Editing Brothers Grimm (section)

=== Background ===
[[File:Arthur Rackham Little Red Riding Hood+.jpg|thumb|The Grimms defined "[[Little Red Riding Hood]]", shown here in an illustration by [[Arthur Rackham]], as representative of a uniquely German tale, although it existed in various versions and regions.<ref name="Txxxviff" />]]The rise of [[romanticism]], [[romantic nationalism]], and trends in valuing popular culture in the early 19th century revived interest in fairy tales, which had declined since their late 17th-century peak.<ref name="Jean" /> [[Johann Karl August Musäus]] published a popular collection of tales called {{lang|de|[[Volksmärchen der Deutschen]]}} between 1782 and 1787;<ref name="Haase2008">{{Harvnb|Haase|2008|p=138}}</ref> the Grimms aided the revival with their folklore collection, built on the conviction that a national identity could be found in popular culture and with the common folk ({{lang|de|Volk}}). They collected and published their tales as a reflection of German cultural identity. In the first collection, though, they included [[Charles Perrault]]'s tales, published in Paris in 1697 and written for the [[salon (gathering)|literary salons]] of an aristocratic French audience. Scholar Lydie Jean says that Perrault created a myth that his tales came from the common people and reflected existing folklore to justify including them—even though many of them were original.<ref name="Jean" />

The brothers were directly influenced by Brentano and von Arnim, who edited and adapted the folk songs of {{lang|de|[[Des Knaben Wunderhorn]]}} (''The Boy's Magic Horn'' or [[cornucopia]]).<ref name="Haase2008" /> They began the collection with the purpose of creating a scholarly treatise of traditional stories, and of preserving the stories as they had been handed from generation to generation—a practice threatened by increased industrialization.<ref name="Txxxff" /> [[Maria Tatar]], professor of German studies at [[Harvard University]], argues that it is precisely the handing from generation to generation and the genesis in the [[oral tradition]] that gives folk tales important mutability. Versions of tales differ from region to region, "picking up bits and pieces of local culture and lore, drawing a turn of phrase from a song or another story, and fleshing out characters with features taken from the audience witnessing their performance."<ref>{{Harvnb|Tatar|2004|pp=xxxvi}}</ref>

But Tatar argues that the Grimms appropriated as uniquely German stories, such as "[[Little Red Riding Hood]]", that had existed in many versions and regions throughout Europe, because they believed that such stories reflected Germanic culture.<ref name="Txxxviff">{{Harvnb|Tatar|2004|pp=xxxviii}}</ref> Furthermore, the brothers saw fragments of old religions and faiths reflected in the stories, which they thought continued to exist and survive through the telling of stories.<ref name="Murphy3ff">{{harvnb|Murphy|2000|pp=3–4}}</ref>