Do not go into the woods. Inside are strange little men, ancient hairy women with edible houses, talking dead men swinging from gallows, wolves and robbers, ogres and murderers, cursed wells, talking frogs, hungry animals, cannibals, devils, and death himself. It is so dangerous there, but you shall have to go if you are ever to come out with a happy ending.

The fairy tales collected by the brothers Grimm 200 years ago this year will never lose their immediacy; those deep woods are inside our skulls; they cannot be uprooted. How many millions of nightmares have the Grimms inspired, how many pleasant daydreams?