Showing results by author "Brothers Grimm" in All Categories

The Brothers Grimm retold the story Rumpelstiltskin from folktales that they were told. This is the story of a miller who gets his daughter in hot water by falsely telling the King she can spin straw into gold. The king locks her in a room and forces her to prove her abilities or die.

Clever Gretel is a tale where a greedy but crafty servant outwits her master. It was first published in the second edition of Grimms' Fairy Tales in 1819.

A rich widow lived with her daughter and her stepdaughter. The widow favored her younger biological daughter, allowing her to become spoiled and idle while her older stepdaughter was left to do all the work. Every day the stepdaughter would sit outside the cottage and spin beside the well. One day, she pricked her finger on the point of the spindle. As she leaned over the well to wash the blood away, the spindle fell from her hand and sank out of sight. The stepdaughter feared that she would be punished for losing the spindle, and in panic she leapt into the well after it.

Grimms' Fairy Tales, originally known as the Children's and Household Tales, is a German collection of fairy tales by the Grimm brothers or "Brothers Grimm", Jacob and Wilhelm, first published on 20 December 1812. This edition contained 62 stories.

A wolf and a bear walk together in the woods, discussing the beautiful singing of the willow-wren. After the bear offends some baby birds, there is a war called between the creatures of the air and the creatures of the land. The birds send in a gnat to spy on the creatures of the land and learn their battle secrets. The birds win the war. The bear apologizes to the baby birds.

A rooster and hen go to eat nuts. They make a carriage of nutshells to come back in; the hen rides and the rooster draws it. The duck attacks them for eating nuts, but the rooster defeats him, and he lets himself be harnessed to the carriage instead. A pin and needle join them. They offer an innkeeper the hen's egg and the duck to let them stay, but in the morning, they eat the hen's egg, stick the needle in the innkeeper's chair and the pin in his towel. The duck also goes off. The innkeeper is pricked by both the needle and pin and the eggshell from the hen flies at his eyes.

The Valiant Little Tailor, also known as the Brave Little Tailor is a well known tale of trickery and cunning in which the underdog comes out on top. The story tells the tale of a little tailor who is offered a reward from the king if he is able to complete several difficult tasks.

Rapunzel is a fairy tale about the love between a young prince and a girl with long, blond hair that conquered all of the Witch's evil intentions. They were persistent in their intentions on being happy together, and the Witch was their biggest obstacle. Years passed by, and their love grew stronger.

Fundevogel a forester found a baby in a bird's nest and brought him back to be raised with his daughter Lenchen. They called the child Fundevogel or Foundling-Bird, and he and Lenchen loved each other. One day Lenchen saw the cook carrying many buckets of water to the house and asked what she was doing.

A widowed queen sends her daughter to a faraway land to marry. Accompanying the princess are her magical horse Falada, who can speak, and a waiting maid. The queen gives the princess a special charm that will protect her as long as she wears it.

The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage live happily together. The Bird brings home wood from the forest; the Mouse delivers water, makes the cooking fire, lays the table; and the Sausage cooks. One day, the Bird has a chat with some other birds. They make fun of the Bird, saying that it was doing all the work and that he was like a slave. The next day, the Bird suggests that they switch roles and refuses to go to the forest.

A cat and a mouse, contrary to the custom of their kinds, become friends, such good friends that they decide to share a home. That they might have something to fall back on in time of need, they buy a pot of fat and hide it away in a nook of a church for safekeeping. After a short time, the cat tells her housemate that one of her relations has given birth and that the mouse's friend has been asked to be godmother. Instead of going to a christening, though, the cat goes to the nook of the church and eats the top layer of the fat in the pot.

Hansel and Gretel are a brother and sister abandoned in a forest, where they fall into the hands of a witch who lives in a house made of gingerbread, cake, and candy. The cannibalistic witch intends to fatten the children before eventually eating them, but Gretel outwits the witch and kills her. The two children then escape with their lives and return home with the witch's treasure.

In the tale, a spoiled princess reluctantly befriends the Frog Prince, whom she met after dropping a golden ball into a pond under a linden tree, and he retrieves it for her in exchange for her friendship. The Frog Prince, who is under a wicked fairy's spell, magically transforms back into a handsome prince.

An old woman has some beans that she intends to cook over her fire. Being in a hurry, she grabs some straw to make the fire light faster. She pours the beans in the pot and, being in a hurry, she drops one on the floor which lands next to a piece of straw.

The tale of the fisherman and his wife is a fairytale about a wife that asked the impossible from her husband. He caught a magical fish, and she asked him to let her live. He was kindhearted and pleased her demand, and she granted him three wishes. The fisherman had no desires, and he let her swim on.

The Twelve Dancing Princesses is a fairytale by the Brothers Grimm about some beautiful daughters that somehow manage to sneak out of their bedrooms every night to go dancing. Their father is desperate to find out what they are up to and enlists the help of potential suitors to find out.

Briar Rose, is a classic fairy tale about a princess who is cursed to sleep for a hundred years by an evil fairy, to be awakened by a handsome prince at the end of them. The good fairy, realizing that the princess would be frightened if alone when she awakens, uses her wand to put every living person and animal in the palace asleep, to awaken when the princess does.

A dog owner lets his shepherd dog starve from hunger, causing it to leave home. The dog meets a sparrow and accompanies it to the city. The bird captures meat and bread for the dog as a sign of gratitude. When they leave town, night falls, and they decide to go to sleep. During the night, a man in a horse carriage approaches the dog and sparrow. The sparrow alerts the man that he is going to run over the dog who is in the road, but he ignores the sparrow and runs over the dog nevertheless. The sparrow curses the man, announcing that he will turn into a poor man.

Jorinda and Jorindel, two lovers engaged to be married, went for a walk in the forest. They came too near to the witch's lair. She turned Jorinda into a nightingale and petrified Jorindel to the ground. Once she had carried away the bird, she freed Joringel, laughing that he would never see Jorindel again.