Edition

This edition examines the edits made by the Brothers Grimm to the fairy tales they collected in the seven editions of their Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children’s and Household Tales). It provides the text of each fairy tale from all seven editions and links to page images of the books the text was taken from. All images come from the Deutsches Textarchiv. I have also done accompanying translations into English for each version of the text. These translations seek to mimic the words of the original tale as closely as possible.

For each version of the text, the changes made since the previous edition are marked in blue. If the blue text is clicked on, a popup box will appear with the previous version of that section and the year of the edition in which the previous text first appeared. Textual variants that I have deemed accidental and corrected are marked in green. If green text is clicked on, a popup box will appear with the uncorrected form of the variant and my reasoning for changing it. To correct these accidental textual variants I have employed Greg’s theory of the copy-text. The earliest version of the text possible is used as the copy-text. I have chosen to present variants in this manner because my edition is designed to allow a study of the edits made to the tales over time. Marking each change in the version of the text in which it first appears allows my edition to shed light on the Grimms’ priorities during each subsequent revision of Kinder- und Hausmärchen.

Some changes were made to the text I took from the Deutsches Textarchiv. All instances of a medial s (ſ) were converted to a modern s, hyphens from line breaks were removed, and all umlauts were changed to a double dot (ie ü) instead of an e over the designated letter. The scanned text of the archive interpreted capital Is as Js, which I have also corrected. I have marked changes in the spelling of words instead of standardizing spelling across the seven texts because I believe these changes could be of interest to a scholar using this edition for a linguistic purpose. The punctuation that demarcates speech has been standardized to increase the legibility of the text. All dialogue is now enclosed in quotation marks. These changes have not been marked as they are not the focus of my edition and to do so would clutter the page. All other punctuation variations that do not effect meaning have been left unmarked and unchanged.

Each tale has relevant resources listed on its homepage and further down on this page are general sources on the Grimms’ editing process and its effects. The digital format of this project gives me the unique chance to include all seven versions of each fairy tale and to provide links to the page images, which creates a combination of facsimile and critical formats impossible in print. The digital format also allows for a greater use of color in marking textual variants and the use of popup boxes, which prevent the page from becoming crowded.

A notable paragraph of “Rapunzel” has been edited to create an example of what this edition would look like. This example can be accessed by clicking the button labeled ‘Example – Rapunzel’ above. The original proposal for this edition and a short exploration of how my goals have changed since can be found under the ‘Edition Proposal’ button.

Sources on the Grimms’ editing (all available online):

• Bengtsson, Niklas. “Sex and Violence in Fairy Tales for Children.” Bookbird, vol. 47, no. 3, 2009, pp. 15-21.
• Briggs, Charles L. “Metadiscursive Practices and Scholarly Authority in Folkloristics.” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 106, no. 422, pp. 387-434.
• Damman, Gunter. “Die Hintergrundigkeit einer Literature-ohne-Leser. Zum Streit zwischen Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm um eine rezeptionstheoretische Begrundung des Edierens.” Lili, Zeitschrift fur Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik, vol. 5, no. 19-20, 1975, pp. 26-42.
• Robinson, Orrin W. “Does Sex Breed Gender? Pronomial Reference in the Grimms’ Fairy Tales.” Marvels and Tales, vol. 21, no. 1, 2007, pp. 107-126.
• Schmiesing, Ann. Disability, Deformity, and Disease in the Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Wayne State University Press, 2014.

A basic map of this site would look like:
– Home Page
– The Grimms’ Fairy Tales
– 1. Der Froschkönig oder der eiserne Heinrich
– 1812 Version
– 1819 Version
– 1837 Version
– 1840 Version
– 1843 Version
– 1850 Version
– 1857 Version
…
– 200. Der goldene Schlüssel
– 1812 Version
– 1819 Version
– 1837 Version
– 1840 Version
– 1843 Version
– 1850 Version
– 1857 Version
– Legends for Children
– Tales under this section
– All existing variants of these tales
– Deleted Tales
– Tales under this section
– All existing variants of these tales