Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are today mainly known for their fairy-tale collection Kinder- und Hausmärchen in its multiple editions and translations. This work became the model of artistic tale-writing; it devised the notion of European fairy tales and outlined basic narrative types that appear in international indexes. However, in the middle of the nineteenth century, another work of the Grimm brothers, Deutsche Sagen (1816-1818)–the edition of German legends–was of greater significance. Deutsche Sagen spread widely and inspired other scholars to prepare collections of legends representing national and local traditions. Seventeen articles in Grimm Ripples offer a wide, many-sided, and colorful picture of the emergence of European legend and fairy-tale studies, its success stories, challenges and difficulties, and the formation of early folkloristics.
Terry Gunnell's introduction reveals some common features in these collections of legends, examined in the following articles, such as labeling the books with "national" titles, implying shared cultural identities, recognizing the historical value of legends, and relying rather on written than oral sources. Joep Leerssen, in his article, studies the genesis of genre terminology and the "topographical anchoring" of legends that became instrumental in the rise of tourism. Holger Ehrhardt explores the prehistory of Deutsche Sagen and their sources. Only ninety-one texts among the 579 legends derive from oral tradition. Ehrhardt also sheds light on the unfavorable reviews of the Deutsche Sagen in German language journals. Timothy Tangherlini has studied the work of Just Mathias Thiele (1795–1874), the first Danish folklorist who collected legends among the peasantry, offered an early system of legend classification, and published them in several volumes. In Norway, Andreas Faye (1802–1869) played a similar role, preparing the major edition of Norske Sagn (1833). As Herleik Baklid shows, Faye was inspired by the Grimms and followed their ideal model of rendering legends verbatim. His work also invigorated the Norwegian national spirit and inspired later folklorists. Among them was Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (1812–1885), one of those scholars who established folkloristics as a scientific discipline in Norway. Asbjørnsen's work has been analyzed by Ane Ohrvik. Next, Line Esborg discusses the scientification of folklore in Norway by Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe (1813– 1882). Their editions of folktales and legends include extensive paratexts; both scholars were engaged in the public and international discourse on folklore and shaping its specific "Norwegian" character. Gunnar Olof Hyltén-Cavallius (1818–1889) is mainly known for his publications of Swedish fairy tales and ballads. His collection of legends remained in manuscript and was published only in 1968. As Terry Gunnell and Fredrik Skott show, Hyltén-Cavallius represented scholars who were influenced by the Grimms but appreciated legends not so much as historical and mythological sources but as "poetic creation, and ideal inspiration for new forms of Romantic Nationalistic art" (237). George Stephens (1813–1895) was a friend of Hyltén-Cavallius, and one of the leaders of early Nordic folklorists. Both published together Swedish fairy tales and ballads. Stephens's work is examined and assessed in Grimm Ripples by John Lindow.
As the collection of articles proceeds, we can see the growing diversity in folklore genres and theoretical and methodological issues that interested early folklorists in the mid-nineteenth century. We also note the role of networking, communication, and international exchange in developing folkloristics. As well, the geographic range of the book expands from Scandinavia to other countries. Éilis Ní Dhuibhne Almqvist has discussed the work of the Irish pioneer Thomas Crofton Croker (1798–1854), who published a successful volume of fairy legends from southern Ireland in 1825. John Shaw's article on the Grimms' connection with Scotland focuses on John Francis Campbell (1821–1885), including his major unpublished monograph, Oral Mythology (1870). Whereas Jacob Grimm had sought contact with Sir Walter Scott, the Grimms' impact was stronger on Campbell, who was also influenced by Asbjørnsen and Moe. As we see, the academic circles and interaction among scholars, as reflected in Grimm Ripples, expand and grow in time. Besides Deutsche Sagen, also the Kinder- und Hausmärchen plays a significant role as a model for folk narrative editions. As Jonathan Roper shows in his article, in England, the Grimmian influence brought positive attention to folk prose in general–in addition to folk songs that had long been cherished. William John Thoms (1803–1885), Sabine Baring-Gould (1834–1924), and other scholars introduced the works of the Grimms in English, developed comparative research, and paved the way to later folk narrative publications, such as Edwin Stanley Hartlands's English Fairy and Other Folk Tales (1890).
As articles in the reviewed volume show, the Grimm ripples spread across languages and countries, stimulating collegial communication and evoking cultural innovations. Kim Simonsen has analyzed the work of V. U. Hammershaimb (1819–1909) on Faroese legends and the transnational spread of Romantic nationalism. Rósa Þorsteinsdóttir has reflected on the vital role of Konrad Maurer (1823–1902) in collecting folktales in Iceland and his cooperation with Jón Árnason (1819–1888), one of the creators of Icelandic nationalism. Árnason's work in collecting legends and his cultural impact are examined in the article by Terry Gunnell. From Iceland, the book takes the reader to Estonia at the other edge of Europe, where the Baltic-German scholars maintained close connections with academic circles in German-speaking countries. As Liina Lukas shows, the first legend collections in the Baltic region synthesized literary and oral legends of the local peoples who spoke different languages into one legendary heritage (Sagengut), mediated in German. Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (1803–1882), an ethnic Estonian, was the first scholar to publish local legends in the Estonian language. However, with Kreutzwald, who compiled the epic Kalevipoeg (1857–1861) in verse, folk poetry became a powerful medium for representing the rising Estonian national culture. The Herderian influence of preferring folk songs to narratives was also rooted in Finland, as we read in Pertti Anttonen's article. Many local scholars interested in local folklore paved the way for the song epic Kalevala (1835), the mythology of which was scrutinized by Jacob Grimm in the second edition of the Deutsche Mythologie (1844). Erik Rudbeck's (1830–1867) work on fairy tales and legends in Finland remained in the shadows, to a great extent, due to the failure of Rudbeck's doctoral dissertation, as he was unfairly accused of plagiarism. The final article in the volume by Ulrika Wolf-Knuts and Susanne Österlund-Pötzsch studies the work of Oskar Rancken (1824–1895), who collected Swedish language folklore in Finland. Rancken was not directly influenced by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm but was well aware of folkorists' work in Sweden and other countries and advocated the comparative methodology introduced by the Grimms.
Grimm Ripples reveal several significant lines in the development of nineteenth-century folkloristics. During the second half of the century, the Grimms' fundamental publications of narrative folklore had become classical works of the past. As decades passed, the direct influence of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm started to diminish, but as pioneers, they had led the way for the next generations. Grimm Ripples is an informative study of the beginnings of European folkloristics in the nineteenth century. It focuses on outstanding individual scholars and their works but likewise shows the importance of networking, social relationships and friendships. The advancement of the discipline seems impossible without personal contacts and transnational collegial cooperation – and this observation is equally valid in the twenty-first century. Articles in the book can be read as separate studies, but the volume is more than the sum of individual pieces of scholarship. Terry Gunnell has compiled an impressive, comprehensive work, essential for folklorists, literary scholars, and cultural historians who are interested in the history of folklore studies, the formation of its theory, and its methodology.
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[Review length: 1,268 words • Review posted on September 25, 2023]