On the necessity to translate the 1812/1815 first edition of Children’s and Household Tales by Brothers Grimm
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/RP.2016.004Keywords
Grimm’s Fairy Tales, translation of fairy talesAbstract
„Children’s and Household Tales” by Brothers Grimm belong to the canon of world literature. Polish readers are familiar with the tales through the medium of translation but all existing Polish versions of the tales are based on the final version of the stories published in 1857. This was the 7th edition of the tales issued 45 years after their first publication in the years 1812/1815. It is interesting to know that both the first and the final edition of Brothers Grimm’s “Children’s and Household Tales” were aimed to reach different readers and vary from each other in different aspects concerning the style and content. Starting with the second edition (1819) the tales were rewritten, corrected and censored throughout the years. Wilhelm Grimm recreated the texts – originally intended for adult readers – into pure children’s literature by adding Christian values and censoring erotic allusions. On the other hand, Wilhelm Grimm’s editorial work was the main reason of the worldwide success of these German folk tales. Polish readers are not aware that they know only one, final and censored version of Grimm’s Tales. It is also not common knowledge that there are 37 tales withdrawn from the first edition which are completely unknown to Polish readers. The article presents arguments for the necessity to translate the 1812/1815 first edition of “Children’s and Household Tales”; additionally, an open question is posed how to translate the first edition into Polish: more literally for scholars or more dynamically for the wide readership.
References
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