What would become the first of many volumes, it was critisied heavily by the public as the title word "Children" was one that did not captivate the many stories that made up the collaboration. They were not regarded as childrens stories due to the nature of the scholarly information included in each story but as well for the subject matter. One of the most heavily critised piece of writing by The Brothers Grimm is The Juniper Tree.
The darkness of the Grimms tales is shocking when you consider they are fairy tales and we associate such a genre with children more-so than adults. Tatar describes the writings of the Grimms as at times dark and disturbing., Those who know such understand that some of the original writing had Snow Whites stepmother arrange the murder of her stepdaughter, that doves peck out the eyes of Cinderellas step sisters, that Brair Roses suitors bleed to death on the hedge surrounding her castle or that a mad rage drives Rumpelstiltskin to tear herself in two. By far the most shocking is written in the Juniper Tree, (one of the most widely admired of all tales) whereby a woman decapitates her stepson, choppes up his corpse and feeds it to her husband as a stew.
Almost all of the villains in the Brothers Grimm's stories are female. It is believed that due to the impact the death of their father had on them that is one reasoning behind why the male characters, even those who were cast as villains were almost excused for their actions in the stories almost always going unpunished.
In order to combat this negative critique the Brothers Grimm inserted a warning on the inside of each of the editions published that acted as a guide to parents about the so called "dark messages" the stories were perceived as carrying. But of course it only more evident now than during the 17th and 18th Centuries that it was the times of medieval that contributed to these such elements. Since then the stories have been "cleaned up" and are more appealing to the modern generations but the drawback is they are not as close to the originals are thought.
A tale that was of warning to children.
During the period of 1812 and 1864 Kinder - Und Hausmarchen ("Children and Household Tales") was published a total of 17 times, it was broken into two separate styles of editions. The Large Edition was created as the primary text and during the period of the 17th and 18th century was the most unpopular format of the collections by the brothers. During this time it was only the wealthy that had access to text and print and although the Brothers Grimm were from a poverty stricken family their works were popular in the eyes of the publishers who used the word of moth that society had become increasingly intrigued with the works and published them for a pittance price, the logic behind this was to become profitable. These larger editions also contained scholarly notes and annotations by the brothers themselves. The Smaller Edition was the alternative publication. Due to the heavy criticism about the dark messages in the stories this edition by the brothers was without such tales and was primarily aimed at children only. The smaller editions only contained 50 tales and some of those had begun to be edited to be more reader friendly to children of the times.
Frontispiece and title page - Illustrated by Ludwig Emil Grimm
of the 1819 edition of the stories.
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