“This is a work of fiction. All the characters in it, human and otherwise, are imaginary, except only certain of the fairy folk, whom it might be unwise to offend by casting doubts on their existence. Or lack thereof.”
Neil Gaiman
Prologue
Two hundred years ago, the Brothers Grimm altered the true fairy tales, hiding that fact its characters were immortals, secretly living among us.
They placed a curse upon the immortals, burying them in their own dreams, so they won’t ever wake up again. The immortals’ bodies would appear as if in a coma in the real world while their minds created a world of their own imagination in a realm called the Dreamworld. The Brothers Grimm once mentioned this curse in the Snow White story when she was sleeping in her glass coffin. In the original scripts, they called it the Sleeping Death.
However, the immortals broke the curse by intertwining their dreams, and were able to wake up for a brief time every one hundred years. The good ones wished to tell the truth about fairy tales. The bad ones planned to bring wrath upon our world.
Since immortals did not die, descendants of the Brothers Grimm summoned the Dreamhunters, a breed of angels that kills immortals in their dreams. The confrontations didn’t end very well.
Everything that happened in that period was documented in a Book of Sand, or what mortals call: the Grimm Diaries. Different fairy tale characters wrote each diary, telling part of the story.
My name is Sandman Grimm, and my job is to seal the final edition of the Grimm Diaries every one hundred years, using a magic wand that writes on pages made of sand. After I seal the diaries, they will dissolve into sand that I throw into children’s eyes every night to create their dreams.
What follows are mini diaries I call the Grimm Prequels, scattered and buried pages that didn't make it to the main volumes of the Grimm Diaries. There are seven of them, each told by a famous character. You might want to read them before the first full-length diary called Snow White Sorrow. It will give you an idea of what this world is like.
The prequels don’t necessary hold the truth. Some characters might want to manipulate the truth in their favor. And since the prequels don’t give away much of the story, some matters could seem confusing at times.
It’s better to think of the prequels like snap shots of a magical land you're about to visit soon. I like to think of them as poisoned apples. Once you taste them, you will never see fairy tales in the same light again.
Blood Apples
as told by Prince Charming
Dear Diary,
Today, I sat by the fire in my castle, reading a letter made of pages of sand, delivered to me by a white dove guarded by two owls.
Those damn letters you get to read only once before they start pouring through your fingers like sand in a bottomless hourglass, forever gone, and forever lost like the two seconds that just passed since I started this diary.
I was staring at the letter with a smile on the corner of my mouth. It wasn’t the magical letter that amused me though. It was the names of its senders: Jeannette and Amalie Hassenpflug, the two women who were buried behind the Brothers Grimm’s eyes.
Jeannette and Amalie Hassenpflug were the source the Brothers Grimm got most of their fairy tales. They lived in Kassel in Germany, and one of their sisters married the Grimm’s third brother later in life. They told fairy tales in exchange for a loaf of bread or a place to stay at night. Sometimes they did it in exchange for a jar of golden fireflies to light up the night, trying to escape the vicious evil that hunted them for the rest of their lives.
The letter Jeannette and Amalie sent me was short and precise. They only had one question, and they demanded an answer.
I had known them for many years, but hadn’t been able to answer their previous silly questions. However, this newer question was much easier to answer.
Feeding wood to the fire, I winced
Neil Gaiman
Prologue
Two hundred years ago, the Brothers Grimm altered the true fairy tales, hiding that fact its characters were immortals, secretly living among us.
They placed a curse upon the immortals, burying them in their own dreams, so they won’t ever wake up again. The immortals’ bodies would appear as if in a coma in the real world while their minds created a world of their own imagination in a realm called the Dreamworld. The Brothers Grimm once mentioned this curse in the Snow White story when she was sleeping in her glass coffin. In the original scripts, they called it the Sleeping Death.
However, the immortals broke the curse by intertwining their dreams, and were able to wake up for a brief time every one hundred years. The good ones wished to tell the truth about fairy tales. The bad ones planned to bring wrath upon our world.
Since immortals did not die, descendants of the Brothers Grimm summoned the Dreamhunters, a breed of angels that kills immortals in their dreams. The confrontations didn’t end very well.
Everything that happened in that period was documented in a Book of Sand, or what mortals call: the Grimm Diaries. Different fairy tale characters wrote each diary, telling part of the story.
My name is Sandman Grimm, and my job is to seal the final edition of the Grimm Diaries every one hundred years, using a magic wand that writes on pages made of sand. After I seal the diaries, they will dissolve into sand that I throw into children’s eyes every night to create their dreams.
What follows are mini diaries I call the Grimm Prequels, scattered and buried pages that didn't make it to the main volumes of the Grimm Diaries. There are seven of them, each told by a famous character. You might want to read them before the first full-length diary called Snow White Sorrow. It will give you an idea of what this world is like.
The prequels don’t necessary hold the truth. Some characters might want to manipulate the truth in their favor. And since the prequels don’t give away much of the story, some matters could seem confusing at times.
It’s better to think of the prequels like snap shots of a magical land you're about to visit soon. I like to think of them as poisoned apples. Once you taste them, you will never see fairy tales in the same light again.
Blood Apples
as told by Prince Charming
Dear Diary,
Today, I sat by the fire in my castle, reading a letter made of pages of sand, delivered to me by a white dove guarded by two owls.
Those damn letters you get to read only once before they start pouring through your fingers like sand in a bottomless hourglass, forever gone, and forever lost like the two seconds that just passed since I started this diary.
I was staring at the letter with a smile on the corner of my mouth. It wasn’t the magical letter that amused me though. It was the names of its senders: Jeannette and Amalie Hassenpflug, the two women who were buried behind the Brothers Grimm’s eyes.
Jeannette and Amalie Hassenpflug were the source the Brothers Grimm got most of their fairy tales. They lived in Kassel in Germany, and one of their sisters married the Grimm’s third brother later in life. They told fairy tales in exchange for a loaf of bread or a place to stay at night. Sometimes they did it in exchange for a jar of golden fireflies to light up the night, trying to escape the vicious evil that hunted them for the rest of their lives.
The letter Jeannette and Amalie sent me was short and precise. They only had one question, and they demanded an answer.
I had known them for many years, but hadn’t been able to answer their previous silly questions. However, this newer question was much easier to answer.
Feeding wood to the fire, I winced
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