You must have heard of "Hansel and Gretel," "Rapunzel," and "Cinderella." Although they are popular children's stories now, they were originally written for adults by two German brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.

The Grimm brothers were interested in fairy tales and folktales. They collected hundreds of the tales by talking to peasants and villagers. They published their first collection of 86 German fairy tales in a volume entitled Children's and Household Tales in 1812. In 1815 their second volume of 70 fairy tales was published. Between 1816 and 1818, they published two volumes of German folktales entitled German Sagas, which contain 585 German folktales.

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm had more than just a personal interest in folk tales—they were university professors who studied folk stories seriously. A folktale, or a folk story, is a story, fairy tale, or legend that is circulated by word of mouth among the common people of a region. Folktales are usually very old stories that teach a lesson. For example, "Hansel and Gretel" teaches us not to be greedy. "Cinderella" teaches us that kindness is rewarded and cruelty is punished.

The Grimm brothers were probably the first to publish a large collection of folktales and the first to write so many of them down. Even after they were written down, the stories continued to change slightly as time passed. Some people thought the original tales were too frightening or violent for children, so later editions of the collection were edited to be more pleasant. The versions that we see today in books and movies are slightly different from the dark, original tales.

Thanks to the Brothers Grimm, these tales (in many versions) are used to entertain and to teach around the world.

你一定聽過《韓賽爾和葛麗特》、《長髮公主》和《灰姑娘》。雖然這些故事現在廣受兒童歡迎，但一開始它們卻是格林兩兄弟雅各．格林和威廉．格林，為大人所創作的故事。

格林兄弟對童話和民間故事非常感興趣，他們藉由和農夫、村民聊天，收集了數百則故事。1812年，他們將自己首次收集成冊的86篇德國童話故事，以「獻給孩子和家庭的童話故事」為名出版；1815年，他們的第二本內含70篇的童話故事也出版了。1816年到1818年間，他們出版了兩本名為《德國傳說》的書籍，裡面共收集了585篇德國民間故事。

雅各．格林和威廉．格林對民間故事的態度並非僅止於個人興趣而已，他們也是認真研究此主題的大學教授。所謂的「民間傳說」或「民間故事」是一種在某地區平民百姓間，藉由口耳相傳而流傳下來的故事、童話或傳說。民間故事通常是非常久遠的故事，而且帶有教化的寓意。舉例來說，「韓賽爾和葛麗特」教導我們不可太貪心；「長髮公主」告訴我們，如果一開始沒有成功，就再試一次；而「灰姑娘」則是使我們體認到：仁慈是會有回報的，而殘忍是會被懲罰的。

格林兄弟或許是第一個出版那麼多民間故事，也是第一個寫出如此多故事的人。即便這些故事已被書寫下來，但隨著時間過去，卻還是不斷被小幅改編。有些人認為原始的故事情節對兒童而言，過於嚇人或暴力，因此之後的版本被改編得較為平易近人。今日我們在書上或電影中所見的故事版本，已不再是原本的黑色童話。

多虧了格林兄弟，這些（不同版本的）故事才得以被用來在全世界娛樂和教導大眾。