Illustration by Arthur Rackham
This illustration by Arthur Rackham appeared on the cover of a book of Grimm’s fairy tales given to me by my parents. I forget the name of the story, but in it, the child hero, who is peeking out of the stove at the illustration’s approximate center, is hiding from the ogre. He has been hidden there by the ogre’s sympathetic mother, who is standing at the table waiting to cook dinner for her son. Oddly, the ogre is giant-sized while the mother is a normal human. The live cows swinging from the ogre’s belt seem smaller than they should be, considering the mother’s size, while the frying pan seems larger. It’s a wonderful, evocative depiction — and that’s why I remember it, all these years later — but when you think about it, really confusing.
But that’s the nature of fairy tales. They don’t always make sense.
More untold fairy tales that could have been, but weren’t.
Unwritten Fairy Tales III
| The Prince With Cat’s Ears
The Tale of the Devil’s She-Goats The Immortal Heart of Klaus the Beggar Puss in Mittens The Girl Who Wanted To Dance in the Rain The Greedy Wyvern Crimson-stitches The Elm Tree That Was Envious of the Bridle The Seven Lonely Sisters The Fair Shepherdess Princess Poetra The Troll’s One-Eyed Uncle The Salt Tower and the Sugar Tower The Village Where No One Was Industrious The Riddle of Walter the Miller The Boat that Made Marvelous the Devil The Mystery of the Emperor’s Napkin The Girl Who Tried to Ride a Sparrow The Garden Made of Glass The Seven Laughing Princesses The Goodwife Who Could Change Clay into Gold Mouseskin The Clever Good Sense of the Alewife Snow Gold The Canary Who Poorly Judged a Fox Locks of Copper, Feet of Dust Spindaleena and the Glass Robe The Hat Made of Gold The Wolf Girl |
