In the year 1812, German booksellers displayed a volume destined for immortality, the Kinder- und Hausmärchen of the brothers Grimm. In English translation it is celebrated as Grimm's Fairy Tales. The novelty of their approach lay in the principle of obtaining tales directly from the lips of storytellers. This new method of collecting led the brothers and their emulators deep into the vast subterranean lore of the unlettered peasant. With this discovery the science of folklore was born. The present volume, collected and edited by Kurt Ranke, the outstanding folktale scholar in Germany, represents the first major collection of German folktales to appear in English since the translation of the stories gathered by the brothers Grimm.
Translated by Lotte Baumann and with a Foreword by Richard M. Dorson
Editorial Reviews
"There is a refreshing genuineness in this collection that reveals these tales as folk without ever being 'folksy' at one extreme, or pedantic at the other." --Choice
"The magic of the peasant storytelling makes entertaining readings for all ages." --Poetry Parade and Literary Review
About the Author
Kurt Ranke (1908 - 1985) was a German ethnologist, Germanist, and folklorist. He helped introduce functional psychological dimensions to folklore genre theory. He also started the work on the Encyclopedia of the Folktale.