Untitled Document
 Snow
White백설공주, Hansel and Gretel헨젤과 그레텔, Sleeping Beauty잠자는 숲 속의 공주, Rapunzel라푼젤...
these are famous stories that have been retold by thousands of people
in hundreds of different languages. But do you know
who wrote these stories? No, they were not written by Walt Disney.
These stories were actually collected by two brothers
in the early 1800s. Then, they were made into a series of books. Thanks to the amazing brothers,
generations of young readers
could read and enjoy these fun stories. This week, let's meet the
Grimm brothers!
Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm was born on January 4, 1785, and his brother
Wilhelm Carl was born on February 24, 1786 in Germany. Their father
was a lawyer. The brothers grew
up in a small village in Germany. They were very close as children.
When they were older, they decided to study law just as their father
did.
In 1802, they went to the University of Marburg to study law. But
they soon became very interested in the legends of the Middle Ages.
 Wilhelm
married in 1825. But the brothers continued to live together
in the same house. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm lived their entire lives
together. They both wrote many books, including a dictionary of the German
language.
The dictionary is still used today.
During this time, they also began to collect stories from the people
who lived in the small villages in Germany. They recorded the stories as they
were told from the lips of the people. Many of the stories that they
collected were passed down from generation to generation.
The Grimm brothers wanted to preserve the stories as they
were told. So they decided to publish those stories as
books.
However, they sometimes changed the content of the stories. Also,
they often combined several similar
stories into one story. The first volume of these stories titled
Nursery and Household Tales was published in 1812 in Berlin. A second
volume of their collected stories was published in 1815, and a third
was published in 1822.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected over 200 stories in total. They
are commonly called Grimm's Fairy
Tales.
These stories have been translated into over 160 different languages!
Thanks to them, we have these wonderful stories that we can enjoy
and retell to our children for generations to come.
So, why don't you try to write a fairy tale of your own? Who knows?
Maybe you will write the next Snow White or Cinderella! Be creative and have fun!
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