Back to main page for a look at the first edition of the Original Grimms Fairy Tales.

 
German title (1812): Das arme Mädchen
English title: The Poor Maiden
Story position (1812): Volume 1, Number 83

German title (1857): Die Sternthaler
English title: The Star Money
English title: The Star-Money
English title: The Star Coins
English title: The Star Talers
English title: The Shower of Gold
Story position (1857): Volume 2, Number 67
Story designation: KHM 153 ("Kinder- und Hausmärchen")

Quick history: There were seven editions of the Grimm's Fairy Tales published in the Grimm Brothers' lifetime. Each edition was presented in two volumes. Volume 1 of the first edition appeared in 1812; Volume 2 of the first edition appeared in 1815. Both volumes of the seventh (7th) and final edition appeared in 1857.

(Take me directly to the detailed comparison in the original German.)

Here are the nontrivial differences between the first and final versions of The Star-Money using the English translation by Margaret Hunt (1884). We disregard spelling, punctuation, and grammar updates, and minor shuffling of words.

In the difference spots, "1:" indicates the first edition (1812), and "7:" indicates the seventh and final edition (1857). Naturally, Hunt worked with the final edition, so all of the words in the common passages and the lines labeled "7:" are hers. Think of the lines labeled "1:" as what she would have produced if she had translated the 1st edition. Highlighted words direct your attention to the added, deleted, or changed wording. Click on "1:" to see the difference spot in the original German.

THERE was once on a time a little girl whose father and mother were dead, and she was so poor that she no longer had any

1:   house

7:   little room

to live in, or any

1:  

7:   little

bed to sleep in, and

1:   nothing more in the world

7:   at last absolutely nothing more

than the clothes on her body

1:   she was wearing [2]

7:  

and a little bit of bread in her hand which some charitable

1:   person

7:   soul

had given her. She was, however,

1:   very

7:  

good and pious. And

1:  

7:   as she was thus forsaken by all the world,

she went forth

1:   and on the way

7:   into the open country, trusting in the good God. Then

a poor man met her, who

1:   asked her so direly for something to eat.

7:   said, "Ah, give me something to eat. I am so hungry!"

She

1:   gave him the piece of bread,

7:   handed him the whole little piece of bread, and said, "May God bless it to thy use,"

and went onwards. Then came a child who

1:  

7:   moaned and

said, "My head is so cold, give me something

1:   I can bind around

7:   with which I can cover

it." So she took off her hood and gave it to

1:   the child

7:   him.

and when she had walked a

1:   bit,

7:   little farther,

she met another child who had no

1:   jacket.

7:   jacket and was frozen with cold.

Then she gave it her own; and a little farther on one begged for a frock, and she gave away that also. At length she

1:   came in

7:   got into

a forest and it had already become dark, and there came yet another child, and asked for a little shirt, and the good little girl thought to herself, "It is a dark night and

1:  

7:   no one sees thee,

thou canst very well give thy little shirt away," and

1:  

7:   took it off, and also

gave that away. And

1:  

7:   as she so stood, and had not one single thing left,

suddenly some stars from heaven fell down, and they were nothing else but hard smooth pieces of money, and although she had just given her little shirt away, she had

1:   yet one on, but

7:   a new one which was

of the very finest linen. Then she gathered together the money into this, and was rich all the days of her life.

 
NOTES:
[1] Hunt uses the "-" in the title.
[2] Hunt's translation seems to fit the first version here.

To identify the differences, I did a word-by-word comparison of the first and final versions in the original German. I used texts provided on the fine "Kinder- und Hausmärchen der Brüder Grimm" site (khm.li). In the comparisons below, as above, "1:" indicates the first version (1812), and "7:" indicates the seventh and final version (1857).

Und nun, auf Deutsch, mit aller Unterschieden zwischen die erste und letzte Ausgaben . . .

Es war einmal ein

1: armes,
7:

kleines Mädchen, dem war Vater und Mutter gestorben,

1: es hatte kein Haus mehr in dem es wohnen, und kein Bett mehr, in dem es schlafen konnte, und nichts mehr auf der Welt, als die Kleider, die es
7: und es war so arm, daß es kein Kämmerchen mehr hatte darin zu wohnen und kein Bettchen mehr darin zu schlafen und endlich gar nichts mehr als die Kleider

auf dem Leib

1: trug,
7:

und ein Stückchen

1: Brod
7: Brot

in der Hand, das ihm ein

1: Mitleidiger geschenkt hatte; es war aber gar fromm und gut. Da ging es hinaus, und unterwegs
7: mitleidiges Herz geschenkt hatte. Es war aber gut und fromm. Und weil es so von aller Welt verlassen war, gieng es im Vertrauen auf den lieben Gott hinaus ins Feld. Da

begegnete ihm ein armer Mann, der

1: bat es so sehr um
7: sprach »ach, gib mir

etwas zu essen,

1: da gab es ihm das Stück Brod; dann ging es weiter, da kam ein Kind, und sagte:
7: ich bin so hungerig.« Es reichte ihm das ganze Stückchen Brot und sagte »Gott segne dirs« und gieng weiter. Da kam ein Kind das jammerte und sprach

»es friert mich so an meinem

1: Kopf, schenk mir doch etwas, das ich darum binde,« da thät
7: Kopfe, schenk mir etwas, womit ich ihn bedecken kann.« Da that

es seine Mütze ab und gab sie

1: dem Kind.
7: ihm.

Und als es noch

1: ein bischen gegangen war, da
7: eine Weile gegangen war,

kam wieder ein

1: Kind,
7: Kind

und hatte kein Leibchen

1: an,
7: an und fror:

da gab es ihm

1: seins;
7: seins:

und noch weiter, da bat eins um ein Röcklein, das gab es auch von sich

1: hin, endlich kam es in
7: hin. Endlich gelangte es in einen

Wald, und es war schon dunkel geworden, da kam noch eins und bat um ein Hemdlein, und das fromme Mädchen

1: dachte: es ist dunkele Nacht, da kannst du
7: dachte »es ist dunkle Nacht, da sieht dich niemand du kannst

wohl dein Hemd

1: weggeben,
7: weg geben,« und zog das Hemd ab

und gab es

1: hin. Da
7: auch noch hin. Und wie es so stand und gar nichts mehr hatte,

fielen auf einmal die Sterne vom

1: Himmel
7: Himmel,

und waren lauter

1: harte, blanke Thaler,
7: harte blanke Thaler:

und ob es gleich sein Hemdlein

1: weggegeben, hatte es doch eins an, aber vom allerfeinsten Linnen, da
7: weg gegeben, so hatte es ein neues an und das war vom allerfeinsten Linnen. Da

sammelte es sich die Thaler hinein und

1: ward
7: war

reich für sein Lebtag.

Contact Donald Sauter: send an email; view guestbook; sign guestbook.
Back to Donald Sauter's main page.
Back to the top of this page.