The brothers Jakob Ludwig Karl Grimm and Wilhelm Karl Grimm were German folklorists and linguists, most famous for collecting fairy tales and other folklore. Born on January 4 in 1785 and on February 24 in 1786, they were the two oldest children of Philipp Grimm, a lawyer, and Dorothea Grimm. They have had a huge influence on fairy tale history.
The brothers studied legal studies like their father, but were inspired by their professor to start inspecting past cultures. They especially took an interest in German fairy tales. They changed their professions to be librarians, and used this as an opportunity to collect stories. They started their collection in 1807, with …show more content…
Why have fairy tales changed over time? The fairy tales we know today have different sources, like mythology and the bible. Folktales were in the beginning used to frighten children and teach about the consequences of making the wrong decision or doing something wrong. Over time the ideas about morality changed, in real life and in the folk tales.
In medieval times, old peasants passed on folktales to their children, to teach them moral lessons. Many tales take place during the main person’s passage from childhood to adult, most of the tales ending in marriage. During the tale are not only challenges to be overcome, but also warnings; do not go alone into the woods, and the dangers of being naïve. The tales often address these dangers indirectly. The moral of the story is more of an undertone, rather than the main subject. “Many fairy tales owe their longevity to an ability to address tabooed subjects in a symbolic manner” . It is not surprising how many stories come from darker stories involving adult themes like, cannibalism, rape, murder, …show more content…
The more a fairy tale is told, the more it changes. These changes are very small but eventually only the main plot stays the same. At first the fairy tales changes because they weren’t written down but told. These changes helped the stories adapt to their public. Nowadays, fairy tales are changing even more than they were when they were told. With the introduction of Disney movies we can change the way we present the old stories to adapt to the public of this century. The introduction of movies allowed very large and bizarre changes. However, recently movies featuring these classic characters have been made for adults. These adult fairy tales have the violence and sexuality in them. People today are way different from the people 200 years ago. Fairy tales change along with the people.
Snow White is possible the most notable of fairy tale, it’s the story of an Evil Queen who is jealous of her beautiful step-daughter and orders a huntsman to kill her . After the huntsman is unable to go through with killing Snow White, she runs through the forest and finds a cottage. She gets in and eats from the kitchen and then falls asleep, to be found by seven dwarfs. They take pity on her and agree that she can stay with them, as long as she will cook and clean for