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''Deutsche Sagen'' ("German Legends") is a publication by the Brothers Grimm, appearing in two volumes in 1816 and 1818. The collection includes 579 short summaries of German folk tales and legends (where " German" refers not just to
German-speaking Europe This article details the geographical distribution of speakers of the German language, regardless of the legislative status within the countries where it is spoken. In addition to the German-speaking area (german: Deutscher Sprachraum) in Europ ...
generally but includes early Germanic history as well). ''Deutsche Sagen'' followed the 1812 publication of '' Kinder- und Hausmärchen'' (known in English as ''Grimms' Fairy Tales''). It never gained the wide popular appeal and influence of the latter, although it did influence the scholarly study of folk narrative. The first volume contains 362 short tales, provided in short summary with a source. The source is in some cases "oral", with the region where it was collected (as in no. 1, ''Die drei Bergleute im Kuttenberg'' "the three miners in Kuttenberg", marked "oral" from Hessen), in other cases with a reference to the tale's previous publication (as in no. 362, ''Die drei Alten'' "The three old men", attributed to "Schmidt aus Lübek", im ''Freimüthigen'' 1809. Nr. 1.) The tales of the first volume tend to blend common concerns of the poor and working classes with magical realism including the attainment of wealth and status, and includes references to Frau Holle, the Wild Hunt, ghostly apparitions, and magic, the
devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of ...
, dwarves, giants, kobolds, nixes, etc. Less than a dozen folk tales contain the German word for witch or witchcraft (''hexen'') but there are many mentions of the devil and one tale (#120) also mentions an old woman that was a magician or sorceress (''ein altes Weib, das eine Zauberin war''). The second volume (entries numbered 363–579) focusses on historical legends, including numerous translations from Latin sources pertaining to
Germanic antiquity Early Germanic culture refers to the culture of the early Germanic peoples. Largely derived from a synthesis of Proto-Indo-European and indigenous Northern European elements, the Germanic culture started to exist in the Jastorf culture that de ...
, beginning with
Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...
(no 363. ''Der heilige Salzfluß'' "the sacred salt-river", ''
Annales Annals are a concise form of historical writing which record events chronologically, year by year. The equivalent word in Latin and French is ''annales'', which is used untranslated in English in various contexts. List of works with titles contai ...
'' XIII. 57), spanning both medieval legend (e.g. no. 576. ''Hungersnoth im Grabfeld'' "famine in
Grabfeld The Grabfeld is a region in Germany, on the border between Bavaria and Thuringia. It is situated southeast of the Rhön Mountains The Rhön Mountains () are a group of low mountains (or ''Mittelgebirge'') in central Germany, located around t ...
", '' Annales Fuldenses'' ad ann. 850) and early modern folkloristic records (e.g. no. 579 ''Die Gräfin von Orlamünde'' "the countess of Orlamünde", attributed to Wolfgang Lazius ''de migratione gentium libri VII'' in the edition of Waldenfels, ''antiquitatis selectae libri XII'' 1677, 4.465-474), blurring the lines between oral folk tradition and literary tradition. Numbers 505–514 group a number of
Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...
entries, including Radbot von Habsburg (505), Rudolf von Strättlingen (506), Idda von Toggenburg (507), Auswanderung der Schweizer (508), Der Bund im Rütli (511) and Wilhelm Tell (512). A number of the stories record medieval antisemitic beliefs held by Germanic-speaking peoples. For example, ''The Jews' Stone'', ''The Girl Who Was Killed by Jews'', and ''Pfefferkorn the Jew at Halle'', among others. The original collection is available free online and has also been translated into English by Donald Ward (1979).Bruce Allen
"Grimms' legends at last in English"
''The Christian Science Monitor'', 18 September 1980.


See also

*
German folklore German folklore is the folk tradition which has developed in Germany over a number of centuries. Partially it can be also found in Austria. Characteristics It shares many characteristics with Nordic folklore and English folklore due to t ...
*
Austrian folklore Proto-Germanic folklore is the folklore of the speakers of Proto-Germanic and includes topics such as the Germanic mythology, legendry, and folk beliefs of early Germanic culture. By way of the comparative method, Germanic philologists, a varie ...
*
Swiss folklore Swiss folklore describes a collection of local stories, celebrations, and customs of the alpine and sub-alpine peoples that occupy Switzerland. The country of Switzerland is made up of several distinct cultures including German, French, Italian, ...


References

*''Deutsche Sagen. Herausgegeben von den Brüdern Grimm'', Berlin (1816)
google books
*''Deutsche Sagen. Herausgegeben von den Brüdern Grimm. Zweiter Teil'', Berlin (1818) *Donald Ward (trans.), '' The German Legends of the Brothers'' 2 vols, Philadelphia, Pa: Institute for the Study of Human Issues (1979).


External links



at Projekt Gutenberg-DE {{Authority control 1816 books 1818 books Brothers Grimm German folklore German legends