Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
50 free Brothers Grimm trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Brothers Grimm trivia quiz covers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the German scholars behind Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel and Rumpelstiltskin as most of the world knows them. The easy questions cover the brothers' first names, their nationality, the title of the collection, the most famous tales and the Disney films built on them. From there it moves through the biography: the father who died when Jacob was eleven, the poverty at Marburg, the law professor who pointed them at folklore, the librarian jobs, the storytellers who were not peasants at all, and the day seven Göttingen professors refused to swear an oath. The harder end covers the 86 tales of 1812 and the 211 of 1857, the Ölenberg manuscript found in an Alsace church, Rapunzel's censored pregnancy, the red-hot iron shoes, the frog that was thrown rather than kissed, the Deutsches Wörterbuch that took until 1960 to finish, and the last word Jacob reached. Every answer was checked against the Brothers Grimm encyclopaedia entry before publishing and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our fairy tales and Disney quizzes are the natural next stop.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What were the first names of the two Grimm brothers?
Jacob and Wilhelm
Jacob was born in 1785 and Wilhelm in 1786; a younger brother illustrated the children's editions.
Q 02In which town were the Grimm brothers born?
Hanau
It lay in the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel; the family moved to Steinau when Jacob was six.
Q 03What is the German title of the Grimms' famous collection, first published in 1812?
Kinder- und Hausmärchen
Children's and Household Tales; it grew from 86 stories to more than 200 across seven Large editions.
Q 04How many tales were in the first volume of the Grimms' collection in 1812?
86
A second volume of 70 more followed in 1814, and the final 1857 edition ran to more than 200.
Q 05How many tales did the seventh and final 1857 edition contain?
211
That was 200 numbered folk tales plus a handful of legends.
Q 06What was the profession of the Grimms' father, Philipp Wilhelm Grimm?
Jurist and district magistrate
His death from pneumonia in 1796 plunged the family of nine children into poverty.
Q 07How old was Jacob when his father died, forcing him to assume adult responsibilities?
11
Their grandfather 'continually exhorted them to be industrious'; the aunt paid for their schooling in Kassel.
Q 08Which university did the brothers attend, needing a dispensation to study law due to their status?
Marburg
It had about 200 students; the Grimms were excluded even from tuition aid.
Q 09Which law professor awakened the brothers' interest in history and philology?
Friedrich von Savigny
Through his circle they met the romantic poets and Herder's idea of Volkspoesie.
Q 10How did Wilhelm describe the family's poverty in a letter to his aunt around 1806?
'We five people eat only three portions and only once a day'
Jacob left his studies to work for the Hessian War Commission to support them.
Q 11What job did Jacob take in 1808 that gave the brothers time for research?
Court librarian to the King of Westphalia
Wilhelm later joined him as a librarian in Kassel; the pay was poor but the free time was ample.
Q 12At whose request did the brothers begin collecting folk tales in 1807?
Clemens Brentano's
He wanted them for a third volume of Des Knaben Wunderhorn, then ignored the 53 tales they sent him.
Q 13What are the 53 Grimm tales found in an Alsace church in 1920 known as?
The Ölenberg manuscript
Q 21In the Grimms' original 'Snow White', who orders the huntsman to kill the girl?
Her own mother
The queen wants the child's lungs and liver to eat, and meets a gruesome end at the wedding.
Q 22How does the queen die at the end of the Grimms' 'Snow White'?
Dancing in red-hot iron shoes
The scene takes place at Snow White's wedding.
Q 23In the Grimms' 'The Frog Prince', what does the princess do to the frog instead of kissing him?
Throws him against a wall
The kiss is a later softening.
It is the earliest surviving version of the collection and was published in 1927.
Q 14Whom did Wilhelm marry in 1825?
Dortchen Wild, a pharmacist's daughter
She had told the brothers several tales; Jacob never married and lived in the household all his life.
Q 15Which two famous tales did Wilhelm's in-laws and their nursery maid tell the brothers?
'Hansel and Gretel' and 'Sleeping Beauty'
Many tales came from middle-class or aristocratic acquaintances, not the peasants of legend.
Q 16The first English translation recast storyteller Dorothea Viehmann as a peasant named what?
Gammer Gretel
She was actually of French descent and middle-class.
Q 17Grimm informants such as Marie Hassenpflug were of what ancestry, explaining the French flavour of some tales?
Huguenot
They probably knew the French salon tales published in Paris in 1697.
Q 18After 1819, what did Wilhelm begin writing in addition to editing the collection?
Original stories for children
Children had not originally been considered the primary audience; he also added didactic elements to existing tales.
Q 19What did Wilhelm edit out of 'Rapunzel' after the first edition?
The sexual relationship between prince and girl
Critics had complained that not all the tales were suitable for children.
Q 20To make the tales sound more German, French-derived words like 'Fee' and 'Prinzessin' were replaced with what?
Zauberin and Königstochter
A prince became a Königssohn, a king's son.
Q 24In 'The Goose Girl', what punishment is inflicted on the treacherous servant?
Rolled down the street in a barrel of nails
Such cruelty may reflect the medieval culture the tales came from.
Q 25How many Grimms' editions appeared from 1812 to 1864, Large and Small combined?
17
Seven Large editions with scholarly notes, and ten Small editions for children.
Q 26How many tales did the children's 'Small edition' contain?
50
Its illustrations added Christian touches such as a holy book by Red Riding Hood's grandmother's bed.
Q 27Which younger Grimm brother illustrated the Small editions?
Emil
He drew Cinderella's mother as an angel; Jacob had paid for his art-school studies.
Q 28The brothers moved to which university town in 1830 after being passed over in Kassel?
Göttingen
Jacob became professor and head librarian and Wilhelm a professor, teaching the new discipline of German studies.
Q 29Which well-regarded work did Jacob publish in 1835?
German Mythology
Wilhelm meanwhile prepared the third edition of the fairy tales.
Q 30Why did the brothers lose their university posts in 1837?
They refused to swear an oath of allegiance to the King of Hanover
With five colleagues they defied Ernest Augustus, who had dissolved parliament; Jacob was deported to Kassel.