Children's and Household Tales (from the German Kinder- und Hausmärchen) is a collection of fairy tales first published on December 20, 1812 by the Grimm brothers or "Brothers Grimm", Jacob and Wilhelm.

This collection is commonly known as Grimms' Fairy Tales among English speakers.

The first edition contains eighty-six stories.

Professor Friedrich Carl von Savigny, a jurist and historian, and the founder of the school of law at the University of Marburg, had become a huge personal and professional influence on the brothers.

Throughout their time at the university, the brothers had become quite close with Savigny and had been able to use his personal library as they developed a keen interest n German law, history, and folklore.

Savigny had asked Jacob to join him in Paris as an assistant and Jacob had gone with him for a year.

While he was gone, Wilhelm became very interested in German literature and started collecting books.

Once Jacob returned to Kassel in 1806, he decided to quit studying law and instead spent his full efforts on German literature.

While Jacob studied literature and took care of their siblings, Wilhelm received his degree in law at Marburg.

In 1808, their mother died and it was very hard on Jacob because he took the position in the family as a father figure, while also trying to be a brother.

From 1806 to 1810, the Grimm family had barely enough money to properly feed and clothe themselves.

During this time, Jacob and Wilhelm were concerned about the stability of the family and began collecting folk tales.

Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano were good friends of the brothers and wanted to publish folk tales, so they asked the brothers to collect oral tales for publication.

The Grimms collected many old books and asked friends and acquaintances in Kassel to tell tales and to gather stories from others.

Jacob and Wilhelm sought to collect these stories in order to write a history of old German Poesie and to preserve history.