oder der Butzemann, worunter man sich einen wilden oder strengen und harten Mann denkt, der bei seinem Erscheinen die Kinder in Angst jagt.
Mit vollkommener Hochachtung
Ew. Wohlgebornen
Caßel 25t Juni 1823. |
ergebenste D. D. Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm. |
Sirs,
It is so long since I was favored with your observations on the subject of the volume of German Popular stories which I had a share in translating, that I am almost afraid I come too late, though in truth I had hoped long e’er this to have been enabled to revive the subject in the manner I wished, namely in presenting you with the second volume, which I have prepared by myself and which I at length inclose. – I am afraid you will still think me sacrificing too much to the public taste, but in truth I began the work leß as an antiquarian Man as one who meant to amuse, and the literary taste for the subject came upon me only when I had got upon a plan which I could not well abandon in consistency. – You will see that I have been obliged to take two or three stories from other collections to make up my volume of the character I wished.
Has my vol. „Lays of the Minnesingers“ reached you – If it has I must bespeak a charitable judgment for that too. – It aims at nothing more than an introduction of the English reader to a subject, which would amply repay the labor of a more able hand. – But Germany should not complain of other countries when she is herself still deficient of a complete history of the literature etc. of the Suabian Aera.
I have some inclination to publish a volume or two of the popular stories of the middle ages in various countries of Europe, selecting those which are best known and most worth preserving in each – of course all translated and to a certain extent therefore a little retold. – I mean in this collection to take what we called here „Chapbooks“, and what you call Folks-books; many of which are as you are aware the romances of older times abridged – of course they would generally be longer than what come within the claß of child’s stories.
For instance I should give – Fortunatus Magelone – Faustus – Valentine and Orm (?) – Guy of Warwick – Owlglaß etc. –
Now these of an early date are not very easily to be got in a genuine state – Ours in England are rarely to be met with and it has struck me that probably those of them which either belong properly
Otto Hartwig: Zur ersten englischen Übersetzung der Kinder- und Hausmärchen der Brüder Grimm. Otto Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1898, Seite 9. Digitale Volltext-Ausgabe bei Wikisource, URL: https://de.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Seite:Hartwig_Uebersetzung_Maerchen_Grimm.djvu/9&oldid=- (Version vom 1.8.2018)
