Grimms as Scholars

The Brothers Grimm & German Fairy Tales

Course 1 · Chapter 8 · The Grimms as Scholars: Dictionary, Grammar and Law

To most readers the Grimms are the authors of a book of tales. To their contemporaries and to later scholars, they were above all philologists: students of old texts and of the history of language, law and myth. The tales were one project among many, and not always the one the brothers themselves ranked highest. This chapter surveys their scholarly work, the protest that cost them their posts, and the great dictionary they began and did not live to finish. Titles, dates and attributions are from general knowledge and flagged "check".

A Wider Field of Work

Legends and myth

Alongside the tales, the brothers published Deutsche Sagen (German Legends), in two volumes in the 1816 to 1818 period, and Jacob wrote Deutsche Mythologie (1835), an attempt to reconstruct pre-Christian beliefs from later sources (check the dates and the methods).

Old texts

They edited and discussed medieval German, Norse and other texts, including songs and poems, and helped to make the study of older Germanic literature an academic field (check titles).

Law

Jacob's Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer (German Legal Antiquities, 1828) collected evidence about early legal customs from texts and traditions, a link back to their law studies (Chapter 3; check the details).

Grammar and Grimm's Law

Deutsche Grammatik. Jacob's multi-volume German Grammar began to appear in 1819 (check). Despite its name, it is a historical study of the Germanic languages, comparing older and newer forms.
Grimm's law. A regular pattern of sound change that separates the Germanic languages from other Indo-European ones: for example, an older "p" sound corresponds to "f" in Germanic, so Latin pater matches English father (check the details and the role of earlier scholars such as Rasmus Rask).
Why it mattered. It was among the first clear demonstrations that sound change follows regular patterns, which became a foundation of historical linguistics (check how scholars rank its importance).
Not the same law as the tales. The term "Grimm's law" has nothing to do with the fairy tales, which is a common confusion.

Latin or older form (check)	English	Pattern
pater	father	p becomes f
pes, pedis	foot	p becomes f
tres	three	t becomes th
cornu	horn	c (k) becomes h

The Göttingen Seven

In 1837 the new king of Hanover set aside the state's constitution (check the details). Seven professors at Göttingen, including Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, signed a protest. They were dismissed, and Jacob was ordered to leave the kingdom within days (check). The episode made the brothers known as defenders of principle, though historians differ over how political they were and how organised the protest was (check). The brothers' later position in Berlin came partly because of this reputation (Chapter 3).

The German Dictionary

A project too big for one lifetime In the late 1830s the brothers agreed with a publisher to compile a large historical dictionary of German, the Deutsches Wörterbuch, with quotations showing how words had been used over time (check). The first volume appeared in 1854. Wilhelm died in 1859 having reached the letter D, and Jacob died in 1863 having reached part of F (check). Later scholars carried the work on and it was finally completed in 1961 (check). It was later revised by German academies (check).

The aim. To record the history and range of German words from the earliest times, using quotations, in the way later historical dictionaries such as the Oxford English Dictionary would do.
The style. Entries could be long and personal, and the brothers' enthusiasm for some words is visible (check).
The legacy. It remains a reference for German word history, and it is available in digital form (check the details).

A British comparison The dictionary invites comparison with the Oxford English Dictionary, which also began as a collaborative historical project taking decades beyond its first plans (check the dates), and with Samuel Johnson's earlier dictionary. The Grimm work, like the OED, aimed to show history, not only current usage.

Check the details Titles, publication years and the extent of each brother's share in the dictionary are from general knowledge. Verify against a scholarly biography or the dictionary's own history before quoting, and check the examples of sound change with a linguistics reference.

Exercises

Exercise 1

List five scholarly works or projects of the Grimms apart from the tales, with a one-line description of each, marking dates to check.

→ Solution

Exercise 2

Explain Grimm's law in your own words, using two example word pairs, and say why it is called a "law".

→ Solution

Exercise 3

Write a short paragraph on whether the dictionary or the tales is the more important part of the Grimms' legacy, giving reasons on both sides.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

Other works: Deutsche Sagen, Deutsche Mythologie, Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer, Deutsche Grammatik (check the dates)
Grimm's law: regular Germanic sound shifts, such as p to f (Latin pater, English father)
1837: the Göttingen Seven protest and dismissal (check)
The dictionary: begun late 1830s, first volume 1854, completed 1961 (check)
The caution: Grimm's law has nothing to do with the fairy tales