Deutsche Sagen by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm is a collection of German legends written in the early 19th century. The volume assembles place-bound folk traditions from German-speaking regions—tales of mountain spirits, Frau Holle, giants, dwarfs, revenants, holy wonders, and hidden treasures—framed by a scholarly concern for faithful transcription of oral lore. The opening of the collection presents a substantial preface that distinguishes legend from fairy tale, pledges fidelity to sources and
wording, defends preserving regional variety, explains the loose, natural arrangement, cites principal sources and informants, and invites further contributions. A long contents list signals the breadth of material. The first legends then showcase the range: miners miraculously sustained underground; a formidable Berggeist who helps, warns, and punishes; multiple Meißner tales of Frau Holle as dispenser of order, fertility, and just rewards, aided by the treue Eckart; the Springwurzel that opens hidden passages; noble or spectral maidens guarding treasure (Boyneburg, Pielberg, Schloß-Jungfrau, the serpent-maiden awaiting release); ominous portents like the “heavy child”; a haunted wine cellar whose gifts prove fatal; and giant lore—from playful boulder games and the Nideck maiden’s lesson about peasant toil to the warrior Einheer, ancient stone “columns,” and the treasure-filled Köterberg. Together these early pieces establish the collection’s blend of local setting, moral tenor, supernatural intervention, and antiquarian framing. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Markus Brenner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file made from scans of public domain material at Austrian Literature Online.)
Reading Level
Reading ease score: 75.4 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read.
