It's Storytelling Week with The Brothers Grimm!

In 1811, there was no Cinderella, no Snow White, and no Red Riding Hood. In 1811, poison apples and magic mirrors did not exist. No princes had gone out to find feet that fit in glass slippers. No stepmothers had tried to murder beautiful girls, and no dwarves had rescued them. Can you imagine a world without a Cinderella? I can’t.

The Brothers Grimm published their first book of fairy tales the following year, and they were so compelling they became an intrinsic part of our lives for centuries. Even today, movie makers are constantly finding new ways to explore Grimms’ fairy tales. Their lessons and narratives appeal to children and adults alike, so you’ll find them in everything from confessionist poems to animated films. Hell, you’ll even see them in horror movies and Cosmopolitan magazine.

If you read an original Grimms’ fairy tale, you’ll notice it breaks the rules most contemporary writers are taught to keep. There are omnipotent narrators. This is bad form. There are third-person perspectives. There are few immersive details, yet the stories themselves are so strong they break through anyway. Originality has much to do with their appeal, but we love fairy tails because they have universal themes and powerful symbolism.

Readers love archetypes no matter how young we are. We adore it when dark crashes into light and light overcomes. It confirms our world view and makes us feel more hopeful about our own lives. If you just do everything with a good heart, a wealthy and beautiful prince will find you and carry you back to the palace. Such is the greatness of a fairy tale. It promises the reader that they, too, will overcome.

But the Grimms’ fairy tales are more than mere moral spectres. They don’t shy away from horror. Victims are locked in towers, kidnapped, and eaten. If they weren’t, they’d be like the saccharine Disney tales of today—the ones that never find their place in history. We consume them, and then we forget them. The Big Bad Wolf is far from saccharine, and we love him for that.

This week, we’re going to learn a few things about storytelling through the Brothers Grimm. Tomorrow we’ll be analysing a fairy tale. Only then can we start writing exercises, so please spend today’s writing time reading some fairy tales. They’re in the public domain, so you can access them for free Pay particular attention to Snow-White and Rose-Red. This is the story we’ll be looking at tomorrow.