degrimm1-1, Exercise 1: What you already believe

Model answer (one possible set of beliefs; check each):

1. "The Grimms wrote the stories." Claimed. They collected and edited them, and the sources were other people (check the details in Chapter 4).
2. "The stories came from German peasants." Claimed. Many informants were educated, middle-class acquaintances, and some had French-speaking backgrounds (check, see Chapter 4).
3. "The original stories were much darker." Partly documented. Some changes between editions made tales milder in one respect and harsher in another (check, see Chapter 5).
4. "The brothers were from Germany." Documented in a loose sense: both were born in Hanau, in Hesse, before Germany existed as one state (check).
5. "They only wrote fairy tales." Unknown to many readers, but documented as wrong: they also worked on language, law and a dictionary (check, see Chapter 8).

The point is not to be right but to see which beliefs rest on evidence and which only on repetition.