Many of the lessons in fairy tales can be found in The Grimm Brothers’ stories, who published cautionary and exemplary tales, as well as the reward-and punishment tales… and these tales were very well received by the general public. Then there is Hans Christian Andersen. He is one of the most famous fairy tale author/collectors in the world and is considered a “national treasure” in his home country of Denmark. He lived in the same time period as the Grimm brothers, and he definitely had some issues with them as his rivals. (Denmark is just north of Germany, so many of their tales were from similar groups of people and had very similar story lines). However, by comparing the story collections of the Grimm Brothers to Hans Andersen you will find they are quite a bit different when it comes to their intent and their messages to children.
Below is an article on Hans Christian Andersen from another famous American scholar of fairy tales: Jack Zipes, who is a professor emeritus of German and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota. Jack Zipes and Maria Tatar (Week 10 article author) are probably the two most prominent fairy tale experts in our country. If you look up any research or scholarly articles on fairy tales, these two are sure to be quoted! This article is from The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, that is edited by Jack Zipes.
