03-03-2017, 10:21 AM
In my dual language copy of the Grimm tales, the stories don't end with either version. Most of them seem to end with the fate of the bad characters.
My guess is that "and they all lived happily ever after" started out as either a sarcastic mocking of highly censored versions of the stories or as something people reading the stories to children ad libbed onto the end of what they were reading instead of telling them the more grisly actual endings.
The closest I can find is from Sleeping Beauty:
"Und da wurde die Hochzeit des Königssohns mit dem Dornröschen in aller Pracht gefeiert, und sie lebten vergnügt bis an ihr Ende."
"And there was celebrated the wedding of the King's son with the sleeping beauty in all its splendour, and they lived happily until the end."
My guess is that "and they all lived happily ever after" started out as either a sarcastic mocking of highly censored versions of the stories or as something people reading the stories to children ad libbed onto the end of what they were reading instead of telling them the more grisly actual endings.
The closest I can find is from Sleeping Beauty:
"Und da wurde die Hochzeit des Königssohns mit dem Dornröschen in aller Pracht gefeiert, und sie lebten vergnügt bis an ihr Ende."
"And there was celebrated the wedding of the King's son with the sleeping beauty in all its splendour, and they lived happily until the end."