Release date is 2026-02-10

Alexander Bauer, Andrew Sly and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

"Deutsche Märchen gesammelt durch die Brüder Grimm" by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm is a collection of folk and fairy tales written in the early 19th century. The collection gathers German oral traditions into vivid, moral, and magical narratives featuring enchanted royalty, faithful servants, clever animals, and humble tradespeople. It likely appeals to readers who enjoy archetypal plots, sharp justice, and clear lessons wrapped in wonder.

The opening of the collection presents a sweep of classic tales: In Marienkind, a girl raised by the Virgin Mary breaks a taboo, lies, is cast to earth mute, becomes a queen, loses her children, and regains them—and her voice—through confession. Die Wichtelmänner offers three vignettes: elves finish a poor shoemaker’s work; a maid unknowingly spends seven years with helpful little men and returns rich; and a changeling is exposed by a trick with boiling water in eggshells. Der treue Johannes shows a devoted servant saving his king and bride from three foretold dangers, being turned to stone for his misunderstood deeds, and later revived when the king proves equal devotion. In Die Drei Männlein im Walde a kind stepdaughter is rewarded (beauty and gold when she speaks) while the cruel stepsister is cursed (ugliness and toads), the true queen is murdered and returns nightly as a duck before being restored, and the villains meet fitting punishment. Der Froschkönig (mit dem eisernen Heinrich) tells of a frog who retrieves a golden ball, becomes a prince after the princess flings him against the wall, and a loyal servant whose iron heart-bands snap with joy. Der Wolf und die sieben jungen Geisslein ends with a mother rescuing her kids from the wolf’s belly and the stone-weighted wolf drowning. Brief fables follow: Die Scholle explains the plaice’s crooked mouth through petty envy, and Der Hase und der Igel has a hedgehog outwit a hare to fatal exhaustion. In Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten four aging animals scare off robbers and make a new home. The excerpt closes as Das tapfere Schneiderlein begins, with a tailor boasting “seven at one blow” after swatting flies and stitching the claim onto his belt. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Ebenhausen: Wilhelm Langewiesche-Brandt, 1921