Today's Birthday
Jakob Grimm
1785–1863, German folkorist.
German philologist and folklorist, a founder of comparative philology. His interest in the relationship among Germanic languages led to his formulation of Grimm's law. His German grammar (1819–37) and his German Mythology (1835, tr. 1880–88) were works of first importance. He is best known, however, for his work on German folk tales, known as Grimm's Fairy Tales (1812–15), which he collected with his brother, Wilhelm Grimm, 1786–1859, and which did much to encourage the romantic revival of folklore. The brothers Grimm also planned and inaugurated the great German dictionary (16 vol., 1854–1954).
Bibliography:
See Lore Segal and Maurice Sendak, eds. The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm (1973); Jack Zipes, The Brothers Grimm (1989).
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