The Grimms were meticulous scholars and obeyed exacting standards for the collection and transmission of folktales. They have been generally credited with being the creators of folktale studies, and they have been held up as the model of what a folktale collector should be. There is, however, increasing evidence that their practice was not quite as meticulous as they implied. Part of the problem was their mixed motives. A work cannot be a scholarly piece of field research, a socially acceptable and appealing children’s book, and a patriotic monument to German culture all at the same time. As a result, there came to be increasingly critical views in the decades that followed.

No two people tell a folktale in exactly the same words, and any collection that remains faithful to its sources will vary greatly in language. The Grimms, however, gave their whole collection a smooth, cohesive style. They also significantly lengthened most of the stories by adding small details, snatches of dialogue, and smooth transitions. The result is more satisfying as literature but no longer the pure voice of the people.

An examination of the Grimms’ sources shows that the stories were not after all discovered through extensive fieldwork among the peasantry. In fact, the sources for most of the stories were thoroughly educated, middle-class friends and relatives of the Grimms. If, as the Grimms implied, the ideal storyteller is an old and illiterate peasant woman sitting before her humble hearth telling the ancient stories to children and grandchildren, this is a person the Grimms never encountered.