The Brothers Grimm
The household tales, slowed down: which Grimm stories rest easy and which bite.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm began publishing their collected tales in 1812, and two centuries of retellings have made the plots common property. That familiarity is what these recordings lean on: when you already know the breadcrumbs fail and the tower has no stairs, the story asks nothing of you but company.
Not every Grimm tale rests easy, so sort by nerve. Rapunzel is the calm one, a slow tale of a high tower told by Andrew Bond. The Snow White Fairy Tales pairs two stories built around girls named Snow White, read by Elizabeth Grace. Hansel & Gretel keeps its witch and its dark forest; most adults sleep through it untroubled, but give it a pass if abandoned-children stories sit wrong at midnight.
For range, Grimm's Fairytales gathers the best-known stories into a single collection on Send Me To Sleep. Treat it as a sampler: let it run, note which tales pull you under fastest, and keep those on repeat.
