A volume, in which, the holy trinity of fairy tales - the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, and Hans Christian Andersen - becomes a quartet.
A rare discovery in the world of fairy tales - now for the first time in English.
With this volume, the holy trinity of fairy tales - the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, and Hans Christian Andersen - becomes a quartet. In the 1850s, Franz Xaver von Schönwerth traversed the forests, lowlands, and mountains of northern Bavaria to record fairy tales, gaining the admiration of even the Brothers Grimm. Most of Schönwerth's work was lost - until a few years ago, when thirty boxes of manuscripts were uncovered in a German municipal archive.
Now, for the first time, Schönwerth's lost fairy tales are available in English. Violent, dark, and full of action, and upending the relationship between damsels in distress and their dragon-slaying heroes, these more than seventy stories bring us closer than ever to the unadorned oral tradition in which fairy tales are rooted, revolutionizing our understanding of a hallowed genre.
'Schönwerth's tales have a compositional fierceness and energy rarely seen in stories gathered by the Brothers Grimm or Charles Perrault' -The New Yorker
'Schönwerth's legacy counts as the most significant collection in the German-speaking world in the nineteenth century' - Daniel Drascek, University of Regensburg
Franz Xanver von Schönwerth (1810-1886) was born in Bavaria and had a successful career in law
and the Bavarian royal court before devoting himself to researching the customs of his homeland and preserving its fairy tales and folklore.
Maria Tatar chairs the program in folklore and mythology at Harvard, and has edited and translated many collections of fairy tales.
Eeika Eichenseer is a historian and preservationist working for the Bavarian government and the director of the
Franz Xaver von Schönwerth Society.
One of NPR’s Best Books of the Year
Winner of the Anne Izard Storytellers’ Choice Award“The tales are fascinating— . . . they have all their original, fiercely oddball appeal.” —
NPR, “Best Books of the Year”“Bawdier, racier and significantly more scatological than the collection the Grimms published.” —
Laura Miller, Salon“This stunning fairy-tale find is grimmer than Grimm. . . . Here is real treasure. Just watch out for the witch.” —
The Washington Post“Schönwerth’s tales have a compositional fierceness and energy rarely seen in stories gathered by the Brothers Grimm or Charles Perrault.” —
The New Yorker“In the hands of renowned folklorist and scholar Maria Tatar, these seventy-two stories come to life with a snappy matter-of-factness, racing with palpable energy through fantasy landscapes that always feel close to home.” —
NPR.org“Lively and lucid.” —
Marina Warner, The New York Review of Books“[A] parade of giants, gnomes, kings, and witches . . . Anyone familiar with Disney or the Grimms will be surprised by these brief, enigmatic tales. . . . They teach us to read for the simple thrill of the tales themselves, their humor and their zest. . . . In their simple charm and wild imagination they remind us of the foundation of literature itself: the impulse to entertain.” —
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette“[This] new collection of German folk stories . . . challenges preconceptions about many of the most commonly known fairytales. . . . Many of the stories centre around surprisingly emancipated female characters.” —
The Guardian “Schönwerth’s legacy counts as the most significant collection in the German-speaking world in the nineteenth century.” —
Daniel Drascek, University of Regensburg“These eminently enjoyable tales offer a rich new take on the material of the Grimms and Andersen. . . . The tales are vigorous, direct, and less artful then those of the Grimms, suggesting greater authenticity, closer to the source.” —Library Journal
