This week is a week of opportunity for fairy tale and folktale people - to find new tales, tales new to them or new takes on tales they know - as well as a fantastic way to find fresh artists. As we wrote in an earlier post, artists from all over the world are posting their take on a prompt with a folktale theme, all week this week.
Search for #folktaleweek and #folktaleweek2019 - some folks are only using one or the other, though most people are tagging their entries with both hashtags to be more easily found. (Instagram is the main posting space.) If you like any of these, do go and find them on Instagram and let them know. Every participant is trying to stretch themselves and greatly appreciates the encouragement.
Though we are not yet certain if we will have time, we will attempt to share some standouts from every day that are bring posted. There are HUNDREDS though! So there's always a chance we've missed a few, or haven't had time to review all the entries, but this is more about sharing the incredible variety and creativity being created this week, specifically on folktales and fairy tales, so we hope you will go and have a look at the hashtags yourself. We chose for different styles, unusual scenes of known tales and most often, lesser-known tales beautifully done.
Today's prompt is HOME.
Note: As far as fairy tale and folklore trends, apart from the usual Red Riding Hood, Golilocks and Hansel & Gretel, we noticed there were a LOT of Baba Yaga and her chicken house interpretations, and a LOT of selkie women heading 'home' too.
Enjoy - credits, and any pertinent notes, are below each image.
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| IG @shellsnroses |
Artist comment:
Day 1: Home. -Little mounds of earth are the homes of the fair-folk.
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| IG @laia.pampols |
Artist comment:
Day 1: Home đ - âThe wolf and the seven little kidsâ was my favorite tale when I was a child.
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| IG @shelley_laslo |
Artist comment: I chose to go with my first association with the word âHomeâ- the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. In it, curious Goldilocks trespasses into the home of the Bear family, how rude!â¨I decided to treat this piece as a double spread, as I wanted to practice creative compositions in my visual storytelling.
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| IG @theuglymugwort |
Artist comment: This is my interpretation of the Claddagh, a well-known Irish symbol usually in the form of a ring. The Claddagh goes back several hundred years and itâs said to have originated in a fishing village in Galway. Story has it that a silversmith, named Richard Joyce, was captured and enslaved to a Moorish goldsmith, sometime in the 17th century. While in captivity, he fashioned a ring with the symbols of the heart for love, the hands for friendship and the crown for loyalty. After 14 years, Joyce was finally released and was able to return home to Galway where he gave the ring to his long-lost love and was married. âŁ
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| IG @elitsa_nn |
Artist comment: âA samovila does not a home makeâ is said of the samovili, nymph-like creatures in Bulgarian folklore. If you steal their shirt (red here, white traditionally), it renders them unable to fly and allows you to take one as a wife. In one fairy tale a man who did this hid the samovila's shirt by walling it in the house walls. After years of marriage the samovila sees a single thread sticking out, and tugs on it, retrieving her shirt and (thanks to her superhuman strength) destroys the home she has been confined to.
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| IG @alioliart |
Artist comment: âOn its 52 mile (8,5 Scandinavian mile) long way from The Rottnen Lake to the sea, The Ronneby River squishes itself through a geological cleft only 1,5 metres wide. The cleft is very narrow, but is said to have a depth of at least 17 - 18 metres.â
Woo Iâm joining #folktaleweek2019 !! Through this challenge Iâm going to pay homage to Sweden, my home, through Swedish folktales and fairytales. This first illustration is based on a local tale, in fact the place where this story takes place is just a short walk from my house, Iâve been there many times!
Hope you like this â¤ď¸it was a bit hard translating the story correctly from the original Swedish one. đ
Also, I chose to use the border around the picture to illustrate the story as well, so you can read it visually too. đ
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| IG @jimbradshaw |
Artist comment: The Heceta Head lighthouse is said to be haunted by the ghost of a mother whose baby daughter fell to her death from the cliff upon which it stands. I'm guessing this was her home. The apparition which reportedly has been seen by many has been dubbed âThe Gray Lady.â Man, most of the folktales I've been researching are tragic. I'm wanting to lighten these up a little and can't resist adding some of my regular doodle characters which I plan on doing throughout this challenge. They would be sorely hurt if I left them out.
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| IG @ashley_mckee |
Artist comment: Iâve chosen to focus on Appalachian tales, namely Jack Tales. For âhomeâ I chose Jack and the Northwest Wind. The wind blew so hard and cold that it was coming through the cracks in the walls of the shack jack lived in with his mother. He set out on a quest to stop that old wind, but a series of fortunate events changed his luck, allowing him to provide his mother with food, wood for heat, and golden eggs. He forgot all about stopping the wind that blew fiercely outside, finally cozy and content at home.
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| IG @papersilhouette |
Artist comment: I chose the Korean folktale, The Heavenly Maiden and the Woodcutter ě ë
ě ë돴ꞟ
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| IG @sash_d_art |
Artist comment: The first prompt is "home" and here you can see Baba-yaga's izbushka (or little peasant house) on chicken legs. Do you know that:
⢠Baba-yaga is the most popular character of Russian fairy tales;
⢠She is rumoured to eat little children though she hasn't actually eaten a single one in fairy tales;
⢠She usually helps young and beautiful men and women;
⢠She gets along well with animals. In different tales she has got cats, mice, geese-swans, a giant frog and even a herd of especially swift and fierce horses;
⢠She lives on the edge of the forest which signifies her "border" status: she is situated between life and death, between the human and spiritual worlds. It's the same situation with her "bone" leg;
⢠She wields a bunch of magical artefacts: a mortar and a broom for flying, a ball of yarn which can show you the way through the forest to some unusual places, a saucer with a golden apple which can show you everything you want etc.;
⢠She's got a family! In some tales there are three Baba-yagas, three weird sisters, and sometimes she's got a daughter who is the apple of her eye.
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| IG @sarahmccollillustration |
Artist comment: The folktale i will be illustrating this week is a Norwegian story called âEast of the Sun and West of the Moonâ. Day 1: (leaving) home!
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| IG @chaosego |
Artist comment: N/A
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| IG @lalunadraw |
Artist comment: Day 1-Home -My story is âHouse of Baba Yagaâ - The legend is about a Witch from the Woods. She is scary and ugly, and eats children. The scariest part about her is that she lives in a house that walks on chicken legs, she uses her walking house to chase after any children she finds so she can catch them, so she can eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Tasty.
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| IG @madebysmitty |
Artist comment: For prompt number 1 HOME, Iâve illustrated, embroidered, and hand-stitched these wee dolls, whose folktale embodies the essence of home for me. Home is a place where everything is not too hot, not too cold, not too hard, and not too soft. Everything is just right. .
Iâve always felt somewhat disconcerted by this flaxen-haired little villain who eats all the bearsâ food, breaks their belongings and leaves without offering recompense or apology. Has anyone else ever wondered if this tale was somewhat prescient for how we humans treat the homes of animals today?
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| IG @sarahjdocker |
Artist comment: Todayâs prompt was âHomeâ. The House of Wind is an old Indian folktale about greed, jealousy and what happens when you let it get the better of you. In this story a young girl loses one of her only dresses to the wind, and follows it to a palace, home to the Mother of Wind. She is taken through halls of food, silver and gold yet takes nothing from the Mother of Wind but her clothing, which had been put inside a box, in a room with lots of other boxes filled with silver and gold. The girl chooses the lightest box wanting only her dress, and takes it home. She gets home to unfold her clothing to find a bar of gold inside the box too, a gift from Mother of Wind for taking only what belonged to her. Her jealous neighbour has been watching all of this happen, and decides to deliberately throw her own clothes to the Wind, a ploy in hopes of receiving gold at the House of Wind too. She follows the wind to the palace and eats all of the food, wasting lots, then takes away the biggest, heaviest box hoping that it is full of gold and silver. On returning home, the jealous neighbour opens it and finds her clothes, but no gold. Instead, bags and bags of sand. She walked all that way carrying a big heavy box for nothing!
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| IG @birnam_wood |
Artist comment: Prompt 1 - HOME "Home" - both my home, and the home of the Black Swine of Hampstead. Before London was really even a city, Hampstead was a rural village. A butcher there was preparing to slaughter a pregnant sow when the creature slipped its stall and escaped into the sewers; once safely hidden, she reared her young on the scraps and garbage swept into the sewers they now called home. From there, successive generations grew bigger and wilder and meaner in the sewers of London, where they remain to this day, bristly and stinking and half-mad with the darkness. They linger there still, unable to traverse the rapid flow of the subterranean River Fleet and leave their dank underground home. Should they learn how to broach the current, though, it's said that they'll storm the streets of Hampstead, rampage through Holloway, and tear Highgate Archway to the ground. This one owes more than a little to @neilhimself, whose efforts to warn the world about the Black Swine are considered to be fiction, and will presumably be held as such until the creatures learn to swim.
Artist comment: todayâs theme is home. After all these years, this is the first time Iâve drawn Baba Yagaâs magical cabin.
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| IG @kaleigh.ford |
Artist comment: Day one: Home. This one is from East of the Sun and West of the Moon, which was one I hadnât heard of but really enjoyed!
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| IG @gunns_designs |
Artist comment: Of course Iâll be sticking with the wildlife theme as always đđť So, first up is this piece inspired by âThe Nightingaleâ đż #FolktaleWeek2019 A literary fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Anderson about an emperor who prefers the tinkling of a bejeweled mechanical bird to the song of a real nightingale. When the Emperor is near death, the nightingale's song restores his health. Iâve used oriental inspiration for the patterns and colour palette.
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| IG @toriboard |
Artist comment: I like the colours and the concept but Iâm not keen on the composition and would likely restart if I had time, probably make the den more like a human house, especially as part of the song says âcut up the goose with a fork and a knifeâ indicating a more anthropomorphic image.
I decided to choose a folk song to illustrate, called âthe foxâ. I remember being fascinated with this song when I had it on cassette as a child :) âThe Fox"
The Fox went out on a chilly night/ He prayed for the moon to give him light/ For he had many a mile to go that night/ Before he reached the town-o, town-o, town-o/ He had many a mile to go that night/ Before he reached the town-o/ He ran till he came to the farmers pen/ The ducks and the geese were kept therein/ He said a couple of you are gonna grease my chin/ Before I leave this town-o, town-o, town-o/ A couple of you are gonna grease my chin/ Before I leave this town-o/ He grabbed the great goose by the neck/ He threw a duck across his back/ And he didn't mind the quack, quack/ And the legs all danglin' down-o, down-o, down-o/ He didn't mind the quack, quack/ And the legs all danglin' down-o/ Well the old gray Woman jumped out of bed/ Out of the window she popped her head/ Cryin' John, John the great goose is gone/ The Fox is on the town-o, town-o, town-o/ John, John the great goose is gone/ And the Fox is on the town-o/ He ran till he came to his nice warm den/ And there were the little ones 8, 9, 10/ Sayin' Daddy, Daddy better go back again/ It must be a mighty fine town-o, town-o, town-o/ Daddy, Daddy go back again/ For it must be a mighty fine town-o/ The Fox and his Wife, without any strife/ They cut up the goose with a fork and a knife/ And they never had such a supper in their life/ And the little ones chewed on the bones-o, bones-o, bones-o/ They never had such a supper in their life/ And the little ones chewed on the bonesâ
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| IG @joanieyoungman |
Artist comment: Day 1: Home - For todayâs prompt I chose the Irish folktale, âThe House in the Lake.â Itâs about a fisherman and his son who live in this hut that is held way up high on stilts in the middle of a lake. The son is sitting out on the platform when an otter swims over and tosses him a fish. He feels bad for the fish and decides to give it a chance, so he throws it back into the water (one reason I liked the story so much- he didnât follow his dadâs fisherman habit and showed compassion for the fish đđ) Anyway, this happens a second time the following night-the otter brings him the same fish. Again he saves the fish, but this time when the fish hits the water, it turns into a beautiful swan. - There is more to the story after this, but thatâs what Iâve illustrated for todayâs folktale prompt, so I will leave it at that.
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| IG @gizemgozdeucar |
Artist comment: #Folktaleweek first prompt: #Home đ I have written my very own fairytale with hidden meanings and metaphors đ You can find out what happens next through #folktaleweek2019đ đ¤Once upon a time there lived a man, a lonely man and his bird, who wandered the world carrying a bird house hanging from his neck. He walked from town to town, searching for something he had yet to understand. "Why do you carry this thing around?" "Just put it aside for a while and rest, won't you?" cried the people he encountered. But he never did, he never rested. He never parted from them, not even in sleep. He carried it everywhere, all the time...
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| IG @nikolina_novosel_nezmah |
Artist comment: Folktaleweek 2019 day one - home of Baba Jaga
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| IG @christinefaustillustration |
Artist comment: This is a combination of my picture book style and an older pleinair painting. It's inspired by "Jorinde and Joringel", where an old witch divides young lovers by turning the girls into birds.
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| IG @mori_raito |
Artist comment: Long way home and the first theme for #folktaleweek challenge.
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| IG @carolinebonnemuller |
Artist comment: Day 1: Home - I illustrated âgoing homeâ and I used the beautiful story âThe company of Elvesâ from Scotland. 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.
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| IG @bryonycrane |
Artist comment: My little offering for #folktaleweek Day 1: HOME. I chose the Brothers Grimm's 'The Mouse, the Bird & The Sausage' đđŚđIt tells the tale of a bird living in perfect harmony with his little mouse and sausagey friends, until one day he meets another bird who boasts about his own life and implies that Mr. Bird shouldn't be happy with his own. The seed of doubt was sown, so bird gets cross and makes everyone switch up their roles at home, at which point their harmonious life gets royally buggered up and - spoiler alert - the sausage gets eaten by a dog, and the mouse, (who isn't as skilled, nor tasty, a cook as sausage was!) gets accidentally boiled alive. Oops. After his friends' untimely demise, bird freaks out and ends up setting the house on fire before accidentally drowning while trying to fetch water from the well to put it out đĽ. "He who is too well off is always longing for something new / whoever is too well off always wants to try something different", which roughly translates to 'dont ruin a good thing, because the grass isn't always greener'.
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| IG @lbleckster |
Artist comment: Linda Bleck's #folktaleweek piece inspired by the Hawaiian tale "King of the Sharks".
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| IG @aprilhartmanncreation |
Artist comment: Folktale Week prompt âhome.â Fossegrim is a spirit who makes his home in waterfalls, and plays the fiddle day and night. A creature of Scandinavian folklore, Fossegrim are always male and they can charm any female with their enchanting looks and music. âThe sounds of forest, wind and water play over his fiddle stringsâ and when charmed, the females are almost always drowned.
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| IG @adelaydeart |
Artist comment: I'm going to do a little story of Robin Hood! Today's prompt is home, so here is Robin Hood and Little John in their famous Oak tree home.
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| IG @peggysillustration |
Artist comment: N/A
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| IG @kathwaxman |
Artist comment: Folktale Week 2019 Prompt 1: House - Aesops Fable, Procreate - When Tortoise decides to skip Jupiterâs wedding because heâd rather stay in his cozy home, Jupiter issues a decree that Tortoise will always carry his home on his back to punish him for his rudeness. I get a sense Tortoise thinks he hit the jackpot ;).
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| IG @coalrye |
Artist comment: Day 1 - Home. Lithuanian folk tale âEglÄ the Queen of Grass Snakesâ, very tragic story.
Itâs about girl EglÄ who was married King of snakes. Heâs a handsome one, but turns to a serpent for others. The marriage was happy but EglÄâs relatives didnât think so. She shouldnât come back home.
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| IG @taranealarts |
Artist comment: Day 1 of #folktaleweek is #home and my favorite home of lore ever if the chicken leg hit of babayaga. I was always intrigued by Her stories growing up, but not truly afraid of her so much as of her house â roaming the woods autonomously on scaly chicken legs, to capture Iâll-behaves children, or disappear! There are many stories of babayaga and I liked the ones where she behaved unpredictably and had these bodiless magic hands to help her.
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| IG @blikstjinder_illustration |
Artist comment: âThe best way to keep themselves warm at HOME was with a blanket made out of human hairâ - Day 1 : HOME đĄ - Doing research for this challenge I found out that the small village I live in is blessed with a werewolf folktale. The tale itself wasnât that exciting but the inspiration was there to write a tale of my own! I hope youâll enjoy it!
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| IG @olenka.illustrates |
Artist comment: Day One: For the first prompt I chose the Celtic Folktale which called âHorned Womenâ. - Itâs an old story about a woman who protected her house and family from 12 evil witches. Scary fact: first witch had one horn on her forehead, the second witch had two hornes and so on. So the last twelfths witch had twelve hornes on her head! - I decided not to draw all of that hornes but instead I did that little white moons which in celtic mythology interpret as hornes.
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| IG @wandatikklaar |
Artist comment: The Plant Maiden- One morning a little old woman goes out to milk her five cows. On the way to the field she finds a five- sprouted herb, which she takes home and puts on her pillow. Then she goes back to milk the cows. Suddenly, she hears the sound of scissors falling and a tambourine clanging. The woman rushes HOME to find âa maiden with eyes of chalcedony and lips of dark stone, with a face of light colored stone and with eyebrows like two dark sables...her body was visible through her dress, her bones were visible through her body; her nerves spreading this way and that, like mercury, were visible through her bones. The plant had become this maiden of indescribable beauty. â Source: Favorite Folktales From Around The World edited by Jane Yolen.
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| IG @natelledrawsstuff |
Artist comment: The first prompt is HOME. For this, I chose part of the story of The Monkey King, who on his misadventures, was imprisoned by Buddha.đBuddha did this by tricking Monkey to jump into his palm, where it then magically turned into a mountain, enveloping Monkey in the process. The mountain became Monkey's prison home for 500 years. đŹđ A bit of a morbid start to Folktale Week but I promise it will get more lighthearted (somewhat đ¤Ł) as we go along!
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| IG @misheru_does_art |
Artist comment: Day 1: Home - An ANSISIT is a magical being known amongst the Ilokanos of the northern Philippines, who is typically depicted as an old man living in mysterious earth mounds like anthills or caves. He owned the land underground and in the afternoons would roam below the huts or sleep on anthills. He did not like farmers working with tractors for fear of these machines destroying his home. He also disliked sweeping of floors in the afternoons and when offended, he would would cause the offender discomfort like bruising or fevers. - This being is also known in other parts of the country only named differently. In Tagalog, he is known as âNuno/Matanda sa punsoâ or literally old man on a mound. In other parts a similar creature transforms into a piglet and causes misdemeanor amongst enemies.
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| IG @olya_fu |
Artist comment: The Raven King.
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| IG @emilyhouse.design |
Artist comment: Here's my illustration for the 'Home' prompt inspired by the English folktale, Mr & Mrs Vinegar.
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| IG @chezubo |
Artist comment: Folktaleweek 01: Home - Letâs begin Folktaleweek with a story from my Hometown, Hamburg. âDie Hand des Himmelsâ (âThe Hand of Heavenâ) - In Blankenese lived an unlucky fisherman. His family was starving and desperate as he was, the fisher went out to sea although a huge storm was coming up. It was worth the risk! Every time he cast the net, it was immediately filled with fish until his yawl couldnât carry any more. âOne last time...â the fisher thought, and as he pulled the stuffed net on board, a peal of thunder shook the sky. A white, dead hand was laying on the haul and the fisherman, scared to death, set sail and rushed back home. The hand was hung up in the church of Nienstedten, and did not rot for a weirdly long time. At long last it fell down, was burned to ashes and made into a wafer*. The fisherman however, lived a rich and prosperous life, protected by the Hand of Heaven, so the people say. - *the story says the host/wafer is still exhibited in the church, but I couldnât find further information about that.
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| IG @rimasvaleikis |
Artist comment: Influencer meets his target audience. #kolobok
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| IG @sis.bobekova |
Artist comment: N/A
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| IG @victoria_portraits |
Artist comment: Day 1: Home đĄThis is the house that Jack built
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| IG @maxineleemackie |
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| IG @oprunenco |
Artist comment: My first folktales week. First day secret prompt,, Home " and story ,, Three piglets"
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| IG @liloobox |
Artist comment: Day #1 'Home'. After she finished her chores, the old man's daughter picked the smallest, most ugly looking chest from Saint Sunday's attic and headed home... To be continued tomorrow đ...
- This is and old Romanian folktale about two step daughters that I've heard many times in my childhood. To find out the moral of the story keep an eye on my posts for the next 6daysđ¤
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| IG @bagu_illustration |
Artist comment: First folktale, Home! - #folktaleweek #folktaleweek2019 #home #goldilocks #goldilocksandthethreebears
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| IG @liloobox |
TOMORROW'S PROMPT IS SECRET.
