This tale of the Grimmsʼ collection was contributed (in a Low German dialect) by Philipp Otto Runge. His main profession was painting, and he designed a color model using a sphere.[1]

His interest in colors certainly left a trace in the elaboration how the sea and the sky are colored and change their colors.

Runge contributed another tale, “Von dem Machandelboom” ‘Of / about the juniper tree’. Both tales were held in high regard by the Grimms. They saw some traits as typical or classical for the genre, e.g. the repetitions, parallelisms with rising tension.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_Otto_Runge#Runge_and_c... –