# Wesen (the creatures of "Grimm")

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wesen-the-creatures-of-grimm/620953>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 5, 2012, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wesen-the-creatures-of-grimm/620953 "2012-05-05T03:49:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wesen-the-creatures-of-grimm/620953/1 "2012-05-05T03:49:40Z")

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I’ve watched every episode of _Grimm_, read all the way through the [_Grimm_ thread](http://nootropicdesign.com/projectlab/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/dynamite1-large.jpg), read the Wikipedia entries on [the show](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimm_%28TV_series%29) and [the wesen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatures_of_Grimm), and read through too many pages of the [Grimm Wiki](http://grimm.wikia.com/wiki/Grimm_Wiki). I still seem to be missing something.

Are all of these creatures (“wesen”) the product of the writers’ imaginations – based loosely on Grimm fairy tales, of course – or does this concept come from some pre-existing books or stories?

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**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wesen-the-creatures-of-grimm/620953/2 "2012-05-05T17:55:04Z")

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As a “furry” I can’t help wondering if they didn’t come across a website I used to visit which had porn for just about any were-creature you could think of.

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**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wesen-the-creatures-of-grimm/620953/3 "2012-05-06T03:40:24Z")

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I think the idea is that they’re supposed to be like the talking animals in the tales, but they’re people too.

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**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wesen-the-creatures-of-grimm/620953/4 "2012-05-07T17:00:29Z")

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At first, I thought they were playing off of “were” creatures, but the wesen breed true, don’t convert others by biting them, and can control their conversions. I can’t find any legend or lore about these critters, so I guess they are the product of the writers’ imaginations.