The Brothers Grimm, Jacob Grimm (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859), were German academics, cultural researchers, and authors who together collected and published a collection of tales that would become one of the most influential works of folklore in Germany, Europe, and eventually the world.

The stories the Brothers Grimm first collected are brusque, blunt, absurd, comical, and tragic, and are not, strictly speaking, “fairy tales”, they are folklore collected during the 19th century. In fact, the Grimms never intended the tales to be read by children. The tales are about children and families and how they reacted to the difficult conditions under which they lived. The Brothers Grimm thought the stories and their morals emanated naturally from the German people in an oral tradition, and they wanted to preserve them before the tales were lost forever. In gathering the tales, the Grimms made a unique contribution to folklore, and their classic collection, Children's and Household Tales (Kinder- und Hausmärchen), was published in two volumes (the first in 1812 and the second in 1815).

This unique collection is even listed by UNESCO in its Memory of the World Registry. It was in large part their first edition, published in two volumes, that inspired folklorists in Europe and Great Britain to gather tales from their oral traditions to preserve as part of their cultural heritage.

Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm were among the first and best-known collectors of German and European folk tales, and popularized traditional oral tale types such as "Cinderella" ("Aschenputtel"), "The Frog Prince" ("Der Froschkönig"), "The Goose-Girl" ("Die Gänsemagd"), "Hansel and Gretel" ("Hänsel und Gretel"), "Rapunzel", "Little Red Riding Hood" ("Rotkäppchen"), "The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats", "Rumpelstiltskin" ("Rumpelstilzchen"), "Sleeping Beauty" ("Dornröschen"), and "Snow White" ("Schneewittchen").

This first edition is wholly unlike the so-called definitive edition of 1857. In the process of publishing seven different editions over forty years, the Grimms made vast changes in the contents and style. The stories in the first edition are closer to the oral tradition than the tales of the final, which can be regarded more as a literary collection, because Wilhelm, the younger brother, continually honed the tales so that they would resonate with a growing literary public. Their books would become second in popularity only to the Bible in German-speaking lands. By the twentieth century, they would become the most famous collection of folk and fairy tales in the western world.

Click on the links below to read fairy tales from our FREE collection:

One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes

The Magic Mirror

The Enchanted Stag

Hansel and Grethel

The Golden Goose

The Twelve Brothers

The Frog King or Iron Henry

Cat and Mouse in Partnership

Our Lady's Child

The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was

Fairy Tales Collection...