The Irish Fairy Legends and the Brothers Grimm

The paper investigates the question why the Brothers Grimm translated Croker's Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland into German, and why Croker, in his turn, translated Wilhelm Grimm's long introduction to the work into English. On the basis of the correspondence between Croker and the Brothers Grimm, and within the context of prevailing romantic theories pertaining to folktale collections, the paper attempts to re-establish the value of the Fairy Legends as a milestone in the history of folklore research and children's literature.