Welcome!

WELCOME TO MY BLOG! I'm so glad you found it. It is time to talk all things food and the Grimm Brother's fairy tales! What an exciting combination?! Although it is practically impossible to trace the historical origins and evolution of fairy tales, research states that "they have been told since before even English, French and Italian existed. They were probably told in an extinct Indo-European language." ("Fairy Tales 'Thousands Of Years Old'") However, we can stand assured that the fairy tale genre will never die out, as long as children are being produced, fairy tales will never die out. So the question is why the preoccupation with food[2], other than it is incredibly satisfyingly delicious? The Grimm brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm cannot seem to centre their stories on anything other than food. 

The Grimm Brothers [1] 

Both Jacob and Wilhelm knew the pain of starving. When their father died of pneumonia in 1796 they were plunged into hardship. In the early 1800's, during the time of writing their collection of fairy tales, they deprived themselves of food in order to support and provide for their younger siblings. They drank a single cup of coffee and had one meal a day, this meal was typically three portions divided between five people.[4] So here lies our answer to why the Grimm brother's tales contain so much food, because they understand how sharing food is an act of love. What gives their tales such enduring power is their sense of home which is intricately connected to the idea of  being fed.

From cake and wine to bread, meat and wine that never runs out to endless amounts of sweet porridge[2] the Grimm brothers fairy tales are absorbed with food; after all, this is what makes them so intellectually stimulating and satisfying. This blog will be looking at the symbolism and significance of food in the Grimm brothers fairy tales. I hope to see you on my next post, Tiarna :)


References 

[1]http://www.notablebiographies.com/Gi-He/Grimm-Brothers.html
[2]https://www.shmoop.com/grimms-fairy-tales/food-symbol.html
[3]"Fairy Tales 'Thousands Of Years Old'". BBC News, 2018, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35358487. Accessed 12 Mar 2018.
[4]https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/9483512/Grimms-fairytale-food.html