Six Tales
The Brothers Grimm & German Fairy Tales
Course 1 · Chapter 6 · Reading Six Tales
After five chapters about the collection, it is time to read some of it. This chapter looks at six well-known tales, summarised in outline and in the course's own words, and asks the same questions of each: where does the tale come from, what pattern does it follow, what do the numbers and objects do, and what changed between editions. The tales are public domain, but the chapter paraphrases and does not quote at length. Read a full translation alongside it and note which translator and edition you use. Details are from general knowledge and flagged "check".
The Six Tales
| Tale (KHM number; check) | Outline | Points to notice |
|---|---|---|
| "Hansel and Gretel" (KHM 15) | Two children are abandoned in a forest by their parents in a famine. They find a house of sweets owned by a witch, and the girl defeats her. | Hunger as the engine of the plot; the trail of pebbles then crumbs; the shift from mother to stepmother in later editions (Chapter 5). |
| "Cinderella" / "Aschenputtel" (KHM 21) | A mistreated girl is helped by a tree on her mother's grave and by birds, goes to a festival three times and is identified by a shoe. | No fairy godmother; three festival visits; the cruel punishment of the stepsisters; parallels in many cultures. |
| "Snow White" (KHM 53) | A jealous queen tries repeatedly to kill her stepdaughter, who is sheltered by seven dwarfs and falls under a poisoned spell. | Three murder attempts; the magic mirror; the number seven; changes between editions in who the persecutor is (check). |
| "Little Red Riding Hood" / "Little Red Cap" (KHM 26) | A girl meets a wolf on the way to her grandmother, who is eaten, and a hunter rescues them. | A warning against leaving the path; the rescue ending that differs from Perrault's tragic version (Chapter 2); the added second episode (check). |
| "Rumpelstiltskin" (KHM 55) | A girl must spin straw into gold, and a strange helper demands her child unless she can guess his name. | Names and power; the bargain; three days of guessing; the abrupt ending of the helper (check). |
| "The Frog King" (KHM 1) | A princess promises a frog friendship in return for retrieving her golden ball, and he becomes a prince. | A broken-promise theme; the first tale in the collection; the change from a thrown frog to a kissed frog in popular versions (check). |
Patterns Across the Tales
Threes and sevens
Many tales repeat an action three times (three attempts, three nights, three tasks) and use numbers like seven for groups. Repetition makes the tales easy to tell and remember (check the examples in each).
Forest and threshold
Forests, paths, doors and thresholds mark moves between safety and danger. Several of the six tales turn on leaving a path or entering a house.
Helpers and tests
Characters pass tests, receive help from animals, trees or strange figures, and face a villain who is punished. The shape resembles the morphology described by scholars of tale structure (check, for example Vladimir Propp).
- Family trouble. Four of the six begin with trouble inside a family: a failing household, a stepmother, a jealous queen or an unwise bargain.
- Reward and punishment. Hard work, patience and kindness are rewarded, and cruelty and greed are punished, often severely.
- Plain style. Characters are often described by one trait, with little psychology, and the settings are generic.
Tale-Type Numbers
Folklorists classify tales by type, using the Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) index, which gives a number to each plot pattern (check the name and how it developed). Cinderella is usually placed in type ATU 510A, for instance (check), and "Little Red Riding Hood" belongs to a different type altogether. The system lets scholars compare tales across languages, but its numbers should be treated as a tool, since it simplifies and some tales mix several types.
Exercises
Choose two of the six tales and compare them: the opening trouble, the helper, the test and the ending.
Pick a recurring number or object across at least three of the tales and explain what job it does in the story, without claiming a hidden symbolic meaning.
Take one tale you know from film or a picture book and list five things you would check by reading it in a named Grimm translation.
Quick Reference
- The six: Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Rumpelstiltskin, The Frog King (check the KHM numbers)
- Patterns: threes and sevens, thresholds, helpers and tests, reward and punishment
- Classification: the Aarne-Thompson-Uther index of tale types (check)
- The method: name the edition and translator before saying what a tale "says"
- The caution: popular versions differ from the Grimm texts