German fairy tales

"Phantastes" Written by George Macdonald - A Fairy Tale From Scotland (1871)

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, by Frances Jenkins Olcott (Editor).

Stock image 1443-1067: Hansel & Gretel Otto Kubel (1868-1951 German) Colored lithograph Westfalisches Schulmuseum, Dortmund, Germany

One of the most famous fables of all, variations of Snow White appear in more than 400 versions of fairy tales around the world. The most well-known version is actually called “Snowdrop” and comes from Grimms’ Children’s and Household Tales.

The world of German folklore and fairy tales is vast with plenty to explore. Read these lesser-known tales from a variety of authors.

Snow White Old Fairytale book illustration

From a book of German fairy tales called Märchenbuch c1919.

"Rapunzel" by Tasha Tudor. Illustration to be found in the "Tasha Tudor Book of Fairy Tales" (Platt and Munk, 1969).

Vikings in popular culture are often viewed as the brutes of the Dark Ages, robbing, raping and pillaging people and goods. However, an analysis of their personal lives shows a much different side. Family life was important to Norse men, and every proper, upstanding Viking aimed to marry and have…

"Cinderella" or "The Little Glass Slipper" (Italian: Cenerentola, French: Cendrillon or La Petite Pantoufle de verre, German: Aschenputtel), is an European folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression. Although the story's title and main character's name change in different languages, in English-language folklore "Cinderella" is the archetypal name. The word "Cinderella" has, by analogy, come to mean one whose attributes were unrecognized, or one who unexpectedly achieves…