QQOTD: The Brothers Grimm (Jacob Ludwig Karl & Wilhelm Carl)
“A
certain king had a beautiful garden, and in the garden stood a tree which bore
golden apples. These apples were always counted, and about the time when they
began to grow ripe it was found that every night one of them was gone. The king
became very angry at this and ordered the gardener to keep watch all night
under the tree. The gardener set his eldest son to watch; but about twelve o’clock
he fell asleep, and in the morning another of the apples was missing. Then the
second son was ordered to watch; and at midnight he too fell asleep, and in the
morning another apple was gone. Then the third son offered to keep watch; but
the gardener at first would not let him, for fear some harm should come to him:
however, at last he consented, and the young man laid himself under the tree to
watch. As the clock struck twelve he heard a rustling noise in the air, and a
bird came flying that was of pure gold; and as it was snapping at one of the
apples with its beak, the gardener's son jumped up and shot an arrow at it. But
the arrow did the bird no harm; only it dropped a golden feather from its tail,
and then flew away. The golden feather was brought to the king in the morning,
and all the council was called together. Everyone agreed that it was worth more
than all the wealth of the kingdom: but the king said, ‘One feather is of no
use to me, I must have the whole bird.’”
~ The Brothers Grimm, Jacob
Ludwig Karl and Wilhelm Carl, were German academics, philologists,
cultural researchers, lexicographers and authors who together collected
and published folklore during the 19th century. They were among the
first and best-known collectors of German and European folk tales, and
popularized traditional oral tale types such as “Cinderella”
(“Aschenputtel”) “The Frog Prince” (“Der Froschkönig”), “The
Goose-Girl” (“Die Gänsemagd”), “Hansel
and Gretel” (“Hänsel und Gretel”), “Rapunzel,”
“Rumpelstiltskin” (“Rumpelstilzchen”), “Sleeping
Beauty” (“Dornröschen”), and “Snow White”
(“Schneewittchen”). Their classic collection, Children’s and Household Tales (Kinder- und
Hausmärchen), was published in two volumes – the first in 1812 and the second
in 1815.