Brothers Grimm: Their Lives, the Dark Originals and Gentle Retellings

The Brothers Grimm were Jacob Grimm (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859), two German scholars who collected folk tales and published them as Children's and Household Tales (Kinder- und Hausmärchen), first in 1812. They kept revising the book for decades. The seventh and last edition they prepared, in 1857, held 210 tales: 200 stories plus 10 "children's legends." Many of the originals are darker than the versions children know today. Below: who the brothers were, why their tales are so grim, and six of them retold gently for bedtime, free to read and listen to on Story Voice.

Who were the Brothers Grimm?

Jacob and Wilhelm were born a year apart in Hanau, near Frankfurt, in what is now the German state of Hesse. Their father died in 1796, when they were boys, and the family was left short of money. Both brothers went on to study law at the University of Marburg, and both turned instead to the old language, laws and stories of the German-speaking world.

They are remembered as much for their scholarship as for fairy tales. Jacob described a regular pattern of sound changes linking the Germanic languages to their relatives, such as Latin and Greek, that is still called Grimm's law. In 1838 the brothers began a huge dictionary of the German language, the Deutsches Wörterbuch; it wasn't finished until more than a century later, long after both had died.

In 1837 both lost their posts at the University of Göttingen. They were two of the "Göttingen Seven," professors who protested when the new king of Hanover set aside the kingdom's constitution. A few years later they were offered posts in Berlin, and both spent the rest of their lives there.

How the tales were collected

The brothers began writing down tales in the years around 1807. They didn't mainly travel to remote villages, as is often imagined. Many tales came from friends and acquaintances, often educated young women from middle-class families. One was Dortchen Wild, a pharmacist's daughter who gave them several tales and who later married Wilhelm. Other tales came from older storytellers and from printed sources, and some had French roots.

The first volume, published in 1812, had 86 tales. A second volume, dated 1815, added 70 more. That first edition was a scholar's book, with notes, and some readers complained it wasn't suitable for children. Over the next decades Wilhelm, who did most of the editing, smoothed the language and steered the book toward family reading. In 1825 the brothers also brought out a "small edition" of 50 tales for children, illustrated by their younger brother, Ludwig Emil Grimm.

Why the original Grimm tales are darker

These were stories adults told, and folk tales of the time didn't spare anyone. Wilhelm's revisions took out what embarrassed 19th-century families, such as hints about sex, and turned some wicked mothers into stepmothers. But the punishments of villains often stayed brutal, and in some tales they grew harsher. Some examples from the six stories on our site:

• Cinderella: the stepsisters cut off parts of their feet to squeeze into the golden shoe, and at the wedding doves peck out their eyes.
• Snow White: the queen orders the huntsman to bring back the girl's lungs and liver as proof, and at the end she is made to dance in red-hot iron shoes until she dies. In the 1812 edition, the woman who wants Snow White dead is her own mother.
• Hansel and Gretel: in the 1812 edition, it is the children's own mother who plans to leave them in the forest; later editions made her a stepmother. Gretel pushes the witch into the oven, and the witch burns to death.
• The Frog Prince: the princess never kisses the frog. She throws him against the wall in a temper.
• The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats: the stones sewn into the wolf's belly drag him into the well, and he drowns.

How we retell them for bedtime

Our rule is simple: keep the main plot and the ending, cut the gore, and say what we changed. Each story is retold in plain, short English sentences and in Chinese. At the bottom of every page, a note names the original, with its number in the Grimms' collection, and lists our changes.

Each page has the English text with a native English narration, read in a British storyteller's voice, and the Chinese version with Mandarin narration. Both narrations are AI-generated and labeled as such. The sentence being read lights up as the audio plays, and you can tap any sentence to start from there. There's also a short list of Chinese words from the story with pinyin, for families who speak or are learning Chinese.

The 6 Grimm stories on our site

The Frog Prince (No. 1)

The Frog Prince is the very first tale in the collection. Its German title means "The Frog King, or Iron Henry." We kept the original ending, with no kiss: the angry princess throws the frog at the wall, and he falls down a prince. We don't describe him hitting the wall. We also kept Faithful Henry, whose heart was bound with three iron bands that snap for joy when his master is free. Ages 3–7; about 3 minutes in English, 6 in Mandarin.

The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats (No. 5)

In The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats, the wolf eats chalk to soften his voice and covers his paw in dough and flour to trick the little goats into opening the door. Only the youngest, hidden in the clock case, escapes, and their mother rescues the rest. We pass quickly over the cutting and sewing, and our wolf falls into the well and never comes out again. Ages 3–6; about 3 minutes in English, 7 in Mandarin.

Hansel and Gretel (No. 15)

Hansel and Gretel is often called "the candy house" in Chinese. In the original, the witch's house is made of bread, with a cake roof and windows of clear sugar. We follow the later editions with a stepmother. Our Gretel pushes the witch into the oven and shuts the iron door, and the children run; we don't say what happens to the witch. We stay longest on the happy part: the white duck carrying them across the river, and their father's joy when they get home. Ages 4–8; about 3 minutes in English, 5 in Mandarin.

Cinderella (No. 21)

The Grimms' Cinderella, called Aschenputtel in German, has no fairy godmother, pumpkin coach or glass slipper. Those come from Charles Perrault's French version of 1697. Instead, a hazel tree grows on her mother's grave, birds help her, and there are three nights at the ball and a golden shoe. We kept all of that and left out the foot-cutting and the eye-pecking: the shoe simply doesn't fit the stepsisters. Ages 3–8; about 3 minutes in English, 6 in Mandarin.

Little Red Riding Hood (No. 26)

In German, Little Red Riding Hood is Rotkäppchen, "Little Red Cap." Perrault's 1697 version ends with the wolf eating her; the Grimms' version has a huntsman who saves her and her grandma. We kept the rescue, changed the cake and wine in her basket to cake and honey, and left out the gory details. Ages 3–7; about 3 minutes in English, 6 in Mandarin.

Snow White (No. 53)

Snow White keeps the magic mirror, the huntsman, the seven dwarfs, the queen's three visits and the glass coffin. Two things changed. Our queen only tells the huntsman to get rid of Snow White in the forest, and at the wedding she is so frightened that she runs away and is never seen again. Ages 4–8; about 3 minutes in English, 6 in Mandarin.

Reading Grimm at bedtime

Don't stop at the scariest moment. Our Snow White page suggests going straight on from the poisoned apple to the prince's arrival, so the light doesn't go out on the saddest part. End on safety: stay a while with Hansel and Gretel back home, or with what Little Red Riding Hood will do next time, rather than with the wolf.

Lean on the lines that repeat. Children often pick up "Mirror, mirror on the wall" or Cinderella's "Shake, little tree, shake!" after a night or two and like to say them with you. And if a story opens a talk about strangers or opening the door, that conversation usually goes better the next morning than at lights out.

FAQ

When were Grimms' Fairy Tales first published?

The first volume of Children's and Household Tales came out in 1812, and a second volume, dated 1815, followed. The brothers revised the collection through seven editions; the last one they prepared, in 1857, is the version most translations are based on.

How many fairy tales did the Brothers Grimm collect?

The 1857 edition has 210: 200 numbered stories plus 10 children's legends. The first edition, in two volumes, had 156 (86 in 1812 and 70 in 1815).

Did the Brothers Grimm write the fairy tales themselves?

Not in the sense of inventing them. They collected tales that people told, plus some from older books, then edited and rewrote them over many editions, Wilhelm especially. The wording is largely theirs; the stories are older.

Are the original Grimm fairy tales too scary for kids?

Some details are, such as the mutilations and the cruel punishments. Most children's editions soften those parts, and so do we. Our six retellings are marked for ages 3 to 8, and every change is listed on the story page. You can find all six in Grimms' Fairy Tales.