The Love Story Behind Grimm’s Fairy Tales

　　 The Fairy Tale Avenue, the Romantic Avenue and the Wine Avenue are the three most famous tourist avenues in Germany. The Fairy Tale Avenue starts from Hanau, the hometown of the Brothers Grimm in central Germany, and winds northward to Bremen, with a total length of 600 kilometers. Along the way are the cities where the Brothers Grimm once lived and where “The Grimm’s Fairy Tales” were born.
　　The authors of “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” are two Brothers Grimm, the elder brother is Jacob Grimm, and the younger brother is William Grimm. “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” have been widely circulated around the world since their publication, such as “Cinderella”, “Snow White”, “The Frog Prince”, “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Sleeping Beauty”, which are almost unknown to everyone. However, what is little known is that many of the stories in “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” come from a mysterious narration girl – Henriette Dorothea Wilder. She not only created a rich and colorful fairy tale treasure , or the wife of William Green, what kind of love fairy tale is there between them?
　　Fairy tale princess, you fall in love at first sight. On
　　 February 24, 1786, William Green was born in a lawyer family in Hanau am Main. His brother Jacob was born in January 1785. However, the Brothers Grimm did not just have two children at home, they also had three brothers and a sister.
　　 William’s father was a local official, his grandfather was a priest, and his mother was a housewife. In 1791, his father was transferred to work, and the family moved to Steinau, Saxony, where the Brothers Grimm began their studies.
　　 In 1796, William’s father died of pneumonia, and his mother worked hard to raise six children alone. His grandfather often took them home. But two years later, my grandfather also died of illness. As a result, family finances are becoming more and more difficult.
　　 The Brothers Grimm often helped their mother with any work they could, hoping to reduce some of the burden on the family. But their mother wanted them to become lawyers when they grew up, so she sent them to their aunt’s house in Kassel to attend junior high school.
　　 Six months later, my mother moved the whole family to the suburbs of Kassel. It was not easy to support the whole family, and they still lived in poverty and poverty.
　　 In these difficult days, the only person who could make the Brothers Grimm feel warm and hopeful was a girl named Henriette Dorothea Wilder, who was a friend of William’s cousin Lott Green.
　　 Henriette’s family was very wealthy, and her father was a druggist. Her father didn’t like her interacting with the Green family, but Henriette liked to hang out with the Green family because although the Green family was poor, the family atmosphere was particularly good.
　　 Whenever Henriette came to play at Green’s house, that was the happiest time for William. As soon as she opened her mouth, the wonderful stories deeply attracted William. His heart beat harder and harder, and even he couldn’t stop it. It was clear whether he was moved by the story she told or by this smart girl.
　　 In those poor and difficult days, Henriette’s fairy tales were like a ray of light, making William feel a precious warmth and strength in the dark and difficult days – the future must be bright and promising!
　　 Interestingly, Henriette would also take cousins ​​William and Lot to play in downtown Kassel. Kassel is a town famous for its magnificent royal palace, a colossal statue of Hercule, and a fairytale castle made of towers and spiers. Stepping into this clean city, William felt that he had really entered a fairy tale world. The streets were warm and beautiful, and everyone had a smile on their face.
　　 When William and Henriette were walking together in this fairy tale world, at that moment, the embarrassment of his youth seemed to go away…
　　 Unfortunately, two years later, Henriette’s mother passed away. Her father’s discipline on her became stricter, and she gradually came less and less. Later, I heard that the family moved away from Kassel. Henriette stayed in the heart of young William like a magical dream.
　　 In 1802 and 1803, the Brothers Grimm graduated from high school successively. They both entered the University of Marburg and chose law. When they were in college, the two lived in the same room and both became interested in many things. Especially influenced by Professor Friedrich Carl von Savigny, they began to study German language and literature.
　　 A new life is like opening a window. William was very talented and many girls expressed their love for him. Among them was a girl named Maria. She was tall and had bright and infatuated blue eyes. She is an art student with charming elegance and romance. Seeing that William was very shy, Maria took the initiative to express her love, and soon they fell in love!
　　 However, William, who is intoxicated in love, does not know that seemingly sweet love also hides invisible undercurrents.
　　It turns out that Maria is the daughter of a local judge. Her father forced her to marry a rich man. Maria and her father had a falling out! Because of her anger, she chose to “fall in love” with the honest William. But when William really devoted himself to her, Maria ruthlessly abandoned William and fell into the arms of someone else.
　　 The financial difficulties did not crush William, but he did not expect that he would take a big fall in love. His sincerity was trampled on, and William was in great pain!
　　 However, maybe it was fate. One evening in June 1805, a blond girl appeared in front of William. The girl was wearing a pink dress, which looked like a layer of gold in the soft light of the setting sun. She walked towards William with a slight smile. William was immediately fascinated. Isn’t this the princess in the fairy tale?
　　When William was confused, the girl ran up to her and said cheerfully: “Don’t you recognize me? I’m Henriette!” At that moment, the memories of his youth suddenly opened the floodgates, and a A sense of intimacy arises spontaneously! Unexpectedly, they met again at the University of Marburg!
　　Poor students are always hindered from meeting each other
　　 . It turns out that Henriette came to the University of Marburg to visit a relative of hers. Not seen for many years, Henriette has grown into a graceful beauty. That day, she and William chatted from afternoon until late at night. Interestingly, Henriette still loved telling stories.
　　 They sat by the river, under the crescent moon, and William was immersed in Henriette’s stories. Henriette’s voice was gentle, with a hint of sexy hoarseness, which sounded particularly comfortable. The painful feeling in William’s heart gradually became smaller, and he felt extremely at ease in his heart. William looked into Henriette’s eyes, feeling an inexplicable emotion surge in his heart.
　　 During this encounter, Henriette knew that William was lovelorn and was in pain. Before leaving, she encouraged William and said: “You should still be full of hope and bravely pursue love and true happiness in the days to come!” After saying that, she kissed William Green’s face gently and turned to leave.
　　 As a boy, when life was extremely difficult and dark, Henriette’s story gave William hope in life! Now, inspired by her love, William’s desperate heart has almost been saved! Looking at Henriette’s retreating back, William’s heart melted!
　　 After that, they met often, and every time Henriette told a story, her tone was calm, yet firm and extremely vivid. Listening and listening, William gradually discovered. In the past, he always thought that fairy tales were told to children, but at this moment he discovered that fairy tales can also have a healing effect on adults.
　　 Moreover, William found that in his consistent impression, the lives of these stories, like popular songs, could not be very long. But for the first time, William felt that fairy tales still have strong vitality even if they are told repeatedly. Isn’t this consistent with the language and literature he studied in college?
　　 Under the influence of Henriette, he developed a keen interest in fairy tales. However, as the research deepened, William soon discovered that in the huge wealth of fairy tales, much of the essence was not retained. He felt that the time had come to collect and record these fairy tales.
　　 William told Henriette his worries, and Henriette said: “Since you like fairy tales so much, then you can be the recorder.” ”
　　 Okay!” William said, “Then give me more Tell some fairy tales.”
　　 With the knowing smiles between the two of them, William decided to collect folk fairy tales and publish a fairy tale collection. However, things were not as smooth as he imagined, and many challenges had just begun.
　　 From then on, William and his brother began to collect ballads, fairy tales, folklore, etc. Every week, William would write to Henriette about the progress of collecting fairy tales.
　　 As Hongyan passed on, their feelings gradually heated up. But during the summer vacation of the next year, Henriette’s father knew that they were dating, and he forbade his daughter to associate with William again because he looked down on the poor William.
　　 William and Jacob had great financial responsibility for the family for a long time. As they approach the year of college graduation, their poverty levels reach almost extreme levels.
　　 In desperation, Henriette had to meet William secretly. She told William a new fairy tale while telling him about the pain of lovesickness.
　　 One day, they met for a walk in the park, and unexpectedly Henriette’s father followed them quietly. He pointed at William’s nose and said: “Stop your wishful thinking. You will never marry my daughter in this life.”
　　 When he got home, he locked Henriette in her room and was not allowed to go out again. It was not until William returned to school from vacation that Henriette was freed. Although she couldn’t see the person she liked, Henriette was not idle for a moment. Instead, she immediately wrote a letter to William, asking him to study hard, complete his studies on time, and find a job after graduation.
　　 In 1808, William, who graduated from college, found a job as a librarian. He thought everything would get better, but unexpectedly his brother Jacob fell ill. William had no choice but to put a lot of energy into taking care of his brother. As a newcomer to the workplace, he felt that the burden on him was getting heavier and heavier, and he even felt overwhelmed.
　　 At this time, Henriette, who had heard the news, rushed over. Her appearance gave William unlimited power. Under their careful care and after several months of treatment, Jacob’s condition finally recovered, but his health was not as good as before.
　　 William and Henriette agreed that no matter how ill their brother would be in the future, they would take care of him for the rest of his life.
　　 After Jacob was discharged from the hospital, the Brothers Grimm continued to collect and organize fairy tales together, but they soon encountered a new problem.
　　 For a long time, folk fairy tales have generally been passed down among the people through oral tradition, often originating from a long time ago and passed down through several generations. These stories that exist among people’s mouths and ears incorporate the wisdom of folk creation, and are fluid and perishable. They are like strange pearls scattered among the people, which are extremely precious.
　　 However, since the invention of Gutenberg printing in Germany in the 15th century, the oral tradition of folk fairy tales has been broken. Some folk fairy tales have been collected, recorded, printed and published, and preserved and circulated in the form of written texts.
　　 But in the opinion of the Brothers Grimm, only those fairy tales that originate from the oral narratives of the lower classes and are collected through field work can be called folk fairy tales. So, if a considerable number of stories come from written materials, wouldn’t it be inconsistent with the nature of folk fairy tales? William told Henriette about this trouble, and she thought for a moment and said: “In fact, in addition to collecting oral stories, it is not a bad idea to collect and excerpt various fairy tales from written materials.”
　　 Therefore, William followed Henriette’s suggestion and decided to collect information from various channels. Therefore, among the various written sources of Grimm’s fairy tales, there are various German folk books, medieval literary manuscripts and various dialect literatures, as well as works in ancient books and fairy tales spread abroad. They revised and polished it, merged and reorganized it.
　　 Although written materials became one of the sources for the Brothers Grimm to collect fairy tales, they still focused more on collecting oral fairy tales.
　　 In 1812, after six years of collection and arrangement, with Henriette’s silent help, the Brothers Grimm finally published the first volume of their own “Children’s and Family Fairy Tales”, also known as “The Grimm’s Fairy Tales”. In this collection, Henriette contributed 44 stories. This book contains a total of 86 German fairy tales. This book established the fascinating “Grimmian” narrative method in folk fairy tales and has influenced children around the world since the 19th century. Literature had a profound impact.
　　Among them, “Cinderella”, “Snow White”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Princess Rose”, “City Musicians of Bremen”, etc. inspired the children’s hearts with their rich imagination, beautiful longing, kind hearts and noble sentiments. The Brothers Grimm were overjoyed to see the publication of a fairy tale book for the first time, so they began to prepare the second volume.
　　The Brothers Grimm, masters of fairy tales, True Love Is Forever
　　 , soon began the collection of Volume 2. The scope of the story collection expanded to Westphalia, Marburg and other places, and the narrator was no longer a young lady from the middle and upper classes. instead of focusing on people from all walks of life.
　　 One day, Henriette met a person who really came from the lower class. Her name was Dorothea Feynman, the wife of a country tailor who lived in the village of Nigelzwien near Kassel.
　　 When Fineman was a girl, her family ran an inn. She grew up listening to the stories told by various people such as coachmen, craftsmen, and soldiers who came and went, and accumulated a lot of fairy tales.
　　 When Henriette found her, she was already a weather-beaten old woman in her 50s, but she was not only a “treasury of stories” but also a master storyteller. Henriette felt like she had discovered a treasure. In order to save time for the Brothers Grimm, she asked Feynman to tell it to her first, and then she would remember it and then relay it to William.
　　 Seeing Henriette’s thoughtfulness, William was moved and secretly determined to work hard and marry Henriette as soon as possible. Henriette believed that as long as William worked hard, his father would definitely agree one day.
　　 Henriette relayed that William had no doubts about her ability, so he believed in the authenticity of these fairy tales, so he made few changes in subsequent editions.
　　 The second volume of “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” contains nearly 30 “Hessian fairy tales” recounted by Henriette, including the familiar “Cinderella”, “The Three Feathers”, “The Smart Peasant Girl” and “The Devil’s Three Golden Hairs” “”Three Little People in the Forest” and so on.
　　 However, it is a pity that Feynman, the original narrator of fairy tales, passed away in poverty in 1815 and did not have time to see the publication of Volume 2. However, her fairy tale wealth has been preserved forever by the hands of the Brothers Grimm. . In order to thank her for her great contribution to “Fairy Tales”, the Brothers Grimm specially invited their painter brother Ludwig Grimm to paint a copperplate portrait of Feynman, which was placed at the beginning of Volume 2.
　　 In January 1815, the Brothers Grimm found a new publisher, and Volume 2 was officially released, containing a total of 70 fairy tales. With the publication of “Grimm’s Fairy Tales”, the economic situation of the Brothers Grimm finally improved. Jacob worked at the University of Göttingen, and Wilhelm was still working as a librarian, but at the same time he was employed as a university professor.
　　 Seeing that William had made great achievements, Henriette’s father finally stopped obstructing him. In 1825, William and Henriette finally got married. They married and had three children. Jacob remained unmarried and lived with William and Henriette until he was single until old age.
　　 William died of illness in 1859 at the age of 73; Jacob died in 1863 at the age of 78. Since the two never wanted to be separated, they were buried side by side in St. Matthew’s Berlin Cemetery.
　　 More than 200 years have passed, and although the Brothers Grimm have long since passed away, “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” are still alive. The language style of Grimm’s fairy tales is lively, bright and imaginative, with warm poetry permeating the lines and the best side of human nature everywhere. Its content is tortuous but not bizarre, simple but not monotonous, and exudes humor and wit from German folk.
　　 In fact, in every story, in addition to the efforts of the Brothers Grimm, Henriette’s imprint is also permeated. Perhaps it was her wisdom that made the Brothers Grimm possible.
　　 In 1896, the local government built a monument to the Brothers Grimm on the market square in the city center not far from the ancestral home of the Brothers Grimm.
　　 In 1975, in order to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Brothers Grimm, the masters of fairy tales, the German government planned a Fairy Tale Avenue that starts in Hanau, the hometown of the Brothers Grimm, in the south, passes through various places where the Brothers Grimm lived and the places where their classic works took place, and winds northward for about 600 kilometers. kilometer.
　　 On this fairy tale avenue, in addition to seeing the life footprints of the Brothers Grimm, there are also many places related to the characters, plots and scenes in fairy tales. For example, Hameln, located on the Weser River, is a legendary tourist city famous for the story of “The Piper of Hameln”.
　　 The “Brothers Grimm Street” is a winding path located in the center of the ancient city. On the left side of the starting point is the Brothers Grimm Memorial Hall and Visitor Center, and on the right is Fountain Square. Small bungalows with half-timbered structures and pointed roofs are lined up in rows. Some of the exterior walls are carefully painted with fairy tale characters, always reminding you of the beauty of this fairy tale city.
　　 As time has passed, “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” has led to the development of a series of fairy tale industry chains and tourism, which may have been unexpected by the Brothers Grimm. The end point of the fairy tale road is Bremen. The city landmark is a bronze statue of a chicken, a cat, a dog, and a donkey arranged in a stacked posture. The idea is derived from the Grimm fairy tale “Bremen”. Urban Musicians”.
　　 Although the fairy tale road has an end, “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” will never end. It is the most outstanding representative of German folk literature. Together with the Danish “Andersen’s Fairy Tales”, it constitutes the most magnificent twin jewels of the world’s fairy tale kingdom. Today, this collection of fairy tales has long transcended the realm of children and families. People around the world, including adults, are reading and loving it.