"Turn and peep, turn and peep,
No blood is in the shoe,
The shoe is not too small for her,
The true bride rides with you."

The Grimm Brothers
& Context of the Period

Background & Personal Context:
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were born into a large family consisting of 8 sons and one daughter. Jacob, the elder of the two, was born in 1785 and passed away in 1863. Wilhelm was born the year after Jacob. He died before his elder brother however in 1859. Their father was a lawyer which influenced their original desires of court, this soon changed however when the two brothers became more interested in recording and preserving German folk tales for the people of their town, Hesse. When their father died, the brothers had more pressure put on them through duties within their family who was going through hardship but they continued to record folktales.

Social Context:
Society was predominately white and governed by male figures. It was the men of society who went to earn a living while the women were house bound. Science was seen as fact and strict religious practices and such began to become less common. Science was more dominant from the enlightenment period where views of believes and reality were altered and challenged.

Historical Context:
During the time of the Grimm brothers, the French were very influential among the German people. This is one factor leading to the desire, value and importance of preserving the German folk law and cultures passed down through the generations.

Napoleonic wars (1803–1815) added to the hardship faced by the brothers and their family as well as other revolutions such as the French revolution (1789) and also the American Revolution before that. Events such as these influenced the importance of preserving the German culture as at the time Germany wasn't its own country but small colonies with the possibility of collapsing or being over run.

Cultural Context:
The brothers saw parts and fragments of past religions and faiths throughout the stories being recorded. The Grimm's were religious and therefore had repressed sexual aspects within their stories and also why morals were included.

The Fairy-tale (Summary)

The Grimms' Aschenputtel, "Cinderella" in English translations, begins with the untimely death of young girl's mother to whom a promise to stay good and kind was made. A year went by and the widower married another woman, who had two daughters of her own. They were beautiful in appearance but their hearts were dark, cruel and wicked. The girl was forced to live in rags as a slave, her fine clothes and jewels were stolen by the two step-sisters, and was nicknamed "Aschenputtel" or "Cinderella" as she slept in a hearth in the ashes causing a dirty, dusty appearance.

One day, the father was travelling to the fair. He asked each of his daughters what they desired. The two step-sisters replied with "beautiful dresses" and "pearls and jewels", Cinderella, however, requested the branch which brushes against his hat. Each of these were delivered to the daughters. Cinderella planted the branch on her mother's grave, which she visited each day, and a huge hazel tree blossomed.

The King proclaimed that he would be hosting a festival which was to last three days so that his son may find a bride. All of the beautiful women in the land were invited. The step-sisters were overjoyed when they were invited and forced Cinderella to brush their hair and help them prepare for the festivals. Each of the three days Cinderella asked her step-mother if she could go also. Lentils were thrown into the fireplace each time and the mother said that if Cinderella picked out all the lentils each day that she could go. Cinderella, along with the help from some from birds called in from the garden, collected the amounts of lentils but was still not able to accompany her sisters to the ball. She wept over her birth-mother's grave and from the hazel tree came beautiful dresses, each more beautiful than the night previous, and Cinderella went to the festival unrecognised. The prince took favour upon Cinderella and would dance with no other maiden each night. But night after night she left the party and the prince did not know where she went so on the third night he coated the stairs with a sticky liquid causing her slipper to stick to the stair.

He searched the kingdom for the one maiden to whom fits the golden slipper. When he came to Cinderella's house, the two step-sisters came out. Their feet were too big to fit the slipper so one cut off her toe so that the slipper would fit while the other cut off her heel. As the prince began to ride off with the sisters in turn, both times the birds chirped: "Turn and peep, turn and peep, there's blood within the shoe, the shoe it is too small for her, the true bride waits for you." The prince asked for anyother maidens of the house and remorsefully the step-mother called for Cinderella. The shoe fit and they were wed. At the church, the step-sisters' eyes were plucked out by the birds for their wickedness.

Heading pictures from:
http://vrtuoso.deviantart.com/art/Grimm-s-Cinderella-8-of-10-180410728
http://araniel.deviantart.com/art/Brothers-Grimm-Cinderella-99122467
http://stenzel.ucdavis.edu/180/anthology/aschenputtel.html
http://vrtuoso.deviantart.com/art/Grimm-s-Cinderella-5-of-10-180410377

Pictures from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_Grimm