A Literary Approach to Brothers Grimm

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A Literary Approach to the Brothers GrimmAuthor(s): Alfred David and Mary Elizabeth DavidReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of the Folklore Institute, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Dec., 1964), pp. 180-196Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3813902 .

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ALFRED AND MARY ELIZABETH DAVID

A L i t e r a r y A p p r o a c h t o t h e B r o t h e r sG1 1111111

Upon the hundredth nniversaryf the deathof JacobGrimm, olkloriststhe worldover haveunited o pay tribute o the memoryof the BrothersGrsmm.* The Institute for Central EuropeanFolklife Research atNtarburg as broughtout a memorialvo]umeof essays entitledBrinderGrimmGedenken 9631-a reminder ot simplyof the closenessof thebrothersbut of the idealsof brotherhood hat their lives represent ndthat their works have done much to promote The astonishing hingabout Jacoband WilhelmGrimm s the sweepof their earning n manyrelated ields. Although hey madeenormous ontributionso the studyof folkloreS hilology,and literaryhistory, heytranscend he boundariesof academicdisciplines."To see European iterature s a whole,S'wroteErnstCurtius, nother reatGerman cholaronthe modelof the GrimmsS"is possibleonly afterone has acquired itizenshipn everyperiodfromHomer to Goethe."2 The brothers achievedthis difficultcitizenshipand a view of Europeaniterature s a whole that has left its markonall of their achievements. t is fitting,then, to approach he most uni-versal of their works-the Kinder-und Hausmarchen as a greatmonumentof Europeaniterature.When he Grimms ntitled heircollectionof folktalesKinder- ndHaus-* Parts of this essay are taken from The Frog King and Other Tales of the BrothewGrimm y Alfredand MaryElizabethDavid (New York, 1964). Publishedby arrange-ment with the New ArnericanLibraryof World Literature, nc., New York.

Bruder Grimm Gedenken1963: Gedenkschrift ur hundertstenWiederkehrdesTodestags on Jacob Grimm -HessiscSle Blatter ur Volkskunde, IV), ed. GerhardHeilfurth, Ludwig Denecke, and Ina-Maria Greverus.2 EaropeanLiteratureand the Latin Middle Ages, tr. Willard Trask (New York,1953), p. 12.


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181LITERARYAPPROACH TO THE BROTHERSGRTMMmarchen,hey did not meanto implythat they had compileda volume ofstoriesfor the nursery. It was in part their purpose hat, as has actuallyhappened,generationsof children should read their book and that itshould becomea llouseholdwork. But the title impliesprimarily n ideaof the fairy tale, not an audience or which fairy tales are destined. Forthe Grimms t meant that the stories preserved he simplicityand inno-cence that their generation-the first generationof romanticwritersassociatedwith childhoodand the familyhearth. In the foreword o thefirst volume WilhelmGrimmwrote: "Thesestories are pervadedby thesamepurity hat makeschildrenappear o marvelous nd blessed o US."3In otherwords, t is not that the storiesare primarilyfor hildren thougllmost childrenenjoy them), but the stories are like children,have livedamong hildren, nd have beentreasured nd preservedwithin he family.Thischildlike enseof wonderand the moralsimplicity hat the Grimmssaw in fairy tales were also qualitiesthat they attributed o the earlierliterature f the Germanic eoples,and it was primarilyor whatremainedin them of the spiritualheritageof the past that the Grimmscollectedfolktales. In the study and preservation f the literatureof the past theGrimmshad a culturaland moral aim: they were striving o make theirown generation nd futuregenerations onsciousof the national oul that,so they believed,had lived on subconsciouslyn the traditional toriesofthe folk.The Grimmscame to folklore through iterature, pecifically hroughthe literatureof the Middle Ages. Before they had published heir firstvolume of fairy tales in 1812, the brothershad already brought out,individuallyor together, Uber den altdeutschenMeistergesang 1811),AltdanischeHeldenlieder, alladenundMarchen 1811),and an edition ofthe Old High GermanHildebrandtslied1812). Their nterestwas drawnto folk literatureby the poets Achim von Arnimand ClemensBrentanowith whomthey collaborated n the thirdvolumeof Des KnabenWunder-horn(1808). In the course of this collaborationand in their subsequentcorrespondencewith von Arnim4 hey began to developtheir own ideasabout folk literature,which diSeredessentially rom those of Brentano

o Kleinere Schriften, ed. Gustav Hinrichs (Berlin, 1881), In 322. Translations ofa]l quotations from German texts are our own unless otherwise indicated.4 See Reinhold Steig, Achim von Arnim und Jacob und WilhelmGrimm Stuttgartand Berlin, 1904), pp. 213-273,passim.


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182 ALFRED AND MARY ELIZABETHDAVIDand von Arnim, who looked upon folk songs and balladschieflyas rawmaterial or originalpoetry.

The Grimms' nterest n fairy aleswas, therefore, iterary nd historicaland was just one aspect of their broader nterest n ancient Germaniclanguages nd iterature. n order o understandwhytheybegancollectingfolktales and how they went about recordingand, in many instances,reworking he stories hey had collected, t is necessary o see themarchenas part of their ife work the restoration f the German iterarypast.Although he Grimmswerethe first o collectfolktalesat all systemati-cally and to make some effort to preserve he stories n their oral form,they also reworked heirmaterial onsiderably.The finalresult s a subtleblendingof folkloreand literary raftsmanship, nd it is of interestbothto the folklorist and to the student of literaryhistory to obtain someinsight nto the growthand development f theKinder-und Hausmarcheninto their present orm.5The Grimmspublished even majoreditions n their ifetime. The firstedition consists of two volumes(1812 and 1815),each with a short fore-word by WilhelmGrimm. Thesewererevisedand combinedas the fore-word to the secondedition(1819),whichalso contains wo longeressays,"Uber das Wesen der Marchen"and "Kinderwesen nd Kindersitten."All but the last of thesecontain mportant tatements bout the Grimms'concept of the folktale and all, with the exception of the revised 1819foreword,arereprintedn WilhelmGrimm'sKleinere Schriften. The 1819foreword s available n most modern editions of the so-calledGrosseAusgabe,6 and it is from this that Margaret Hunt translated severalexcerpts n the preface o her translationof 1884.7 Unfortunately heseexcerpts,unless they are read very carefully,are apt to give a misleadingimpressionof the Grimms'method of collecting. They would seem tohave misled Mrs.Hunt, for she comments:

5 The story of the circumstances surrounding the publication of the numerouseditions of the mairchens told in a series of very informativearticles by T. F. Crane,"The External History of the Grimm Fairy Tales," ModernPhilology, XIV (1917),577-610, XV (1917), 65-77, 355-383.6 See Crane, XIV, 601 and XV, 75. An attractive edition published by Winkler-Verlag (Munich, 1955) contains the 1819 foreword, a memoir by Herman Grimm,drawings by Ludwig Grimm, and an afterword by Herta Klepl.7 Grimm'sHouseholdTales, tr. and ed. by MargaretHunt with an introduction byAndrew Lang (London 1884).


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A LITERARYAPPROACH TO THE BROTHERSGRIMM 183They wrotedown everystory exactlyas theyheard t, and if some of its detailschancedto be somewhatworse, or if sacredpersons were occasionally ntro-ducedwith a daring familiarity,which to us seemsalmost to amountto pro-fanity, they did not soften or omit these passages,for with them fidelitytotraditionwas a dutywhich admittedno compromise they werenot providingamusement or children,but storingup material or studentsof folklore.8This statementcontainsa half-truthand does not reallyrepresentwhatthe Grimms hemselves aidtheywere doing. It is perfectly videntthatin fact the Grimmschangedand addeda greatdeal how much onecomes to realizeonly aftercomparing he variouseditionsand the fewmanuscriptshat havesurvived.MargaretHunt certainlydid not meanto misrepresenthe Grimms.Sheseems ohavesincerely elievedhat,wherever ossible, heyhadtakendown their stories almost word for word. The misunderstandingspossiblebecause he truepicture s verymuch confused or a numberofreasons. For one thing, the Grimms'attitude owardthe tales and theirmethodsof recording hemdevelopedgraduallyover a periodof years,and they have left behinda numberof statements,writtenat differenttimesandon diSerentoccasions, hatdo not alwaysseemconsistent.Thebrothershemselves iffered boutmethod,at timesevenheatedly;Jacob,as one would expect,was the more scholarlyand more insistentuponfaithfulnesso oraltradition.Finally, here s theprosestyleof Wilhelm'sprefaces.They arewritten n a lyricalandhighlymetaphoricalanguage,asobscureand as intricate s onlyGerman omanticprosecan be. All thesame,a moreor less coherent heorydoesemerge romthe variousfore-wordsandstatements,whichgoes far to explain he Grimms'methodofcollectingand thechanges hey made n theirmaterial.The theory s notarguedwith scientificconsistency,but it can be extracted,muchin thesame way that Coleridge's riticaldoctrinesmay be extracted rom hisscatteredwritings.All the laborsof the Grimms,whethern philologyor in folklore,stemfrom a basicpremise hat they sharewith most of the major figuresofthe romanticmovement:there is a spiritual orce in nature that findsexpressionin literature. Nature means not only externalnaturemountains, orests,lakes but humannaturewhich responds o thesethings. One may call this force God, or the ImmanentWill, or the

8 Ibid., I, p. v.


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184 ALFREDAND MARYELIZABETHDAVIDOver-Soul.Wordsworthaptureshe essenceof thefaithwhenhe writesin "TinternAbbey"ofA presencethat disturbsme with the joyOf elevatedthoughts;a sense sublimeOf somethingfar more deeply interfusedSWhose dwelling s the light of settingsuns,And the roundocean and the livingair,And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;A motion and a spirit,that impelsAll thinkingthings,all objectsof all thought,And rolls throughall things.

The ancientpoets, the Grimmsand their fellow romanticsfelt, hadlivedcloser to nature, and their works were therefore mbued withfundamentalruthsandvalues. Thesetruthsandvalueshad beengiventheirnoblestembodimentn the ancientepic poetry,much of it lost,butthey still survived n the humbler orm of the folktale. WilhelmGrimmompares he old poetryto a fieldof grainthathas beenbeatendownby a storm; in a few shelteredplaces, by shrubsand hedges,isolated arshave remained tanding; hese continueto grow, solitaryandunnoticed, and at harvesttime they are gatheredby the pioushandsf poor gleaners o providenourishmentor the winterand seedforhe futureharvest.9(Theimage tselfis characteristicallyomantic.)Theolktalesareof course hesolitaryearsof grain; hepioushandsarethose f collectors ike the BrothersGrimm;the futureharvest s nodoubt he future greatnessof Germanliteraturethat they foresawspringingromthe nativesoil. Ideassuchas thesearerecurrenthemesinheforewords.Injustifyinghetimeandlabortheybestowedon thesesimpletories,WilhelmGrimmwrote ntheforewordo the 1812volume:. ..heirveryexistences sufficiento defend hem. Somethinghathaspleased,moved,nd instructed n such varietyand with perpetual reshnesscontainswithintself the necessityfor its being and surelycomes from that eternalfountainhat quickensall livingthingswithits dew, evenif it be but a singledrop,linging o a smalltightly-foldedeaf, sparkling,nevertheless,n the firstlightf the dawn.l9 Kleinerechriften, , 320.lobidS pp. 321-322-


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185A LITERARYAPPROACHTO THE BROTHERSGRIMMTranslation annotrender he doublesense of ;'firsts'n this sentence.hedropof dewnot only sparklesn the earlyightof the dawn,but ittill reflectsthe glory of thefirstdawn, that primalcreativedawn inhichthe older literaturehad flourished.The "eternalfountain"was for the Grlmmsthe mysticalpower ofature, he sourceof all good. Anythingpartakingof naturemust beood,and so the Grimms aw a naturalmorality n storiesthat told offaithfulervantsandhonestcraftsmen, .. fishermen,millers,charcoalurners,nd shepherdswho live close to nature.'1l One is again re-indedf Wordsworthwho in the Prefaceto LyricalBalladsdeclaredhat e hadchosen"incidents ndsituationsromcommon ife"becauseinhatcondition hepassionsof menareincorporated iththebeautlfulndpermanentormsof nature."In fairytalesthe cycleof human ife is intimately elated o the cyclefature,as in thlebeautifulpassageat the beginlaing f "rTheulliperreeS'herethe mother'spregnancys describedn termsof the fruit-illnessf nature,specifically f the juniper tself:

Inrontof the hollsewas a yardin whichtherestood a junipertree. Onceinintertimehe womanwas standingvIndert peelingan apple,andas she waseelinghe apple,shecut herfinger,andthe bloodfell uponthe snow. "Oh,l'aidhe woman,sighingfromthe bottomof herheart,and she lookedat theloodnfrontof herandwasverysad. "IfonlyI hadachildasredasbloodandshitessnow." Andas shesaidthis,shefeltquitecheerful; hehada feelinghatsomethingwouldcome of it.She entback ntothehouse,anda monthpassedandthesnowmelted;andwoonths,andthingsweregreen;andthreemonths,andtheflowers ameoutfheround;and four months,and all the treesin the wood put out leavesndheirgreenbranchesbecameentangledwitheach other- therethe littleirdsangso thatthewholewood echoedandthe blossoms ell fromthetrees.henhe fifth monthwas gone, and she stood underthe junipertree,whichmelledo sweet,andherheart eapedandshefellon herkneesandwascarriedwayy joy. And when the sixthmonthhad passed,the fruitgot thickandeavynd she becamecompletelycaIm. And the seventhmonth, and shenatchedt thejuniperberriesandate themverygreedily,andshe becamesadndick.Thentheeighthmonthpassed,andshecalledherhusbandandweptndaid,IfI shoulddie,buryme under hejuniper ree." Thenshewascon-oledndwas gladuntilthe ninthmonthhadpassed;thensheborea childas11bid.p. 322-323.


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186 ALFRED AND MARY ELIZABETHDAVIDwhiteas snowand as redas blood; andwhenshe sawit she was so happythatshe died.l2In both "TheJuniperTree"and "Cinderella"he guardian piritof thedeadmotherpassesinto a treethat magicallyprotectsher childrelz.In"BriarRose"the briarhedgeis the symbolof natureguardingherrose:the princesswho sleepsinsidethe castle. Whenthe rightprincecomesalong, the briars urninto Rowers hat separateof theirown accordtolet himpass. On the otherhand,naturepunisheswhatever s unnaturalandevil. ThedoveswhohelpCinderella, eckout theeyesof herwickedsisters,andthetwo olderbrothersn "TheWaterof Life"areimprisonedby the mountains,as hardand unyieldingas theirown pride.In the manyparallelsbetween he fairytalesandGermanicmythologyandlegendthe Grimms houghtthat they detected he tracesof a primi-tive naturalreligion. The sleepingBriarRose surroundedby the hedgeof thornsis like the sleepingBrunhild urrounded y the ringof flames;thethreespinnersarethe Norns;the boy who goesto Hell to bringbackthe Devil's threegoldenhairsis like all the legendaryheroeswho travelto the Underworld. Even ostensiblyChristianfigureslike God andSaintPeterwanderoverthe earthas Odindid. Suchparallels uggestedto the Grimms hat the fairytales werenot merelydelightful toriesbuthada deeperreligioussignificance:Theypreserve houghtsabout the divine and spiritualin life: ancientbeliefsanddoctrineare submergedand given living substancein the epic element,whichdevelopsalongwiththe historyof a people.l3Thusthe Grimmsappliedromantictheories of natureand art to thefolktale. Wilhelm'sprefaces reflect a strain of romantic primitivismthathas beenattributedo Rousseau. Althoughthe Grimms hemselvesdidnot point this out, the folktalesare a perfectexampleof "naive"poetry,n the senseof Schiller's ssayOnNaiveandSentimental oetry;theyare the unreflectingart of men moved directlyby nature itselfinsteadof self-consciouscontemplationof nature. The folktale mightwellbe addedto the list of things n nature hatSchiller,at the beginningofthe essay, says have a powerto move us in a particularway:Thereremoments n ourliveswhenwerespond o nature inplants,minerals,animals, nd landscapes,as well as in humannature,in childrenand in the12 The translationof this and other passages from the marchen s from The FrogKingnd OtherTalesof theBrothersGrim)n.13 KleinereSchriften, , 338.


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187LITERARYAPPROACH TO THE BROTHERSGRIMMcustoms of country folk and primitive peoples with a kind of love andaffectionate egard,not because t pleasesour senses,nor because t satisfiesourreason or our taste ... but simplybecause t is nature.In such a view, folklore,the literature f "common olk" and "primitivepeoples," appearedas somethingthat had been produced,as it were,by nature itself working through human instruments,and romanticwriters everywhere urned eagerly to folk literature for inspiration.Moreover, he emergent ense of nationalismgave men a furtherreasonto cherish not only what grew from the soil but especiallywhat grewfrom the soil of their native land. Thus Sir Walter Scott collected theballads of the Minstrelsyof the ScottishBorder,and in America Wash-ington Irving attemptedto celebrate the legendarypast of a countrythat had barely had time to acquireone.The Grimms,then, shared a widespread nterest n the preservationand use of native culture. The originalityof their contribution ay inthe care with which they collected folk materialsand in their respectfor oral tradition. Collections of folktales had been made before, butthe earlier collectors had relied primarilyon literary sources and hadnot scrupled o changethe stories n whatevermanner uitedtheir fancy.The Grimms, too, occasionally went back to literary versions, but itwas their aim to preserve he marchen, s far as possible, in the form inwhich they were still being told in the Germanprovinces.But exactly what does this mean in 1812 when it comes to the actualmatterof preparing toriesreceived rom oral tradition or publication?It may be demonstrated hat the Grimms' genuine desire to preserveoral traditionwas consistent,at least in their eyes, with a considerableamount of changing and adding. It certainlydid not mean that theyfelt obliged to transmitevery story word for word. The fact that, as arule, they did not take the stories down from dictation s evident in thewell-knownpassage describing he exceptional nstance when they did.This is the description f their most interesting ontributor,Frau Kathe-rina Viehman, he famous Marchenfrau f Niederzwehren.The Grimmshad already published their first volume when they discovered FrauKatherina. Wilhelmwrote of her in the foreword o the 1815 volume:This woman is still vigorous and not much over fifty ... she has firm, pleasantfeaturesand a clear, sharp expression n her eyes; in her youth she must havebeen beautiful. She retains hese old legends irmly n her memory a gift that


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188 ALFREDAND MARYELIZABETHDAVIDshesaysisnot granted o everyone,orsomepeoplecannotremember nything.She tells a storywithcare,assurance,and extraordinaryividnessand with apersonalsatisfaction at first with completespontaneity,bllt then, if onerequestst, a second ime,slowly,so thatwitha littlepracticeonecantakedownherwords.l4There s no evidenceherethatthe stories n the 1812volume,or for thatmatterthe storiesof the othercontributorso the 1815volume,wereever recorded n this way; in fact, the implication s strongthat theywerenot.

Unfortunately ll but a handfulof the manuscriptsrom whichtheGrimmsworkedwere lost. But througha lucky accidentof literaryhistorywe do havea considerable umberof the storiesthat wentintothefirstvolume n an Urfassung hatmakes t possible o getsomenotionof what sort of material he Grimmsstartedwith. In 1809theirgoodfriendClemensBrentanoaskedthe brothers or copiesof tales in theircollectionfor use in a volumeof fairytales that Brentanohimselfwascontemplating.They generouslymade a copy for him of practicallyeverythingn theirpossessionat the time. Nothingevercame of Bren-tano's own project,but the manuscripts ent to him by the Grimmshavesurvivedamonghis literaryremains.Theyarepreservedodayina Trappistmo1lasteryn Alsaceandwerebroughtout in 1927 n a hand-someeditionby ProfessorJosepllLefftz.15The tales in this interestingvolumeare often little more than plotsummaries.Numerousmotits, later to be added,are not yet present.Some of the stories have alternatebeginningsand endings. There isno questionthat any of these storieswas a directtranscriptrom oraldelivery.Theyseemto havebeensketchedout from memorywith theaidof notes. Theyareclearlymeantto be reworked, ndthis is exactlywhatWilhelnaGrimm ellsus in one of the passages ranslatedby Mar-garetHunt, referred o above: "As for our methodof collecting,ourprimaryoncernhasbeen oraccuracy ndtruth. Wehaveaddednothingofourown,norhavewe embellished nyincidentor featureof the tale,butwehaverenderedhecontent ustas wereceivedt.''l6 Thekeyword14 Ibid,p.32915 Marchender BruderGrimm:Urfassungnach der Original-handschrifter Abteidlenbergm Elsass(Heidelberg,1927).16 The translationof this and the passage immediatelyfollowing is our own, notMrs.Hunt's. Takenfrom "Vorrededer BruderGrimm,"Kinder-undHausmarchen(Munich,Winkler-Verlag, 955)?pp. 34-35.


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189A LITERARYAPPROACHTO THE BROTHERSGRIMMhereis content.Wilhelm s careful o distinguishhis aspectof the col-lection from the questionof style, and continues:That the mode of expressionand executionof particulardetails is in largemeasureour own is self-evident;nevertheless,we havetriedto preserve verycharacteristicurnthat came to our attention,so that in this respect, oo, wemight etthecollectionretain hediversifiedormsof nature.Moreover, nyonewho hasengaged n similarworkwill realize hat thiscannotbe regarded s acarelessand mechanical ort of collecting;on the contrary,careand discrimi-nation,whichcan be acquiredonly withtime,arenecessaryn orderto distin-guishwhatevers simpler,purer,andyet moreperfect n itselffromthatwhichhasbeendistorted.Wehavecombineddifferent ersionsas one, whereverheycompleted ach other and wheretheirjoining togetherleft no contradictorypartso be cut out; but whentheydiffered romeachotherandeachpreservedindividualeatures,we havegivenpreferenceo the bestandhaveretained heotheror lhe notes.From his descriptionof theirmethodit can be seen that the Grimmsdidnot make free use of their materialsas had been the practiceofBrentano nd von Arnim in Des KnabenWunderhorn. he Grimmsfelthat such reworkingwoulddestroynot only the historicalvalueoftheirollectionbut the inner"truth"of the stories. However, his didnotmeanthat they felt obligedto retellthe storiesexactlyas they hadheardhemor thatthey mightnot combinedifferent ersionsof a story(oro introducemotifs from other stories)in an attemptto arriveatthe best" orm. Theyconsciously trove n theirretellingso retain heflavorf oral narrative nd, indeed,felt that it was theirdutyto purifythetoriesof any corruptionsor artificialitieshat mighthavecreptininheprocessof or;alransmission.Theywerethusnot inventingdetailsbutimplydrawing, ike the originalstorytellers, n the vast stockpileofraditionalmaterialn an effort o approach heidealformof a story,aorm that mightneverhave existedin fact but that was nonetheless"presentnd inexhaustiblen the soul.''l7 This is to say that they hadnoope of getting back to some ultimate,uncorruptedUrformof astory.nstead heyaimedat a versionsuchas mighthavebeentold bysomeifted storyteller ike Frau Katherina, ome Homerof the fairytale.n selecting hebestamongseveralvariantsor in combiningdetailsfromifferent ources, he basisof theirchoicewasstylistic. It becomesimportant,herefore,to establishwhat they took to be the genuine17KleinereSchriften, , 332.


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190 ALPREDAND MARYELIZABETHDAVID"folk style" for the changesthey made in the storiesare to someextent influencedby their romanticconcept of the folk. Their ideasabout natureand historyturn out to have a directinfluenceon theliterary tyleof the Kinder- ndHausmarchen.WilhelmGrimmhad statedthat the abilityto distinguish he truefolk material rom the false was a graduallyacquired killnand it wasnatural hatas he heardandrecordedmoreandmorestories,especiallythose told by Frau Katherina,he shouldhave becomeconsciousof adefinite airy-tale tyleand attempted o imitate t. This style became,especially or Wilhelm,an intrinsicpartof the valueof the marchen ndan objective est for whatin a storywas "true"or "false." Thisgradu-ally developing enseof stylewas appliednot only to new stories,butmanyof the olderones,alreadyprinted n thefirstvolume,wererevisedin the light of it. The historyof the seveneditionsof the Kinder-undHausmarchens a constantpolishingandrefinement f thestyle.l8 Someof the favoritestorieslike "Snow White,""The Wolf and the SevenKids," and "The Brave Little Tailor,"were revisedin almost everyedition. The differencemay be seen by comparingany of these taleswith a storylike "Jorindaand Joringel,"whichhas hardlyundergoneany changesince the 1812volumeand seemsmysterious, hoppy,in-complete,andyet strangelypowerful.In the firstvolumethe tales had alreadybeenpolishedconsiderably,but not enoughto suit the Grimms' riendsvon Arnimand Brentano."If one wants to exhibita child's garment,"Brentanowrote to vonArnim,"it can be done in all honestywithoutdisplayingone that hasall the buttonsmissing, hatis coveredwithmud,andthathas the shirtstickingout of the breeches.''l9The brotherswere deeplyconcernedabout he genuineness f theirstories,andJacobdefended heirmethodvigorouslyn a seriesof letters o von Arnim.20He admitted hat somechangeswere inevitable n printingthe tales. However,he drew ananalogybetweencollectingfolktalesand breakingopen an egg. Evenifit is doneverycarefully, omeof thewhiteof theeggwillrunout, but

18 See Kurt Schmidt,Die Entwicklungder GrimmschenKinder-und Hausmarchen(Halle,1932). Schmidtprints the text of the Urfassung,after Lefftz, with all sub-sequent ariantsand additions,line by line on top of one another,so that one canfollow he processof revision n minutedetailover a periodof almostfiftyyears.ls ReinholdSteig,AchimvonArnimundClemensBrentano Stuttgart,1894),p. 309.20 Steig, AchimvonArnimundJacobund WilhelmGrimm,pp. 213-273,passim.


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A LITERARYAPPROACH TO THE BROTHERSGRIMM 191the yolk remains ntact; he yolk of the stories,he staunchlymaintained,they had preserved.2lYet who was to say what in a fairy ale constitutedthe white and what the yolk? Jacob and Wilhelm hemselvesdifferedon this score, and on one occasion Jacob took his brotherseverely otask for what he regarded s unwarrantedhanges. Eventually, erhapsrealizingmore and more the subjective lement n their procedure,heabandoned he marcheno Wilhelmand concentrated n his philologicalstudies. Von Arnim was much better pleased with the second volumeof tales, and he wrote Wilhelm: "You have been fortunate n yourcollecting, and occasionallyyou have been quite fortunate n lendinga helping hand naturallyyou do not tell Jacob about this. Youshouldhave done this oftenerand many of the endingsof the fairytaleswould have been more satisfactory."22Wilhelm did, in fact, do thisoftener. It is obvious today that the style of the Grimmfairy tales isin largemeasure he creationof WilhelmGrimm. Even n the Urfassung,the stories n his handwriting re more finishedand literary. If perhapshe has receivedmore than his due as a folklorist,he has neverreceivedsufficientrecognitionas an artist except for the tribute of beinguniversally ead.For the most part the changes and additions are those that mightbe made by any good storyteller o make his narrativemore coherent,more dramatic,and more vivid. This particular spect of the marchenhas been thoroughly reatedby ErnestTonnelat.23Tonnelatexpressedhis admiration or the trouble the Grimms ook to polish the style oftheir narrative,a practice hat he noted was not common among theircompatriots. He lists some twenty kinds of stylistic changes made inthe marchen, nly a few of which need be mentionedhere.The Grimms uppliedmotivationwhere t was lacking. For example,in the first edition of "Rumpelstiltskin"he millersimply ells the kingthat he has a daughterwho can spin straw nto gold. In the sixtheditionwe are told that he said it "to give himself an air of importance."Inthe first edition the king merely summons he girl. In the second weare informed hat he loved gold. In the first editionhe tells the miller'sdaughter hat he will marry her if she succeeds n spinning he strawinto gold. In the second edition he thinks to himself, "I won't find a21 Ibid, p. 255.22 Ibid, p 319.23 Les contes des freres GrimmCaris, 1912).


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192 ALFRED AND MARY El,IZABETHDAVIDricherwoman n the world." In the final editionhe thinks,"Even f sheis only a miller'sdaughter, won't find a richerwoman n the world.'9As one can see, the king's character s steadilydeveloped.24As in the examples ust cited, indirectdiscourseand statements boutwhat the characters houghtand did are replacedby dialogue,and thusthe stories acquire a dramaticquality. The characterof the wickedqueen n "SnowWhite" s made blacker hroughher reactionswhen shethinksthat she has succeeded n poisoning he heroine. In the Urfassungher reactionsare not even mentioned. In the first edition we are toldthat she "was satisfied," hat "her heart felt light," and that "she wasglad." In the finalversion he gloats, 4Nowyouwerethe most beautiful,""You paragonof beauty ... now it's all over with you" and the thirdtime, "Whiteas snow,red as blood, blackas ebony! Thistime the dwarfscan't revive you again."25Details are made more concreteand vivid,often through he use of simile. "Snow White"originallybegan, "Thesnow was falling from the sky"; this becomes, "The srwowflakeserefalling ike feathers rom the sky."Many phrasesand expressions re addedto give the storiesa homely,colloquialflavor. When the seven kids are cut out of the wolf's belly,they hop aroundtheir mother "like a tailor at his wedding." Rumpel-stiltskin's ittle house stands"where he fox and the hare say goodnightto each other." The father of Hansel and Gretel s forced to abandonhis childrena second time because iW}loever ays 'A' has to say 'B'."Animalsare given humorousnicknames; or example, he princess allsthe frog king "alterWasserpatscher."In the case of these last-mentioned dditions, the aim is evidentlynot just to make a betterstory but to create he atmosphere f a partic-ular kind of story. Many of the homelytouchesthat charmthe readerwith the naivete of these tales were added in a very sophisticatedwayto have precisely his naive eSect. They were put in to suggest he folkoriginof the stories. Indeed,some of the characteristicshat one wouldsurely expect to have come from oral traditionare often the result ofskilful retouching. Asides to the audience,closing formulas,and manyof the verses have been inserted. Everyoneknows that in fairy talesthings happen n threes So did the Grimms,and if their sourceswere24 Variantsare taken and translated rom Schmidt.25 Translationsof the Urfassung and the first edition version of "Snow White" aregiven in an appendix o The Frog Kix1g.


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193LITERARYAPPROACH TO THE BROTHERSGRIMMcontent with only one or two occurrences rom an obvious sequence,they occasionallymade up the deficiency.

Thus many of the changesthey introducedwere meant to make thestories conform more closely to their notion of what a folktale shouldideally be like. Their ideas on this subject,as has been said, were in-fluencedby their romantic heories of nature and literature. Tonnelatalso calls attention o the place of the Grimms n the RomanticMove-ment,26 ut he does not show how profoundly omantic heoryaffectedthe style of the marchen.The most interestingchanges are those in which the Grimms, nodoubt quite unconsciously,modified he stories to conform with theiridea of nature. Snow White's wicked stepmotherwas originallyherown mother. The Grimmswould have felt justified n such a changebecauseof the wicked tepmothersn otherstories; n anycase,a mother'sjealousyof her daughterwould have clashedwith their romanticbeliefin the purity of the love that mothers n folk literatureought to showfor theirown children. (Even he stepmothersove theirown daughters!)Similar evisions n other storieshave resulted n occasional nconsisten-cies so that the same charactermay be called "the mother"on one pageand "the stepmother" n another.27Some of the most characteristichangesemphasize he role of naturein the tales. Snow White'scoffin was at one time kept in the dwarfs'cottage and lit by candles; ater it was transferredo the mountainsidewhereSnow White s mournedby the owl, the raven,and the dove. TheGrimmshad a lot of trouble finding a satisfactory nding for "SnowWhite." In the first edition one of the prince'sservants,who gets tiredof havingto carry he coffin around rom place to place for the prince,thumps Snow White on the back like a petulantchild punishinga doll,and thus the piece of poisoned apple is ejected. The ending s actuallycomic. In the final version the servantscarrying he coffin trip over abush, almost as if nature tself were taking a hand in restoringSnowWhite to life and marrying er to the prince. In the manuscript ersionof "BriarRose" when the princesspricks her finger,we are told thateverythingwent to sleep "down to the flies on the wall." In the first26 Les freres Grimm, eur affluvree jeunesse (Paris, 1912), especially ChaptorsI, II,and V.27 E.g. in "Hansel and Gretel." In "The Twelve Brothers"a wicked mother-in-lawturns into a "stepmother."


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194 ALFRED AND MARY ELIZABETHDAVIDedition the horses go to sleep in the stable, the doves on the roof, thedogs in the courtyard,and even the fire on the hearth. The fourthedition adds the final magictouch: "The wind dropped,and not a leafstirredon the trees in front of the castle." Thus all of nature s madeto fall asleep in sympathywith the sleepingprincess.Family relationshipsare emphasizedeverywhere. The opening of"TheWolf andthe SevenKids" s an excellent xample. In the Urfassungthe tale begins: "Once upon a time there was a goat who had sevenkids." The first edition adds: "whom she loved dearly.' The secondeditionmakes t: "whomshe loved like a mother." In the fifth it reads:"Once upon a time there was an old goat who had seven young kids,and she loved them the way a mother oves her children." One shouldnote, incidentally, he artisticcontrast n this last version betweentheold goat and her young kids.The Grimmsbelievedthat the stories containeda naturalmorality,but they often pointedthe moral for the reader. Thus when the queenat last feels at peace after she has poisonedSnow Whitewith the apple,they ateradded,"so far as a jealousheartcan everbe at peace." Becausethey found deeper spiritual meaning expressedwith childlike purityin the fairy tales, they believedthat their collection could serve '4asabook of education,"28 book that would develop the moral characterof children. Consequently hey were sensitiveto objectionsraised byvon Arnim and others againstthe first volume that certaindetails andstorieswereunsuitable or children. To these criticismsWilhelm epliedin the foreword o the secondvolume with the argument hat what wasnaturalcould not be harmful. He compared he storiesto flowers hatmight, for exceptional easons,give offenseto a few: such a one "whocannot enjoy their benefit,may pass them by, but he cannot ask thatthey be given a diSerentcolor or shape."29Yet the Grimms themselvesmust have felt a few colors were toostrong to be natural. The first volume had containedtwo stories inwhichchildrenplay "butcher" nd one child slaughters nother. Thesetales were suppressed n the second edition. In the originalversion of"The Twelve Brothers," he brothersactually carry out their vow tokill everygirl that they meet, and when their sistercomes to the house

28 KleinereSchriften, , 33129 lbid.


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195LITERARYAPPROACH TO THE BROTHERSGRIMMin the forest, her youngestbrotherordersher to kneel: "Your red bloodmust be shed this instant!" It is not that the Grimmsobjectedto thehorror of such scenes there is nothing here to match the horror in"The JuniperTree." But the action of the twelve brothers,who areintimatelyassociatedwith nature in their forest retreat,would tend tocontradict the Grimms' idea of nature whereas "The Juniper Tree"perfectlyconfirms t. The tree is the symbol of nature, and through itthe murderedboy is broughtback to life and his unnatural tepmotheris destroyed. More than any other story, this mysteriousand primitivetale reveals the connection that the Grimms perceived between fairytales and ancientmythologyand religion.Fundamentally he Grimms were right -fairy tales derive fromnature, although to a post-Darwinianand post-Freudiangenerationnature may not always appear as the pure moral force the Grimmsthought it to be. The children's"butcher"game may seem more likenatureto readersof The Lord of the Flies than the aSection of Hanseland Gretel for each other did to the BrothersGrimm. We may, if welike, see all of the stepmother iguresas symbolic substitutions or themotherfigure,as was reallythe case in "Snow White." No doubt thereis a symbolic significance hat the Grimms failed to recognize in themany situationswherea princess s locked in a tower or wherethe heromustperform mpossible asksto win her from a jealousfatheror mother.Their own intimacygave them no reason to suspect that the hatred ofolder for younger brothers s by no means abnormal.This is not to say that they were wrong. The truth that they saw infairy tales is also valid. The mother and stepmother, he good and thewicked brothers n fairy tales are, after all, dual aspects of complexhuman relationships hat are made pure and simple in fairy tales wheregood and evil are given separate dentities nstead of remainingcloselyknit parts of a single psyche. What matters s that these stories presentrecognizablepatterns of human behavior. The Grimms' achievementwas to present hem in such a way that their humanitycould be recog-nized by everyone by children, by adults, and especially by laterwriters for whom, as the Grimms had hoped, the marchen erved as

. . .nsplratlon.Although with their collection the Grimmsmade an invaluablecon-tribution to the study of folklore, still their final achievementwas inliterature. The literary nRuence f the marchenbegan to be felt almost


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196 ALFRED AND MARY ELIZABETHDAVIDat once, not only in Germany n writers ike E. T. A. HoSmann,but inother Europeancountries where translationssoon began to appear.Andersen s the most brilliant xample. In EnglandDickens,Thackeray,and Ruskinall tried their hands at writing airy tales that in their self-consciousnessare a far cry from the simplicity and artlessness heGrimmswere striving or.But the influenceof the Grimms s perhapsnot limited to literaryimitations of the marchen orm. Many nineteenth-century ovelistshave what may be called a fairy-tale magination.Objects n the novelsof Dickens, ike Mrs. Gamp'sumbrella,have a life of their own as theydo in fairy ales. OliverTwist,DavidCopperfield,nd GreatExpectationsall have typicalfairy-taleplots in which an abusedchild must overcomeobstacles n a quest for security. Aunt Betsy Trotwood performs hefunctionof a wise woman who gives good gifts; Abel Magwitch s likethe wild Iron Hans, both in his savage natureand in the magicalwayin which he repaysand tests the young hero who has been kind to him.Jane Eyre s both a Cinderella igureand the girl whose love releasesabeast-bridegroomrom his spell. In the twentiethcentury he traditionremainsvital. James Thurberhas writtenexcellent iterary airy tales.F. Scott Fitzgeraldcreated a fairy-taleworld in which the kings andprincesses re all beautifulbut damned.All this is a way of sayingthat fairy tales today still speak to us andtell us about ourselves about our hopes and dreamsas well as aboutour fearsand anxieties. Theyare nspiredby nature, hen, as the Grimmswould have us believe, and they have not lost their power to please,move, and instruct. What WilhelmGrimm said of them in 1812 canstill be said today: their very existence ustifies hem.

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A Literary Approach to Brothers Grimm

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