Tales of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are known around the world. Since childhood, they are among the favorite books of almost every child. But the Grimm brothers were not just storytellers, they are great linguists and cultural researchers of their country in Germany.
A family
The ancestors of the Grimm were very educated people. Great-grandfather named Frederick, born in 1672, was a Calvinist theologian. His son is Frederick Jr. - inherited the arrival of his father and, accordingly, was a priest of the Calvinist community.
The father of famous brothers was born in 1751. Philip Wilhelm was a lawyer, graduated from the University of Marburg. Until his early death, at 44, he held the position of Zemstvo judge and notary.
Philip and his wife Dorothea had five children, all sons: the eldest - Jacob Grimm, born in 1785, then Wilhelm, who was born a year later, after Karl and Ferdinand were born, and the youngest was Ludwig, who became a successful artist and illustrator of fairy tales older brothers.
Despite the fact that the age difference between the brothers was small (a maximum of five years between the eldest and younger), only Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm turned out to be really close to each other, whose biography proves this.
Childhood and youth
Jacob, like all his brothers, was born in the town of Hanau, where his childhood passed.
Since their father passed away early, the family faced the question of further existence. A childless aunt of brothers - Julian Charlotte came to the rescue. However, from the very birth of Jacob she was in the house of Grimm. And all due to the fact that in the same 1785 she was widowed.
Julianna was very attached to older children and gave almost all her attention and care to them. The brothers paid her the same love, affectionately calling her cute aunt Schlemmer.
Jacob Grimm later recalled that he was much more attached to his aunt than to his parents.
It was Julianne Charlotte who opened the world of knowledge to them by teaching reading and writing. It was with her that they plunged into the world of German fairy tales and biblical subjects. According to one of the brothers, he understood his aunt's explanations of religion better than lectures on theology.
In 1791 the family moved to Steinau. There the children went to a local school. In 1796, trouble came to their house: on January 10, Philip died. His widow, sister and children had to move to the city of Kassel, where Jacob and Wilhelm eventually graduated from the oldest gymnasium in those lands.
The brothers entered the University of Marburg, wanting to follow in their father's footsteps and become lawyers. But they were overwhelmed by a passion for language and literature.
For some time, the brothers were deprived of service after graduation. Jacob worked for Jerome Bonaparte as a librarian. Since 1816, he began to work in the library of Kassel, while rejecting the position of professor in Bonn. There, in Kassel, William worked as secretary.
Tales of the Brothers Grimm
Like his younger brother, Jacob Grimm was fond of German folklore. Perhaps that is why they were in the circle of "Heidelberg romantics", who considered his mission to revive interest in German culture.
Starting in 1807, he traveled around the country (Hesse, Westphalia), collecting various legends, local folklore. A little later, brother William joined him.
In the collection, published in 1812, there are indications of a source. Some fairy tales are labeled more specifically, for example, “Mrs. Metelitsa” was told to the brothers by the future wife of William Dorothea Wild when they called in Kassel.
Other sources are indicated simply by the name of the area, for example, "from Tsveren", "from Hanau."
Sometimes the Grimm had to exchange old stories for valuable things. So, they had to exchange the tales of Johann Krause, the old wahmister for one of the dresses.
A gymnasium teacher in Kassel told the brothers one of the options for Snow White, a certain woman, Maria, who spoke only French, told Grimm about Little Finger Boy, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty. Perhaps because her family respected French culture, some of the stories were similar to those of Charles Perrault.
Jacob Grimm, whose tales were loved by all the children in the world, together with his brother, released seven publications with 210 major works. The first editions were criticized, and the brothers had to work hard on them and bring them to perfection. For example, a sexual scene was removed from the Rapunzel fairy tale, where the girl secretly meets the prince.
The Grimm brothers (Jacob and Wilhelm) had a huge influence on other folklorists. “Rapunzel”, “Cinderella”, “Snow White”, “Bremen Town Musicians”, “Magic Pot”, “Little Red Riding Hood” and hundreds of other fairy tales were forever included in the golden fund of children's literature.
Grimm's Law and Other Works
Each of the brothers worked on personal scientific research, but their views and direction of thoughts were the same. Gradually moving away from folklore, they turned their attention to linguistic studies.
Grimms became the founders of scientific Germanic studies. Jacob devoted a lot of time to the phonetic processes of the Pragerman language, as a result, based on the research of Rasmus Rask, he was able to formulate one of the phonetic processes, which in the end received the name "Grimm's Law".
It refers to the so-called "movement of consonants." Today it is one of the most famous phonetic laws. It was formulated in 1822.
Before this event, Jacob Grimm seriously studied the science of language. The result was "German Grammar" in four volumes (1819-1837).
The significance of the linguistic works of Grimm is enormous. Thanks to him, he was able to finally prove that Germanic languages belong to the common Indo-European group.
Along with linguistic research, the scientist worked on a collection of mythological representations of the ancient Germans. In 1835, an academic treatise was published, authored by Jacob Grimm. "German mythology" was a certain analogy of the book "Myths of Ancient Greece", it showed the relationship of Scandinavian and German mythology.
German dictionary
The brothers began work on the dictionary in 1830. As a result, it became the largest in the history of the German language.
Actually the idea of creating an etymological dictionary did not appear at all among the brothers, but long before the start of their professional activity. But it was to them in 1838 that the publishers from Leipzig proposed to prepare it.
Grimms used a comparative historical method when writing a dictionary in order to show the evolution of a language, its genetic connections with a native speaker.
The brothers managed to finish only a few sections (A, B, C, D, E), their death prevented them from completing the work.
But the dictionary was nevertheless completed by their colleagues at the Berlin Academy of Sciences and the University of Gottingham.
Last years
William died in 1859 from lung paralysis. Jacob survived his brother for four years. At this time, he lectured at the Berlin Academy of Sciences and worked tirelessly on the German Dictionary. In fact, death overtook him just at the desk, where he described the word Frucht for the next section.
Jacob died of a heart attack on September 20, 1863.
Value
The whole life, work and philological activity of the Grimm brothers had a huge impact not only on the inhabitants of Germany, but also on the peoples of the whole world. They made a tremendous contribution to the development of linguistic science, created hundreds of immortal children's works, and showed by their example what love is for the homeland and family.