Today in the library, we marked the birthday of famed folklorist and fairy-tale collector, Wilhelm Grimm (of the Brothers Grimm fame). We learned about the life of the Grimm brothers, Jakob and Wilhelm, who were by training, linguists. The Grimm brothers embarked on a huge folkloric endeavor, collecting hundreds of folk and fairy tales by interviewing people in their homes during the beginning of the 19th century. Later the tales were published and many are still widely read today including version of Snow White, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel and Rumplestiltskin. We also discussed how oral tales are distinct from written ones in that each storyteller makes the story his own. This yields different variants of the same tale. We looked at over 10 different versions of Cinderella right here in the library and we read together the Egyptian Cinderella and the Irish Cinderella tales, comparing and contrasting them with what we know to be our Americanized (Disney?) version.
We concluded with book browsing and checkout. Happy Reading.