Grimm Household Tales: Introduction
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About this Work
Albert Einstein on the Value of Fairy Tales
THIS IS a true story. A concerned mother once visited Albert Einstein to get his counsel on how to help her son become really good in maths. Exactly what was she to read for him to help him evolve into a prominent scientist?
"Folk tales," said Einstein.
"Okay," said the mother, "and after that?"
"More folk tales," said Einstein.
"And after that?" the mother asked again.
"Still more folk tales," answered Einstein. [Evo 11; also in Brms]
Popular Tales
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Fairy tales should be pure and simple enjoyment first, and not scary.
A poll among 1,200 US children in 2004 revealed that the five most popular fairy tales are Grimm tales. Here you get the Complete Grimm tales. They are based on Margaret Hunt's (1831-1912) translation of 1884. The Grimm tales in time became the best known and most influential book ever written in German.
Titles in translation vary, so you also find "The Grimms' Children's and Household Tales" and "Grimms Fairy Tales". They were collected and edited by the brothers Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859), and first published in 1812 (volume one with eighty-six tales). Most of the tales were collected in Kassel, particularly from two households there. The second volume of seventy tales appeared in 1814. The two main sources of this volume were a baron and his household, and a poor tailor woman. Nineteen of the seventy tales are by her. The final work went through six revisions in the life-time of the two Grimm brothers, and contained at last 200 numbered stories and 10 "Children's Legends." [Nov 20]
The brothers worked on the old tales mainly in the early half of the 1800s.
The numbers behind the titles are classification devices (explained below).
In fairy tales ideas are embodied in characters and actions
In good fairy tales lie enjoyments.
It may not serve a child or youngster to force rational thinking (intellectual thinking) bluntly. This is the outlook of Waldorf education and many a parent who cares. It is good to nurture the mind inside much on its own premises. Much and good growth (development) can be had from it.
As Albert Einstein was into, very good folk tales help in laying a groundwork for coming intellectual attainments as well, due to the very good ideas that are embedded in them, dressed in various images and actions, figures to half-identify with or get entertained by for a spell.
It is possible to look on folk tale figures and happenings as broadly "masked plays" fit for enactments. One may find hints many times that what is presented as "faces" or "skin" surfaces, are not all there is to many a typified situation described. In this way some folk tales invite us to look deeper - in jolly good time. But first things first: it should be pure and simple enjoyment.
What the AT Numbers of the Grimm Tales Show
Almost all of the Grimm tales are types of traditional tales. They were collected and presented in book form by the brothers Grimm, finally, after being often retold in some homes. There are counterparts to and reproductions of a lot of them in other languages and cultures. The AT numbers given to tales show what types of tales they are, according to the International Fairy Tale Catalogue. It was furnished by Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. The A and T are the initials of their last names.
In the catalogue the AT number go along with a summary of the tale too, allowing for variations and variants, as the case may be. Thus, the AT number serves as a sort of heading that makes it easier to compare fairy tales from different parts of Europe and further. But the catalogue is not well adapted to traditional tales from other parts of the world, and leaves out hundreds of types of tales from Europe as well. So there are many unnumbered European folk tales still. Even though the catalogue is not conclusive, the Grimm tales are extensively covered in it, compared to tales from other sources. SUMMARY: Fairy tales are grouped according to types, and are given numbers and titles and a briefing of the action in a few words on top of that. In such a way the fairy tale catalogue numbers (AT numbers) show a folklore type which many folk tales and some other tales fit into, but it is far from conclusive. The Set below leads to hundreds of other stories. The catalogue is helpful in showing kinships of motif(s) between fairy tales from different countries and cultures. Ashliman's book (below) serves that end well. The type number helps us at times to understand the fairy tale somewhat better too.
AT numbers of Grimm tales are given in notes. There are entries to the notes at bottom of each tale. The (+ something) for some tales means "episode of this type (episodes of these types) is (are) contained in that type of tale".
AT numbers and titles of many other tales are explained more extensively here. The list enclosed there may be all right to compare with: [LINK].
To our first Grimm tale: [The Fisherman and His Wife]
Agha: Ashliman, D. A Guide to Folktales in the English Language. New York: Greenwood, 1987.
Brms: Zipes, Jack. Breaking the magic spell. Reprint. New York: Routledge, 1992.
Ebu: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2007 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD. London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2007.
Evo: Lindø, Rigmor. Eventyrskolen (The Fairy Tale School). Oslo: Cappelen, 1988.
Nov: Bø, Olav, mfl, redr. Norske eventyr. Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, 1982.
Ttf: Aarne, Antti. The Types of the Folktale: A Classification and Bibliography. Translated and Enlarged by Stith Thompson. 2nd rev. ed. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia / FF Communications, 1961.
Tyno: Hodne, Ørnulf. The Types of the Norwegian Folktale. Bergen: Universitetsforlaget, 1984.
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