Grimm Fairy Tales Original Versions: The 1812 Stories, Their Endings and How Dark They Really Were

Published October 8, 2026 · By Alehundred Studios

The Grimm fairy tales original versions are the stories Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm printed in the first edition of Children's and Household Tales in 1812 and 1815, and they are blunter and often stranger than the tales most people know: Snow White's own mother wants her dead, Rapunzel's clothes stop fitting because she is pregnant, and Rumpelstiltskin simply runs away. Some endings got softer in later editions and some got more violent. Here is what the first edition was, how famous tales changed, why the brothers changed them, and how to read the originals today, whether you love folklore, dark retellings or the video games and films that keep borrowing from them.

What are the original Grimm fairy tales?

The original Grimm fairy tales are the texts of the first edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children's and Household Tales), published in two volumes in 1812 and 1815. Folklorist Jack Zipes, writing in The Public Domain Review, explains that the collection had grown to "approximately 86 tales, which they published in 1812 and then another 70, which they published in 1815."

That first edition is not the book most people read. Zipes stresses that "the Grimms' first edition of 1812/15 is totally unlike the final or so-called definitive edition of 1857," and that the brothers "published seven different editions from 1812 to 1857." Most modern translations follow the 1857 text, so when people search for the "original" Grimm tales, they usually mean the 1812/1815 versions.

The brothers did not invent the stories. Zipes notes that the tales "were collected mainly from literate people whom the Grimms came to know quite well," including the Wild and Hassenpflug families in Kassel and Dorothea Viehmann, a tailor's wife who "provided many tales."

How were the original Grimm fairy tales different?

The original Grimm fairy tales were shorter, plainer and franker than the later versions. Zipes describes them this way: "most of them are shorter and strikingly different than the same tales edited in the later collections. They smack of orality and raw contents." He adds that "all these tales are blunt and have little or no description. The emphasis is on action and the resolution of conflict."

The University of Illinois Rare Book & Manuscript Library gives the short version of what changed next: "The early volumes were criticized because they were not suitable for children and later editions were sanitized to make the stories more appropriate." Its two examples are the ones that matter most: "wicked mothers became wicked stepmothers and sexual references such as pregnancy were removed."

What did the original versions of famous Grimm tales say?

The original versions of the best-known tales differ in who the villain is, what the characters know, and how the story ends. Six famous examples, all documented by folklorist D. L. Ashliman at the University of Pittsburgh:

Snow White. According to Ashliman's notes on Little Snow-White, "In the first edition, presumably the version closest to its oral sources, Snow-White's jealous antagonist is her own mother, not a stepmother." The mother who died in childbirth and the remarried father were added in 1819. Even the rescue is rougher: in 1812 the apple comes loose when a servant, "angry for having to carry Snow-White's coffin wherever the prince goes, strikes the sleeping princess."
Rapunzel. In Ashliman's side-by-side comparison of 1812 and 1857, the 1812 Rapunzel innocently asks, "Frau Gothel, tell me why it is that my clothes are all too tight. They no longer fit me." By 1857 that line is gone, along with the statement that she gave birth to twins. Ashliman's verdict: "The sexual nature of the prince's and Rapunzel's trysts was disguised." The fairy of 1812 also became "a more sinister sorceress."
Hansel and Gretel. Ashliman's notes on Hansel and Gretel show that in the 1810 manuscript and the 1812 edition, the woman who leads the children into the woods is clearly their mother. Only "with the fourth edition (1840) the Grimms introduced the word" stepmother. The famous escape "across a large body of water, one at a time, on the back of a duck" was also added later.
Cinderella. In the 1812 Cinderella, the stepmother hands her daughters a knife and says, "Take this knife, and if the slipper is too tight, just cut off part of your foot." One sister cuts off part of her heel and the other part of her toes, and the pigeons call out the blood in the shoe.
Rumpelstiltskin. In the 1812 version, when the queen guesses his name the little man shouts, "The devil told you that!" Then: "He ran away angrily, and never came back."
The Seven Ravens. In 1812 it was The Three Ravens, and a mother cursed her three sons for playing cards during church. We cover that version in detail in our article on the seven ravens story.

Were the original endings darker?

Some original endings were darker and some were milder, because the Grimms softened sex and family betrayal but often kept, or even added, violent punishment. Three endings show the pattern:

Cinderella got harsher. In the 1812 text, the tale ends with the prince riding off with Cinderella while the pigeons sing. Ashliman's note on the 1812 Cinderella is explicit: "In the edition of 1819 (and all subsequent editions) the stepsisters' punishment is more severe: The pigeons attack them and peck out their eyes, leaving them blind for life."
Rumpelstiltskin got gorier. The little man who "ran away angrily" in 1812 ends the final 1857 version stamping his foot into the ground, then grabbing his other foot with both hands, and he "ripped himself up the middle in two." Ashliman sums it up: "The Grimms dressed this tale up considerably in succeeding editions."
Snow White stayed brutal. In both the first and the final edition, the wicked queen is forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes until she dies. Marina Warner, in The New York Review of Books, notes that in the Grimms' collection "Many of the stories end in revenge, rather than transformation or redemption."

Warner gives one more example from The Singing Bone: the later version ends with the murderous brother sewn into a sack and drowned, and "This gruesome justice does not appear in the first edition." So "original" does not automatically mean "darker." It means less polished, more sexually frank, and more willing to make a mother the villain.

Why did the Brothers Grimm change their fairy tales?

The Brothers Grimm, mostly Wilhelm, changed their fairy tales to make them more literary, more acceptable to family readers and closer to the Germanic collection they had in mind. Warner describes the process: "Wilhelm tinkered and tampered with the texts, trying to lighten the cruelty, patch over the sexual frankness (for example, the story of Rapunzel's pregnancy), smooth over non sequiturs, and pattern the dialogue to match the most memorable tales."

Ashliman's notes on Hansel and Gretel describe the same habit at the level of style: Wilhelm added "numerous small embellishments," making the tale "more dramatic, more literary, and more sentimental in succeeding editions."

There was also an ideological reason. According to Zipes, tales such as "Puss in Boots" and "Bluebeard" "were considered too French to be included," and the brothers later learned "that this was a mistaken notion because it was and is impossible to know the exact origins of folk tales." From the start, the Grimms also had big goals for the book: Zipes writes that "they called their collection of tales an educational manual (Erziehungsbuch)."

Which original Grimm tales were removed?

Dozens of first-edition tales were removed or replaced in later editions. Warner writes that after 1815 the brothers "left out as many as thirty-one stories, for various reasons." Zipes names several that disappeared:

"The Hand with the Knife"
"How Some Children Played at Slaughtering," a grim cautionary story about children imitating a butcher, which Warner says "roused furious protests from readers and was set aside as too savage"
"Puss in Boots" and "Bluebeard," judged too French
"Death and the Goose Boy," dropped for its literary style
"The Stepmother," dropped "because of its fragmentary nature and cruelty"

These lost tales are a big part of why the first edition fascinates readers today: it is a different book, not just an earlier draft.

How can you read the original Grimm fairy tales today?

You can read the original Grimm fairy tales in a full English translation of the first edition and in side-by-side comparisons online. The main options:

Jack Zipes's complete translation of the first edition. The Public Domain Review says it "makes available in English all 156 stories from the 1812 and 1815 editions," with the Grimms' prefaces and notes.
D. L. Ashliman's folktexts at the University of Pittsburgh, which include 1812 translations and side-by-side comparisons, such as Rapunzel 1812 vs. 1857.
Library exhibits like the University of Illinois Rare Book & Manuscript Library, which explain how the "small editions" were made especially for young readers.

A good way to read them: pick a tale you know well, read the 1812 version first, then the 1857 version, and note every change in who is blamed, what is said out loud, and how the villain ends.

Where does Coins Catcher: Co-op Lands fit?

Coins Catcher: Co-op Lands is an online co-op 3D platformer by solo developer Alehundred whose story is inspired by a Grimm tale, The Seven Ravens, and twisted on purpose, much as the Grimms themselves reshaped their sources. In the game a shadowy curse traps a princess, and her seven brothers, her guardians, become seven giant beasts, one per historical era, from a wolf in Italy 1956 to a giant spider in Alexandria 300 BC. Up to 8 players, 10 cm (about 4 inches) tall, defeat each beast, climb its tower and claim a gem; seven gems break the spell. It plays together online across PC on Steam, mobile and VR, with voice chat for everyone.

FAQ

Are the original Grimm fairy tales darker?

In some ways. The 1812 and 1815 versions are blunter, more sexually frank and more likely to make a mother the villain. But some later endings are more violent, such as the stepsisters losing their eyes in Cinderella (added in 1819) and Rumpelstiltskin tearing himself in two.

What was the original ending of Cinderella?

In the 1812 version, the stepsisters cut their feet to fit the slipper, the pigeons reveal the blood, and the tale ends with Cinderella riding away with the prince. The pigeons pecking out the stepsisters' eyes first appears in the 1819 edition.

Was Snow White's stepmother originally her mother?

Yes. In the 1812 first edition, Snow White's jealous antagonist is her own mother. The Grimms added the death of the mother in childbirth and the father's second marriage in the 1819 edition.

When were the original Grimm fairy tales published?

The first volume of Children's and Household Tales appeared in 1812 with about 86 tales, and the second volume followed in 1815 with about 70 more. The Grimms published seven editions in total, ending with the 1857 edition most translations use.

Were the original Grimm fairy tales meant for children?

Not only. The brothers called the collection an educational manual and filled the first edition with scholarly notes, and the early volumes were criticized as unsuitable for young readers. Later editions were sanitized, and special small editions were made for younger audiences.

Sources

Zipes J. The Forgotten Tales of the Brothers Grimm. The Public Domain Review, 2012.
Warner M. Rescuing Wonderful Shivery Tales. The New York Review of Books, 2015.
University of Illinois Library, Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Kinder- und Hausmärchen gesammelt durch die Brüder Grimm. Once Upon a Time exhibit.
Grimm J, Grimm W; Ashliman DL, trans. Little Snow-White. Folktexts, University of Pittsburgh, 2002-2005.
Ashliman DL. Rapunzel: a comparison of the versions of 1812 and 1857. Folktexts, University of Pittsburgh, 2000-2018.
Grimm J, Grimm W; Ashliman DL, trans. Hansel and Gretel. Folktexts, University of Pittsburgh, 2000-2002.
Ashliman DL, ed. Cinderella: tales of type 510A, including the Grimms' 1812 version. Folktexts, University of Pittsburgh.
Ashliman DL, ed. The Name of the Helper: tales of type 500, including the Grimms' 1812 Rumpelstiltskin. Folktexts, University of Pittsburgh.
Grimm J, Grimm W; Ashliman DL, trans. Rumpelstiltskin. Folktexts, University of Pittsburgh.