Oliver Loo

The 1810 Grimm Manuscripts Oliver Loo

Before the Brothers Grimm published their now world famous "Childrens and Household Tales" in 1812, they had sent their manuscript containing approximately 51 tales to their friend Clemens Brentano, who also wanted to publish children's tales. The brothers asked him to return their manuscript when he was finished with it, but he never did. While they went on to publish their tales, their own copies of the original manuscripts for the first volume of the tales do not exist anymore. By accident or fortunate circumstance, the manuscript they sent to Brentano survived and can be read today. "The 1810 Grimm Manuscripts" is the first English language translation of the Grimms "Kinder und Hausmärchen" as they were in the Fall of 1810. It is the first written documentation of the tales as the brothers heard and saw them. It shows the very first written documentation of the Grimms versions of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, The Frog King and many other tales. The book contains several never before (in English) published texts written down by the Grimms as well as several translations of related texts: a new translation of a text from 1790 - "The Märchen of Franfreluschens Head," "The Moon and His Mother," "The Old Witch" and other unknown tales. The 1810 texts are presented along with the version published in 1812, including all relevant material from the appendix for easy comparison. An extensive section of Notes and Comments is also included at the end of each of the texts explaining the old and unusual words, writing styles, other similar tales from around the world and much other interesting information related to the tales.