Once upon a time there lived in Germany two brothers who loved a good story—one with magic and danger, royalty and villains (恶棍). At school they met a wise man who led them to a treasure—a library of old books with tales more appealing than any they had ever heard.________, the brothers began collecting their own stories, listening to the folktales people told them. Soon they ________ their own treasure—a book of fairy tales that would charm millions in faraway lands for generations to come.

The brother Grimm, Jacob and Wihelm, named their work Children’s and Household Tales and published it in Germany in 1812. The collection, which has been translated into more than 160 languages is a publishing ________. The stories and characters extended beyond the ________, making appearances in various forms of art and culture, from theater to fashion.

Such ________ would have shocked the humble Grimms. During their lifetimes, the book sold few copies in Germany. The early editions were not even ________ children. They had no illustrations, and scholarly footnotes took up almost as much space as the tales themselves. Jacob and Wihelm Grimm viewed themselves as ________ students of folklore. They began their work at a time when Germany had been occupied by the French under Napolean. As young scholars, the brothers Grimms began work on the fairy tale collection in order to save the endangered oral storytelling tradition of Germany.

Long before the Grimms’ time,________ developed in inns, barns, and peasant homes. During winter nights, as they sat spinning wool, women kept each other company and entertained each other with tales of adventure, romance, and magic.________, 40 such storytellers delivered tales to the Grimms, many of them coming to their house in Kassel. Although the brothers implied that they were just ________ the tales, Wilhelm polished and reshaped them up to the final edition of 1857. In an effort to make them more ________ to children and their parents, he stressed the moral of each tale, and emphasized gender roles. According to the Grimms, the collection served as “a manual of ________.” To this day, parents read them to their children because they approve of the lessons in the stories: keep your promises, don’t talk to strangers, work hard, obey your parents.

So what ________ their popularity? Some have suggested it is because the characters are always striving for happiness. But the truth probably lies in their ________. The Grimm’s tales were born out of a storytelling tradition without ________ of age or culture. The brother’s skill was to translate these into a universal style of writing that seems to mirror whatever moods or interests we bring to our reading of them. And so it was that the Grimm’s fairy tales lived happily ever after.