Christensen's Faery Tales Week: Day 2

Today is the second day of identifying the fairy tales in James Christensen's Faery Tales. I give you four new images:


Fairy Tale 4


Fairy Tale 5


Fairy Tale 6


Fairy Tale 7

For your convenience in copying and pasting into comments:

Fairy Tale 4:
Fairy Tale 5:
Fairy Tale 6:
Fairy Tale 7:

Once again, the puzzle is quite affordable at Amazon and other retailers. It also comes in a 1,000 piece version from what I've seen online, but I preferred the 1,500. Alas, prints of the painting are much more expensive, but readily available at the James Christensen site among others. (I am an Amazon affiliate, as we all know by now, but am not affiliated with any of the other sites linked in this post.)

Christensen's Faery Tales Week: Day 1

Long before the holidays, I shared several fairy tale puzzle designs as I searched for a present for my dad. I admitted that I favored James Christensen's Faery Tales and I ended up gifting it to him as planned. He put it together within a few days and then delivered it back to me for photographing and sharing. (Dad loves puzzles but once he's done one, he's done with it and usually gives it away.) He says this one was fun, not boring with lots of colors and challenging with 1,500 pieces. So thumbs way up on this puzzle design based on Christensen's painting.

I've finally photographed the puzzle and poured over it, trying to identify all the fairy tales represented within. After several attempts at internet searching, I still haven't found a master list, only the information that 24 tales are represented. I thought I would finally publish such a list online, but I admit I'm having problems with two of the tales myself although identifying 22 of them was easy for me. One I haven't identified for sure and the second I'm not sure if it is a fairy tale representation or if I am missing a reference somewhere else in the puzzle. So all this week I will share studies from the puzzle and give you the chance to guess and share in the comments or through email. We can figure this one out together...

Today I present the first three tales, in the upper left hand corner:


Fairy Tale 1


Fairy Tale 2


Fairy Tale 3

Sorry about the blurriness of some of the images. Most aren't too bad this week, but the winter light has made photographing without flash hard. These will do well enough for our game though.

For your convenience in copying and pasting into comments:

Fairy Tale 1:
Fairy Tale 2:
Fairy Tale 3:

Finally, the puzzle is quite affordable at Amazon and other retailers. It also comes in a 1,000 piece version from what I've seen online, but I preferred the 1,500. Alas, prints of the painting are much more expensive, but readily available at the James Christensen site among others. (I am an Amazon affiliate, as we all know by now, but am not affiliated with any of the other sites linked in this post.)

Fairy Tale News Briefs

I read a lot of stuff like this, but these were particularly good for the genre... From Behind the fairy tale by Greg Bird:

Fairy tales are simple stories that are used to entertain children. But, in the land of fairy tales, things are not always as they seem. What is presented to the public as stories with happy endings, in reality is just the tip of the iceberg. So often, the rest of the story is left out. So I took it upon myself, as a dedicated newspaperman, to research some of the stories we all grew up hearing and find out what happened next. Some of these stories could have ended up on the Jerry Springer Show.

Snow White and the 7 Dwarves: Let us forget the fact that it was just one girl living with 7 men, and ignore that she did all the cooking and cleaning while the guys worked. It is a little known fact that in actuality there were originally 80 dwarves. One-by-one they all began to disappear. It wasn’t until there was just 8 left that they suspected one of their own, Hungry. In the trial of the century, rivaling even OJ’s, the fat, bloated miniature man-eater finally was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Rumplestilskin: Everyone remembers the tale of the imp that saved the life of the miller’s daughter by spinning straw into gold and how the only payment he wanted was the first-born child of the girl. According to the story, when the girl tricked the imp by sending out her spies to invade the privacy of Rumplestilskin and discovered his name he vanished forever. In reality, he went right to his lawyers and filed a breach of contract suit and won a cool million dollars.

The Three Little Pigs: Soon after failing to blow down the last Pig’s brick house, the police arrived, called by a concerned neighbor. The Big Bad Wolf was arrested and put on trial for attempted murder, wanton endangerment and destruction of private property. BBW made waves when he chose to represent himself at the trial and blamed everything on “The MAN!”. He is currently serving 20 years in a federal prison.

There's a few more on the article's page--I like the one about Little Red Riding Hood and child endangerment as well as PETA--so as always click through to read it all.

Hollywood Fairy Tales and the Box Office

Recent article: Hollywood wizards: Fairy tales and the box office: The big studios are relying on remakes of classic fantasies to boost film audiences in 2010 by Andrew Johnson

The author Marina Warner, who is an expert on myth, said that the films were adding new layers to relatively modern fairy stories and were part of a resurgence in the use of myth in the past few years, particularly in video games

"Of course, because of CGI, they can now do it," she said. "But modern myths and fairy stories transcend cultures, geographical boundaries and language – and that's what studios need to do. It might sound cynical – and there is an argument that it flattens idiosyncrasies in cultures – but it can also speak across differences, and that can be good. We can use fantasy as a democratic window.

"Also, these stories appeal to both adults and children, and that is quite a new thing. They are able to look at the universal crises of human life such as growing up, death and sex, but in a way that children can grasp."

Of course, the article left out many of the movies based on fairy tales, such as Beastly and Shrek 4, not just fantasy movies. But either way, the film industry has been busy trying to make films to cash in on the current popularity of fantasy stories. Huzzah!

Eventyr Brus

Eventyr Brus (I've also seen it as Eventyrbrus & Eventyr-Brus) is currently bottled by Ringnes in Norway. (Ringnes is also a Pepsi product bottler and distributor in Norway as well as the largest brewer of beers.) It's a soda* marketed once again for children and has a fairy tale pictured on its label. I haven't found a description of taste, but it appears to be fruit flavored.

The image above is apparently of the original bottle from the 1950s, perhaps even 1948 when the brand first appeared on the market. I imagine most of us can identify the tale as The Three Billy Goats Gruff since it is one of the most famous fairy tale exports from Norway along with East of the Sun and West of the Moon.

From what I can tell--and I could be completely wrong--this label is still in use or was until fairly recently. It is the one I've seen the most often around the web, but the Ringnes site has a different image, the one below which I had to screen capture. It's not very big and the illustration is hard to see, but it is obviously not the same label. Perhaps they rotate through a few illustrations but the label remains essentially the same otherwise.


That said, the image at the top of this entry came from a graphic design project entry on the Behance Network in which two students, Sofie Platou & Moa Nordahl, redesigned the label for a class project and I think did a wonderful job of updating the brand even if they left out the overt fairy tale references. I'm married to a graphic designer so these types of projects are always fun for us to look at together and share. Do click through to see the student designs. I'm not sharing them here to avoid confusion with the real thing versus a student concept project.

Once again, thanks to Eirin for sharing these brands with me and you...

*Soda, Pop, Coke or Other: What region of the U.S. do you live in? I'm a Southerner, raised by a Midwesterner who has lived in California, so I use soda and pop interchangeably. In Nashville, "cold drink" is also popular with some groups as a generic term for a carbonated drink. I personally don't use that one or coke since they are too confusing in most contexts. Nashville is too much of a melting pot for one term to be considered the dominant one anyway. But "pop" produced giggles whenever I said it in California.

Melkesjokolade et lite eventyr

New SurLaLune blog reader Eirin is Norwegian and she sent me an email about a couple of fairy tale offerings in Norway, including Melkesjokolade et lite eventyr (English translation: Milk chocolate, a little fairy tale).

The small chocolate bar is made by Freia and packaged with a fairy tale illustration on the outside. Then the inside has a fairy tale printed on it to read. Love it! I went searching for images of the wrapper, inside and out, and alas only found these two exterior ones. The first is from NorwegianGoods.com where you can also order the chocolate stateside. (SurLaLune is not affiliated.)

I found this second image on Flickr and it is by Mazda6 (Tor). It gives you an idea of the size of the bar, small and obviously marketed primarily for children. Glad I'm a child at heart... (At 24 g, it's slightly bigger than a snack size (two stick size) Kit Kat bar which is 21 g).



It also has a Wikipedia entry, but no images are provided there.

One set of my great-grandparents immigrated from Norway at the turn of the last century, making me a full quarter Norwegian just a few generations back so I am always thrilled to learn more about Norwegian fairy tales and related stuff, like chocolate! I've only had Daim before--another Norwegian chocolate--since it is readily available at Ikea, although I've seen it on my few trips to Europe, too. Melkesjokolade was unknown to me until now though.

Thanks for sharing, Eirin! Eirin also shared information on a fairy tale drink made by Ringnes called Eventyr Brus, of which I am gathering imagery to share, too.

Perhaps I should order a few bars, all for the sake of research, of course!

Cinderella at the V&A

If you ever happen to be visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, aka the V&A, look in their permanent collection for this painting "Cinderella and the Slipper" by Richard Redgrave (1804-1888).

I discovered the painting there during one of my visits in 2006. My sister was living in London at the time, so I was privileged to stay with her for a few weeks. I fell in love with the V&A and visited it more than once. However, I didn't discover this painting until the very end of my final visit, so I didn't get to see much of it.

From The New International Encyclopaedia, Volume 19 by Herbert Treadwell Wade:

REDGRAVE, Richard (1804-88). An English genre and landscape painter and author, born in London. He was admitted to the schools of the Royal Academy in 1826 and first achieved success in 1844 with the "Seamstress." In 1851 he was made Royal Academician. He was head master of the government school of design in 1848 and art superintendent in 1852. In 1857 he was made inspector general of art schools at South Kensington and surveyor of crown pictures, holding the latter position until 1880. Ten of his paintings are in the South Kensington Museum, including "Gulliver on the Farmer's Table" (1837), "Ophelia" and "Cinderella." Redgrave is author of An Elementary Manual of Colors (1863). His brother Samuel (1802-76) studied architecture at the Royal Academy in 1833, but is best known as a manager of a number of important art exhibitions and especially as an author on art topics. He published A Century of Painters of the English School (1866), with his brother Richard, and A Dictionary of Artists of the British School (1874). These, like the Memoir made from the Diary of Richard Redgrave by F. M. Redgrave (London, 1891), are valuable and interesting.

While I had photos of the painting, none were very good thanks to lighting and camera angle. This image is courtesy of Bridgeman Art Gallery.

In conclusion, this is another unexpected fairy tale sighting in a museum.

Posh Tots

I recently read this short article--2009: Year of Indulgence for Some
--that in summary says that luxury spending on children has not been affected by the recession. Posh Tots kept growing in 2009, for example. So I went exploring Posh Tots and decided to share their fairy tale related furniture. I've shared one before but here's a bunch.


Princess Castle Playhouse Loft Bed: This truly unique girls princess castle bed is every girls dream. The Princess Castle Loft bed is a bed, playhouse, storage in one with ingenious and discrete dresser drawer stairs, a fun slide, and large play space beneath, Armoire towers with shelving add even more storage space to this custom painted fairytale theme bed. The castle artwork is all hand-painted featuring beautiful garden details and faux finish. When disassembled the cottage fits through a 30"W or larger door frame. Bed size can be twin, full or queen.


La Belle Au Bois Dormant Coach: Your little sleeping beauty will dream of her prince as she sleeps away her enchantment in this exquisite coach. This hand-crafted piece is the most ornate and incredible creation we have found. The wheels of this carriage are solid cherry with white oak inserts that are spring loaded into their seats to form a heart shape. Each wheel features one hundred individual pieces of wood, contributing to the intricate design. The solid cherry quarter panels that define the contours of the pumpkin’s shape are fashioned from ¼" x ¾" rippings. Each piece has been hand tapered, beveled, and bent to create the desired shape and fit tightly together. The finished product has the natural beauty of varnished solid cherry but the delicately thin contoured panels have the durability of a boat hull. The carriage is draped with a petal-like canopy made in the likeness of a flower. All interior upholstery and drapery are made of 100% silk. (That's Sleeping Beauty Carriage to you non-French speakers.)


Princess Coach Iron Crib: Fit for a princess! Give your little one the very best with this enchanting and exquisite pumpkin coach. She will be sure to have sweet dreams as she drifts off in this fantasy iron crib adorned with vines and precious little birds perched on a floral wreath. Beautifully handcrafted by talented craftsmen to meet all current safety standards.


Woodland Princess Castle Bunk Bed: This Woodland Princess Castle is a combination bunk bed and playhouse. The design maximizes space in your child's room by giving her a play area and bed. The castle artwork is all hand-painted featuring the serenity of a forest with adorable animals throughout this realistic foliage on the castle grounds . Best of all the bed features a sturdy staircase with drawers and a waterfall slide exit. It is sure to delight your child and spark their imagination as they pretend they are in an enchanted forest made just for them. When disassembled the cottage fits through a 30"W or larger door frame. Bed size can be twin, full or queen. Artist can customize your cottage's colors to work with your existing room décor for an additional charge.


Majestic Carriage Crib: The Majestic Carriage Crib is the perfect place for your princess to catch up on her beauty rest. The carriage crib is constructed with a solid cedar frame and birch details. Features a front faux leather seat (not for sitting-max weight of front seat is 25 lbs), rear box designed as a changing table with an overall look of a luggage rack on the carriage. Round mattress included.


"Colbert Castle" Playhouse: The only thing missing is a moat! This fortress features a tower with a rock-climbing wall and an enclosed courtyard where the knight in shining armor can watch for fire-breathing dragons. Inside, a secret room is tucked away from view, accessed through a cleverly concealed opening in the fireplace. Surprise! The eyes in the portrait above the mantel slide open, so your child can slyly spy on anyone who dares to enter.


Fantasy Coach: Wave your magic wand and this carriage may appear to make your little princess' dreams come true. This fanciful coach bed is the most extraordinary children's bed we've ever seen. Handcrafted in England of wood and fiberglass, the oval shaped interior measures just over 6 ft. in diameter. Construction and delivery time on this piece is over 6 months. The bar is set with this magnificent piece; it simply has no equal outside of fairy tales.


Sullivan Clock: Time never stands still when you’re with Sully! With his hands on his hips and sass in his step, you’ll really want to rock around this clever clock. Crafted mostly from stained maple, Sullivan isn’t just a fabulous find but a true friend. (Can I admit this one is whimsical fun but still gives me the willies on some level? Perhaps ties into my hallucinatory nightmares when I was sick with high fevers as a child.)


Whimsical Shoe Armoire: Truly exquisite and unique! Your little one will be sure to use their imagination with this larger than life shoe armoire! Main shoe constructed from solid foam cast with hard shell. Windows and doors constructed from wood inserts. Features a cedar roof, large lower level door storage, two sliding window drawers and one window nightlight.


Fantasy Carriage Crib: Wave your magic wand and this carriage crib may appear to make your little princess' dreams come true. Truly exquisite! The carriage crib is constructed with a solid cedar frame and birch details. Features a front faux leather seat (not for sitting-max weight of front seat is 25 lbs), rear box designed as a changing table with an overall look of a luggage rack on the carriage. Round mattress included.

And no, I am not affiliated with Posh Tots. Wow, I would love that commission if I were! One sale would be more than a year's funding...

Real Life Ugly Duckling

Real-life 'ugly duckling' at Liverpool's Sefton Park by Simon Boyle

A pair of geese have adopted an "ugly duckling" in a story that could come straight from the pen of Hans Christian Andersen.

With feathers all fluffy and brown the cygnet became estranged from its parents on a park lake.

But the young swan has been adopted by a pair of Canada Geese who have become its constant companions on the lake at Liverpool’s Sefton Park.

To the astonishment of park rangers, the cygnet is completely at home with his adoptive parents, ignoring families of swans which also live on the lake.

Park ranger Kevin Hogan said: "We spotted the little fluffy thing happily swimming with a pair of Canada Geese and they seem to have adopted it.

More of the article on its site, but sweet story even if it has some touches of bitter, too.

Tim Burton and Sleeping Beauty

Here's some recent Hollywood buzz to share: Tim Burton to Attack 'Sleeping Beauty' Next? by Monika Bartyzel.

There's a new rumor going around -- one that teeters very delicately on the fence between adoration and fear. But either way you fall, don't hold your breath because it's still very much a rumor: Harry over at AICN was talking with a contact who said that Tim Burton isn't done with Disney fairy tales, and now wants to zero in on Sleeping Beauty.

Of course, the most beautiful girl in the land dancing and singing "Once Upon a Dream" isn't really the sort of theme Burton is usually attracted to. So, what's the deal? Supposedly, he doesn't want to focus on Aurora, but rather the other woman of the tale, the one I raved about just a few months ago: Maleficent. In "a quasi Live Actiony kinda way," Burton is said to want to tell the imposing woman's story from her point of view and call the project, aptly, Maleficent.

And Tim Burton to Direct Sleeping Beauty Remake Maleficent? by Brendon Connelly

It bodes well for Alice in Wonderland that Disney are now reportedly lining up another revisionist re-take on one of their cartoon classics for Tim Burton to direct. Maleficent will be a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story that focuses on the Mistress of all Evil instead of that pretty somnambulist and her slightly creepy Prince Phillip.

The studio registered the domain name maleficentmovie.com some time last summer, so I’ve been waiting for news a while. Of course, until now I wasn’t entirely convinced it was going to be a live action picture - well, in so much as it will be live action, which I’m expecting will be probably to just the extent that Alice is - and not an animated spin-off, a la the Tinkerbell series or that Timon and Pumbaa picture.

My first thought was Helena Bonham Carter as Maleficent? Not my vision of her. Carter's a fine actress, but to begin with, she doesn't have the physical stature or overall appearance of the character. But she might not chew scenery like some other actresses I can imagine in the role. I'd prefer her as Aurora even if she would be bored and is past ingenue age.

This means if you are interested in such a film, you'd better head out to see Alice in Wonderland this spring.

And here I admit that Sleeping Beauty is one of my personal favorites of the Disney fairy tale interpretations. (I think it's the entire Once Upon a Dream scene. Actually, I know it is. I have been known to just rush ahead to it and then be bored when it ends. Love the waltz. I rather shudder to imagine what Burton would do with it.)

And I'm still amazed that Tim Burton and Disney inhabit the same planet, let alone collaborate...

Bill Willingham Interview in Hero Complex

Found in the Hero Complex on the LA Times website: 'Fables' writer Bill Willingham finds a happy ending despite 'that damned Shrek'

Over the last decade, one of the most consistently compelling comic-book runs has been writer Bill Willingham's "Fables," an intricate tapestry that weaves together familiar characters from fables, fairy tables, literature, children's rhymes and folklore. It's a great time to revisit the Vertigo series -- or discover for the first time -- with the recently released hardcover "Fables: The Deluxe Edition, Book One," which collects the first 10 issues of the dark refugee epic that chronicles the very unexpected modern-day adventures of Bigby (aka, the Big Bad Wolf), Snow White, Jack Horner, Mowgli, Geppetto, Old King Cole and many, many others. The 53-year-old Virgina native has also recently published "Peter and Max: A Fables Novel," which takes his franchise into the prose novel sector with a tale of Peter Piper and his brother Max.

There's much more of course, so click through to read. Also, the interview is labeled part one, but I haven't seen any new posts with more interview, so its either a typo or more will be forthcoming...

Recent Reviews Around the Web

Here are links and excerpts to two recent reviews found around the web:

Ludmilla Petrushevskaya’s ‘Scary Fairy Tales’ by Amy Halloran

I am in love with fairy tales and the mirrors they hold to everyday life. This is not escapism, but a preference to view brutal truths slightly disguised, in a world just the other side of this one.

But even if you are married to verite-style fiction, and even if haven’t touched a fairy tale since your parents quit reading to you, you should grab There Once Lived A Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya.

Petrushevskaya is a living, prolific, and now honored Russian writer. Theater provided an audience for her work when she couldn’t get her fiction into print, but by now she has become a champion of Russian letters, winning awards and receiving a nationwide birthday party when she turned seventy.

There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya was released this past September in the U.S.


The Mermaid’s Madness by Jim C Hines – review by dragonwomant

While the basis of the story is highly steeped in the traditional fairy tales that most kids know and love, Hines makes them over into a satisfying read for a more grown-up audience. There are a few racy parts, but they aren’t over the top, and they don’t seem gratuitous. Each of the princesses is a strong, smart woman who is mostly capable of taking care of herself, but not one of them is perfect. They all have flaws and some quirks that make them characters who are entertaining and believable, and keep them from straying into the annoying cartoon stereotypes.

This book is part of a series, but it worked quite well as a stand-alone novel. I got enough background from reading the book that I knew what was going on, without ending up knowing so much I don’t want or need to read the first book. The story flows well, and it was very easy and quick to read. I found it immensely enjoyable in the same way that I found fairy tales enjoyable. It’s a good adventure story, with magic and evil and a few misunderstood characters in it. The plot doesn’t drag at all, and it was well-paced.

I've posted previously about Mermaid's Madness here.