The History of the Brother's Grim:

The Grimm’s Fairy-tales are a collection of fairy tales compiled together in the 19th century and publishing their first collection in 1812 (David and David 1964, 181). The two brothers are known as Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and began as librarians and collecting folklore and children's stories before compiling them into the Grimm’s Fairy Tales, which was first known as "Kinder und Hausmärchen" (David and David 164, 180). Today, the stories are now perceived as "children stories", however, originally the works were compiled for nostalgia and for cultural preservation. In the anthology's introduction, the book indicates that many of the passages are classified as children's stories, yet they are not necessarily for children, "These stories pervaded by the purity that makes children appear so marvelous and blessed us"(David and David 1964, 181). They specifically began collecting works when working for the poet Clemens Brentano. Here, they sought after wives tales and traditional work the amplified their heritage and traditional values.

Jacob and Wilhelm were greatly influenced by the Napoleonic wars, which were impacting the German language and culture. In addition, the stories sought out where to go against French values, which meant searching folklore stories rather than finding aristocratic stories. Due to the Napoleonic wars, the brothers reject French influence, "The Grimm brothers thought this kind of sanitized French style to be more fakelore than folklore, with the language, artificially literary, clearly written to be read by the educated classes" (Chi 2018). Therefore, their collection of fairy-tales consisted of stories that are often considered violent and gruesome. 

However, their initial intent was to study German oral tradition. Their research consisted of studying dialect and phonetic, which "set down a rigorous methodology of the collection and research of oral tradition, in which copious notes were kept of the speakers, the places and times.  Unusually, the storytellers’ very language, the dialectal and vernacular words they used, was preserved" (Chi 2018). Essentially, the Grimm brother's represented cultural linguistics anthropology and focused in folklore!

Jacob and Wilhelm sought out older German stories in pursuit of authenticity of culture and language. Jacob in particular searched for "authenticity", and pursued phonetics and the technicalities of language. All the brothers after authenticity,in reality they controlled the narratives of the stories, and manufactured lore. However, eventually, in their journey of finding storied, Jacob developed what is known today as "Grimm's Law". Grimm's law (although previously researcher prior to the Grimm's brothers) helped explain the Latin and Sanskrit influences in language (Chi 2018). In the end, the brothers adjusted the narratives to best suit their needs.