Adapted by Michele L. Vacca
based on the Immortal Brothers Grimm narrative
The story of Rumpelstiltskin has been retold in other
countries, sometimes with the main character’s name changing completely;
Tom Tit Tot in England (from English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs),
Päronskaft (meaning “pear stalk”) in Sweden and Martinko Klingáč in
Slovakia.
The Brothers Grimm, Jakob and Wilhelm were German
academics best known for publishing collections of folk tales and fairy
tales. They are among the best known story tellers of novellas from
Europe, allowing the widespread knowledge of such tales as
Rumplestiltskin, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Cinderella, and
Hansel and Gretel.
The Brothers Grimm began collecting folk tales around 1807, in response to
a wave of awakened interest in German folklore that followed the
publication of Ludwig Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano’s folksong
collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn (“The Youth’s Magic Horn”). By 1810 the
Grimms produced a manuscript collection of several dozen tales, which they
had recorded by inviting storytellers to their home and transcribing what
they heard. Although it is often believed that they took their tales from
peasants, many of their informants were middle-class or aristocratic,
recounting tales they had heard from their servants, and several of the
informants were of Huguenot ancestry and told tales French in origin. It
is believed that certain elements of the stories were “purified” for the
brothers who were Christian.
In 1812 the Grimm brothers published their first volume of fairy tales,
Tales of Children and the Home. They had received their stories from
peasants and villagers, and controversially from other sources such as
already published works from other cultures and languages. In their
collaboration, Jakob did more of the research, while Wilhelm, more
fragile, put it into literary form and provided the childlike style.
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