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Comment
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ronnerandall
Registered User
(1/22/05 3:10 pm)
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successive editions of Grimms' tales...
I'm doing an MA dissertation on the mother/stepmother in "Snow White" and would like to compare the way she is depicted in the successive editions of the Grimms' tales. I know, e.g., that she was Snow White's mother in the first edition of 1812; by the second edition, in 1819, she had become her stepmother. Unfortunately I don't read German (and there's not enough time to learn before my dissertation is due!), so I would have to look at English translations. Does anyone know whether there are translations of the various editions between 1819 and 1857?
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Helen J Pilinovsky
Registered User
(1/22/05 4:01 pm)
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Re: successive editions of Grimms' tales...
Well, the first English translation of Kinder und Hause Maerchen was published in Britain in 1823, under the title of German Popular Stories, so it's safe to assume that there must have been updates of one sort or another as the years passed ... I'm afraid that I'm not sure of the specifics. However, you might check Maria Tatar's lovely collection of essays, The Hard Facts of the Grimms Fairy Tales: I'm fairly positive that she discusses this issue. Good luck!
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Don
Registered User
(1/22/05 9:17 pm)
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Re: successive editions of Grimms' tales...
The textual and translation history of Grimms' "Snow White" is a bit thorny. In the 3rd expanded edition of Jack Zipes's The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, there's a translation of a version Jacob Grimm included in a letter of 1808 (not 1806 as the translator's note indicates). In Alfred David and Mary Elizabeth Meek's The Frog King and Other Tales of the Brothers Grimm, there's a translation of essentially the same tale, also in Jacob Grimm's hand, that was included in the Grimms' 1810 manuscript (the Oelenberg manuscript), which was based on the manuscript that they used to prepare their first published volume of 1812. That translation, however, omits an alternate beginning that Grimm had appended to the tale. There's also a translation of the 1812 version in the David and Meek book. Another reliable translation of the 1812 "Snow White" is at D. L. Ashliman's Web site.
The English translation of 1823 by Edgar Taylor, mentioned in Helen's reply, is based on the Grimms' 2nd edition of 1819, but the translations there diverge frequently and significantly from the Grimms' originals and can't be used to interpret the tales as the Grimms published them. In other words, Taylor's translations aren't useful in tracing or drawing conclusions about Grimms' editing.
If you use Ralph Manheim's translation Grimms' Tales for Old and Young, be careful. It claims to be based on the 1819 edition of Grimms' tales, but it isn't. Like most translations, it's based on the 1857 version.
I don't know of a translation based specifically on any other version from 1819 onwards--except for 1857. If you were to find a 19th-century translation, you'd have to be concerned about how accurately it reflects the original if your intent is to make inferences about Grimms' editing.
Edited by: Don at: 1/22/05 9:25 pm
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ronnerandall
Registered User
(1/25/05 5:59 am)
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Re: successive editions of Grimms' tales...
Many, many thanks to you, Helen and Don, for your helpful replies. I have managed to track down a copy of the David Frog King and already have Ashliman's translation, as well as Mannheim's (thank you for the info on that one, Don!). Zipes and Tatar are on order. I am looking forward to exploring them all...
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