Tieck published his Volksmährchen under the pseudonym Leberecht. In German this name can be read as an exhortation to live properly (“Lebe recht!”) and thus as an ironic allusion to the canon of Enlightenment values. The publisher, Carl August Nicolai, was the son of Friedrich Nicolai, a key representative of the Berlin Enlightenment. Due to these family ties, readers of the day may have received the mistaken impression that the stories were written with pedagogical intent to provide easily understandable lessons for broad segments of society.