degrimm1-4, Exercise 3: Why the informant matters

Model answer (one possible argument):

A "folk" tale is supposed to come from popular oral tradition. If an informant was educated and had read printed collections, a tale she told might come from a book rather than from a long line of oral tellers, so it cannot simply be treated as evidence of old village tradition.

Example: a tale told by a member of an educated Kassel family with French-speaking roots could be close to a French literary version such as Perrault's (Chapter 2), in which case the "German folk" label would be doubtful (check the specific tale).

The point is not that such tales are worthless, but that each one needs its own origin question, and that the label "folk" describes the brothers' claim more than the guaranteed source.