I have a copy of the collected stories of the Brothers Grimm from my childhood, but when I was young I skipped the preface (and to be honest, most of the &quot;Christian&quot; stories, which I found boring, preferring instead the fairy tales with blood, monsters, witches and the prototypical &quot;the youngest of three brothers gets the princess&#x2F;treasure&quot;), but when I was older I did finally read the preface and was surprised to learn the Brothers Grimm were <i>researchers</i>, not authors of children&#x27;s stories. These guys weren&#x27;t trying to collect stories for their entertainment value, but they were trying to analyze European folk tales instead!