The folk tales collected by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were first published in 1812–15, and in many more editions up to the deaths of the brothers around 1860. While no one knows where the tales first came from; features of many are found in myths from all over the world. They were passed on for centuries in the oral tradition, until at last collectors began recording them in print for the world of today, where we still respond to them.
This volume contains a small but representative selection from the Grimms’ Children’s and Household Tales, the most famous and influential of all the great nineteenth-century folklore collections.