Oh dear, me and grammar...it has always been my Achilles-heel. This is extra funny since Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were amongst the founders of what is now called Germanistik, meaning the linguistics and philology of the german language.
Weirdly, it was evidently for some years Wilhelm who concentrated more on the tales (Märchen) and also generally started exploring the history of fairy tales while Jacob was working on a german grammar and ethymology. The general opinion of how the brothers worked together implies, that the elder Jacob started out enthusiastically on new territory with Wilhelm following it up by working on meticulously as was the case with the Tales; while his energetic brother had already detected a new field to explore. How exactly that modus can be confirmed, I don´t know but even in obituaries as early as 1871 on Jacob Grimm, he is described as the enthusiastic pioneer who however needed the corrective and moderation of his brother Wilhelm. A matter of evaluation of their different qualities, perhaps?
However, the more one reads into it, as is the case with many a thing, the more ambiguous it gets; for instance as to the question of ownership versus mere collectors, which has been widely discussed amongst Grimm scholars. The answer seems to be a bit of both; they did collect existing tales mainly from a learned lady (Viehmann) of french (huguenotte) origin, who was a tailor by profession and not at all the old farmer´s wife the brothers famously described her as. There were other contributors such as the renowned poet v. Hülse-Drosthoff or the v. Haxthausens.
Also the idea of the brothers being mere collectors of ancient material may have been in parts a pose taken up to please the then fashionable romantic movement and the reading public which was mainly an emerging bourgeoisie. Therefore, the fact that the brothers Grimm kept changing and adding the texts with each new edition was probably due to both criticism from worried parents, the church (all sexually ambiguous texts were largely omitted or changed beyond recognition) as well as scholars of the new language subjects the Grimm brothers were busy creating. In later editions their collection of Tales is called "educational".
I guess, that ethymology is one of the fields where one can most easily fall into traps such as using mere association by resemblance of sound to think there must be an actual connection, where in fact there is none. I was doing just that with "Mar/Märe" and even landed over in horsecountry: what with "Mähre" meaning "old horse" and mainly a female...which brings us back to "hag/megaera", perhaps? It didn´t seem too far-fetched with "nightmare" and (fairy) tale since many of the brother Grimm´s (sic) are rather scary in core content, though they were being made more harmless and child-friendly even by the brothers Grimm themselves (today of course there exists a completely censored version as if kids could handle nothing but pure saccharine). Anyone familiar with the cruelty of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struwwelpeter doesn´t need to read J.K. Rowling;)
Har, "eine alte Mähr" could actually be both: old saga and mare which makes vague sense if one considers how horses were long the main means of transport...but I drift, as usual (love it;)
Sorry about the privacy settings, I was stalked, so had to. Thanks ever so much (and now I´ll go shut up in a quiet corner).
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Weirdly, it was evidently for some years Wilhelm who concentrated more on the tales (Märchen) and also generally started exploring the history of fairy tales while Jacob was working on a german grammar and ethymology. The general opinion of how the brothers worked together implies, that the elder Jacob started out enthusiastically on new territory with Wilhelm following it up by working on meticulously as was the case with the Tales; while his energetic brother had already detected a new field to explore. How exactly that modus can be confirmed, I don´t know but even in obituaries as early as 1871 on Jacob Grimm, he is described as the enthusiastic pioneer who however needed the corrective and moderation of his brother Wilhelm. A matter of evaluation of their different qualities, perhaps?
However, the more one reads into it, as is the case with many a thing, the more ambiguous it gets; for instance as to the question of ownership versus mere collectors, which has been widely discussed amongst Grimm scholars. The answer seems to be a bit of both; they did collect existing tales mainly from a learned lady (Viehmann) of french (huguenotte) origin, who was a tailor by profession and not at all the old farmer´s wife the brothers famously described her as. There were other contributors such as the renowned poet v. Hülse-Drosthoff or the v. Haxthausens.
Also the idea of the brothers being mere collectors of ancient material may have been in parts a pose taken up to please the then fashionable romantic movement and the reading public which was mainly an emerging bourgeoisie. Therefore, the fact that the brothers Grimm kept changing and adding the texts with each new edition was probably due to both criticism from worried parents, the church (all sexually ambiguous texts were largely omitted or changed beyond recognition) as well as scholars of the new language subjects the Grimm brothers were busy creating. In later editions their collection of Tales is called "educational".
I guess, that ethymology is one of the fields where one can most easily fall into traps such as using mere association by resemblance of sound to think there must be an actual connection, where in fact there is none. I was doing just that with "Mar/Märe" and even landed over in horsecountry: what with "Mähre" meaning "old horse" and mainly a female...which brings us back to "hag/megaera", perhaps? It didn´t seem too far-fetched with "nightmare" and (fairy) tale since many of the brother Grimm´s (sic) are rather scary in core content, though they were being made more harmless and child-friendly even by the brothers Grimm themselves (today of course there exists a completely censored version as if kids could handle nothing but pure saccharine).
Anyone familiar with the cruelty of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struwwelpeter doesn´t need to read J.K. Rowling;)
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I've tried to reply to your message, btw, but your privacy settings won't allow it! The short version is, it's all fine.
On Getting Carried Away
Sorry about the privacy settings, I was stalked, so had to.
Thanks ever so much (and now I´ll go shut up in a quiet corner).