Brick Fairy Tales: Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Hansel and Gretel, and More by John McCann, Monica Sweeney, Becky Thomas
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I NTRODUCTION TO F AIRY T ALES
On Fairy Tales:
Folklore and fairy tales have enchanted audiences since people first began telling stories. Before the cartoons with musical numbers and happy endings, even before the stories were collected into books, these stories were a part of a long oral tradition that passed down important cultural messages about right and wrong and good and evil. The tales in their original forms do not always end pleasantly, nor do they shy away from bloodshed and misfortune. Some are slapstick and clever, while others are nothing short of horrifying. Like any good story that is retold over and over, fairy tales entertain and enlighten us: they show us what scares us and what we value most.
The most famous collectors of these classic tales were Jacob and Wilhem Grimm, or as they are more widely known, the Brothers Grimm. As German scholars searching for cultural stories passed down throughout cities and villages all over nineteenth-century Germany, the two brothers curated one of the most extensive collections of folk stories ever known. They published the first edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen , or Children’s and Household Tales , in 1812.
The Grimm brothers first put the stories together to satisfy their scholarly interests in German culture and storytelling and did not intend them for children. After the printing of the first edition was met with little success and unenthusiastic readers, the brothers returned to the text and reworked the stories to appeal to a broader readership. Each new printing of the book contained new edits and carefully crafted additions to both enhance the stories and make them more and more acceptable for young readers. In the same way that stories told orally change a bit with every retelling, these written fairy tales have slowly taken shape into the beloved stories we know today.
On Brick Fairy Tales:
Classic children’s stories now meet a classic children’s pastime. We have chosen thirteen tales from the original Grimm’s collection, some that you may know and some of which you may have never heard. The tales are played out with LEGO bricks, which are especially well suited to the sometimes absurd and often hilarious consequences of some of these stories’ characters. Each tale is told in its original form and remains unabridged, and each of the photographs has been crafted with special dedication to the humor, gore, and peculiarities of the folklore itself. We hope you enjoy this modern retelling of the Brothers Grimm stories through many, many LEGO bricks.
Cinderella
The wife of a rich man fell sick, and as she felt that her end was drawing near, she called her only daughter to her bedside and said,
“Dear child, be good and pious, and then the good God will always protect thee, and I will look down on thee from heaven and be near thee.”
Thereupon she closed her eyes and departed.
Every day the maiden went out to her mother’s grave, and wept, and she remained pious and good.
When winter came the snow spread a white sheet over the grave,
and when the spring sun had drawn it off again, the man had taken another wife.
The woman had brought two daughters into the house with her, who were beautiful and fair of face, but vile and black of heart. Now began a bad time for the poor step-child.
“Is the stupid goose to sit in the parlour with us?” said they. “He who wants to eat bread must earn it; out with the kitchen-wench.”
They took her pretty clothes away from her, put an old grey bedgown on her, and gave her wooden shoes.
“Just look at the proud princess, how decked out she is!” they cried, and laughed, and led her into the kitchen.
There she had to do hard work from morning till night, get up before daybreak,
carry water,
light fires,
cook
and wash.
Besides this, the sisters did her every imaginable injury—they mocked her
and emptied her peas and lentils into the ashes, so that she was forced to sit and
On Fairy Tales:
Folklore and fairy tales have enchanted audiences since people first began telling stories. Before the cartoons with musical numbers and happy endings, even before the stories were collected into books, these stories were a part of a long oral tradition that passed down important cultural messages about right and wrong and good and evil. The tales in their original forms do not always end pleasantly, nor do they shy away from bloodshed and misfortune. Some are slapstick and clever, while others are nothing short of horrifying. Like any good story that is retold over and over, fairy tales entertain and enlighten us: they show us what scares us and what we value most.
The most famous collectors of these classic tales were Jacob and Wilhem Grimm, or as they are more widely known, the Brothers Grimm. As German scholars searching for cultural stories passed down throughout cities and villages all over nineteenth-century Germany, the two brothers curated one of the most extensive collections of folk stories ever known. They published the first edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen , or Children’s and Household Tales , in 1812.
The Grimm brothers first put the stories together to satisfy their scholarly interests in German culture and storytelling and did not intend them for children. After the printing of the first edition was met with little success and unenthusiastic readers, the brothers returned to the text and reworked the stories to appeal to a broader readership. Each new printing of the book contained new edits and carefully crafted additions to both enhance the stories and make them more and more acceptable for young readers. In the same way that stories told orally change a bit with every retelling, these written fairy tales have slowly taken shape into the beloved stories we know today.
On Brick Fairy Tales:
Classic children’s stories now meet a classic children’s pastime. We have chosen thirteen tales from the original Grimm’s collection, some that you may know and some of which you may have never heard. The tales are played out with LEGO bricks, which are especially well suited to the sometimes absurd and often hilarious consequences of some of these stories’ characters. Each tale is told in its original form and remains unabridged, and each of the photographs has been crafted with special dedication to the humor, gore, and peculiarities of the folklore itself. We hope you enjoy this modern retelling of the Brothers Grimm stories through many, many LEGO bricks.
Cinderella
The wife of a rich man fell sick, and as she felt that her end was drawing near, she called her only daughter to her bedside and said,
“Dear child, be good and pious, and then the good God will always protect thee, and I will look down on thee from heaven and be near thee.”
Thereupon she closed her eyes and departed.
Every day the maiden went out to her mother’s grave, and wept, and she remained pious and good.
When winter came the snow spread a white sheet over the grave,
and when the spring sun had drawn it off again, the man had taken another wife.
The woman had brought two daughters into the house with her, who were beautiful and fair of face, but vile and black of heart. Now began a bad time for the poor step-child.
“Is the stupid goose to sit in the parlour with us?” said they. “He who wants to eat bread must earn it; out with the kitchen-wench.”
They took her pretty clothes away from her, put an old grey bedgown on her, and gave her wooden shoes.
“Just look at the proud princess, how decked out she is!” they cried, and laughed, and led her into the kitchen.
There she had to do hard work from morning till night, get up before daybreak,
carry water,
light fires,
cook
and wash.
Besides this, the sisters did her every imaginable injury—they mocked her
and emptied her peas and lentils into the ashes, so that she was forced to sit and
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