h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Today's Google Doodle honours the Brothers Grimm. It's the 200th anniversary of their 'Kinder- und Hausmaerchen'. Who knew? As one who had to study these works at university, I want to get on the bandwagon here.

People are strange at Christmas: English people want a ghost story, people in the US want heart-warming stories like 'It Happened on Fifth Avenue', and others around the world want to read Grimms' fairy tales.

Ah, well. You have to be tough, though - those things will curdle your blood a lot quicker than Clive Barker. My mother would have laughed at the Google Doodle. She hated it when people rendered folktales harmless. She was scornful when the Big Bad Wolf in the 'Three Little Pigs' tale showed up in a children's book, dumped in a vat of chocolate. She KNEW he got boiled, so there. The 'Three Little Pigs' isn't Grimm, by the way. It's English. The Grimm Brothers were scarier (and often less edifying) than that. But my mom would have pooh-poohed the trick with the scarf there.

Let's celebrate the Grimm Brothers' folktales. Remember, please, that this is Serious, Grown-Up, Folklore Stuff. (Sure it is.) Collecting these stories, from real informants, helped the Grimms collate their genuine etymological dictionary, an academic triumph. And it was folklore, not fakelore, so there.

Here's my favourite version of 'Puss in Boots'. You have to love this cat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEjKmsMkPKQ

Yes, that's Christopher Walken, with Jason Connery.

How about 'Haensel und Gretel'? First told by Dortchen Wild, who later became Frau Wilhelm Grimm. This is a very colourful version of their go-to-bed prayer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yx4Rw-bS0c

Note the flying witch. She's cool, I want that broom. Oh, and I spy one of those dangerous flying-reindeer mushrooms in this clip, which might explain a lot.

And who can forget the inimitable Seven Dwarves?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViYuzHDQbeA

Not, NOT Disney. Go away, evil animators. These guys ROCK. Otto forever!

Of course, if you want to be all boring and scholarly, you can honour the work of the Brothers Grimm, Jakob und Wilhelm, by browsing the online version of their dictionary:

http://dwb.uni-trier.de/de/


Any way you do it, have a Happy Grimm Day!

As a child I was always impressed by 'Von einem der auszog das Fürchten zu lernen'. Especially the part where he has to use a skull as bowling ball. But the ending is sad.
I think one of mum's favorites is 'Allerlei Rauh' (Rauh in this case means 'fur').

Somewhere (can't find it right now, curse it) I have a book titled something like 'Folk tales and sagas from all over the world' that contains the original (as far as possible) versions of all kinds of stories.

Some of them were familiar to me (like brothers Grimm and H C Andersen) while others were completely new to me.

They had one thing in common though: none of them seemed to have been written for children but rather for adults, serving as warning examples of what might happen if you deviate too far from common courtesy/decensy and morals.

When it comes to Christmas related stories, I prefer H. C. Andersen to the brothers Grimm.

The Little Match Girl (even though it is about New Year's Eve).

Tav, there's an English tale about someone who wants to learn to shudder. They try to scare him, in all kinds of ways, and it doesn't work.

Finally, his wife throws cold water on him. He shudders.

Now, Titania, I am not a fan of Andersen's. At all. HE makes me shudder.

But if you want Andersen, here's the fakelore version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEwdroXuL8A

Oh, and a blast from the Post past about the Grimm Brothers: A70511041

At the end of the Grimm tale his wife dies and he sees her dead body and shudders.

That's not a nice one, Tav. You're right.

All this makes me want to spend the evening reading Dickens. I know, this is about the Brothers Grimm, about fairy tales, not about Dickens. But for some unknown reason, I was reading your original post and got this overwhelming urge to read Oliver Twist.

Nothing wrong with that. It's a good book.

I'm not familiar with the ending Tav mentions. I only know about the bucket of water poured over him (and I think there were fish in the water, too). But then I was a child when I last read it.

I'm sure there was a version where she died, but I can't say if it was the original or 'a' original.

Oh, I remember the !

oh no she didn't!

oops! wrong pantomime

I couldn't find a German version online, but Gutenberg has the English one:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2591/2591-h/2591-h.htm#link2H_4_0060

B'EL

You know, I always thought of that one as just a shaggy-dog story. More like an American Indian folktale.