Fairy Tales

The Brothers Grimm were Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German professors who were best known for publishing collections of folk tales and fairy tales, and for their work in linguistics, relating to how the sounds in words shift over time (Grimm's Law). They began collecting folk tales around 1807. They produced a manuscript collection of several dozen tales, which they had recorded by inviting storytellers to their home and transcribing what they heard. In 1812, they published a collection of 86 German fairy tales in a volume titled Kinder-und Hausmarchen (Children's and Household Tales). They published a second volume of 70 stories in 1814, which together make up the first edition of the collection, containing 156 stories. In 1830, they formed a household in Gottingen where they were to become professors.