The Brothers Grimm: A Biography

 

Grimm’s (or Grimms’) Fairy Tales are well-known all over the world, but I wonder if most people know that the name refers to the brothers Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm. When I was a child I had assumed that the Grimms wrote the tales, but later learned that they collected the tales over a number of years in German-speaking regions of Europe. During my linguistics studies at university, I also learned that it was Jakob Grimm who developed ‘Grimm’s Law,’ which describes regular correspondences between certain sounds of proto-Indo-European to early Germanic and languages that developed from German (like English). It seems that his linguistics theories were inspired by the translations that were done for the tales he and his brother collected. But I did not know much about their personal lives or why they started collecting the folk tales and legends they became known for.

So when I learned about The Brothers Grimm: A Biography, by Ann Schmiesing, I was very interested to find out more. It is, in fact, the “first English-language biography [of the Grimms] in over 50 years.” I have chosen it for the 2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge in the category Published in 2024.

The first few chapters give detailed background information about the Grimm family, and the children’s upbringing, education, studies and early employment. Much of the information about Jakob and Wilhelm is focused on their deep interest in Germanic folk culture, songs and stories. It is because they wanted to preserve these aspects of culture that they started collecting the tales they are known for. This was often difficult because of their respective jobs and locations, and because the work was so time-consuming.

Contrary to information often presented about the fairy tales, the brothers did not listen to narratives from older peasant women in the countryside. Instead, most of their contributors were middle-class women among their acquaintances. Interestingly, their contributors were almost exclusively women. But when they later starting collecting legends, the contributors were men.

Schmiesing is professor of German and Scandinavian studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, so this is probably why the book is written in a very academic style. Her research is extensive and very detailed, but this makes the book a rather dense read. Readers looking for such detail would find this a very useful book, but not a general reader who wants a biography with a lighter touch.

Many thanks to NetGalley for my advance e-copy in exchange for an honest review.