Brothers Grimm tales

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were German scholars, not authors of fairy tales. They collected stories that were already being told, mostly from people around Kassel, and published them as Kinder- und Hausmärchen in 1812. The book was meant for scholars as much as for children.

From 1812 to 1857

They kept revising it for more than forty years. The seventh and final edition of 1857 is the one most later translations come from, and it is noticeably different from the first: the language is smoother, the moralising is heavier, and several of the harsher details of 1812 were softened or removed. Jacob died in 1863 and Wilhelm in 1859. Our guide to who the Brothers Grimm were goes through the story of the collection properly.

Hansel and Gretel is the one people arrive looking for, eight minutes for ages 6–10, with the abandonment at the start left in. Rapunzel runs six minutes and carries the widest age range here, 5–12. Rumpelstiltskin is six minutes for ages 6–10 and turns on a promise that should never have been made.

At the gentler end, The Elves and the Shoemaker is eight minutes for ages 3–7 and the only one of the seven marked gentle; it is the right first Grimm for a small child. The Musicians of Bremen is eight minutes of four old animals refusing to be discarded, and it is funnier than its reputation. The Goose Girl at seven minutes and Little Blue Riding Hood at seven complete the set.

Every version here is a retelling written for reading aloud, not a translation of the Grimms' German. The plots, the characters and the turning points are theirs. The sentence length, the vocabulary and the pacing are ours, pitched at the age range given on each story.

How much of the darkness is left

Enough to matter. Hansel and Gretel are still sent into the forest. Rumpelstiltskin still demands the child. What has generally gone is the punishment at the end, which in the 1857 text can be extraordinarily violent, and the lingering on cruelty for its own sake. If you have read the originals and are wondering whether a detail survives, assume the plot does and the gore does not.

If you want to adjust further as you read, adapting a fairy tale for your child sets out which parts can be moved without breaking the story.

Start with The Elves and the Shoemaker, which has no threat in it at all, then The Musicians of Bremen, where the frightening thing turns out to be four animals in a stack. Only then try Little Blue Riding Hood. Leave Hansel and Gretel and Rumpelstiltskin until your child is comfortably six.

A frightened child at bedtime is not a failure of the story, but it is worth understanding what is going on: fairy tales and fear covers why children seek out the scary parts and when to stop. For the neighbouring traditions, Hans Christian Andersen tales is the Danish counterpart and folk tales from around the world holds the rest.