Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm with illustrations by David Hockney

Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm with illustrations by David Hockney was recently released in a new edition. The official release is March 1st, but it is already shipping, has been for weeks actually.

Book description:

Reprinted for the first time since its original publication in 1969, David Hockney’s illustrations for the tales of the Brothers Grimm are like no other version. Although inspired by earlier illustrators of the tales, including Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac, Hockney’s extraordinary etchings reimagine these strange and supernatural stories for a modern audience, capturing their distinctive atmosphere in a style that is recognizably the artist’s own. Hockney’s book brings together some well-known tales, such as Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin, with others that are less familiar, like Old Rinkrank. Informed by great art of the past, attuned to idiosyncrasies of character and incident, and fresh in execution and content, his illustrations invite us to read each story as if for the first time.

David Hockney (b. 1937) is an internationally acclaimed artist. He studied at Bradford School of Art from 1953 to 1957 and at the Royal College of Art, London, from 1959 until 1962. He has lived in Los Angeles since 1963 but now splits his time between the United States and East Yorkshire, where he grew up.

That's helpful but not as much as I wanted to know about these illustrations that appear every so often around the internet. So I went ahunting, briefly, since my time is limited right now. First, most of the images from the book are available for viewing and even purchase on Hockney's website. That is where I captured some of the images I am sharing today.

Hockney's website also has an article about the illustrations, Six Fairy Tales From The Brothers Grimm, 1969 by Peter Webb (27 Jun 2003) excerpted from Webb's book, Portrait of David Hockney.

David Hockney had always loved Grimm's Fairy Tales and had read all 220 of them. He also admired earlier illustrations to them by Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac. In 1969 he decided to make his own images. He especially enjoyed the elements of magic in the tales, and his images focus on his imaginative response to the descriptions in the text rather than attempting to concentrate on the most important events in the narrative. They are therefore more than simply illustrations: they stand on their own as images, independent of the stories.

For instance, Hockney chose Old Rinkrank because it starts with the words ‘A King built a glass mountain’, and he was fascinated by the problem of drawing a glass mountain. He made various attempts, even smashing a sheet of glass and drawing the ragged pieces piled up in a big heap, before finding the solution: he depicted a tree and a house with a glass mountain in front which distorts their reflection. For other images, he turned to earlier artists for inspiration: Uccello for the Prince on horseback in Rapunzel, Bosch for the Enchantress with the baby Rapunzel and Magritte’s surrealist games for the room full of straw in Rumpelstilzchen, as well as Dürer and Leonardo.

Hockney's images are exuberant, inventive and memorable, and he now considers them to be one of his major successes.

Here's the list of all six tales he illustrated which appear in the book:

The Little Sea Hare
Fundevogel
Rapunzel
The Boy Who Left Home to Learn Fear
Old Rinkrank
Rumpelstilzchen

New Book: The Princess and the Pea: A Pop-Up Book illustrated by Pippa Pixley

The Princess and the Pea: A Pop-Up Book (Fairytale Pop-ups) by Hans Christian Andersen and illustrated by Pippa Pixley was released this month in the US and last fall in the UK. According to the publisher, this is:

First in a series of Hans Christian Andersen fairytale pop-up books with elegant and witty illustrations and exciting pop-ups.

I wonder what other tales they will give us. Don't worry, I will keep watching for you.

I don't own it yet, but I will. I must add it to my pop-up book collection, after all.

I couldn't find many interior images but here's a couple to poke your interest.

Classic Book: Are All the Giants Dead? by Mary Norton

Yesterday's post Small Beings: The Borrowers aka The Secret World of Arrietty generated a comment from reader Imitorar about another of Mary Norton's books, Are All the Giants Dead?. Yes, I do know the book and have it on my shelves. Norton wrote only three books that were not in the Borrowers series (of which there are five). One book was the stand alone, Are All the Giants Dead? (1975), and the other two were set in another world, The Magic Bed Knob; or, How to Become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons (1943) and Bonfires and Broomsticks (1945) which were the inspiration for Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

Are All the Giants Dead? is of particular interest to SurLaLune readers if you are unaware of it because it is directly related to and inspired by fairy tales. In addition, the book was illustrated by Brian Froud who has a large following among fairy tale afficiandos.

Book description:

James, a young English boy, journeys to the fairy-tale world of princes and princesses, witches and fairies, giants and giant-killers, and invades the lair of the last giant to free a princess from an evil spell.

Finding himself in a land peopled with fairy tale characters, James attempts to help Princess Dulcibel who is destined to marry a toad after her ball falls into the well.

One Amazon reviewer, Kurt A. Johnson, explains the fairy tale connections better:

This wonderful book was written in 1975 by Mary Norton (1903-92), the author of the incomparable Borrowers stories. It tells the story of James, whose dream takes him to a distant land, where he meets many of the characters of old folktales, such as Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Jack-the-Giant-Slayer and Jack-of-the-Beanstalk. But, they are all old now, and past adventures. But, when the daughter of Beauty and the Beast (Boofy and Beau to their friends) needs help, James rises to the occasion. Although he's usually a fan of Science fiction, James must maneuver himself and the girl through this magical wonderland, in search of a magical frog, and answering the question, "Are all the giants dead?"

It's fun and charming and suitable for the entire family, so do check it out.

More About New Book: Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights by Marina Warner

 

 
I posted a few weeks ago about Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights by Marina Warner, released last year in the UK and now in the US. Although the book has a March 1st release date, it has started shipping from Amazon US. My copy arrived this week but I haven't had time to peruse it yet.

I keep wondering with all of the semi-recent spate of Arabian Nights publications in academia if we will see the media add the tales to their fairy tale frenzy. I myself would enjoy seeing a new version of the frame story. I haven't seen one since Arabian Nights starring Mili Avital, Alan Bates, James Frain and Tchéky Karyo in 2000. That's quite a while! And I have been more interested in the Arabian Nights' influence on folklore in the 19th century, too, with all of my recent research on various tales, but that is for another post or posts in the future.

Warner's book was named a Times Literary Supplement Best Book of 2011 and a Guardian Best Book of 2011.

I already shared the description, so I will share Publishers Weekly starred review this time instead:

“This remarkable study is an arabesque, and an intricate Persian rug of themes, eras, tales, and authors—of the Middle East and West, playing on ‘states of consciousness’ as well as state-cultures. With a basic knowledge of Arabic from childhood as well as a Catholic upbringing, Warner is almost divinely positioned to unravel the infinite strands of the wily Scheherazade, as she weaves her way through the Arabian Nights, exploring their boundless capacity to ‘keep generating more tales, in various media, themselves different but alike: the stories themselves are shape-shifters.’ From Disney’s Aladdin to the works of Freud, Goethe, Hans Christian Andersen, and others, Warner explores the impact of the Arabian Nights on the West and the power of enchantment and fantasy. Like all myth, these of flying carpets, sofas, and beds of genies and heroic connivers grant lasting insights into human aspirations, transcendence, and love. Carefully documented, Warner’s ever shifting work takes its place alongside that of Edward Said, though she is refreshingly less polemical and less theoretical. No one need cover this enchanting ground again.”

Table of Contents:

A Note on the Text
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction

Part I. Solomon the Wise King

Story: The Fisherman and the Genie
1. Master of Jinn
Story: The City of Brass
2. Riding the Wind: The Flying Carpet I
Story: Prince Ahmed and Fairy Peri Banou
3. A Tapestry of Great Price: The Flying Carpet II

Part II. Dark Arts; Strange Gods

Story: The Prince of the Black Islands
4. The Worst Witch
5. Egyptian Attitudes
Story: Hasan of Basra
6. Magians and Dervishes
Story: A Fortune Regained
7. Dream Knowledge

Part III. Active Goods

8. ‘Everything You Desire to Know about the East…’
Story: The Greek King and Doctor Douban
9. The Thing-World of the Arabian Nights
Story: Abu Mohammed the Lazy
10. The Word of the Talisman
Story: Marouf the Cobbler
11. The Voice of the Toy
12. Money Talks

Part IV. Oriental Masquerades

13. Magnificent Moustaches: Hamilton’s Fooling, Voltaire’s Impersonations
Story: Rosebud and Uns al-Wujud the Darling Boy
Story: The Jinniya and the Egyptian Prince
14. ‘Symbols of Wonder’: William Beckford’s Arabesque
15. Oriental Masquerade: Goethe’s West-Eastern Divan

Part V. Flights of Reason

Story: Camar al-Zaman and Princess Badoura
16. Thought Experiments: Flight before Flight
17. Why Aladdin?
18. Machine Dreams
Story: The Ebony Horse
19. The Shadows of Lotte Reiniger
Story: Aladdin of the Beautiful Moles
20. The Couch: A Case History
Story: Prince Ardashir and Hayat al-Nufus
Conclusion: ‘All the story of the night told over…’
Glossary
Abbreviations
The Stories
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Small Beings: The Borrowers aka The Secret World of Arrietty

 

Did anyone else here adore The Borrowers as a child? It's probably no surprise that I hunted them and don't know how many I read from the series since that kind of information wasn't a few computer clicks away back in the dark ages. What was available in my school library, I read, the end. I know none ever lived up to the first which is bargain priced in ebook for $1.59 right now on Amazon so I had get it although I still have a paper edition, too.

Anyway, a new movie based on the book is being released here after its original release in Japan, so yes, there is an anime influence. Now it's The Secret World of Arrietty which I am not so sure is more magical that The Borrowers, but that's me. I  am not the target audience anyway.

Jerry Griswold, recent presenter at Grimm Legacies, has an article in the Los Angeles Times to go along with the movie, 'Arrietty,' 'The Borrowers' and the appeal of all things small. Thumbelina and other fairy tale tinies are mentioned, so it fits here, right? Right?

Kids understand how size correlates with power. Adults talk over their heads. At McDonald's, they can't see over the counter to order and they can't pay for a meal with their own credit card. Indeed, restaurants kindly provide high chairs and booster seats in the same way they provide wheelchair access. When Tom Hanks magically changes from a kid into an adult and gets his own apartment and a job on Madison Avenue, the movie is called "Big." Likewise linking size and power, billionaire Leona Helmsley famously said, "Only the little people pay taxes."

That's not to say small fry can't take advantage of their size. That rascal Peter Rabbit goes places where the portly Mr. McGregor can never pursue him. The diminutive Stuart Little does a favor by slipping into a sink drain to recover a lost wedding ring. And Tom Thumb and Jack (once he climbs the beanstalk) are tricksters who have their way with the humongous.

***

This is the world the Borrowers inhabit: where a drop of water is a pending threat to those below, where a ticking clock causes the floor to vibrate and where tissue paper is stiff and loud. It is the same world where Hans Christian Andersen's Thumbelina is "pelted" by a snowflake and where E.B. White's mouse-sized Stuart Little must manhandle a straw when proffered a drink. A change of scale makes us see the ordinary with different eyes.

Oh, children and a few of us adults do love to read about things smaller than us, don't we? If anything, Griswold's article reminded me of some beloved books from my youth.

And while we are here, in case you haven't seen it, here's the movie trailer:

ABC's OUAT: Skin Deep and Beauty and the Beast

Before I start berating it, this was my favorite scene this week. The power of a name is always interesting and I am curious as to what the writers plan to do with all of this name power. When we find out in season 5.

SPOILERS BE HERE, SO BEWARE

Okay, folks. It's been way too quiet around here in the comments. And I am craving discussion of this past weeks OUAT on ABC, the much anticipated (and sometimes dreaded) Beauty and the Beast episode, "Skin Deep."

What did you think of it? I feared the worst, so I wasn't nearly as disappointed. I have more quibbles than I can discuss here, but I want to leave room for you to agree or disagree anyway.

But I admit to cringing at Chip the Teacup becoming the talisman of Rumpelstiltskin's lost love in Belle. Chip? The Teacup? Why? And, no, a chipped teacup wouldn't have bothered me as much if I hadn't know it was CHIP, an animated child character. Am I overreacting? Of course. But I am still annoyed. The Disney animated references were more intrusive than simple winks at the audience for me. It was almost parody more than anything else.

The image comes from TV.com's review which hit many points for me, so go there for better criticism than I can produce right now. I am not a good tv critic. I laughed and nodded my head while I read it, so that's a good thing. Most of the online discussion has been positive actually. I feel like a grinch, but perhaps I just hate the meandering storytelling. We'll probably see Belle again in, oh, season 3.

Either way, Rumpelstiltskin is certainly much more interesting as a character and villain than Regina since he has an emotional history we can relate to in some way. Regina is just silly. I find her character less and less believable as a villain. She comes across more as a spoiled child whose father should have put her in time out more often, nevermind she may have killed him earlier than she did if he had. She's a rather ineffective psychopath.

And, yes, I am going to keep watching. Because I am entertained on some levels. But now I know why I really hate these long, drawn out series in which nothing really happens. We watch for one or two clues a week, perhaps for years. Sigh..... My personality doesn't mesh with this kind of storytelling.

Okay, one final note: This version of B&B leaned into the interpretations that make so many people hate B&B. The girl is trying to reform and save the beast who hasn't shown any redeeming qualities. This "love" was more like Stockholm Syndrome. He didn't beat her when she chipped a cup so he must be a good person. Huh. The writers relied on us implying love from the fairy tale tropes, not actually showing us a reason for it to actually exist here. In contrast, we, as viewers, see him doing some pretty nasty stuff when she's offscreen so we should believe in it even less. I worry....

Here We Go Again: Are fairy tales too scary for today's children?

Well, I admit I am planning an entire series of posts on this topic, inspired by Perri Klass's presentation at Grimm Legacies and my own reading. But this is a "top" news stories in the Daily Mail with a new survey to be considered, so I might as well share it while it's hot. Yes?

From Are fairy tales too scary for today's children? Parents admit they refuse to read classics to youngsters By Daily Mail Reporter:

A quarter of the 2,000 parents polled said they wouldn’t consider reading a fairytale to their child until they had reached the age of five, as they prompt too many awkward questions.

Instead, they favour more recent books such as The Gruffalo, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the Mr Men series.

Steve Hornsey of television channel Watch, which commissioned the study to mark the launch of U.S. drama Grimm, said: ‘As adults we can see the innocence in fairytales, but a five-year-old with an over-active imagination could take things too literally.’

There's more article to read, of course, but the sidebar cannot be missed!

THE END? Top ten fairy tales no longer read to children

1. Hansel and Gretel - Storyline about two abandoned kids is thought likely to scare children
2. Jack and the Beanstalk - Deemed too 'unrealistic'
3. Gingerbread Man - Parents uncomfortable explaining gingerbread man gets eaten by fox
4. Little Red Riding Hood - Deemed unsuitable by parents who must explain a girl's grandmother has been eaten by a wolf
5. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves - The term 'dwarves' was found to be inappropriate
6. Cinderella - Story about a young girl doing all the housework was considered outdated
7. Rapunzel - Parents were worried about the focus on a young girl being kidnapped
8. Rumpelstiltskin - Parents unhappy reading about executions and kidnapping
9. Goldilocks and the Three Bears - Parents say it sends the wrong messages about stealing
10. Queen Bee - Deemed inappropriate as the story has a character called Simpleton

As always, my suggestion--know yourself, know your child. I'm not saying fairy tales are best for everyone, but don't throw them away either. We need our cultural touchstones if nothing else matters. And there are going to be bumps along the way no matter what when it comes to reading with children.

More About Guillermo del Toro's Beauty and the Beast Film

  

So Beauty and Beast are gaining momentum these days. The blog title says More About Guillermo del Toro's Beauty and the Beast because I first posted about this possible movie last July. I haven't forgotten about this one because I've been the most hopeful about it, to be honest.

Apparently all the fairy tale hype has it moving into the media's sights again, but that is good news for all of us.

And when articles like this Guillermo del Toro to Direct 'Beauty and the Beast' Tale for Warner Bros. say:

Guillermo del Toro is attached to direct Beauty, a new take on the Beauty and the Beast tale set up at Warner Bros. Harry Potter actress Emma Watson is attached to star. At the same time, the studio has hired Andrew Davies to write the script.

The deal has been in the works since last spring, when del Toro first began working with producers Denise De Novi and Alison Greenspan on a take. The project was initially an adaptation of the novel Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of the Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley but it has evolved since. Watson came on board last summer but it was always a question whether del Toro would act as a producer or join the project as a director as well.

Or this one Guillermo del Toro Will Direct Beauty & The Beast Film Starring Emma Watson! says:

It’s fairy tale fever this year and Hollywood is Beauty and the Beast crazy town at the moment. We summarized yesterday that two television shows are in the works as well as a movie. Well there was already another film in the works, Beauty (or Beast?), which is now moving ahead with Guillermo del Toro at the helm and Harry Potter’s Emma Watson as the star. (We assume she’d play Beauty but wouldn’t it be interesting if she played the Beast?) I think my body is vibrating with excitement.

It's easy to get a little excited isn't it?

But even Robin McKinley has chimed in on this one, mostly to keep the logjam of enthusiasm at her door to a minimum. From her blog today:

I had no idea that news of del Toro’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST project was about to be shot out there—or that there was news of del Toro’s B&B project. Which is another part of my point. Yes, Warner’s optioned BEAUTY* a while ago, but there are like 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 options bought for every ONE movie made, so while option money is lovely because you haven’t done anything extra for it except sign your name, I didn’t take it seriously. I’ve been optioned before. I did register the fact that it was del Toro and Emma Watson behind Warner’s interest, two filmy people whom I’ve even heard of**, an almost un-heard-of situation, and I therefore asked Merrilee about six months after signing if there’d been—by wild, unforeseen circumstance—any movement on the option, and she said there wasn’t. At which point I forgot about it.

So to reiterate: I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THIS. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. Except that I signed an option contract a while ago. IT IS STILL VERY UNLIKELY THAT THE MOVIE WILL BE MADE. And IF IT IS MADE IT PROBABLY WON’T HAVE ANYTHING IN COMMON WITH MY NOVEL EXCEPT THE PRESENCE OF A BEAUTY AND A BEAST. Maybe. With del Toro you never really know. Which can be a good thing. If disconcerting.

So go ahead and reread one or all of McKinley's books while we wait to see if the movie does get made.

And perhaps del Toro will make the film and it will be interesting to see since his work usually is. Or he will decide fairy tales are passe already and pass on it. Who knows?

Some Bargains for Today: Ebook and Paper

  

How to See Faeries by Brian Froud and John Matthews is $9.60, 62% off hardcover price in hardcover.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman for $2.99 in ebook

The Frog Prince (A Romantic Comedy) by Elle Lothlorien is currently free in ebook as is her Sleeping Beauty (A Romantic Comedy) (I believe these are free today only for V-Day.)

Online Graphic Novel of The Farmer's Clever Daughter by Gina Biggs

 

 

 

I already shared the tale of The Farmer's Clever Daughter for Valentine's Day. Illustrations for the tale are rare, so I had to devote a post to a recent online graphic novel of the tale by Gina Biggs at Erstwhile Tales. There are 34 pages of illustrations, so I will just share a few to entice to you to click through and read!

 

 

Most Romantic Fairy Tale for Valentine's Day?

Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau

(American, 1837-1922)

The Farmer's Daughter, 1876

Oil on canvas

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

I rarely discuss one of my favorite fairy tales, and for me personally, it is one of the most romantic tales. And, no, I don't mean Beauty and the Beast which is my acknowledged favorite.

There are many versions of the tale I am sharing today--and I hope someday to publish a collection of them--but it is often known as The Peasant's Clever Daughter or Clever Manka, ATU 875. I often debate whether this tale or The Grateful Dead will be the 50th annotated tale on SurLaLune. (Someday there will be 50 or more!) Today I will share the Grimms' version:

The Peasant's Clever Daughter

THERE was once a poor peasant who had no land, but only a small house, and one daughter. Then said the daughter, "We ought to ask our lord the King for a bit of newly-cleared land." When the King heard of their poverty, he presented them with a piece of land, which she and her father dug up, and intended to sow with a little corn and grain of that kind. When they had dug nearly the whole of the field, they found in the earth a mortar made of pure gold. "Listen," said the father to the girl, "as our lord the King has been so gracious and presented us with the field, we ought to give him this mortar in return for it." The daughter, however, would not consent to this, and said, "Father, if we have the mortar without having the pestle as well, we shall have to get the pestle, so you had much better say nothing about it." He would, however, not obey her, but took the mortar and carried it to the King, said that he had found it in the cleared land, and asked if he would accept it as a present. The King took the mortar, and asked if he had found nothing besides that? "No," answered the countryman. Then the King said that he must now bring him the pestle. The peasant said they had not found that, but he might just as well have spoken to the wind; he was put in prison, and was to stay there until he produced the pestle. The servants had daily to carry him bread and water, which is what people get in prison, and they heard how the man cried out continually, "Ah! if I had but listened to my daughter! Alas, alas, if I had but listened to my daughter!" and would neither eat nor drink. So he commanded the servants to bring the prisoner before him, and then the King asked the peasant why he was always crying, "Ah! if I had but listened to my daughter!" and what it was that his daughter had said. "She told me that I ought not to take the mortar to you, for I should have to produce the pestle as well." "If you have a daughter who is as wise as that, let her come here." She was therefore obliged to appear before the King, who asked her if she really was so wise, and said he would set her a riddle, and if she could guess that, he would marry her. She at once said yes, she would guess it. Then said the King, "Come to me not clothed, not naked, not riding, not walking, not in the road, and not out of the road, and if thou canst do that I will marry thee." So she went away, put off everything she had on, and then she was not clothed, and took a great fishing net, and seated herself in it and wrapped it entirely round and round her, so that she was not naked, and she hired an ass, and tied the fisherman's net to its tail, so that it was forced to drag her along, and that was neither riding nor walking. The ass had also to drag her in the ruts, so that she only touched the ground with her great toe, and that was neither being in the road nor out of the road. And when she arrived in that fashion, the King said she had guessed the riddle and fulfilled all the conditions. Then he ordered her father to be released from the prison, took her to wife, and gave into her care all the royal possessions.

Now when some years had passed, the King was once drawing up his troops on parade, when it happened that some peasants who had been selling wood stopped with their waggons before the palace; some of them had oxen yoked to them, and some horses. There was one peasant who had three horses, one of which was delivered of a young foal, and it ran away and lay down between two oxen which were in front of the waggon. When the peasants came together, they began to dispute, to beat each other and make a disturbance, and the peasant with the oxen wanted to keep the foal, and said one of the oxen had given birth to it, and the other said his horse had had it, and that it was his. The quarrel came before the King, and he give the verdict that the foal should stay where it had been found, and so the peasant with the oxen, to whom it did not belong, got it. Then the other went away, and wept and lamented over his foal. Now he had heard how gracious his lady the Queen was because she herself had sprung from poor peasant folks, so he went to her and begged her to see if she could not help him to get his foal back again. Said she, "Yes, I will tell you what to do, if thou wilt promise me not to betray me. Early to-morrow morning, when the King parades the guard, place thyself there in the middle of the road by which he must pass, take a great fishing-net and pretend to be fishing; go on fishing, too, and empty out the net as if thou hadst got it full" and then she told him also what he was to say if he was questioned by the King. The next day, therefore, the peasant stood there, and fished on dry ground. When the King passed by, and saw that, he sent his messenger to ask what the stupid man was about? He answered, "I am fishing." The messenger asked how he could fish when there was no water there? The peasant said, "It is as easy for me to fish on dry land as it is for an ox to have a foal." The messenger went back and took the answer to the King, who ordered the peasant to be brought to him and told him that this was not his own idea, and he wanted to know whose it was? The peasant must confess this at once. The peasant, however, would not do so, and said always, God forbid he should! the idea was his own. They laid him, however, on a heap of straw, and beat him and tormented him so long that at last he admitted that he had got the idea from the Queen.

When the King reached home again, he said to his wife, "Why hast thou behaved so falsely to me? I will not have thee any longer for a wife; thy time is up, go back to the place from whence thou camest to thy peasant's hut." One favour, however, he granted her; she might take with her the one thing that was dearest and best in her eyes; and thus was she dismissed. She said, "Yes, my dear husband, if you command this, I will do it," and she embraced him and kissed him, and said she would take leave of him. Then she ordered a powerful sleeping draught to be brought, to drink farewell to him; the King took a long draught, but she took only a little. He soon fell into a deep sleep, and when she perceived that, she called a servant and took a fair white linen cloth and wrapped the King in it, and the servant was forced to carry him into a carriage that stood before the door, and she drove with him to her own little house. She laid him in her own little bed, and he slept one day and one night without awakening, and when he awoke he looked round and said, "Good God! where am I?" He called his attendants, but none of them were there. At length his wife came to his bedside and said, "My dear lord and King, you told me I might bring away with me from the palace that which was dearest and most precious in my eyes. I have nothing more precious and dear than yourself, so I have brought you with me." Tears rose to the King's eyes and he said, "Dear wife, thou shalt be mine and I will be thine," and he took her back with him to the royal palace and was married again to her, and at the present time they are very likely still living.

So what is your favorite romantic fairy tale?

Anna Talbot's Jewelry

Oh, I saw these a while back and fell in love. Forget diamonds, this is the kind of jewelry I enjoy. The text and images come from Anna Talbot's blog. I'm going to be quiet and just let you enjoy... (Be sure to look for Little Red, Hansel and Gretel and Sleeping Beauty themes.)

I am an Oslo based jewellery artist. My jewellery is inspired by fairy tales, nursery rhymes, songs and stories. Wolves, deer, trees, forests and Little Red Riding Hood are all central elements in my universe, and they don’t necessarily stick to their traditional places. I want to tell a story through characters, colours and materials, and I want people to keep inventing new tales inspired by my jewellery. I make big, three dimensional jewellery in anodised aluminium, wood veneer, brass, gilding metal and silver. I use strong colours and different surfaces to illustrate and create atmospheres. I work in layers to build up a three dimensional piece Some of my pieces are quite large, but the materials I use still mean that they are light enough to be worn. The size makes you aware of wearing the pieces at all times, they demand both space and attention. My jewellery can be hung on a wall or worn on a body. The piece becomes a picture you can carry with you.