The Robber Bridegroom (Penguin Little Black Classics) by Brothers Grimm

by Jacob Grimm

'Then she began to run, and she ran over the sharp stones and through the thorns, and the wild animals bounded past her ...'Four weird, dark and enchanting fairy-tales from the Brothers Grimm.Introducing Little Black 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.Jacob Ludwig Karl (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Karl (1786-1859) are the Brothers Grimm. Their Selected Tales are also available in Penguin Classics.

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Childrens, German Literature

Paperback

First published January 1, 1812

About the author

German philologist and folklorist Jakob Ludwig Karl Grimm in 1822 formulated Grimm's Law, the basis for much of modern comparative linguistics. With his brother Wilhelm Karl Grimm (1786-1859), he collected Germanic folk tales and published them as Grimm's Fairy Tales (1812-1815).

Indo-European stop consonants, represented in Germanic, underwent the regular changes that Grimm's Law describes; this law essentially states that Indo-European p shifted to Germanic f, t shifted to th, and k shifted to h. Indo-European b shifted to Germanic p, d shifted to t, and g shifted to k. Indo-European bh shifted to Germanic b, dh shifted to d, and gh shifted to g.

This jurist and mythologist also authored the monumental German Dictionary and his Deutsche Mythologie .

Adapted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Sean Barrs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grimm wrote some really dark fairy tales, and whilst The Robbers Bridegroom is a good example it is not by far the strongest. The story follows a young girl who is to be married; her bridegroom emits a bad aura which gives her the feeling of dread. He asks her to his house, which is in the dark forest. He tells her to follow a trail of ashes to his home. All very ominous. She reluctantly agrees, and what she sees there brings her bad feelings into reality.



Her intended is a robber of the most heinous type. The way in which he and his gang rob is diabolical; they do not simply rob or profit; they also murder their targets. They strip the women down and hack them to pieces with an axe. The bride is the gang’s next victim. Luckily for her she outwits them, with the help of an old lady. She returns home and tells her farther of what she saw, and on her wedding day he helps to bring the gang to justice.

I think the Robber Bridegroom is fairly average as far as Grimm’s fairy tales goes. If we compare this to the brilliance of Snow-white, which is also in this edition, the averageness of the tale can be seen. Indeed, this edition should have been named for the most famous, and well written, of Grimm’s fairy tales. It seems odd to me to give The Robber bridegroom the title for this edition. My four star rating reflects my overall opinion of all the fairy tales in here and not just the Robber Bridegroom, which I would give three stars on an individual basis. Overall, this is a good introduction to Grimm’s fairy tales.

Penguin Little Black Classic- 68



The Little Black Classic Collection by penguin looks like it contains lots of hidden gems. I couldn’t help it; they looked so good that I went and bought them all. I shall post a short review after reading each one. No doubt it will take me several months to get through all of them! Hopefully I will find some classic authors, from across the ages, that I may not have come across had I not bought this collection.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

فکر کنم حالا حالاها داستان از برادران گریم هست که نخونده باشم و بخواد بخاطر دارک بودنش شوکه‌ام کنه. البته دلیل اصلی شوکه شدنم بخاطر دارکی داستان ها نیست، بخاطر اینه که توقع داری داستان کودک باشن و یهو این مدلی میشن.

سراغ این داستان رفتم چون یکی از داستان‌کوتاه‌های نیل گیمن (جاده سفید) از کتابی که داشتیم میخوندیم با الهام از امثال این داستان(ورژن‌های دیگه‌اش) نوشته شده بود.
داستان «آقای فاکس» در اصل یه فیری‌تیل انگلیسیه و ورژنی از این داستانه که خود گیمن هم تو مقدمه اش ازش اسم برده بود.

آها اینجا به نکته جالبی که راجع به انتخاب اسم برخوردم بگم که اون طرف دنیا، تو اساطیر ژاپن، یه سری روباه داریم که اسمشون نوگیتسونه است. اینا ورژن های پلید کیتسونه ها هستند. (حالا یه سری اطلاعات بیشتر و عکس و اینا ازشون تو کانالم داشتم قبلا، اینجا عکس نمیتونم بذارم.) این نوگیتسونه‌های پلید تو داستان های ژاپنی دنبال خوردن خون آدم‌ها بخصوص دخترای جوونن.
حالا اینکه اتفاقی این اسم انتخاب شده یا نه رو نمی‌دونم اما این شباهتش چیز جالبی بود برام.

راجع به نوشتارش بخوام بگم اینه که یه قسمتی تکرار داره و وسط داستان کوتاه توقع اینهمه تکرار رو نداشتم، اما احتمالا برا درست کردن حس تعلیق بود و اینکه هی منتظر بشی داستان عوض بشه. ولی وقتی مثلاً اسم برادران گریم روش هست توقع نداری به خیر بگذره دیگه و عملا منتظر تغییر خاصی نمیشی اون وسط.

هشدار برای اسپویل داستان(نمی‌دونم داستان های معروف این مدلی هم اسپویل محسوب میشن یا نه.)
داستان رو خیلیی خلاصه تعریف کنم:
داستان یه دختریه که قبل عروسیش متوجه آدم‌خوار بودن خواستگارش میشه، بدین صورت که می‌ره خونه طرف و میبینه یه دختر دیگه رو دارن میخورن، اینم با کمک یه پیرزنی که اونجا بوده فرار می‌کنه و روز عروسی اینارو لو میده و انگشت دختری که میخوردن رو رو می‌کنه. بعد مهمون‌ها و آشناهای عروس میزنن تکه پاره میکنن داماد و رفیق‌های آدم‌خوارشو.

حالا ورژن گیمن توییست‌ دیگه‌ای داره و از زاویه دید دیگه‌ای نوشته شده.
اما آقای فاکس تقریبا همین مدل برادران گریم بود یکم جزییاتشون فرق داشت.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Penguin Little Black Classic collects seven of the Brothers Grimm’s Fairy Tales: The Master Huntsman, The Robber Bridegroom, The Devil’s Three Golden Hairs, The Six Servants, The Bremen Town Band, Snowwhite, and Lazy Harry (all translated by David Luke).

These are the original, non-sanitized versions of the stories so they’re pretty bloody - giants are beheaded, a man is torn apart by horses, man-eating thieves rove the woods, and vicious stepmothers galore appear throughout!

Snowwhite is by far the most famous of the stories and it’s what you’d expect - the evil Queen, magic mirror, seven dwarves, the huntsman, etc. The evil Queen could’ve probably offed Snowwhite a lot easier though. First she tries to lace her up real tight, then when that fails goes for the poisoned comb before finally settling on the poisoned apple - and even that didn’t really work in the end! Should’ve just stuck a knife in her.

It’s easy to see why it’s a world-famous story but, as I already knew it well, it didn’t hold my attention that much. If you’re going to read a version of the story though, this is the one, replete with the eating of human organs and the torture of dancing in heated iron slippers til death!

The title story is a bit weak. It too is gruesome but overly repetitive and a bit simplistic, even for a fairy tale and I’m not too sure what the point was - don’t have your idiot dad arrange to marry you to some total stranger?

The Master Huntsman is a fun action-fantasy story about a guy who saves a kingdom from giants, even if some of his actions indicate psychopathic behaviour - I expect Hollywood has something lined up for this story though with Chris “Thor” Hemsworth.

The Six Servants is a bit like an early version of a superhero story. Six extraordinary men - the Fat Man, the Tall Man, Freezer, the Blindfolded Man, the Listener, and the Sharpsighted Man (even their names are vaguely superhero-ish!) - help an ordinary, but intelligent, man get laid and win a kingdom from, yes, another wicked Queen. The mental visuals alone made this one of the standout stories in the book.

My favourite story in the collection was The Devil’s Three Golden Hairs where a Fortune-Child is born, survives against the odds, grows up and goes to Hell to pluck three golden hairs from the Devil in order to win a kingdom. It’s really imaginative, clever, and entertaining, not to mention full of mysterious dark imagery.

The Bremen Town Band and Lazy Harry are two stories that passed me by completely - no idea what happened in those stories so I guess they were there to fill up space!

The Grimms’ fairy tales are simplistically written in that there are a lot of run-on sentences (“and” is overused to extend the sentences too) and boy do those resolutions come about fast! Like many traditional fairy tales, they don’t concern themselves much with explanation either - a character goes to Hell, what of it? - or spend more than a sentence characterising anyone. They’re also very repetitive in theme and content: kingdoms and princesses are usually prizes, evil stepmothers are often the villain, and the hero is more often than not a clever young man.

This slender volume contains a couple of really good stories and several ok-to-forgettable ones. Not a bad collection but not a great one either - a fine intro to the Grimm’s fairy tales.

[Cece (ProblemsOfaBookNerd) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good collection of Grimm's stories. Not my favorite, but still a fun read, which is definitely something you always get when you read any stories by the Brothers Grimm.

[Darwin8u · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The cook was ordered to stew them in salt, and the wicked woman devoured them, thinking she had eaten the liver and lungs of Snowwhite.”
― The Brother's Grimm, "Snowwhite"



Vol N° 68 of my Penguin Little Black Classics Box Set. This volume contains a selection of seven tales written by Jacob and William Grimm and translated by David Luke. These stories first appeared in Penguin's Selected Tales. This selection contains:

1. The Master Huntsman ★★★★★
2. The Robber Bridegroom ★★★★
3. The Devil's Three Golden Hairs ★★★★
4. The Six Servants ★★★
5. The Bremen Town Band ★★
6. Snowwhite ★★★★★
7. Lazy Harry ★★★

Most were really good with a great mix of macabre that doesn't appear in the more cartoonish versions that appear in Disney or other mass-market reproductions. A couple like "Lazy Harry" and "The Bremen Town Band" were kinda throwaways. Cute, perhaps, but nothing super compelling.

[Nicay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing beats the original Grimm Fairy tales.

Full review to come.

[Marjolein (UrlPhantomhive) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting edition, which featured some well-known and some lesser known fairy tales from the Grimm Brothers. The titular story tells of a young girl who finds out her intended is not all that great and figures out a way to defeat him.

Another one, the six servants, I only knew from the Efteling, where I had seen the servants but never quite understood what story they were telling. Glad I now know it.

~Little Black Classics #68~

[Michelle Curie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Mirror, mirror on the wall: Who is the fairest of us all?"

Who doesn't know the famous story of Snowwhite? If you are not familiar with the original fairy tale penned down by the Grimm brothers, then surely you have not escaped the Disney film. These tales are a cultural artifact and have been retold many of times in all sorts of versions. This little collection features some of the better known, such as The Bremen Town Band, but also less famous ones, including The Robber Bridgegroom after which this volume is named.



Reading them now, it is amazing to think how fairy tales to us are kids' stories, with their mere purpose of entertaining children. The fairy tales the Brothers Grimm told were dark, wicked and violent. Men get torn into pieces, witches have to dance themselves to death wearing hot iron shoes and robbers eat children in the woods. The Little Black Classics provide a mixed bag, with a few stories included more memorable then others, but in total it is a suitable introduction to the world of German folklore.

In 2015 Penguin introduced the Little Black Classics series to celebrate Penguin's 80th birthday. Including little stories from "around the world and across many centuries" as the publisher describes, I have been intrigued to read those for a long time, before finally having started. I hope to sooner or later read and review all of them!

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a child, I absolutely loathed the story of the Bremen town musicians, but now that I'm reading it for the first time in over 30 years, I'm wondering if that's because I was exposed to a watered-down version as a kid. Through my young eyes, the tale once seemed to me to be about a group of aspiring creatives who get so distracted by a comfortable home that they give up their dreams of musical stardom -- a heartbreakingly tragic waste, I used to think. Perhaps this interpretation of the tale was merely an early manifestation of my own ambitious nature, though: reading the story now as an adult, I realize that maybe the animals never had any musical talent after all, that they were simply motley superannuated pets and livestock fleeing cruel human masters intent on killing them, and that maybe the comfortable house they serependipitously acquired was the best ending they could have hoped for -- a sort of melancholy wish-fulfillment tale, like imagining one's elderly pets finding their happily-ever-after by relocating to a "farm upstate."

This collection of 7 fairy tales was my second read from the Penguin Little Black Classics box set.

[Petrus Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just some cute funny reads

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This little collection of seven tales from the Brothers Grimm – The Master Huntsman, The Robber Bridegroom, The Devil’s Three Golden Hairs, The Six Servants, The Bremen Town Band, Snowwhite, and Lazy Harry – has definitely whet my whistle to read a bigger collection of their work.

The tales I remember from my childhood were occasionally grim, but I don’t remember them being as grisly as this – or as funny. I also seem to remember them having some sort of moral, but I’ll be blowed if I can think of what the morals of Lazy Harry and the Bremen Town Band were.

Taking in greedy, arrogant kings, lucky young men, unlucky princesses, clever animals, proud queens, forbidding forests, foul murderers, cannibalism, the Devil and his grandma, and dense young ladies who won’t listen when you tell them not to open the door to anyone, I can’t help but think that had the Brothers Grimm been around today they’d have probably been frogmarched from the offices of children’s publishers and targeted by a Daily Mail campaign.

As it is, someone needs to get on with adapting these older versions for film. I’d happily throw money at the chance to watch that.

**Also posted at Randomly Reading and Ranting**

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

So. Many. Robbers.
So. Many. Woods.
I love fairytales so this was very entertaining

[❆ Crystal ❆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. This is a tale I haven't heard before. I think this would have given me nightmares for ages if I had heard this one as a kid.

[dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

my darling, this is only a dream.

[Jeddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection of Grimm stories, but the translation isn’t as good as Margaret Hunt’s, and it’s missing all of the lovely illustrations, so it falls a bit flat.

[Madeline Church · Rating 4 out of 5]

reverted back to my child self with this one. brothers grimm 🫶🏻

[Džiugas Babenskas]

Brolių Grimų pasakose išgyventi sunku, bet su jomis lengva išgyventi nuobodžias keliones iš taško A į tašką Ž.
Mieli siaubai ir žiupsneliai juodo humoro. Be cukraus. Be pamokymų.

[Froglovesbooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 just fun

[Gitta · Rating 3 out of 5]

This fairy tale is not suitable for children.

Our young maiden is promised to a wealthy man (Nothing new there.) who wants her to visit him. (Reasonable.) He lives in a dark forest. (Nothing good ever happens in forests, especially in dark ones and especially in fairy tales. This is when alarm bells should start ringing.) She enters his lair, encounters an old lady who hides her (their domestic slave?!).

"This had scarcely happened when the godless band came home. They were dragging with them another maiden. They were drunk and paid no attention to her screams and sobs."

The Robber Bridegroom has a happy ending, though. Not for the other maiden; she is poisoned to death, chopped into pieces in preparation for the bandits' stew. The betrothed maiden manages to escape with the old woman and they arrive back home safely.

On the wedding day, the wicked robber arrives, unsuspecting. Over some food, the bride recounts a dream she had. This "dream" is what she saw in the lair. How she arrived. How a bird at the entrance of the lair warned her. How she met the old woman. One of the robbers, after they had cut up the beautiful maiden and seasoned her, saw that she was wearing a beautiful ring. However, chopping of the finger to take the jewel of, the finger sprung away and fell right into the maiden's lap, who was hiding. This finger, the maiden had carried with her, she now showed to her betrothed. The cannibal, naturally, tries to escape, but the relatives of the bride stopped him and the robber and his band were executed.

The thing that is unusual about this tale is -- apart from the groom's gastronomical preferences -- is the fact that the maiden is portrayed as a relatively strong, active character. She does not need a man to rescue her and the escape is only successful because she had been smart on her way to the lair. Moreover, she is the one who tricks her betrothed. She did not cry on her father's shoulder and let him sort out his mess - after all, he was the one who betrothed her to the first man who seemed he had a bit of wealth to him. There is no fainting, no sleeping, no princely romance. Take that, patriarchy!

[JK · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m very confused at Penguin’s decision to name this Grimm compilation after what is, by far, one of the weakest stories within the book. The Robber Bridegroom fell flat for me; although not disengaging, and by no means dull, in comparison with its brothers and sisters within the pages, it couldn’t quite meet the bar.

Having never read any Grimm (despite owning the complete works which I will get around to on some rainy day in the future), I was surprised and delighted at how gruesome the stories are. Obviously modern day adaptations have watered down the majority of the gore and death, but to read fairy tales which include cannibalism, aggressive animals, and (my favourite) dancing in hot iron shoes until you fall down dead, was nothing but delectable to me.

The style is incredibly simplistic, but this lends a real tone of fable to the little tales. They truly feel perfect for reading aloud, without being patronising or glaringly aimed at children. With each of them containing some sort of murder, or act of violence, it’s difficult to imagine these being used to entertain children today; if I had any wee brats, I would surely try.

A gorgeous little introduction to Grimm, this has made me look forward to tackling the giant tome that is the complete works when I feel I have the staying power for it.

[Niki (nikilovestoread) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Robber Bridegroom by Brothers Grimm is a collection of seven short stories published together in the Penguin Black Classics edition. It is an interested collection with quite a few lesser known stories along with the well know Snowwhite. If you've never read the original Snowwhite, however, it is definitely worth a read. It's interesting to see the changes Disney made in the story to make it more child friendly. The old tales collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were anything but child friendly by today's standards. The tales were often gruesome. Many served as morals while others seemed more like just tales to pass the time. Was there a moral in Lazy Harry? If there was, it was too ambiguous for me to catch. The Devils's Three Golden Hairs and Snowwhite were the stand out tales in this collection, for me. I also enjoyed the simpler tale, The Bremen Town Band. The title story, The Robber Bridegroom, was just a bit too disgusting, for me, but definitely a memorable tale I'm not likely to get out of my head any time soon. Overall, this is a good collection, especially as an introduction to the tales collected by the Brothers Grimm.

[Liz Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do not want to say anything mean about this because I grew up reading the Grimm Brothers and loving every single tale. But I read those tales in Spanish, or heard them in German, never in English translation, and this one did not spark the same feeling I am accustomed to getting whenever I revisit any of the old fairy tales. I do give props for the wonderful selection of stories, they were perfectly selected. I do hope that from this collection we all learn not to marry the first person we meet, as well as not to oppose to marring couple, for it will not end up good for the one intervening. The other thing to learn is, we all stand as we watch the corpses of our enemies, rather than a happily ever after.

[Catriona · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a reason these fairytales aren't more well known

[Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Schu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starting as a young person, I read several of Grimm's fairy tales and continued reading into adulthood. Recently, I had been researching Grimms' tales and realized I never read "The Robber Bridegroom." One article reported it as the most gruesome of the Grimm's stories. So, of course, I had to read it. In this short tale, a young woman is promised to a man who immediately makes her uncomfortable. Try as she might, she avoids him to the best of her ability. But, eventually, she could not turn down his request to visit his home deep in the forest. There are many variations to what happens next; I enjoyed the variation where the robber bridegroom leaves a trail of ash for the young woman to follow to his forest home. She also brought peas and dropped them along the forest to find her way out (assuming she ever escapes the forest). While at the house, she receives several warnings about her bridegroom, and what happens next is horrific! Cringeworthy! I recommend The Robber Bridegroom to readers who enjoy fairytales and aren't squeamish.

[Roselyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Devoured this collection of tales by Grimm Brothers while doing my Sunday laundry.There are seven short stories in this book.This is the second time I have felt why none of the stories that are my favourite are ever selected as the book title in these Black Classics edition ? I favoured the Devil Three Golden Hairs and the most famous Snowwhite more than the title story.

One of the quotes from the story had me laughing

'I suffered so much for you,so I wanted you to suffer a bit for me'

This is said by a newly married husband to his wife.

If you are looking for cheap edition to try out ,these dark tales this is good place to start .

[Jade · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read the anonited Brother's Grimm and generally enjoy the darker side of fairy tales, and how they're a wonderful example of an expressive imagination. I didn't really enjoy this selection however, and found the tales to be a bit 'random' - like a child thinking and jumping from place to place, but not in a good way. There was a lot of repetition that bored me.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will always love Grimm fairy tales ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[Auj · Rating 3 out of 5]

they were actually pretty good im just not a massive fairy tale girlie

[「ha.stiro」 · Rating 5 out of 5]

original Snowwhite>>>

[Nina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 STARS