Grimm Brothers
Jacob Grimm was born in 1785 and his brother Wilhelm Grimm was born in 1786. Their parents had nine children, so they had seven other siblings. Throughout their lives they basically did the same thing and achieved the same achievements. They both went to the University of Marburg and studied law. They were both influenced by the folk poetry collection of Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim, so they began to collect folk tales. When their parents died they decided to get jobs as librarians in order to support their younger siblings. In 1812 they published volume 1 of Children and Household Tales that contained 86 folk tales. They published another six editions of this. In 1819 they both received honorary doctorates from the University of Marburg and their scholarly work on linguistics, folklore and medieval studies continued, resulting in many publications. From 1829-1830, they both resigned as librarians and accepted positions at the University of Gottingen as librarians and professors. They continued their scholarly work, political activities and dedicated a lot of their time to their own studies and research. Wilhelm died in 1859 and Jacob followed in 1863.
Analysis of Grimm Brother's Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty
The Grimm brother's version of Sleeping beauty or as they wrote it "Briar rose" differs again compared to the other versions. First of all the Grimm version seems to be a lot more faster paced than the other versions, it jumps from event to event very quickly and does not give the reader time to get to know the characters at all as it is more of a tale than a story like Disney's version. A good example of this is basically how the Grimm's version only goes for approximately three pages and the Perrault and disney versions go for a lot longer. The Grimm brothers use the same kind of archetypes in all their different tales, it is clearly their style of writing. Commonly used ones are wicked stepmothers, evil or bad witches and always a hero or heroine winning in the end and saving the day. An interesting fact I read is how Grimm's versions of tales and style of writing commonly depict the peasant world they grew up in and also the view of nobility that they may have held which is interesting because when Perrault wrote his version he also made underlying comments about the aristocracy of his day. Due to their reflecting on their peasantry upbringing, it is assumed that they would not approve of Disney's nice and fluffy version. Also another element of their writing style is how their tales always include magic, communication between animals and humans (Mathias 1986) "Please, do not look so sad. If you wish for a child your wish will soon be granted-you are to have a baby girl of your own." which was the fish speaking to the Queen in Sleeping Beauty, moral values and teachings of social right and wrong.
Some main differences in the Grimm version compared to other versions are a fish or creature foretells the birth of the baby in all the Grimm versions. There are thirteen fairies and the thirteenth fairy is only not invited as the King and Queen only have twelve sets of cutlery and crockery, unlike the other versions where she is not invited as they think she is dead or where she is evil and that is why they don't invite her. In this version a prince is conveniently wondering around the castle and gets through all the thick thorns which has grown around the castle, when so many have failed before and died from trying. After he gets through the thorns, he wakes the princess from her sleep and all that he has to do is kiss the princess, which differs from Perrault's version as the prince doesn't even kiss the princess in that version.
Overall, Grimm's version differs from the others as it is a great deal shorter and it is just a quick tale to demonstrate the moral at the end of it. This version doesn't allow us to get to know any of the characters as it isn't long enough, so the reader isn't as engaged as the Perrault or Disney version.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths:
*This version was very short and wasn't long at all, this made it easy to be engaged and easy to read the story, reflect upon it and get a moral out of it. I felt it didn't drag on at all.
*I found this version to be good for children who are maybe past the Disney stage and want a little bit more than a cartoon. It was good how the story didn't go into the infertility element and how they had tried everything to have a child, rather that the King and Queen just wanted a child. Also it was good how the fish told the Queen she was going to have a baby as children would not comprehend any other way of finding out the Queen was pregnant, so that was well done I thought.
*It ended with the right happy ending, the one that everyone expects from a fairy tale, unlike Perrault's version that continued after the princess woke up to go into a subplot and seemed meaningless anyway. Grimm's ending was not soppy or corny, it just seemed right.
Weaknesses:
*I thought the fish telling the Queen she was pregnant was a strength for when children are reading it but I also see it as a weakness. I saw it as a weakness as it obviously didn't depict reality at all by having a fish foretell what was going to happen to the Queen, it seemed a bit silly. Also another element to the book that was a weakness was just how the thorns parted for the prince when so many men had died there previously to this, it was a bit unrealistic.
*A weakness I saw was the Grimm Brothers using their same old story structure as they use in many of their tales and it just gets repetitive. This story structure involves the elements of the evil character, a hero and a helpless girl.
*I found it silly that in this version all of a sudden everything and everyone just falls asleep when the princess is pricked by the spindle, this seems silly to me because there is nothing in the prophecy about this at all and it is not backed up by previous events as it should of been.
