Outlook, Grim

By Kayla Allen
I'm sure everyone knows by now that the always beautifully illustrated and happily ever after bedtime stories that we've come to know and love came from much more grim origins. The Brothers Grimm are a mainstay of children's literature worldwide and it strikes me as funny that the stories that we know to inspire hope and a sense of magic, in their original form might instead inspire terror, nightmares and possible bedwetting.
Not that it was the Grimm's intention to be frightening but the stories were intended to teach a lesson and most likely to be strong enough that it would not be forgotten. Not to mention that the world was just a tougher place back then and their stories were likely never intended to be children's stories.
The Grimm brothers were linguists and traveled extensively through Germany and other countries to do field work.. To get the information they needed for their field work it was imperitive to find ways of convincing people in small villages to feel comfortable enough to talk at length. To accomplish this they asked the people they met to tell them their favorite stories. In the end the brothers not only attained the data necessary to do their linguistic work, they also took along with them stories from various regions which they compiled and would eventually make them a household name.
If you would like to see what a difference decades can make, follow these links to the original versions:
* Cinderella
* Hansel & Gretel
* Snow White