Sarah Beth Durst. Brothers Grimm saved classic fairy tales by changing them forever. There's a certain irony to "Grimm's Fairy Tales. " Two-hundred years ago today, Jacob Grimm and his younger brother Wilhelm published a collection of folk tales. The Grimms didn't write these stories; they collected tales that had been handed down from generation to generation. The Brothers Grimm worried that industrialization would erase these classics from memory. So they set out to protect these ancient tales. Skip to next paragraph Subscribe Today to the Monitor Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS ofThe Christian Science MonitorWeekly Digital Edition However, in preserving this rich tradition, the Brothers Grimms changed the stories forever. Many readers would be shocked to look at the first-edition stories of Rapunzel, The Frog Prince, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, or Snow White. Disney sanitized them, scrubbing away the unsavory parts.
In fact, even Jacob and Wilhelm changed the fairy tales from one edition to another.
Fractured Fairy Tales. Brothers Grimm: Fairy Tales, History, Facts, and More. Fairytales. Annotated Fairy Tales, Fairy Tale Books and Illustrations.