автордың кітабын онлайн тегін оқу  The Best Grimm’s Fairy Tales

Brothers Grimm

Many years have passed since the “Grimm Brothers' Children's and Home Tales” were first published. The publication was the most modest in appearance and volume: in the book there were only 83 fairy tales instead of 200 currently printed. The foreword, sent to the collection by the Brothers Grimm, was signed on October 18 of the memorable 1812. The book was appreciated in this era of German identity, in this era of the awakening of ardent nationalist aspirations and the lush flowering of romance. Even during the lifetime of the Grimm brothers, their collection, constantly updated by them, has been published for 5 or 6 editions and has been translated into almost all European languages.

This collection of fairy tales was almost the first youthful work of the Grimm brothers, their first attempt on the path of the scientific gathering and the scientific processing of monuments of ancient German literature and nationality. Following this path, the Grimm brothers later achieved the loud glory of the luminaries of European science and, having devoted their whole lives to their enormous, truly immortal works, indirectly had a very strong influence on Russian science, and on the study of the Russian language, antiquity and nationality. Their name is also used in Russia by a loud, well-deserved fame and is also pronounced by our scientists with deep respect… In view of this, we recognize that it will not be superfluous here to place a brief, concise biographical sketch of the life and work of the famous Grimm brothers, whom the Germans rightly call “fathers and the founders of Germanic philology."

By origin, the Grimm brothers belonged to the middle class of society. Their father was first a lawyer in Ganau, and then he entered the legal service of Prince Ganausky. The Grimm brothers were born in Ganau: Jacob — January 4, 1785, Wilhelm — February 24, 1786. From the earliest youth, they were tied by the closest ties of friendship, which did not stop until the grave. Moreover, both of them, even by their very nature, seemed to complement each other: Jacob, as the eldest, was physically more complex than Brother Wilhelm, who was constantly very young from time to time and was only healthy when he was old. Their father died in 1796 and left his family in a very straitened position, so that only thanks to the generosity of their aunt on the mother’s side could the Grimm brothers finish their studies, for which they had already shown brilliant abilities very early. First, they studied at the Kassel Lyceum, then they entered the University of Marburg, with the firm intention to study legal sciences for practical activities, following the example of their father. They actually listened to lectures at the Faculty of Law, were engaged in the study of law, but natural inclinations began to affect and drew them in a completely different direction. They began to devote all their leisure time at the university to the study of Russian, German and foreign literature, and when, in 1803, the famous romantic Tick published his “Songs of the Minnesingers”, to which he sent a warm, felt preface, the Grimm brothers immediately felt a strong attraction to the study of German antiquity and nationalities and decided to get acquainted with the ancient German handwritten literature on the originals. Having embarked on this path soon after leaving the university, the Grimm brothers no longer left it until the end of their lives.

In 1805, when Jacob Grimm had to go to Paris for a while for a scientific purpose, the brothers, accustomed to living and working together, felt the burden of this separation to such an extent that they never intended to separate again for any purpose — to live together and share everything each other in half.

Between 1805 and 1809, Jacob Grimm was in the service: for some time he was the librarian of Jerome Bonaparte in Wilhelmsgeg, and then even the state auditor. After the war with France ended, Jacob Grimm received an order from Elector Kasselsky to go to Paris and return to the Kassel library those manuscripts that had been taken from it by the French. In 1815, he was sent along with the representative of the Kassel Elector to the Vienna Congress, and he even opened up a disadvantageous diplomatic career. However, Jacob Grimm felt utter disgust for her, and in general in official occupations he saw only an obstacle to the pursuit of science, to which he was devoted with all his soul. That is why in 1816 he left the service, rejected the professorship offered to him in Bonn, refused large salaries and preferred the modest place of a librarian in Kassel to everything, where his brother had been the secretary of the library since 1814. Both brothers maintained this modest position until 1820, diligently indulging in their scientific research at that time, and this period of their life was fruitful in relation to their scientific activity. In 1825, William Grimm married; but the brothers still did not part and continued to live and work together.

In 1829, the director of the Kassel library died; his place, of course, by all rights and justice would have to go to Jacob Grimm; but he preferred a stranger who did not declare himself of any merits, and both brothers Grimm, offended by this flagrant injustice, found themselves forced to resign. It is understood that the Brothers Grimm, who at that time had already managed to gain very high fame for their works, were not left without work. In 1830, Jacob Grimm was invited to Göttingen as a professor of German literature and a senior librarian at the university there. Wilhelm entered the same junior librarian and in 1831 was elevated to extraordinary, and in 1835 — to ordinary professors. Both learned brothers lived here not bad, especially because here they met a friendly circle, which included the first luminaries of modern German science. However, their stay in Gottingen was not long. The new King of Hanover, who ascended the throne in 1837, conceived with one stroke of the pen to destroy the constitution given to Hanover by his predecessor, which, of course, aroused general displeasure against himself throughout the country; but only seven Göttingen professors had enough civil courage to publicly protest against such an unauthorized violation of basic state law. Between these seven daredevils were the Grimm brothers. King Ernst-Augustus responded to this protest with the immediate dismissal of all seven professors from their posts and the expulsion from Hanover of those who were not Hanover natives. Within three days, the Grimm brothers were to leave Hanover and temporarily settled in Kassel. However, public opinion of Germany came in favour of famous scientists: a general subscription was opened to provide the Grimm brothers with needs, and two large German book-sellers (Reimer and Gierzel) turned to them with a proposal to compose a German dictionary together on the broadest possible scientific basis. The Grimm brothers accepted this proposal with the greatest willingness and, after necessary, rather lengthy preparations, set to work. However, they did not have to be in Kassel for long: their friends took care of them and found them an enlightened patron in the person of Crown Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm of Prussia, and when he ascended the throne in 1840, he immediately called the learned brothers to Berlin. They were elected members of the Berlin Academy of Sciences and as academicians received the right to lecture at the University of Berlin. Soon, both William and Jacob Grimm began lecturing at the university and since then have lived in Berlin without a break until their death. William died on December 16, 1859; Jacob followed him on September 20, 1863, in the 79th year of his arduous and prolific life.

As for the significance of the scientific activity of the Brothers Grimm, it, of course, is not subject to our assessment in this brief biographical note. Here we can confine ourselves to listing only their most important works, which brought them the high-profile fame of European scientists, and point out the difference that existed in the activities of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and to some extent characterized their personal attitude to science.

At first, during the period of youthful enthusiasm for German antiquity and nationality, the Grimm brothers mainly devoted their activities to collecting, explaining and publishing monuments of folk art. During this period, to which Fairy Tales belong, the Grimm brothers looked at their works as common property and the authorship was divided in half, everywhere exposing on their title pages: “Grimm brothers”. Only in 1818 did their scientific activity fall into two: Jacob Grimm devotes himself exclusively to philological studies of Germanic dialects and builds on these studies his most important works — German Grammar (1819), Antiquities of German Law (1828) and German mythology ”(1835), which made up the era not only in German philology, but also in the field of comparative linguistics. Wilhelm Grimm remained at a more attractive study of individual monuments of ancient German literature and did a lot to explain them. Since that time, when the paths of scientific activity of the scientific brothers divided, each of them has already begun to sign his works with his full name. Wilhelm Grimm devoted himself to activities more modest, but no less useful and deserving serious attention. He turned to the study of individual poetic works and folk traditions in general, began to collect and tidy up German heroic sagas, to restore damaged texts of manuscripts, and thereby laid the cornerstone in the basis of a comparative history of literature that studies the development and growth of the same poetic material in different nations. William Grimm was extremely gifted with the ability to subtly recognize and investigate the modifications that occur in the same poetic motive during his wanderings from nation to nation. From this perspective, he was the main figure in the creation of the collection of Tales, and especially that exemplary commentary to them, which subsequently appeared in the form of a separate volume attached to the collection of Tales published by the Grimm brothers. In this commentary on “Tales”, Wilhelm Grimm provides a wealth of material for comparing German fairy tales with fairy-tale literature of French, Italian, Spanish, English, Scandinavian, Slavic, and even with a fabulous stock of oriental literature. Thus, Wilhelm Grimm, working all his life with his brother and friend, a great philologist, gained the well-deserved fame of a talented researcher in the field of the history of literature.

A certain king had a beautiful garden, and in the garden stood a tree which bore golden apples. These apples were always counted, and about the time when they began to grow ripe it was found that every night one of them was gone. The king became very angry at this, and ordered the gardener to keep watch all night under the tree. The gardener set his eldest son to watch; but about twelve o’clock he fell asleep, and in the morning another of the apples was missing. Then the second son was ordered to watch; and at midnight he too fell asleep, and in the morning another apple was gone. Then the third son offered to keep watch; but the gardener at first would not let him, for fear some harm should come to him: however, at last he consented, and the young man laid himself under the tree to watch. As the clock struck twelve he heard a rustling noise in the air, and a bird came flying that was of pure gold; and as it was snapping at one of the apples with its beak, the gardener’s son jumped up and shot an arrow at it. But the arrow did the bird no harm; only it dropped a golden feather from its tail, and then flew away. The golden feather was brought to the king in the morning, and all the council was called together. Everyone agreed that it was worth more than all the wealth of the kingdom: but the king said, ‘One feather is of no use to me, I must have the whole bird.’

Then the gardener’s eldest son set out and thought to find the golden bird very easily; and when he had gone but a little way, he came to a wood, and by the side of the wood he saw a fox sitting; so he took his bow and made ready to shoot at it. Then the fox said, ‘Do not shoot me, for I will give you good counsel; I know what your business is, and that you want to find the golden bird. You will reach a village in the evening; and when you get there, you will see two inns opposite to each other, one of which is very pleasant and beautiful to look at: go not in there, but rest for the night in the other, though it may appear to you to be very poor and mean.’ But the son thought to himself, ‘What can such a beast as this know about the matter?’ So he shot his arrow at the fox; but he missed it, and it set up its tail above its back and ran into the wood. Then he went his way, and in the evening came to the village where the two inns were; and in one of these were people singing, and dancing, and feasting; but the other looked very dirty, and poor. ‘I should be very silly,’ said he, ‘if I went to that shabby house, and left this charming place’; so he went into the smart house, and ate and drank at his ease, and forgot the bird, and his country too.

Time passed on; and as the eldest son did not come back, and no tidings were heard of him, the second son set out, and the same thing happened to him. He met the fox, who gave him the good advice: but when he came to the two inns, his eldest brother was standing at the window where the merrymaking was, and called to him to come in; and he could not withstand the temptation, but went in, and forgot the golden bird and his country in the same manner.

Time passed on again, and