 My principle has always been in these investigations to under-value nothing, but to utilize the small for the illustration of the great, the popular tradition for the elucidation of the written monuments.Grimm's "Geschichte der deutschen Sprache" (History of the German Language) explores German history hidden in the words of the German language and is the oldest linguistic history of the Teutonic tribes.He collected scattered words and allusions from classical literature and tried to determine the relationship between the German language and those of the Getae, Thracians, Scythians, and other nations whose languages were known only through Greek and Latin authors.