More than 500 fairytales, gathered together by Franz Xaver Von Schönwerth more than 150 years ago, have been rediscovered in an archive in Regensburg, Germany. Von Schönwerth was a contemporary of the Grimm Brothers and, like them, worked to collect fairytales for future generations.
The collection includes a number of stories that have never previously been recorded, as well as Bavarian versions of well-known stories such as Rumpelstiltskin and Cinderella. While the Grimm brothers were known for the flourishes they added to stories they collected, Von Schönwerth preferred to record the stories as accurately as possible, with very little added invention of his own.
A translator has already started work on bringing the newly discovered fairytales to an English edition, and work is continuing to try to raise the profile of Franz Xaver Von Schönwerth around the world. The Franz Xaver Von Schönwerth Society is working to get his work more widely read, and to promote academic studies of his life and career. Click here to read one of the fairytales, The Turnip Princess.
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