Tales from Grimm by Wanda Gag

Tales from Grimm. Freely translated and illustrated by Wanda Gag. 1936. ISBN 0-8166-4936-7. Fairy tales and Folklore from the Brother's Grimm. Ages 5 and up.

Wanda Gag was a Minnesota author who received the Newbery honor for her books Millions of Cats and The ABC Bunny. She translated the original takes from the Brother's Grimm literally at first, but found that they tales then lacked a certain luster that she felt they held when told in German. She then decided to freely translate to try to recapture the luster and wonderment of each tale.

The tales in this collection are Hansel and Gretel, Cat and Mouse Keep House, Six Servants, Spindle Shuttle and Needle, Doctor Know-It-All, The Musicians of Bremen, Cinderella, Clever Elsie, Rapunzel, The Fisherman and His Wife, The Three Brothers, The Frog Prince, Lazy Heinz, Lean Liesl and Lanky Lenz, Snow White and Rose Red, and lastly The Dragon and his Grandmother.

These tales may seem unfamiliar or very familiar, but they all are as close to the original Grimm tales as possible. As I was unfamiliar with some and familiar with others, I decided to read a few of each.

The Fisherman and his Wife tells the tale of a greedy wife and her fisherman husband who catches a fish who is a magical Prince. The fisherman agrees to let the fish go and because of this the wife thinks it is justified to ask for something in return. At first she asks for just a modest home for them to live in, instead of the old vinegar jug that they live in currently. The fish grants this wish and the husbands wife is satisfied for a short time. She eventually becomes greedy wanting more and more and every time the fish grants her wishes. Each time a wish is granted the weather and the sea become more stormy and black. Eventually the Wife wishes for her to be God like- as to which the fish grants this and she is back in the tiny vinegar jug that she had to begin with. This tale is obviously about greed and how it can change a person. I couldn't help but think of the Disney movie Aladin and how it paralleled this tale.

I also read Cinderella as well as Rapunzel, as I was familiar with these tales as well. They were close to what I recall them being like, telling the classic tale of a poor maiden who eventually gets a Prince to fall in love with her and marry her, having her escape from her evil guardians.

Snow White and Red Rose had a much different take upon it than the Disney movie portrays. The two children are happy and live with their mother. They take in a friendly bear who is really a bewitched Prince. The gnomes are the evil characters in the tale, as they lie and steal and curse at the young sisters. Eventually the friendly bear breaks the spell he is under and the gnomes are scared away.

The tale that intrigued me the most would have to be Lazy Heinz. In this tale a lazy many marries and equally lazy woman. All they want to do is just be lazy and lay in bed all day and all night. They sell their goats to their neighbor for his honeybee hive, so that they don't have to take the goats for walks everyday. When the honeybees produce honey they lay around in bed all day and eat the sweet honey. When they accidentally break the honey pot, they are not concerned and continue to lay in bed being content and lazy. And that is the story. This goes against so much of everything that I have learned growing up about always being productive and learning as much as I can. In American culture, laziness is generally viewed as a negative behavior. This is why I was so confused by this story. However, when it was written I believe that laziness would be more similar to being "worry free" today, which could be viewed as a good thing.

All of the stories are fairy tale oriented and tend to have a magical aspect to them. However, these tales, all have some sort of moral lesson to be learned, as well as an element of fantasy to make them entertaining to all ages.

These tales could be used in the classroom to introduce all sorts of topics, such as morals being the obvious one. Disney has done an okay job reinterpreting these tales to make them more kid friendly and less scary, but the main story still resides somewhat. Overall, if anything these tales are a great way to connect to the past childhoods of parents and grandparents alike. A special night reading a tale with a Grandparent would be a wonderful assignment. The child could ask their grandparent to tell them a different tale that they may have been told as a young person. It could turn into a very cool bonding experience as well as a passing down of generational memories.