The Brothers Grimm (creator): Difference between revisions
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Although the original intent of the collection was to preserve the stories exactly as told, the Grimms gave in more and more in each new edition to the temptation to make various "improving" alterations. The scholarly Jacob sought to establish more Germanic forms of the stories by replacing foreign words such as „''Prinz''” and ''Prinzessin'' with Teutonic terms such „''Königssohn''” and ''Königstochter'', replacing [[The Fair Folk|fays]] with enchantresses and wise women and by supplying missing plot-elements from historic sources; the more creative-minded Wilhelm tried to make the stories more acceptable to a popular audience (presumably including children), by selectively [[Bowdlerise|Bowdlerizing]] the tales published, notably removing evil mothers and replacing them with step-mothers (as in the case of "[[Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (novel)|Snow White]]"), by removing implications of sex and pregnancy (as in "[[Rapunzel]]"), and by re-writing the stories in a more literary style. (Though they notably did not tone down the violence, even for the children.)
Standards of child-friendliness have shifted in the past 200 years; [http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm047.html some] of the Grimms' stories are now considered [[Family-Unfriendly Death|shockingly violent]] -- and at least one of them, [http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm110.html "The Jew in the Thorns"], notoriously [[Values Dissonance|religiously insensitive]]. ([https://web.archive.org/web/20101024224447/http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/antisemitic.html Similar stories] appear in the Grimms' other, more adult, story collection, ''Deutsche Sagen'' (''German Legends'')). The...well, ''[[Incredibly Lame Pun|grim]]''... nature of many of the original stories have made the Grimm Brothers the [[Trope Namer]] for [[Grimmification]]. It should be noted, however, that some of the tales included by the Grimms were not intended for children in the first place -- hence the distinction made in the name of their popular collection.
Although many of the Grimms' fairy tales now languish in obscurity, a significant chunk of these stories remain in the popular consciousness. Some of the better known include:
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