Editing Brothers Grimm (section)

=== Writing ===
From 1807 onward, the brothers added to the collection. Jacob established the framework, maintained through many iterations; from 1815 until his death, Wilhelm assumed sole responsibility for editing and rewriting the tales. He made the tales stylistically similar, added dialogue, removed pieces "that might detract from a rustic tone", improved the plots, and incorporated psychological motifs.<ref name="Z(1988)11ff" /> Ronald Murphy writes in ''The Owl, the Raven, and the Dove'' that the brothers, particularly Wilhelm, also added religious and spiritual motifs to the tales. He believes that Wilhelm "gleaned" bits from [[Germanic paganism|old Germanic faiths]], Norse mythology, Roman and [[Greek mythology]], and biblical stories that he reshaped.<ref name="Murphy3ff" />

Over the years, Wilhelm worked extensively on the prose; he expanded and added detail to the stories to the point that many of them grew to twice the length they had in the earliest published editions.<ref name="T(2004)xiff">{{Harvnb|Tatar|2004|pp=xi–xiii}}</ref> In the later editions Wilhelm polished the language to make it more enticing to a bourgeois audience, eliminated sexual elements, and added Christian elements. After 1819 he began writing original tales for children (children were not initially considered the primary audience) and adding didactic elements to existing tales.<ref name="Z(1988)11ff" />

Some changes were made in light of unfavorable reviews, particularly from those who objected that not all the tales were suitable for children because of scenes of violence and sexuality.<ref name="T(1987)15ff">{{Harvnb|Tatar|1987|pp=15–17}}</ref> He worked to modify plots for many of the stories; for example, "[[Rapunzel]]" in the first edition of {{lang|de|Kinder- und Hausmärchen}} clearly shows a sexual relationship between the prince and the girl in the tower, which he edited out in subsequent editions.<ref name="T(2004)xiff" /> Tatar writes that morals were added (in the second edition a king's regret was added to the scene in which his wife is to be burned at the stake) and often the characters in the tale were amended to appear more German: "every [[fairy]] ({{lang|de|Fee}}), prince ({{lang|de|Prinz}}) and princess ({{lang|de|Prinzessin}})—all words of French origin—was transformed into a more Teutonic-sounding enchantress ({{lang|de|Zauberin}}) or wise woman ({{lang|de|weise Frau}}), king's son ({{lang|de|Königssohn}}), king's daughter ({{lang|de|Königstochter}})."<ref>{{Harvnb|Tatar|1987|p=31}}</ref>