Grimms' Bad Girls and Bold Boys by Ruth Bottigheimer (review)

Book Reviews237 RUTH BOTTIGHEIMER. Grimms' Bad Girls and Bold Boys. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987. 211 p. The intriguing title of Ruth Bottigheimer's study is likely to send any fairy tale enthusiast scurrying off for her book. However, the author has written a serious study intended for the specialist only. Brimming with facts painstakingly assembled, this work examines the entire corpus of tales collected by the brothers through a content analysis approach that focuses on gender distinctions. Bottigheimer further notes editorial changes concerning moral and social issues in later editions of the tales. This new way of looking at the narratives provides scholars of many disciplines with a mine of information. One cannot but applaud the author's thorough research and erudition in this systematic inquiry while deploring her often turgid style. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimms' "pioneering volume" (6), Kinder- und Hausmärchen, subsequently known in English primarily as Grimms' Fairy Tales, appeared in 1812. In 1813 Wilhelm edited the second volume. Revisions that followed subtly changed motivations and speech patterns, according to Bottigheimer. Jacob collected tales and added them from the very first edition until the last in 1857, but it was Wilhelm who was the revisionist and stylist (7). The first chapter serves as an introduction to the whole. Here the author reviews the 3000-year tradition of fairy tales and the Grimms' place in it. What follows is her gender-conscious investigation of the moral and social values in the tales resulting from "half a century of continuous editing by Wilhelm Grimm" (11). Dorothea Viehmann, the chief source of the tales in volume 2, recounted stories she knew to the brothers, several at a time. Viehmann's original recitation, however, changed sometimes radically under the many-year editorializing of Wilhelm (10). Other tellers' stories suffered the same changes (17). It is Wilhelm's social and moral vision that Bottigheimer pursues. A brief glance at her appendix A, "Tales Discussed," lists the 200 different narratives plus the 12 additional "Christian Legends" that form the official canon (173-76). All of these Bottigheimer scrutinizes, no mean feat indeed. Chapter by chapter by means of examples the author'proceeds to prove her thesis. In the chapter on "Natural Powers and Elemental Differences," Bottigheimer refers to nature in the form of water as a feminine attribute, while fire, its "antagonistic companion" (25), though not reserved for the male, has a special significance for that sex (25). Men can use fire "to consume evil, to remove enchantments, to vanquish evil opponents" (26-27). Females, especially wicked witches, can be consumed by fire, yet not one male meets a fiery end (28). Another gender difference stressed is the powerlessness of the females. They are either silent or silenced. Notes Bottigheimer of Wilhelm Grimm: "Beauty united with silence has particular importance for him" (74). In "The Robber Bridegroom," the bride sits quietly without a word (74); in "The Twelve Brothers," the young sister may not speak for seven years or all her brothers will die (75). Similarly the silence of the female is pivotal in "The Seven Ravens," "The Six Swans," "The Iron Stove," and "Our Lady's Child" (75). Wilhelm Grimm's prejudice that reflects his milieu surfaces in the chapter, "Work, Money, and Anti-Semitism." Hard work did not result in a better life for the German peasants. Because so many lived in poverty, they vented a collective anger upon Jews, "whom numerous regulations kept 238Rocky Mountain Review outside the social fabric" (142). Thus "work and money, censure and punishment join in the figure of the Jew in all three tales which have a Jewish protagonist" (123). As Wilhelm revised through the years, the anti-Semitic tone became sharper. No Jewish child, mother, or grandmother appears in these stories (142), but only the Jewish male who goes down to perdition, preferably by way ofthe gallows. Since the entire study encompasses an interpretation of the many tales, only a close examination of the whole will inform the reader of the true value of Bottigheimer's work. This review merely hints at its scope. Certainly Bottigheimer knows her Grimms. Specialists will no doubt disagree with the author's insistence on the high...