Johann Gustav Gottlieb Büsching (19 September 1783 – 4 May 1829) was a German antiquary. His knowledge of subjects pertaining to Germany in the Middle Ages was notable.
Biography
He was born in Berlin, the son of Anton Friedrich Büsching, a geographer and educator. He studied at the universities of Erlangen and Halle, was appointed royal archivist at Breslau in 1811, and in 1817 an associate professor of archaeology at the University of Breslau. He collected oral folk stories from the Uckermark region, which he published in Volks-Sagen, Märchen und Legenden (1812).
Selected works
() 1807
() 3 parts, 1808–25
() 1812
() 1818–19
Translations
Several of the stories from Büsching's have been translated into English.
"" was rewritten in English for The Lady's Magazine in 1821 as "The History of Kibitz, the Peasant". This was followed by another adaptation in Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations (1823) as "Kibitz", which was used as the basis of Jan M. Ziolkowski's more accurate translation in Fairy Tales from Before Fairy Tales (2007). Edgar Taylor translated this story for German Popular Stories (1826) as "Pee-Wit", which was slightly revised by Marian Edwardes and included in Grimm's Household Tales (1912).
Taylor's German Popular Stories (1826) also included a translation of "" as "Cherry, or the Frog-Bride", which Edwardes revised as "Cherry the Frog-Bride" in Grimm's Household Tales (1912). Andrew Lang included a translation of this story as "Puddocky" in The Green Fairy Book (1892).
Thomas Roscoe translated "History of Count Walter and the Lady Helgunda" ("") and "Assassination of the Empress of Tartary at Neumarkt in the Year 1240" ("") in The German Novelists (1826).
George Godfrey Cunningham translated "" as "Legends of the Kyffhauser" in Foreign Tales and Traditions (1829).
William Thoms' Lays and Legends of Various Nations: Germany (1834) included eight translations: "The Enchanted Emperor" (""), "The Sexton of Magdeburg" (""), "The Legend of Daniel's Cave" (""), "The Story of the Popanz" (""), "The Ancient Ballad of Sir Tannhauser" (""), "The Lady of Weissenburg" (""), "Legends of Rubezahl; or, Number-Nip" ("" that Büsching had collected from Johannes Praetorius), and "The Juniper Tree" (""). It also included an untitled translation of "" and an extract from "".