The Brothers Grimm, Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Carl Grimm (1786–1859), were German academics best known for collecting European folk tales. Children’s and Household Tales, published in two volumes, include such staples of childhood as “Cinderella,” “Hansel and Gretel,” “Rumpelstiltskin,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Snow White,” and “Sleeping Beauty”—stories on which Disney built an empire. Wilhelm worked on the prose while Jacob established the framework maintained through many editions. Jacob never married but lived with Wilhelm and his wife in the Kingdom of Hanover.

The Elves and the Shoemaker

A Story

by the Brothers Grimm, translated by Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes

There was once a shoemaker, who worked very hard and was very honest: but still he could not earn enough to live upon; and at last all he had in the world was gone, save just leather enough to make one pair of shoes.

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