Grimm's Fairy Tales
Reviewed By: Kathy Coonrod
This particular website is compiled by National Geographic Channel and was copyrighted by the National Geographic Society in 1999. The National Geographic name lends a great deal of credibility and authority to the site. The homepage gives a short history of the Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's motivation in preserving the Germanic folktales and how they were the first to make them softer and sweeter versions with a prim moral to appeal to the younger audience.
The site is primarily a presentation of 12 unvarnished tales based on a 1914 translation. Four or five of them had audio capability also.
The fact that the 1914 translation was credited is also important in the validity of the historical significance of the tales.
The site was very easy to read. The text of the fairy tales was on yellow background with large print. There were illustrations which looked very old and fit the text well. You could definitely tell while reading the tales, there had been many changes in the stories since they were translated in 1914.
There were some problems with the site. It took a while to navigate to the stories. When you did get to the end of the tale, there was a link for a story list. This list of the 12 stories would have been much better on the homepage. It would have saved a lot of time. The audio wasn't of very good quality on the stories I listened to. It "cut out" occasionally and there were some loud bleep type noises every great now and then. There was another "Open me Contents" feature on the story screens which didn't work. It featured a chest and a key.
While there were problems with this site, I think it is a good resource in which to obtain original Grimm fairy tales.
Reviewed By: Melissa Brewer
This site about Grimm's Fairy Tales is from a very credible source, National Geographic. It is biased in that it promotes National Geographic's organization; it has an advertisement at the top of the page inviting the reader to enter a contest for a chance to win a trip to Alaska. However, National Geographic is a respectable, solid resource to go to for accurate information.
The copyright on this page is 1999, but since the stories given are based on a 1914 translation, that is not a detriment. There are two workable links on the page: the link for the contest and a small yellow rectangle that takes the reader to National Geographic's homepage. The title, "Grimm's Fairy Tales," is also hyperlinked, but it takes the reader to the exact same page.
National Geographic does attribute these fairy tales to the Grimm brothers, and I believe the stories are accurate because the wording is exactly as I remember it from the book I had as a child. I do not think the stories have been altered from their original form in the 1914 version.
Both National Geographic and Grimm's Fairy Tales are available in printed format. This site is enjoyable, accurate, and visually pleasing. I recommend it to any reader who wants to read one of the twelve stories there.