Brothers Grimm

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were German philologists and folklorists whose collections of German folktales became influential works of literature and folklore scholarship.

Folktale: A traditional story passed through generations, often changing as people retell it. The Grimms collected stories that belonged to this broad oral tradition.
Cinderella: A folktale about a mistreated young woman who gains a transformed life with supernatural or magical help. The Grimms' version, “Aschenputtel,” gives the tale distinctive details such as the hazel tree and birds.
Jacob Grimm: A German philologist and folklorist who co-edited the Brothers Grimm's collections with his younger brother Wilhelm. His linguistic scholarship and editorial work helped define the brothers' joint project.
German Dictionary: A historical dictionary of the German language begun by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and completed by later scholars. The brothers' philological work extended from folklore into a major account of German vocabulary.
Charles Perrault: A seventeenth-century French writer whose literary fairy-tale collection includes “Cinderella” and “Little Red Riding Hood.” Perrault's earlier French literary versions offer a contrast to the Grimms' German collecting project.
Oral tradition: The transmission of knowledge, stories, and customs through speech rather than writing. Many tales reached the Grimms through spoken accounts and remembered versions.
Snow White: A European fairy tale about a young princess pursued by a jealous queen and sheltered by dwarfs. The Grimms' “Little Snow-White” became one of their best-known collected tales.
Wilhelm Grimm: A German philologist and folklorist who co-edited the Brothers Grimm's collections with his elder brother Jacob. He shaped the tales' literary form through substantial revision across editions.
Grimm's Law: A sound-change rule describing systematic correspondences between Proto-Indo-European consonants and Germanic consonants. Jacob Grimm's linguistic research produced this foundational account of Germanic sound change.
The Arabian Nights: A collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories framed by the narrative of Scheherazade. Its translated tales circulated through European literary culture alongside, but outside, the Grimms' German tradition.

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