Deutsche Märchen

A child opens the forbidden door. A tailor kills seven at one blow. A girl leaves a trail through the forest and discovers that birds are hungry too. This German selection gathers sixty-one tales: Rapunzel, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin, and dozens of harsher, stranger companions. Wolves bargain. Death becomes a godfather. Soldiers outwit devils. Cleverness can earn a kingdom, while one careless promise can cost a life. Repetition gives the stories their rhythm; sudden justice gives them their teeth. Not the complete 210-tale corpus. It is a substantial old German storybook—and the woods are deep enough.