater expressiveness and uniformity of form. Wilhelm Grimm issued all new editions of this edition until his death on December 16, 1859. Before each new edition, changes were made to the texts of fairy tales.
How consistently the later versions deviated from the original, just as consistently decreased scientific value Grimm collection. And if the first critics (the same Brentano) accused the brothers of the rudeness of the raw material, then the current folklorists accuse them of excessive literary processing, careless attitude to the source material of the folk tale.

Wilhelm Grimm changed the texts of fairy tales forever. Many readers would be amazed if they read in the first edition such tales as Rapunzel, The Tale of the Frog King, or Iron Henry, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty" or "Snow White". Over the years, their content has changed significantly.

Then they were already changed by the authors of retellings, transcriptions, literary adaptations, free translations, Disney and Hollywood movies etc. Starting with Wilhelm Grimm, they have been “cleaning” texts for a couple of centuries, softening and cutting out all unpleasant or dubious places.

Very often, to justify this, the idea is given that, despite the fact that the first edition was published under the title "Children's and Family Tales", the book was not written for children. The brothers conceived the book as an academic anthology. It was a publication for scientists, it was compiled by serious adults for serious and adult people. However, as the popularity of the books grew, a wave of harsh criticism hit the brothers. Parents thought fairy tales were too dark. According to moralists, they were not benign enough. And according to the church, they weren't Christian enough. So we had to change the content of fairy tales.

Evil mothers in the tales of Snow White, Hansel and Gretel turned into evil stepmothers. What was the original plot of Snow White? In a story told by the Grimm brothers in 1812, Snow White's envious mother (not stepmother!) sends a huntsman to bring the girl's lung and liver, which her mother was going to pickle, cook and eat. This is a tale of mother-daughter rivalry, a feminine version of Oedipal passions. Also in the fairy tale of the Brothers Grimm, the punishment of a cruel mother is included. In the story, she appears at Snow White's wedding wearing red-hot iron shoes and dancing in them until she falls dead.

In the original story of "Cinderella" by the Brothers Grimm (unlike Charles Perrault's version), Cinderella receives clothes for the ball not from a good fairy, but from a tree that, from a hazel branch watered with tears, grew on her mother's grave. The story with shoes does not look childish at all in Grimm's recording. When the prince comes to try on a shoe, the eldest of the stepmother's daughters (and they are vicious, treacherous, like the stepmother herself) cuts off her finger to get into the shoe. The prince takes her with him, but two white doves in a walnut tree sing that her slipper is covered in blood. The prince turns the horse back. The same is repeated with the other sister, only she does not cut off the toe, but the heel. Only Cinderella's slipper fits. The prince recognizes the girl and declares him his bride. When the prince and Cinderella drive past the cemetery, the doves fly down from the tree and sit on Cinderella's shoulders - one on the left, the other on the right, and remain seated.

« And when the time came to celebrate the wedding, the treacherous sisters also appeared - they wanted to seduce her and share her happiness with her. And when the wedding procession went to the church, the eldest was right hand from the bride, and the youngest on the left; and the pigeons pecked out each of their eyes. And then, when they were returning back from the church, the elder left hand, and the youngest on the right; and the pigeons pecked out another eye from each of them. So they were punished for their malice and deceit for the rest of their lives with blindness.».

I had to remove all hints of sex from the texts, as, for example, in the fairy tale "Rapunzel". In the original version, the evil sorceress imprisoned Rapunzel in the tower. One day, a prince secretly snuck into her. Then he left, contriving not to wake the sorceress. But Rapunzel still blabbed. How? She, as if nothing had happened, asked the sorceress why the dress was not enough for her. For some reason it became tight in the belt. The sorceress immediately guessed that Rapunzel was pregnant. In later editions, the Brothers Grimm removed these details from the text, as well as other references to premarital sex.
The third of the Brothers Grimm, Emil, worked on the artwork for the books and added to the illustrations christian symbols. So, a Bible soon appeared on the bedside table at Granny Little Red Riding Hood.

And as Skazki became more conservative, so did their popularity. Finally, parents stopped being embarrassed when reading them to their children, and fairy tales found their own new life. Now, 200 years later, we still know about the adventures of Rapunzel, Cinderella and Snow White, although some of the details of these adventures have disappeared from the books.

And it remains only to think - what would happen if Jacob and Wilhelm did not change the texts of their fairy tales? Would their names have been known to this day?

One evening a young drummer was walking alone across the field. He approaches the lake, sees - three pieces of white linen are lying on the shore. “What a thin linen,” he said, and slipped one piece into his pocket. He came home, but forgot about his find and forgot to think and went to bed. But as soon as he fell asleep, it seemed to him that someone was calling him by name. He began to listen and heard a quiet voice that said to him: "Drummer, wake up, drummer!" And the night was dark, he could not see anyone, but it seemed to him as if he was rushing in front of his bed, then rising up, then falling down, some kind of figure.

What do you want? - he asked.

There lived a poor shepherd boy in the world. His father and mother died, then the authorities gave him to the house of a rich man, so that he would feed and educate him at home. But the rich man and his wife had an evil heart, and for all their wealth they were very stingy and unfriendly to people and always angry if someone used even a piece of their bread. And no matter how hard the poor boy tried to work, they fed him little, but beat him a lot.

Once upon a time there was an old miller at the mill; he had neither wife nor children, and he had three servants. They stayed with him for several years, so he once said to them:

I have already become old, I would now sit on the stove, and you go wandering around the wide world; and whoever brings home the best horse for me, to him I will give the mill, and he will feed me until death.

The third worker was a backfill at the mill, and they all considered him a fool and did not in any way predict a mill for him; Yes, he didn't want that either. And all three of them left, and, approaching the village, they said to Hans the Fool:

In ancient times, when the Lord God was still walking the earth, it happened that one day in the evening he got tired, the night caught him, and he had nowhere to spend the night. And there were two houses on the road, one opposite the other; one was large and beautiful, and the other was small and unsightly in appearance. Big house belonged to the rich man, and the little one to the poor. The Lord thought: “I won’t trouble a rich man, I’ll spend the night with him.” The rich man heard that they were knocking on his door, opened the window and asked the stranger what he needed.

Long ago there lived a king, and he was famous throughout the earth for his wisdom. Everything was known to him, as if someone through the air gave him news of the most secret things. But he had a strange custom: every noon, when everything was cleared from the table and no one else was left, a reliable servant brought him another dish. But it was covered, and even the servant did not know what was on this dish; and not a single person knew about it, for the king opened the dish and started eating only when he was completely alone.

This went on for a long time, but one day curiosity overcame the servant, he could not control himself and took the dish to his room. He closed the doors properly, lifted the lid from the dish, he sees - there is a white snake lying there. He looked at her and could not resist tasting her; he cut off a piece and put it in his mouth.

Once a woman with her daughter and stepdaughter went out into the field to cut grass, and the Lord God appeared to them in the form of a beggar and asked:

How can I get closer to the village?

If you want to know the way, - answered the mother, - look for it yourself.

And if you are worried that you will not find the way, then take yourself a guide.

The poor widow lived alone in her hut, and in front of the hut she had a garden; two rose trees grew in that garden, and white roses bloomed on one, and scarlet on the other; and she had two children, like those rose-trees, one called Snow White, and the other Crimson. They were so modest and kind, so hard-working and obedient, that there were no such people in the world; only Snow White was even quieter and gentler than Scarlet. Crimson jumped and ran more and more through meadows and fields, picking flowers and catching butterflies; and Snow White - she mostly sat at home near her mother, helped her with the housework, and when there was no work, she read something aloud to her. Both sisters loved each other so much that if they went somewhere, they always held hands, and if Snow White used to say: “We will always be together,” then Scarlet will answer her: “Yes, as long as we are alive, we will never let’s part,” and the mother added: “Whatever one of you has, let him share it with the other.”

Long ago, there was a beautiful queen. Once she was sewing at the window, accidentally pricked her finger with a needle and a drop of blood fell on the snow lying on the windowsill.

The scarlet color of blood on the snow-white cover seemed so beautiful to her that the queen sighed and said:

Oh, how I would like to have a baby with a snow-white face, with lips as scarlet as blood, and jet-black curls.

Information sheet:

The gripping tales of the Brothers Grimm stand apart in the world of fairy tales. Their content is so exciting that it will impress any child.

Where did your favorite fairy tales come from?

They came from German lands. Folk tales collected and processed by experts in language and folklore - brothers. For several years, writing down the best oral stories, the authors were able to improve them so interestingly and beautifully that today we perceive these fairy tales as written directly by them.

The heroes of the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm are kinder and better than they were in oral folk art, and this is the wonderful meaning of the work that linguists have done. In each work they put the idea of ​​the unconditional victory of good over evil, the superiority of courage and love of life, which is taught by all plots.

How they were published

Tales tried to steal a man whom the brothers considered a friend, but did not have time. In 1812, the collectors were able to carry out their first edition. Not immediately the works were recognized as children's. But after professional editing, they spread throughout the country in large numbers. Reprinted 7 times in 20 years. The list of works has grown. Fairy tales from the category of simple folk art developed into a new literary genre.

The Brothers Grimm made a real breakthrough, which was appreciated all over the world. Today their work is included in international list great heritage of the past, created by UNESCO.

What is the modernity of the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm?

Adults remember the names of many fairy tales from childhood. Because the works of the Brothers Grimm with their magical style of storytelling, variety of plots, preaching of love of life and perseverance in any life situations fascinate and attract extraordinarily.

And today we are happy to read them together with children, remembering which fairy tales we liked more, comparing with interest with those that are popular today.

Everyone knows the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. Perhaps, in childhood, parents told many fascinating stories about the beautiful Snow White, the good-natured and cheerful Cinderella, the capricious princess and others. Grown up children then themselves read the fascinating tales of these authors. And those who did not particularly like to spend time reading a book, be sure to watch cartoons based on the works of legendary creators.

Who are the Brothers Grimm?

The brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are famous German linguists. Throughout their lives, they worked on the creation of German. Unfortunately, they did not have time to finish it. However, this is not why they have become so popular. Made them famous folk tales. The Brothers Grimm became famous during their lifetime. "Children's and Household Tales" were being translated into different languages. The Russian version came out in the 60s of the 19th century. Today, their tales are read in almost 100 languages. On the works of the Brothers Grimm brought up many children from different countries. In our country, they gained wide popularity in the 30s of the last century thanks to the retellings and adaptations of Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak, and

What is the secret of the popularity of the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm?

All fairy tales have a unique and interesting story, happy ending, the victory of good over evil. The entertaining stories that came out from under their pen are very instructive, and most of them are dedicated to kindness, courage, resourcefulness, courage, and honor. In the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, the main characters are people. But there are also stories in which actors become birds, animals or insects. Usually in such stories ridiculed negative traits human: greed, laziness, cowardice, envy, etc.

There are elements of cruelty in the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. So, for example, the murder of robbers by a brave tailor, the demand of the stepmother to bring her the internal organs (liver and lung) of Snow White, the severe re-education of his wife by King Thrushbeard. But do not confuse elements of cruelty with pronounced violence, which is not here. But the frightening and terrible moments present in the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm help children to realize their fears and subsequently overcome them, which serves as a kind of psychotherapy for the child.

Fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm: list

• An extraordinary musician.
• Brave tailor.
• About a fisherman and his wife.
• Lady blizzard.
• Golden bird.
• The poor and the rich.
• Ungrateful son.
• White and Rose.
• Hare and Hedgehog.
• Golden Key.
• Queen of bees.
• Friendship of a cat and a mouse.
• Successful trade.
• Bell.
• Straw, coal and bean.
• White Snake.
• About a mouse, a bird and a fried sausage.
• Singing bone.
• A louse and a flea.
• Outlandish bird.
• Six swans.
• Knapsack, hat and horn.
• Golden goose.
• Wolf and fox.
• Gosling.
• Wren and bear

The best fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm

These include:

• A wolf and seven little goats.
• Twelve brothers.
• Brother and sister.
• Hansel and Gretel.
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
• Bremen street musicians.
• Smart Elsa.
• Thumb boy.
• King Thrushbeard.
• Hans is my hedgehog.
• One-eyed, two-eyed and three-eyed.
• Mermaid.

In fairness, it is worth noting that this list is far from the ultimate truth, since preferences different people may be radically different from each other.

Annotations to some fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm

1. "Hans is my hedgehog." The story was written in 1815. Tells about an extraordinary boy and his difficult fate. Outwardly, he resembled a hedgehog, but only with soft needles. He was not loved even by his own father.
2. "Rumpelstichzen". Tells about a dwarf who has the ability to spin gold from straw.
3. "Rapunzel". Tale of a beautiful girl with chic long hair. She was imprisoned in high tower evil witch.
4. "The table - yourself - cover yourself, a golden donkey and a club from a bag." A fairy tale about the breathtaking adventures of three brothers, each of whom possessed a magical object.
5. "The Tale of the Frog King or the Iron Heinrich". The story of an ungrateful queen who did not appreciate the deed of a frog who pulled out her favorite golden ball. The frog turned into a beautiful prince.

Description of Jacob and Wilhelm

1. "Brother and Sister" After the appearance of the stepmother in the house, the children have a hard time. So they decide to leave. On their way there are a lot of obstacles that they need to overcome. Complicating everything is the witch-stepmother, who enchants the springs. Drinking water from them, you can turn into wild animals.
2. "The Brave Tailor". The hero of the tale is a brave tailor. Satisfied with a calm and boring life, he sets off to perform feats. Along the way, he encounters giants and a vile king.
3. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". It tells about the delightful daughter of the king, who was gladly accepted by the seven dwarfs, saving and protecting her in the future from the evil stepmother, who owns a magic mirror.

   

4. "King Thrushbeard". A fairy tale about a city and a beautiful princess who did not want to get married. She rejected all her potential suitors, mocking their real and imagined shortcomings. As a result, her father passes her off as the first person he meets.
5. "Mistress Metelitsa". Can be categorized as " New Year's fairy tales brothers Grimm". Tells about a widow who had own daughter and reception. The stepdaughter had a hard time with her stepmother. But a sudden accident, in which the unfortunate girl dropped a spool of thread into the well, put everything in its place.



Categories of fairy tales

It is conditionally possible to distribute the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm into the following categories.

1. Fairy tales about beautiful girls whose lives are constantly spoiled by evil sorceresses, witches and stepmothers. Similar storyline many works of the brothers are imbued.
2. Fairy tales in which people turn into animals, and vice versa.
3. Fairy tales in which various objects are animated.
4. which people and their actions become.
5. Fairy tales, the heroes of which are animals, birds or insects. They ridicule negative character traits and praise positive features and inherent virtues.

All fairy tales take place in different time years without focusing on it. Therefore, it is impossible to single out, for example, the spring tales of the Brothers Grimm. As, for example, in A.N. Ostrovsky's "The Snow Maiden", which is accompanied by the name "spring tale in four acts."



Witch Hunters or Hansel and Gretel?

The last film based on the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm is Witch Hunters. The film premiered on January 17, 2013.

In a condensed form, the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel" is presented at the beginning of the film. The father, for unknown reasons, leaves his son and daughter at night in the forest thicket. In desperation, the children go where their eyes look and come across a bright and delicious house of sweets. The witch who lured them into this house wants to eat them, but the savvy Hansel and Gretel send her into the oven.

Further events unfold according to the director's own plan. Many years later, Hansel and Gretel begin to hunt witches, which becomes the meaning of their lives and a way to make good money. By the will of fate, they find themselves in a small town teeming with sorceresses who steal children to perform their rituals. Heroically they save the whole city.

As you can see, director Tommy Wirkola shot the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm in a laconic form, adding his own continuation to it in a new way.

Conclusion

Fairy tales are necessary for all children without exception. They are able to expand their horizons, develop their imagination and creative imagination, bring up certain character traits. Be sure to read fairy tales to your children by different authors, including the Brothers Grimm.

Only when choosing works, do not forget to pay attention to their edition. After all, there are such publications in which episodes are omitted or added. This is often overlooked in the footnotes. And this is not a small nuance, but a significant flaw that can distort the meaning of the tale.

It will also be great if you find time to talk about the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm or play your favorite ones at your leisure.