We have spent almost as much time living in hospitals and doctor's offices than we have at home this past month (March), due to an emergency with our junior fairy tale newshound, so please excuse the lack of follow-through on promised posts. With his ongoing recovery still our main focus, we will be posting some of our intended articles a little late over the next couple of weeks, even though they aren't as timely for the season as we would have liked. We hope you still find them interesting.
This is one of our Fairy Tale Newsroom's favorite times of year. When we prepare for this season's magical visitors, most people expect us to mention The Easter Bunny, but not as many are familiar with The Monster Chicken. (You can read about this unusual visitor HERE.) Longtime readers of this blog will be aware, however, that this particular supernatural creature is looked forward to with more anticipation than its famous long-eared counterpart.
As the Monster Chicken plays hide-and-seek with its owner (the terribly intimidating Baba Yaga), relishing being free for the short time its absorbed magic enables it to transform each Spring, we always hope it will find a place to take refuge and catch its breath in our yard (and perhaps leave a monster egg in thanks). We prepare the night before by leaving nesting materials and a sign, welcoming the Monster Chicken to hide in our garden if it needs to, and to our collective delight, along with signs of a giant claw-footed visitor, another specially painted monster egg has appeared each year we've done so...
We have yet to catch sight of "the MC" in person but considering its origin, we thought you might like to see an old attempt at building it (in walking hut form) from a few years ago, in Minecraft Pocket Edition (a limited tablet version of the popular game). And since we are, we thought we'd throw in our homage to another fairy tale with an unusual building...
Being a cube-building game, creating organic things can be a challenge but as long as you can count, a little math, color play and imagination can make a blocky landscape quite folk art-like:
Newbie Minecrafter practicing design-via-math to create a folk-art like carpet for the purpose of creating fairy tale scenes in Minecraft (you can see a teensy bit of Baba Yaga's chicken-legged hut in the background).
Baba Yaga's chicken legged hut (on every day but Easter morning...)
Fuzzy close-up of Baba Yaga's chicken-legged hut from the side in Minecraft Pocket Edition.(Out of focus blocks lend themselves well to a tapestry-like impression it seems!)
An attempt at building Rapunzel's tower in Minecraft PE. Thing is, with Pocket Edition, there is a 'ceiling' so you can only build so high. Had to excavate lot before starting... interesting concept for keeping it hidden really!
Hidden tower...
Whoa. That's intimidatingly tall from this angle. (Rapunzel's tower in Minecraft PE.)
So what does the Monster Chicken look like once a year when it transforms and breaks loose? More importantly, did you give it a place to hide on its annual freedom run this year, and receive a thank-you-monster-egg in return?
You've probably heard of Baba Yaga and her hut on chicken legs. But did you know the hut has its own story?
The chicken-legged house spends all year long seeping up the magic leaking out of Baba Yaga's kitchen and one day each new Spring (a day we call Easter), there's finally enough in its bones that a wondrous thing happens. The hut shakes its walls and shingles into feathers, breaking enough of the spell keeping it chained to Baba Yaga's bidding, to transform into the strangest half-house, half-chicken monster anyone has ever seen.
Having picked up a few tricks living with its Master, the hut always manages to escape, forcing Baba Yaga to give chase. For a whole day, the Monster Chicken plays a mischievous game of hide-and-seek, dodging the Yaga's flying mortar and pestle by hiding in the yards of good-hearted children. Wherever it sits and makes a hurried nest, it leaves monster eggs as thank you's for the household's hospitality.
Hut on chicken legs during the spring nesting season Divo-Ostrov", Saint-Petersburg
At the end of one whole day and one whole night, however, the hut is tired and has enough of running. Baba Yaga catches up with it and drags her little house back to their home in the woods. There it gives one great shake before turning its body back into a hut and settling into a good long sleep, dreaming of the next year when it can run on its own again.
But even though the hut is sleeping, sometimes the dreams are so strong, it gets up on its legs, stretches them out, turns around and settles down again, without even waking up...
Note: My son adores this tale of ours (though if any of you have had visits from the Monster Chicken my son would LOVE to hear about it!) and looks forward to visits from the Monster Chicken even more than the Easter Bunny. Frankly, I think the Easter Bunny is tickled to have the magical company in our yard every year.
Do you have a personal 'Household Tale' of your own you'd like to share? Write to fairytalenews AT gmail DOT com. We'd love to share your personal traditions and stories.
You've probably heard of Baba Yaga and her hut on chicken legs. But did you know the hut has its own story?
The chicken-legged house spends all year long soaking up the magic leaking out of Baba Yaga's kitchen, and one day each new Spring (a day we call Easter), there's finally enough in its bones that a wondrous thing happens. The hut shakes its walls and shingles into feathers, breaking enough of the spell keeping it chained to Baba Yaga's bidding, to transform into the strangest half-house, half-chicken monster anyone has ever seen.
Having picked up a few tricks living with its Master, the hut always manages to escape, forcing Baba Yaga to give chase. For a whole day, the Monster Chicken plays a mischievous game of hide-and-seek, dodging the Yaga's flying mortar and pestle by hiding in the yards of good-hearted children. Wherever it sits and makes a hurried nest, it leaves monster eggs as thank you's for the household's hospitality.
Hut on chicken legs during the spring nesting season Divo-Ostrov", Saint-Petersburg
At the end of one whole day and one whole night, however, the hut is tired and has enough of running. Baba Yaga catches up with it and drags her little house back to their home in the woods. There it gives one great shake before turning its body back into a hut and settling into a good long sleep, dreaming of the next year when it can run on its own again.
But even though the hut is sleeping, sometimes the dreams are so strong, it gets up on its legs, stretches them out, turns around and settles down again, without even waking up...
Update April 2017: My son, now 10, still adores this tale of ours (and if any of you have had visits from the Monster Chicken my son would LOVE to hear about it!). With the fairly recent news confirming many dinosaurs as having feathers, in addition to being related to chickens, this story no longer seems quite as fanciful... ;) He looks forward to visits from the Monster Chicken even more than the Easter Bunny. Frankly, I think the Easter Bunny is tickled to have the magical company in our yard every year.
Do you have a personal 'Household Tale' of your own you'd like to share? Write to fairytalenews AT gmail DOT com. We'd love to share your personal traditions and stories.
Not only has Melissa Sue Stanley been creating Chicken Leg Shacks (see my previous post on these adorable plush chicken legged houses HERE) but she's created a Baba Yaga and story to go with them... AND, if you live close by, you can go see them in person at the Stuff This! - the 3rd Annual Plush Show in Columbus, Ohio. It opens today (December 5th) and runs till the 30th. You can also get a chicken leg shack - or a strawberry monster - of your own from the exhibition through HERE (other fibre/plush artist's work available here too). If you're interested in buying, be quick. They're selling out fast!I should probably have saved this for my "12 Days of [Gifts Before] Christmas" series which starts tomorrow (with giveaway!) but I just couldn't wait... consider it an early bonus!
I simply have to share Melissa Sue's Baba Yaga story (per her various blogs):
Baba Yaga and her chicken shacks: Where did you think chicken shacks come from?She raises them in her garden.They frolic around the blue roses and valerian, and eat healthy amounts of bug legs and children's fingers.In the morning she puts on that old dusty coat and big black boots, and stomps into the chilly yard where they greet her, chirping, and chomping the tiny sharp teeth in their keyholes.The world needs more Baba Yaga.
Isn't that the most adorable bit of creepy ever?
Here's a sketch of her ideas for this great piece - you can see her attention to detail and story very clearly in her notes. I really appreciate that she's been able to handle detail and story without over-complicating the design. Very nice!You can see her blogs HERE and HERE which showcase a lot more of her work and her process and visit her website HERE. She also has an Etsy shop HERE though her chicken shacks aren't listed here yet.
(Or whatever you call this feast day of flowers, egg-hunts, spring goodness and Monster Chicken visits!)
In honor of the day and also to encourage the sentiment of hope and the importance of keeping our tales, fables and folklore alive, I thought I'd post some gorgeous artwork from Rise of the Guardians - specifically Bunnymund, who's the guardian of HOPE, and spreads that sentiment with extra enthusiasm (and colorful eggs) during Spring on Easter morning.
It doesn't hurt for me personally, that in the movie, Bunnymund is specifically Australian, which, we're told is where the original Spring came from. (Wow, now that's a story and it works very well with the idea of Australia being nicknamed Down Under, as well as the Persephone myth and our sunburnt land's propensity to blossom instantly, and colorfully, back to life at the first hint of rain...) He also has his Warren Headquarters underneath the continent and tunnels that lead to everywhere in the world, so he can race around the globe in seconds.
I know many people have had an exceptionally difficult year-past and the Winter/Christmas season was really rough. You're feeling tired, overwhelmed and unmotivated and that's completely normal. The great thing about Spring is that nature is eager to help you get through that and tries to show you with each new flower, leaf and egg-hunt giggles that there are still good times to be had.
Let some magic make you smile this weekend and remember your child inside:
So this Spring, hold Hope fast in your hearts and watch it spread wherever you go. Tell your stories, encourage other to tell theirs and renew your wonder of the world. It's an amazing place if you remember how to see it.
Blessings to all my fairy tale friends this Easter Day!
Bunnymnd: "That's a lotta hair fer an anklebiter!"
Merida: "Aye. An' you're a lotta hare..."
Bunnymund: "Fair enough. Least you didn't call me a kangaroo. How'dya like yur eggs?"
The new banner poster for Maleficent - click to see much larger image
We saw a blurry three quarter view from a pic taken at CinemaCon but here's the full image of the World of Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent (original source). Best of all, it makes it clear what kind of movie this really is: an epic family fantasy adventure blockbuster movie, on the scale of Legend.
You must admit, Disney are really good at these 'world of' teaser banners. They definitely call to mind the epic fantasy paintings from series book covers like The Belgariad (remember those?) and similar. Both the US Alice in Wonderland and the Oz the Great and Powerful banners are gorgeous looking, no matter what you eventually thought of the movies. (You can click on the posters below to view them a bit larger but you get the idea: world = magical). I just hope Maleficent proves to be much better than either, and is better at capturing the imagination - like Labyrinth, Legend and ET were, way back when.
I also really, REALLY hope it's good, because there has been a decided lack of family fantasy movies in general* for the last 30-ish years (other than animation or talking animal movies) and although my son has just reached that wonderful age where I can show him some of the classics (there has been some serious pleading to get a "My other ride is Falkor" license plate for our car), I'd love to have him experience the currently-in-theaters, en-masse-social-excitement for a new fantasy or fairy tale film that I had when I was his age. Not to mention, if Maleficent does well and hits the magical, substantial yet not TOO dark, target for families, we'll get more fairy tale family movies in the near future - that's just about guaranteed.
Seeing fairy tales in the theater when you are still at that age where Santa, The Easter Bunny (and in our house, Baba Yaga's Monster Chicken) comes to visit you every year makes a huge impact on a person and not just as an escape or piece of entertainment. I dearly hope Maleficent is something I can take him to see. And it means we'll get help raising a generation of people who love and are aware of fairy tales again.
For something to compare the foreign fairy tale marketing, here's the Italian poster, which has the added subtitle "The Secret of Sleeping Beauty". What are your thoughts on the different approaches? And does the "world reveal" of the top poster make you look forward to the movie or worry that we're about to be treated to another disOZster?
*Yes, we've had the Harry Potter film franchisebut honestly, I can't really show more than the first two to my kid yet. They get darker and darker with every sequel too, so, true family films, notsomuch. We had Narnia (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) and the sequels but only the first one really made any sort of social impact. The Golden Compass was epic but rather high concept and difficult for the under-tens to understand and enjoy and Stardust just wasn't little-kid-friendly conceptually (and check the dates on all these movies too - they were quite far apart). There have been smaller films (and a number of more recent foreign films) that have been excellent but not many people seem to know them. Sadly, most of the really big fantasy films have been for teen and older audiences: Pan's Labyrinth, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Red Riding Hood, Snow White and the Huntsman, Jack the Giant Slayer etc or they've been so effects-dependent with subpar writing, eg Oz the Great and Powerful, that the magic and possibility of jump-starting kids' imaginations has been sucked right out. While I adore grown-up fantasy movies, I'd really love my kid to grow up loving fantasy and fairy tales being buzzed about in popular culture as well. It feels a bit like everyone who grew up watching The Neverending Story, ET, The Princess Bride, Jumanji, Legend etc went on to make Lord of the Rings or Doctor Who and forgot to make good quality fantasy their kids could participate in viewing and loving as well. It's about time it came back around to an epic but family friendly fantasy. Hopefully this will fan the flame of good family fantasy and fairy tale movies and perhaps spawn some TV series in the same vein as well. (More Storyteller please!)
What is #FolktaleWeek and #FolktaleWeek2019? You can read all about it HEREand see a sampling of the myriad mediums and styles being created in. You can also see a small selection of the MANY posts that appeared yesterday for the prompt of HOME HERE.
Today's prompt is SECRET.
Note: As far as fairy tale and folklore trends for today's prompt we expected lots of Bluebeard (and there were quite a few) but we also noticed lots of Billy Goats Gruff, Rumpelstiltskin, The Crane Wife and, again, lots of selkies.
Again, we chose for different styles, unusual scenes of known tales and most often, lesser-known tales wonderfully done. Enjoy - artist credits, and any pertinent notes made by them for their work, are below each image. The following is our favorite creation for today's prompt. The pic immediately below is the doll but then her secret is revealed in an Instagram video so swipe through to see it before scrolling down for the secret image.
Continue on down for a huge variety of folktale SECRETS from Tuesday.
IG @oprunenco
Artist comment: The second day, I was inspired by a Russian fairytale,, Kashey Besmertnyi,,. His Secret is : his death under a tree is chest- in a chest a rabbit - in a rabbit a duck- in a duck an egg-in an egg a needle- in a needle his death!
IG @katyerayda_plasticine
Artist comment: DAY2 ☆SECRET☆ FolktaleWeek - if you believe in magic, one day on a rainbow day in the grass you can find a sleeping elf baby - Good luck for all of you😊☘🌞
IG @feliciaolin
Artist comment: Fadhila's Secret (A Kenyan Folktale) - I searched #secret and #folktale and found a Kenyan folk tale about a girl with good luck finding fruit and a lazy, greedy spider who takes advantage of her kindness. I have been pretty obsessed with the tribal make-up from Beyonce's Lemonade so I used a cross between that make up and some more traditional Kenyan attire.
IG @ellinarium_art
Artist comment: N/A
IG @suzemariepics
Artist comment: Day 2: Secret. This is The Forest Bride:The Little Mouse who was a Princess.🐁👸 A farmer had 3 sons and wanted them to marry, so he told them to each chop a tree and search in the direction of their own fallen tree for a bride. The youngest sons tree pointed into the forest where only animals lived. The youngest son, struck up a friendship with a white mouse, who held a secret, she was an enchanted Princess disguised as a mouse. After each son and prospective bride performed several tasks for the Father, which the mouse excelled at, she was invited to meet him. She decided to go in style, in a little carriage of an empty nutshell, pulled by five black mice. As they neared his ho.e they had to cross a footbridge, as the neared the middle a man was coming towards them, and kicked the coach and mice into the river below. As the young man mourned his mouse, a fancy coach pulled up, and a beautiful princess approached the man, and she explained she had been the mouse. The young man took his bride to be home to meet his father. 🐁🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀👸
IG @spittypt
Artist comment: N/A
IG @nadine_dubois
Artist comment: N/A
IG @taranealarts
Artist comment: Day 2 of #folktaleweek is #Secret. This magic purple cow is Wee Little Havroshechka’s secret helper from the Slavic folktale, which has a few versions but always includes Havroshechka adopted by a mean woman with mean daughters and given ridiculous tasks like making several new dresses out of a small square of linen. She somehow has this magical cow that pities her and says, “jump through my ears and the work will be done.” But sometimes the translation is, “jump in one ear and out the other,” which was much funnier as a kid. Eventually she runs away because the stepmother wants to kill the cow and she finds a cottage with little dwarves and a handsome prince and she wins him over with domestic work. Theoretically the cow gets along ok as well, or one would hope.
IG @bethwoolrich
Artist comment: Folktale Week Day 2 - SECRET The Secret of the Fairies - One day, an ironworker named Matteo decided he must see the fairies...... “Good," she said, "but one thing you must know. I will teach you every secret, and I will make you happy, but you must see me only when I wish you to see me. Never follow me. Promise me that." "I promise," Matteo said.
IG @rufina.blackwell.art
Artist comment: Day 2 of #folktaleweek, prompt ‘Secret’ - I have chosen the fairy tale ‘The Secret’ about a farmer who found two pots of gold 💰💰and as he was afraid people would be after his gold, he decided to test his wife and check if she could keep a secret 🙄I think you already know she did not pass the test ☺️
IG @leila_and_po
Artist comment: Folktale Week Day 2: Secret - Cinderella’s secrets with magical animals and fitting into glass slippers, the list goes on and on. - I went with an older, pre-Disney version of this story. My 16 year old came up with the idea of representing both versions of Cinderella by depicting one in the mirror’s reflection.
IG @meg.vermaak
Artist comment: DAY 2: SECRET - Today’s folktale illustration is based on a story titled ‘Mrs Chicken and the hungry crocodile’. 🐊 “The night before their eggs are all about to hatch, Chicken secretly trades eggs with crocodile.” Chicken then tries to convince Crocodile that they are related so that he will not eat her. -What a humorous tale! 🐓
IG @marketastengl
Artist comment: day 2 SECRET 🖤 - Inspired by a Japanese folktale called The Flute. - A flute cries and helps a father to find out that his daughter was killed by her stepmother. - Did you know that only dead and ghosts wear their kimono with the right portion on the top like this? I definitely learned something new here.
IG @maria.over
Artist comment: Today’s prompt is SECRET. - In winter, when Thumbelina finds shelter in the field mouse‘s home, she discovers a swallow that fell from the sky. She feels so sad remembering how it beautifully it sang in the summer and secretly warms the swallow bedding it on soft wool and covering it with a woven grass blanket. Just as she lays her head on the swallow‘s chest, she suddenly hears a heartbeat – the swallow isn’t dead at all!
IG @heidewitz
Artist comment: SECRET 🔮🌀🦇 - She knows your future, but she will not tell.
IG @friederickeablang
Artist comment: No one knows the secret within: - Silence and light and human skin. - 2 - secret of #folktaleweek
IG @sveta_solarni
Artist comment: N/A (Ed: Nice depiction of The Frog Tsarevna!
IG @marieroberts
Artist comment: N/A
IG @annekecaramin
Artist comment: Day 2 of Folktaleweek and the prompt was 'Secret'! Last year I focused on local Belgian folktales and legends, and did the same thing this time. I found a little story about a witch who took the appearance of a hare to play in the moonlight, and was found out when her lover shot the hare, only to find his injured beloved in its place...
IG @artbyemilyskinner
Artist comment: Day 2 prompt "secret". I wanted to try this one as B&W line. This witch has many secrets- she is a shapeshifter, changing into a cat (and in some versions of the story an owl), she lures wild animals to her house to feed on, and she turns young women into birds which she keeps in cages.
IG @bettabasile
Artist comment: Hansel secretly dropped the bits of breadcrumbs that would allow them to find the house again...
IG @paperartbyanni
Artist comment: 2nd day of #folktaleweek2019#secret - Do you remember the tale of the king with donkey ears? Not a cheerful story but at least there is a happy end in most of the versions. The lesson to be learned is that „nothing is secret that will not be revealed”.
IG @aliocha.gouverneur_art
Artist comment: N/A
IG @thistlemoon
Artist comment: day 2 - Secret. I love seals, so for this prompt I chose selkies! A selkie is a mythological creature that can change its shape from seal to human form by shedding its skin. According to Scottish folklore, if a man stole a selkie’s seal skin she could be forced to be his wife, although she would forever long to return to the sea. She would live as a human, keeping her true form a secret as her husband wished to hold her for himself. However, in some versions of the tale she would regain her skin and immediately return to the sea. I always recommend the film Song of the Sea by @cartoonsaloon for a beautiful interpretation of the Irish selkie folktale.
IG @annna_oparina (yes, 3 'A's in annna!)
Artist comment: 3. Secret 🤐 ✨
IG @victoria_portraits
Artist comment: N/A
IG @louisegouet
Artist comment: Day two of Folk Tale Week: Secret 🌙 This is the tale of Tristan and Isolde, which is associated with Tintagel, Cornwall. 🏰 - Tristan, a Cornish Knight, was sent to Ireland to bring Isolde back to be the king’s wife. On the way back they both accidentally drank a love potion that was meant for the king, and fell deeply in love. Isolde married the king but kept Tristan as her secret lover. Eventually the king found out and banished Tristan to Brittany. There he found a wife but continued to love Isolde. One day he was wounded and sent for her to nurse him- if she agreed she was meant to come in a ship with a white sail. His new wife was jealous and told him that the ship had a black sail, and he died of heartbreak. When Isolde reached him too late she lay down and died in his arms. 🗡
IG @zhuravlyova_valeria
Artist comment: "Secret" and this is my second illo for #folktaleweek2019 is based on the Russian folktale Princess the Frog
IG @farrell_annemarie
Artist comment: Today’s prompt is #secret . I’m using a scene from The Twelve Dancing Princesses in which a King wonders how his daughters’ dancing shoes are always worn out? Spoiler alert... those little rascals are drugging the guards and escaping down a secret trapdoor to get up to their shenanigans! My kind of princesses. 😜 (*no guards were drugged in this scene... he is faking and follows them under an invisibility cloak!)
IG @nerd_cats
Artist comment: Day 2 of #folktaleweek2019 is “secret”. I found the tale of Ursila from Stronsay, which tells the story of a woman named Ursila, who takes a Male “selkie”, one of the seal-folks, as a lover. After that she has many children, but each one is born with strange webbing between their fingers and toes. The midwife would cut off the webbing, in order to keep Ursila’s secret...
IG @lydiapudel
Artist comment: Day 2 of #folktaleweek The prompt is #secret - Unce upon a time there were a gorgeous princess with an evil stepmother who were a mad queen and a sourceress. The girl fell in love with a common guy and that was not the fate the stepmother intendet for the girl. -So she cursed the boy and he turned into a bear. But the girl was not afraid of the bear or her stepmother and kept visiting her love and searching for a solution to break the curse! 🏰🍄🌕🌺 Many russian folktales involve bears and stags and pretty girls. So did this one.😊
IG @misheru_does_art
Artist comment: Day 2: Secret - A MANANANGGAL is usually depicted as a flying vampiric female with only half of her body and having bat-like wings. The other half left in a hideaway within the thicket of the jungle. In daytime she lives and walks amongst humans but come darkness she detaches her upper torso from her lower body and sets off to hunt. She feeds off babies and fetuses from pregnant women by sucking the blood through the mother’s navel using her elongated tongue that passes through a secret hole from the roof of the victim’s house. - Sunlight is deadly and so she must return to her lair and her lower torso at dawn. It is also said that in order to kill the monster, one must search for the lower half of her body and pour salt, garlic or ash over the exposed flesh to prevent the transformation of the manananggal back into her human form. The same ingredients kept in the house should veer off any attack. - The Manananggal may well be the most popular monster or aswang in the country for other regions have similar creatures only with slight variations in gender, feeding habits and body structure. A wakwak from Surigao is something of human bird that flies in the night in search of a victim. The Bikolanos also believe in other beings such as the asuwang na layog, who transforms into a winged creature under houses, and the anananggal, who is similar to the manananggal. The Ungo of Zamboanga also has wings, lived among humans during the day but feeds on the dead, while the Tiyu-an of Capiz is a woman with a puppy by day but in the dark of night keeps its body in tact as it flies to hunt for babies and pregnant women.
Artist comment: The Loom at Night - #folktaleweek 2/7, Secret - The Crane Wife, from the japanese folktale... Tried to use colours I usually don’t, and finding it hard 😂
IG @ashley_mckee
Artist comment: For “secret” I chose the old Jack Tale Jack and the Giants New Ground. The king hires Jack to rid the land of a family of grumpy giants that have killed every man who’s attempted to clear the land. Jack reluctantly agrees. His wits help him to defeat the giant children of the old giant and his wife (all of whom have multiple heads). The giant couple decide they need to get rid of Jack before he gets rid of them, and they secretly plot to cook him for dinner. The story describes the oven and the shelf above the fireplace. I included a comb on the shelf because the mother giant wants to comb Jack before preparing him for dinner. The giants didn’t realize that Jack was listening from an opening in the door. As a result, he was able to think fast to save himself and defeat the giants.
IG @manon_ga_
Artist comment: The secrets stir curiosity, so I drew the pandora box.
IG @thunder_sky_illustrations
Artist comment: Folktale week day 2 "secret" - A Northumbrian tale of The three treacle wells of longwitton Near the town of longwitton there were three wells said to have healing powers, they became so popular they drew the attention of a ferocious "worm" (dragon) ... Upon drinking the water the dragon turned invisible and from that day forward none could use the wells for fear of the invisible worm who guarded them. An adventurous traveller vowed to rid the wells of the worm and acquired a magic salve which when applied to his eyes allowed him to see the unseen... Despite being able to now see the worm every blow he dealt the beast with his blade magically healed itself. The traveller returned the next day and as he fought once again he noticed that the dragon would never venture too far from the wells. It was then that he discovered the worms secret, his tail was always dipped into the healing water of one of the treacle wells allowing him to recover instantly during battle. The brave traveller lured the beast as far away from the wells as he could and then darting forward made a swift blow to the creatures tail with his sword, thus separating it from the healing properties of the water. He then succeeded in slaying the worm and ridding the town of longwitton of the beast.
IG @visiongonegrey
Artist comment: Day 2: Secret “shhh no one knows what happened to grandma”
IG @elleasparuhova
Artist comment: Once upon a time there was a boy who had a secret. He was so scared to say it out loud that he locked it inside himself with a key and lost trust in everyone. - He was so cautions about losing the key... as losing it meant that everyone would know his secret and he would be alone for the rest of his days, that the key turned as blue as him...And so the boy spent the rest of his days looking after the key as if his life depended on it...letting life go by.. - ‘My sad, sad boy.... do you feel less lonely, now that I finally know your secret..?’ - Folktale week day 2 - Secret
IG @kendra_binney
Artist comment: And about that sea monster.... #folktaleweek day 2: secret.
IG @natelledrawsstuff
Artist comment: Day Two prompt for Folktale Week is SECRET 💜 The story I chose to illustrate is The Cowherd and The Weaver Girl. Swipe across to see a closeup of the Weaver Girl! - 💜The pair fell in love, and kept their relationship a secret, but their love was discovered, and they were both punished to opposite ends of the milkyway 😱 But on a special day every year, flocks of magpies would form a bridge between them, so that the lovers could reunite for one day. This story is a popular one and there are many renditions of it!
IG @yfmnko
Artist comment: Part 2. Secret/Секрет.🐦 That girl, who lived near the forest, knew about herself one not simple feature. Contrary to her will, something incredible happened to her as soon as the first stars appeared in the sky. Every night, her hands were replaced by wings, and her dark wavy hair was intertwined with feathers. The girl became half a bird.Unable to control this, she always hid in her room under the very roof of the house.In one of many such strange for her nights have lost count how many there were, there was what she was so afraid. The night was clear. Marvelous the moon splashed on each branch, has filled the whole space with its cold light, and in the window glowed warm candle flame. Inadvertently, the girl forgot to lock the window and she was noticed First. One of the villagers saw the winged creature so clearly that he cried out from the horror of misunderstanding what he saw. The girl started and uncertainly turned around. She was always afraid of this, afraid to be noticed by someone, because what will happen to her then? The half-bird abruptly flew out of the room. Away. I ran away.
IG @laure_illustrations
Artist comment: A tale from Suriname 🐆 ... A jaguar was so impressed by a hunters skills that he changed shape and became a beautiful woman to seduce the hunter. They lived and hunted together happily until the villagers became suspicious. The villagers got the mother in law of the jaguar woman drunk and she told them her secret. After that, the jaguar woman went back to the jungle and the poor hunter never saw his beloved wife again.
IG @shantala_robinson
Artist comment: 'Secret'.She jumped into the lake with the cows, bull and calf training after her. Another folk tale. Keeping it monochromatic.
IG @artspellmagic
Artist comment: Folktale Week Day 2: SECRET - Inspired by the German folktale “The Snake” published by the Zingerle Brothers about a girl who is asked to marry a snake and receives a secret revelation that the snake will transform into a handsome young man on their wedding night if she asks him to shed his seven skins.
IG @flakesandtales
Artist comment: Folktale week day 2! This wolf is keeping secrets, don't fall for his tricks ✨ #folktaleweek2019
IG @noteswithscribbles
Artist comment: The girl from the six swans is about to discover the #secret to turn her brothers back into humans. This drawing was the result of an inkober sketch that I finally polished today. I’ve posted it before but I need to see it within the series it generated - I don’t think I can really match it, but I don’t mind. Because there is a certain special magic inherent in a moment I would have loved as a girl, when I dreamed of getting this close to birds.
IG @lalunadraw
Artist comment: day 2 - Secret - Today’s story from Greek Mythology -Secret inside the Pandora’s Box-
“...Pandora was trying to tame her curiosity, but at the end she could not hold herself anymore; she opened the box and all the envy, sickness, hate, disease that gods had hidden in the box started coming out.”
IG @st.kamila
Artist comment: Day 2 : SECRET - Gouache painting process inspired by old Asian fairytale about a wife turning into heron.
IG @marjolaineroller
Artist comment: "Open all doors, go into each and every one of my appartments, except that little closet, which I forbid you, and forbid it in such a manner that, if you happen to open it, you may expect my just anger and resentment." She promised but one day the #temptation was so strong that she could not overcome it... 😳😰😱 #bluebeard
IG @scottkeenanillo
Artist comment: Day 2 of #folktaleweek ‘Secret’ This witch definitely has a deadly secret that Hansel and Gretel don’t know about yet! 🍬 .
IG @babushkina_irra
Artist comment: The little secret of a big forest.
IG @passionflower_art_design
Artist comment: The Seven Ravens by Brothers Grimm. An interesting tale of disappointment, secrets, devotion and restoration. The King was so disappointed in his 7 precious sons that a careless curse turned them all into ravens. 👉🏻Stay tuned for the rest of the story😊
IG @fraeuleineichhorn
Artist comment: Folktaleweek Day II: "The Singing Bone" - a tale about two brothers who hunt a boar to win the princess's hand in marriage. The younger brother is successful and the older kills him to win the prize himself. A shepherd finds a bone under the bridge where the body is buried and turns it into a flute. When he plays it the bone reveals the #secret of the younger brother's death
IG @leonora_camusso
Artist comment: The second prompt for the #folktale week is: secret - At Nido dell'Orso, above Prali, on the Piedmontese Alps in Italy, there were two sisters of opposite souls: one was kind and a great worker, the other was rude and lazy. Although the good girl spent her days at work in the stable, she always had some money to buy new clothes and jewels that exalted her beauty. The jealous sister wanted to discover her secret and decided to spy on the girl while she was at work. And so, she saw that a black kitten came into the stable every day and the good girl offered him a bowl of fresh milk. - What she didn't see, though, was the kitten that, after drinking all the milk, tapped the bowl until it magically filled with silver coins. - To discover the mystery, the lazy girl asked her sister to go to the stable in her place. The following day, when she found herself in front of the cat asking for milk, instead of stretching out the bowl she kicked it out. The cat came out of the barn and turned into a fairy, who, with an indignant gaze, abandoned those valleys forever.
IG @hoillustration_
Artist comment: Day Two (real time this time) of Folktale Week and it’s unsurprisingly more Angela from me, this time from ‘The Tiger’s Bride’. The prompt was SECRET and it came out super creepy? - ‘He throws our human aspirations to the godlike sadly awry, poor fellow; only from a distance would you think The Beast not much different from any other man, although he wears a mask with a man's face painted most beautifully on it. Oh, yes, a beautiful face; but one with too much formal symmetry of feature to be entirely human: one profile of his mask is the mirror image of the other, too perfect, uncanny. He wears a wig, too, false hair tied at the nape with a bow, a wig of the kind you see in old-fashioned portraits. A chaste silk stock stuck with a pearl hides his throat. And gloves of blond kid that are yet so huge and clumsy they do not seem to cover hands.’
IG @juliachristiansde
Artist comment: FOLKTALEWEEK ↟ I am telling storys from my region the Harz mountains again this year.
#folktaleweek Day 2: secret - Once there was a miner who was working so fast that his colleagues said, that only the devil could work with him. The devil heard about that and came to challenge the miner. Both worked like crazy but the devil won. At the end of the day they got payed 400 coins and one penny which they had to split up. They argued long until the miner threw the penny into a shaft and the devil jumped right after it and he is still living in that shaft, which is now called the devils shaft.
IG @robotswebe2
Artist comment: N/A
IG @Ibleckster
Artist comment: Day 2 #folktaleweek “Secret” The King of the Sharks a Hawaiian tale of a shark that falls in love with a girl by the pool. When their son was born with markings of the shark he was told to wear the cape to conceal the secret.
IG @carolinebonnemuller
Artist comment: Day 2: Secret - I illustrated the harpist who is secretly the Tsarina, to rescue her Tsar. I used the beautiful story ‘The wandering Harpist’ from Russia. I found this story in the great book; The Lost Fairy tales, written by Isabel Otter and illustrated by Ana Sender, published by @caterpillar_books For many Sunday mornings I was reading these magical stories to my son.
IG @kattonop
Artist comment: 2️⃣Secret - Spanish tale tells about shepherd girl who finds a little cobra snake and keeps it with her secretly. But that's not a regular snake, she is an enchanted princess. . .
IG @katijatomic_artist
Artist comment: Day2 SECRET - She was awoken by a faint creaky noise ....it was her third night as a guest in this old French chateau, and since there was no going back to sleep for her, she decided to explore it. Upon discovering this beautiful library, filled with amazing one of a kind and first additions , she was drawn to one book that was placed upside down. She picked it up,when suddenly one of the bookcases started to slowly turn making this creaky noise that woke her up earlier.....
IG @jacqui.langeland
Artist comment: N/A
IG @sandhyaprybhat
Artist comment: N/A
IG @elitsa_nn
Artist comment: N/A
IG @cloverlie
Artist comment: Day 2 - Secret, “Seal Maiden” - I stretched this prompt as an excuse to draw a selkie, as their lives seem to be steeped in secrets; their human form is vulnerable if discovered and their sealskin stolen, for as long as it is kept hidden, they’re bound to the land.
