His Grimm Materials . . . Or, Philip Pullman Retells The Bros Grimm

By Steven McLain

On November 8th, the 200th anniversary of the first publication of the Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales, Viking Adults released a retelling of Grimm's Fairy Tales, as retold by Philip Pullman.

While publishers, and readers, are constantly vying for new editions of beloved tales, what's worrying about Pullman's retelling is the dearth of stories it contains.  With only fifty stories retold (and offered commentary and introduction) this is about a third of the stories contained in the two volumes of the original.  Pullman has decided to omit many of the more obscure stories, possibly because of their worrisome content or the historical distance of hundreds of years and several revolutions, political as well as social and technological.

The point, basically, is that the world has changed, and children--and their parents--are not the same receivers of stories as they once were.  We expect morals in our stories, or at least an orientation toward good that reinforces the triumph of good over evil.  But Grimms' fair tales offer no such consolation.  Instead, they present a weird, capricious world where evil may win, where vengeance is lauded, and where nature is both unknown and unknowable. 

While I understand the position from both Pullman and the publisher's perspective, I think we do a disservice to ourselves by omitting the strangest and most disturbing of these stories.  This is a different world, and we ought to remind ourselves of those differences; what better way than through story?  We are gripped less by plague, violence, hunger and social injustice--we live in a world fundamentally different than the world in which German housewives cautioned their children with fairy tales.

And for that we ought to reflect deeply, and often, on the changes which wrought our world.  The only way to do that is through the rich world of Grimms' Fair Tales, unexpurgated.