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Hello, Cinderella does not have a fairy godmother sleeping beauty does not have an evil stepmother

Rapunzel is pregnant and frog princes do not get kissed but thrown against walls and that's only the tip of the horror

This is the world of her brothers Grimm two German siblings who in 1812 published a collection of fairies tales or rather

Wonder tales including Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Prompel Stitskin and Rapunzel

They may not be the fairies tells us we know them now, but without the brothers Grimm

We might not know them at all with all their horror, wonder and fantasy

But why did two respectable German linguists go chasing after such stories?

What do the stories tell us about German culture and nationalism at the time in birth of which they had a big say?

We need to discuss about this grim art only feeling professor in German and keyboard college Oxford

Marina Warner professor in the department of literature film and theatre studies at the University of Essex and Julie Wood associate lecturer in folklore at Cardiff University

Julie Wood, can you tell us first about the brothers Grimm? Yes

Beginning of Germany, or the beginning of the rise of a sense of Germany

And they were very interested in their past and they were very interested in finding an authentic German. I'd rather start at the beginning like born

Oh

They were born they were born at the end of the 18th century and lived into the 19th century is is is about the best context for them

No, I don't mean to be rude, but it's interesting that people know where they were brought up and you know the social context and all that sort of stuff

They were born in Germany

I mean about 1785 and they lived into the 19th century and they grew up in Germany

Only it wasn't Germany then they grew up in southern Germany. They came from a middle-class family

They lived a fairly stable childhood and then their father died at which case things being quite difficult for them

...