The original fairy tales — Cinderella, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel and more.
Why this book matters
Before Disney, before bedtime stories as we know them, two German brothers rewrote the mythology of childhood — and the Grimms' originals are stranger and darker than you remember.
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Free Audiobook · Grimms' Fairy Tales
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By Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm PREPARER’S NOTE The text is based on translations from the Grimms’ Kinder und Hausmärchen by Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes. CONTENTS: THE GOLDEN BIRD HANS IN LUCK JORINDA AND JORINDEL THE TRAVELLING MUSICIANS OLD SULTAN THE…
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Why does Grimms' Fairy Tales matter?
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Before Disney, before bedtime stories as we know them, two German brothers rewrote the mythology of childhood — and the Grimms' originals are stranger and darker than you remember.
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- Hansel
- A poor woodcutter's son who, when his family plans to abandon him and his sister in the forest, cleverly uses pebbles to mark a trail home.
- Gretel
- Hansel's sister, who weeps at their parents' plan but stands by her brother as they face abandonment in the woods together.
- The Old Woman (the witch)
- A seemingly kindly old woman who lures the lost children into her house made of bread and cake, offering them milk, pancakes, and soft beds.
- Rapunzel
- A beautiful maiden with extraordinarily long hair, shut away in a tower by an enchantress with no door, only a high window.
- Dame Gothel (the enchantress)
- The powerful sorceress who raised Rapunzel and visits the tower by calling for her hair to be let down.
- The King's Son (Rapunzel)
- A prince who hears Rapunzel's singing echoing from the forest tower and grows determined to find a way up to her.
- Ashputtel (Cinderella)
- A gentle, hardworking girl mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters, forced to do menial chores and sleep among the ashes.
- Jorinda
- A lovely young woman betrothed to the shepherd Jorindel, who wanders with him too close to an old fairy's enchanted castle.
- Jorindel
- A shepherd lad devoted to Jorinda, who is struck helpless by magic when the castle's fairy appears at twilight.
- Hans (Hans in Luck)
- A cheerful young man heading home after years of service, who begins trading away his hard-earned wages for a series of increasingly less valuable items.
- Snow-White and Rose-Red
- Two devoted sisters, one fair and one rosy, who live simply and kindly with their widowed mother in a cottage by the forest.
Glossary
- ell
- An old unit of length (roughly a forearm's length) used to measure things like Rapunzel's hair or cloth.
- tan-heap
- A pile of tanning bark or refuse in a garden, used in 'Snow-White and Rose-Red' style tales as a hiding or watching spot.
- goose (tailor's)
- Not a bird but a heavy pressing iron used by tailors, referenced when a character rejects a tailor's life of 'needle and goose.'
- star-gazer
- An old term for an astrologer, someone who reads fate and events by studying the stars.
- sluggard
- An archaic scolding term for a lazy person who sleeps too long or shirks work.
- besmeared
- An old word meaning smeared or covered over, as with soot or dirt used for disguise.
- cunningest
- Archaic superlative form of 'cunning,' meaning most skillful or clever (as in 'the cunningest thief').
- withered tree
- A recurring descriptive phrase for a dead or dried-out tree, often used symbolically or as a plot device (e.g., a branch mistaken for an axe's sound).
Table of contents
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