Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

Grimm's Fairy Stories Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

Grimm's Fairy Tales remains as popular as when it was first published. New editions of single stories or the whole collection continue to appear every year. The term fairy tale is used both for children's stories that have been created and transmitted orally and for literary stories such as those by Hans Christian Andersen, which imitate the folktale form. The stories of the Brothers Grimm are genuine folktales and as such have certain characteristics. They are inevitably short, they involve obvious parallels and repetitions in structure and language, descriptions are brief and stylized, characters are obvious stereotypes, the setting in place and time is usually vague and generalized, animals can talk, and magic is commonplace. Because they are so stylized, very little practice is needed to effectively tell any folktale. The Grimms refined the language of the stories extensively in the course of the seven editions that were published in their lifetimes, but the fact that the stories remain highly tellable shows their essentially oral nature.