The Six and Twenty Club held its Oct. 18 meeting at Snow Hill County Club on a beautiful fall day. Lorie MacDonald was the hostess and program leader for the meeting. The book MacDonald is passing this year is “The Complete Brothers Grimm.”
The brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm, were German academics who collected and published folklore. They are among the best known storytellers of folktales, popularizing stories such as “Cinderella,” “Hansel and Gretel,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Rapunzel,” “Sleeping Beauty,” and “Snow White.” Their first collection of folktales was published in 1812. Their father died when the boys were 11- and 10-years-old, which caused their mother to depend on her father and sister for financial support. Their aunt arranged for and paid for their education, and both Jacob and Wilhelm graduated at the top of their respective classes.
Over the next seven years, the brothers continued to research, write, and publish folktales. They collected and published their tales as a reflection of German cultural identity. They began the collection with the purpose of preserving the stories as they had been handed down from generation to generation. The Grimms’ legacy contains legends, novellas, and folk stories, the vast majority of which were not intended as children’s tales. Many people were concerned about the content of some of the tales which were gruesome and gory. Many also suggested adding a subtitle to warn parents of the content. Instead, the brothers believed that all the tales were of value and reflected inherent cultural qualities.
MacDonald discussed the Grimm brothers’ version of the tales of “Snow White,” “Cinderella,” “Sleeping Beauty,” and “Rapunzel,” and compared them to the Disney versions of each. She noted the differences in not only the story lines but also the differences in the art work. Many of the Grimm fairy tales had been illustrated by artist Arthur Rackham. His first published drawings appeared in 1884. MacDonald passed around books featuring his art work and illustrations of the Grimm fairy tales and contrasted them with the Disney art work for the same fairy tales.
MacDonald mentioned how many of the fairy tales and folk stories had a scary element to them. With Halloween just around the corner, MacDonald asked event manager of Snow Hill, Hunter Toller, to tell a few tales about ghost stories that had been passed down about Snow Hill. Following her stories, Toller led the ladies to the top floor of Snow Hill to view the rooms and continue her story telling. The ladies then adjourned to the tea table to enjoy carrot cake cupcakes, a Halloween goody bag, iced tea and coffee.
