Brothers Grimm in the context of "Evil Queen"

A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude. Legend, for its active and passive participants, may include miracles. Legends may be transformed over time to keep them fresh and vital.

Many legends operate within the realm of uncertainty, never being entirely believed by the participants, but also never being resolutely doubted. Legends are sometimes distinguished from myths in that they concern human beings as the main characters and do not necessarily have supernatural origins, and sometimes in that they have some sort of historical basis whereas myths generally do not. The Brothers Grimm defined legend as "folktale historically grounded". A by-product of the "concern with human beings" is the long list of legendary creatures, leaving no "resolute doubt" that legends are "historically grounded."

"Hansel and Gretel" (/ˈhænsəl, ˈhɛn- ... ˈɡrɛtəl/; German: Hänsel und Gretel [ˈhɛnzl̩ ʔʊnt ˈɡʁeːtl̩]) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 as part of Grimms' Fairy Tales (KHM 15).

Hansel and Gretel are siblings who are abandoned in a forest and fall into the hands of a witch who lives in a house made of bread, cake, and sugar. The witch, who has cannibalistic intentions, intends to fatten Hansel before eventually eating him. However, Gretel saves her brother by pushing the witch into her own oven, killing the witch. The children then escape with the witch's treasure.

"Little Red Riding Hood" (French: Le Petit Chaperon rouge) is a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. Some later versions include a woodsman. Its origins can be traced back to several pre-17th-century European folk tales. It was later retold in the 19th-century by the Brothers Grimm.

The story has varied considerably in different versions over the centuries, translations, and as the subject of numerous modern adaptations. Other names for the story are "Little Red Cap" or simply "Red Riding Hood". It is number 333 in the Aarne–Thompson classification system for folktales.

"Once upon a time" is a stock phrase used to introduce a narrative of past events, typically in fairy tales and folk tales. It has been used in some form since at least 1380 in storytelling in the English language and has started many narratives since 1600. These stories sometimes end with "and they all lived happily ever after", or, originally, "happily until their deaths".

The phrase is common in fairy tales for younger children. It was used in the original translations of the stories of Charles Perrault as a translation for the French "il était une fois", of Hans Christian Andersen as a translation for the Danish "der var engang" (literally "there was once"), the Brothers Grimm as a translation for the German "es war einmal" (literally "it was once") and Joseph Jacobs in English translations and fairy tales.

"Sleeping Beauty" (French: La Belle au bois dormant, or The Beauty Sleeping in the Wood; German: Dornröschen, or Little Briar Rose), also titled in English as The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods, is a French fairy tale about a princess cursed by an evil fairy to sleep for a hundred years before being awakened by a handsome prince. A good fairy, knowing the princess would be frightened if alone when she wakes, uses her wand to put every living person and animal in the palace and forest asleep, to awaken when the princess does.

The earliest known version of the tale is found in the French narrative Perceforest, written between 1330 and 1344. Another was the Catalan poem Frayre de Joy e Sor de Paser. Giambattista Basile wrote another, "Sun, Moon, and Talia" for his collection Pentamerone, published posthumously in 1634–36 and adapted by Charles Perrault in Histoires ou contes du temps passé in 1697. The version collected and printed by the Brothers Grimm was one orally transmitted from the Perrault version, while including own attributes like the thorny rose hedge and the curse.

Cinderella or The Little Glass Slipper, is a French folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world. The protagonist is a young girl living in unfortunate circumstances who is suddenly blessed with remarkable fortune, ultimately ascending to the throne through marriage. The story of Rhodopis—recounted by the Greek geographer Strabo sometime between 7 BC and AD 23—is about a Greek slave girl who marries the king of Egypt, and is usually considered to be the earliest known variant of the Cinderella story.

The first literary European version of the story was published in Italy by Giambattista Basile in his Pentamerone in 1634. The version that is now most widely known in the English-speaking world was published in French by Charles Perrault in Histoires ou contes du temps passé (translation: "Histories or tales of times passed") in 1697 as Cendrillon, and was anglicized as Cinderella. Another version was later published as Aschenputtel by the Brothers Grimm in their folk tale collection Grimms' Fairy Tales in 1812.

Hanau (German pronunciation: [ˈhaːnaʊ] ) is a city in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is 25 km east of Frankfurt am Main and part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its railway station is a major junction and it has a port on the river Main, making it an important transport centre. The city is known for being the birthplace of Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm and Franciscus Sylvius. Since the 16th century it was a centre of precious metal working, with many goldsmiths. It is home to Heraeus, one of Germany's largest family-owned companies. With a population of over 96,756 it is the largest city in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis.

Once the seat of the Counts of Hanau, Hanau lost much of its architectural heritage in World War II, such as its City Palace. A British air raid in 1945 created a firestorm, killing a sixth of the remaining population and destroying 98% of the old city and 80% of the city overall. The outer parts of the city have old timbered towns like Hanau-Steinheim [de] and castles like Schloss Philippsruhe [de].

Grimms' Fairy Tales (German: Grimms Märchen), originally known as the Children's and Household Tales (German: Kinder- und Hausmärchen, pronounced [ˌkɪndɐ ʔʊnt ˈhaʊsmɛːɐ̯çən], commonly abbreviated as KHM), is a German collection of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, first published on 20 December 1812. Vol. 1 of the first edition contained 86 stories, which were followed by 70 more tales, numbered consecutively, in the 1st edition, Vol. 2, in 1815. By the seventh edition in 1857, the corpus of tales had expanded to 200 tales and 10 "Children's Legends". It is considered the seminal work of Western children's literature and is listed by UNESCO in its Memory of the World Register.