DIE DEUTSCHE HELDENSAGE [THE GERMAN HEROIC SAGA]

First edition, first printing. German language. 19th century brown half leather and marbled paper covered boards by Wood, London, with five raised bands and gilt titles to the spine. Marbled endpapers. Top edge gilt. A very good copy, the binding square and firm, the extremities rubbed, the leather with a few slight indentations and the lower board with minor scuffing. The contents are foxed throughout, a few pages are lightly creased and with a bookplate of Bibliotheca Lindesiana (the library of the 25th and 26th Earls of Crawford, one of the most significant private libraries assembled in Britain in the 19th century) to the front pastedown, are otherwise without stamps or inscriptions. An attractive copy.

A significant text by Wilhelm Grimm that brings together research on the heroic literary tradition of Germanic cultures. While Wilhelm and his brother Jacob are widely known for the many books on mythology and folklore that they wrote together, particularly 'Kinder- und Hausmärchen' ('Household and Children's Tales', which became known as 'The Tales of the Brothers Grimm'), 1812-1815, they also worked separately. When writing individually, Jacob's interests leaned towards grammar and law, while Wilhelm's were focused on medieval literature; he published a translation of Old Danish ballads in 1811 and a book on German runes in 1821 before he embarked on this study of heroic legends.