Stories for the Season: The Tailor of Gloucester

"The Tailor of Gloucester" became one of the Christmas stories read to children each year and because Beatrix Potter's work is so closely linked to fairy tales (in fact, that was often her aim: to write new ones) I feel I can highlight it here. The story was initially self-published by the author and not available in her collections but it's now included in the big box sets. (You can read the story online HERE.)

It also seems Ms. Potter wrote this story specifically for someone, as the inscription indicates (below):

MY DEAR FREDA,

Because you are fond of fairy-tales, and have been ill, I have made you a story all for yourself—a new one that nobody has read before. And the queerest thing about it is—that I heard it in Gloucestershire, and that it is true—at least about the tailor, the waistcoat, and the "No more twist!"

Christmas, 1901

The plot is as follows (from Wikipedia):

A tailor in Gloucester sends his cat Simpkin to buy food and a twist of cherry-coloured silk to complete a waistcoat the mayor has commissioned for his wedding on Christmas morning. While Simpkin is gone, the tailor finds mice the cat has imprisoned under teacups. The mice are released and scamper away. When Simpkin returns and finds his mice gone, he hides the twist in anger.

The tailor falls ill and is unable to complete the waistcoat, but, upon returning to his shop, he is surprised to find the waistcoat finished. The work has been done by the grateful mice. However, one buttonhole remains unfinished because there was "no more twist!" Simpkin gives the tailor the twist to complete the work and the success of the waistcoat makes the tailor's fortune.

On Christmas Day this year, some lovely person uploaded the wonderfully done live action film adaptation from 1989 onto YouTube for us all to enjoy.

All five parts should play in order. Enjoy!

Stories for the Season: Jack Frost

There isn't a specific fairy tale for Jack Frost, just some traditional poems, (though there are a few picture books) but he's a character that pops up a lot in Winter fairy and folktales in various guises - and he's often a different character from The Winter King.

Traditionally, Jack Frost (or King Frost or Father Frost), is an elf-like creature or sprite and ranges from elf-size-small to human size to the size of the wind, depending on what mischief he's up to. He's credited with decorating window panes and frozen surfaces with (spiked and frosty or 'fern-like') ice patterns, sometimes with his breath, sometimes with "his silver brush". He's also fond of nipping at fingers, toes and noses.

Jack Frost
by Oliver Herford

I particularly like Frank L. Baum's treatment of the character in which Jack Frost is actually the son of The Winter King (or Frost King) and, like most Jack characters, employs a strong streak of mischief in all he does. Santa Claus actually likes him (calls him "a jolly rogue") but doesn't particularly trust him and asks specifically that Jack spare the children. Jack sobers enough to reply he will if he can.

Jack Frost
by Eric Kincaid

Another activity attributed to Jack in literature includes the ability to freeze shadows, separating them from their owners and giving them their own autonomy (that appears to have originated from Baum too).

He's also been represented as having the ability to project ice and cold, be prone to jealousy, turn from mischievous to downright nasty (including amassing leagues of Goblins to help him take over Fairyland) or to simply be the light-hearted herald (sometimes filling a court jester role) of the Winter King.

Jack Frost
by Arthur Rackham

Though there are many poems written about Jack Frost there are (as far as I can make out) two traditional ones taught to children. You can find them HERE (by Laura E. Richards) and HERE (by C. E. Pike).

A composite of the Jack Frost covers from the "Fables" series
created by Bill Willingham

This character has appeared in countless myth-based novels and stories since in all shapes and forms, playing the protagonist to the villain. The Fables series also uses the character of Jack Frost too with his story and legend continuing to grow in various installments. He's such a versatile character, with many facets from country to country (a tiny pixie through to Norse heavy-weight frost-giant - with frost-giant brothers), I'm actually surprised we haven't seen more of this fellow*.

*Wikipedia has a growing list of references in literature and film and, though it's still far from complete, it's a good place to start researching (see HERE).

Stories for the Season: Edward Scissorhands

"Edward Scissorhands" is a movie it took me a very long time to see. When it was first in theaters I found the poster disturbingly like the "Freddy" horror posters and, despite what people were saying, didn't want to subject myself to anything remotely in that genre.

Many years later I saw the movie and quickly realized it wasn't a horror at all but a beautiful modern (and romantic) fairy tale of a boy misunderstood simply because of how he looks. It's quite reminiscent of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" with a light and magical aspect (for the most part) instead of the heavy Victor Hugo touch. The PG rating is more because of the unfortunate boy/creature's appearance than anything else, otherwise the film is touchingly humorous, beautifully fantastic and very romantic. The film is in many people's favorite fantasy film picks and has even been adapted into a very successful ballet.The supposedly true story of how the first snow came to fall on the town, is being told to a child by her grandmother. An old inventor is slowly completing his life's work: a boy he names Edward but Edward's creator dies before he can give him the hands he made for him and the poor boy-creature is left alone in the mansion/castle he was created in. One day a kindly Avon lady comes knocking one day and takes him under her wing. In all his years with his substitute hands that are made of knives and scissors, the gentle-hearted Edward has learned to use them to create beautiful things. This helps people get over their first fearful impression of him to start with but nothing is straight forward - of course. Especially when Edward falls in love with the Avon lady's beautiful daughter...In a quick search for favorite Christmas movies it's not surprising to see "Edward Scissorhands" on the peoples lists. The music alone has some beautiful winter/Christmas-sounding pieces but when you add the story you add the heart.

Stories for the Season: Snow Queen

Poster for Sherman Cymru's production of "The Snow Queen"
by Savage & Gray Design

One of the obvious stories for the season is "The Snow Queen", despite Christmas not being a featured part of the story. Andersen's long-form fairy tale has grown in increasing popularity (again) the past few years with more and more plays and ballets being staged specifically during the Christmas season, providing an alternate to the traditional Nutcracker production (companies staging Snow Queen are likely to be doing Nutcracker too, to keep their regulars happy though).

English National Ballet's 2009 Production of "The Snow Queen"

It's easy to see why it's quickly become a family holiday theater favorite. The story has remained popular throughout the years and there are many wonderful elements to work with for any form of presentation.

I have to say, that though many people include The Snow Queen when you ask about Christmas fairy tales it's not the whole 'Snow Queen steals Kai away and Gerda rescues him from the Queen and the Ice Palace' that makes me include it too. It's the sequence with the robber girl and the reindeer. Though those characters only appear for one of the chapters in Gerda's long journey to find and free Kai, to me it's the most 'Christmas' part with the robber girl maturing and learning to be a true friend and, in the end, helping Gerda escape, along with the generous gift (and letting go) of her pet/captive reindeer. The reindeer itself helps the Christmas sense too, of course.I won't go into the story too much as SurLaLune just had a Snow Queen week (see HERE) and showcased some gorgeous retellings , while The Fairy Tale Cupboard posted a fabulous article on The Queens of Ice and Snow (see HERE). There are a couple of other Snow Queen things I'd like to bring to your attention as additional resources.

Firstly, HERE is an article by a teacher of children's literature on the difficulties of teaching on the story and her fascination with the Andersen tale since childhood, which some of you will find interesting.

I also haven't yet seen anyone post on the made-for-TV movie Snow Queen (produced by Hallmark), so I wanted to mention it too. It's a very nice retelling of the story (gorgeous artistic direction!) with Gerda having to travel through the seasons to find Kai. In this version Kai is a boy/young man Gerda meets as a girl on the brink of womanhood. The robber girl isn't represented the same way as the original story or in books I've seen (and prefer) but the context for this movie makes sense. (I don't much care for the Summer sequences but that's very likely just my personal taste. I enjoy it again once Autumn appears, as inconsistent as the acting is in that section and the resolution of the movie is well done enough that I can forgive it trying to wrap up all the loose ends.) The power of love - especially true love, though mother's love is highlighted too - is the driving force of this retelling and is nicely handled.

By the way, if you've liked the Snow Queen illustrations in this post they're by award winning Ukranian artist Vadyslav Yerko and are available in a truly gorgeous looking book. You can see a preview HERE and find out more information about the book, the author (HCA of course) and the illustrator HERE.

There are just a few more stories I want to highlight before New Years, the idea being to give you plenty to enjoy if you're lucky enough to be getting any leisure time between Christmas and 2010, so keep watching. After that I will be taking a brief blog break to spend some time with both my family and my new books before I return with tons of news and fairy tale finds as usual. :)

Stories for the Season: The Months/Strawberries In the Snow

"The Enchanted Princess"
Photo-manipulation by Krysta (a.k.a. GettysGirl on Flickr )

I think of the Russian tale "Strawberries in the Snow" (also known as "The Months", "The Twelve Months", "The Tale of the Kind and the Unkind Girls") as basically a Winter/Yule form of "Diamonds and Toads" and again, this tale seemed commonly known when I was a girl but it's now hard to find any 'regular' tale collections that include it or any picture book retellings, which is a shame because this tale should be an illustrator's dream.

Russian Fairy Tale "Twelve Months"
by M. Pichugina

Basically a girl (with a good heart) is sent out by either her evil/just-plain-mean mother or stepmother to find strawberries in the dead of Winter (sometimes it's strawberries, sometimes apples). On her futile trip through the snow drifts she sees a campfire in the woods and approaches in the hopes of a little warmth. It turns out the twelve men around the fire are the months of the year and it's not long before the girl, through her manners and selflessness, is helped by the Months to find whatever it is, she's been sent to collect (a patch of snow melts, sweet and large strawberries grow before her eyes and ripen/a tree shakes the ice off it's branches, buds, blooms then grows bright red apples etc). Often The Winter King or December is involved in providing warmth/curbing the frost as the pertinent months do their part in helping the plant grow. Of course, you know what happens. The girl joyfully returns home without even taking one bite herself. Sometimes she's sent back out on multiple trips to get different things but ultimately the other sister (or stepsister) with the selfish heart is sent out to find more of the same or something better but her rudeness to the men around the fire causes her to end up lost and frozen in the snow.

Belarus 2006 20Ru Twelve Months Fairy Tale Silver UNC

There are, of course, many variants on this (you can read a version in which the girl must look for snowdrops HERE) and it's very possible I've mashed a few of them together in my own summary but the basic idea of being aided by The Winter King and his brothers/comrades and gifting the good girl is very much a Christmas/Yule scene.

Those interested in this tale in a scholarly fashion may find this link interesting: a book discussing the conundrum in fairy tale studies of "The tale of the kind and the unkind girls", or "Strawberries in the Snow", published in 1994. You can read a few of the pages if you do a Google book search. The link to the whole book is HERE and though out of print still seems available if you search for it. (No lovely cover sorry - I gather it's just purple with type.)
S. Marshak wrote several plays for kids based on Russian fairy tales in the late 1800's and The Twelve Months is one of them. The book I'm linking to is an illustrated version and is described as "light and witty". Need I say 'it's on my wishlist'? You can find it HERE.

* The artist who did this photo-manipulation said the fairy tale she was illustrated is called "The Enchanted Princess". She includes a summary and although parts of it are familiar from different tales I've never read all these elements in a tale called "The Enchanted Princess" before. The beginning is similar so I'll include it here:

Evil stepmother, ugly and mean stepsister; the girl is sent into the woods in a paper dress and shoeless to find strawberries in mid-winter. Magic elves enchant her - she'll grow more beautiful every day, gold coins will fall from her mouth when she speaks, and she'll lead a long and wonderful life.

I've read 'sent out in rags' before but not the paper dress. It's a nice touch. You can read the rest HERE.

The Christmas Goat - Santa's Predecessor?

Christmas Goat
by John Bauer

I discovered an interesting piece of Christmas folktale history while researching why it was the well known illustrator of fairy tales from the 1800s, John Bauer, would paint such a thing as a Christmas Goat. Here's some of what I found:

The Yule Goat is one of the oldest Scandinavian and Northern European Yule and Christmas symbols and traditions. Yule Goat originally denoted the goat that was slaughtered around Yule, but it may also indicate a goat figure made out of straw. It is also used about the custom of going door-to-door singing carols and getting food and drinks in return, often fruit, cakes and sweets. "Going Yule Goat" is similar to the British custom wassailing, both with heathen roots.

The function of the Yule Goat has differed throughout the ages. In Finland, the Yule Goat was originally said to be an ugly creature that frightened children, and demanded gifts at Christmas. In Scandinavia, people thought of the Yule Goat as an invisible creature that would appear some time before Christmas to make sure that the Yule preparations were done right. During the 19th century its role shifted towards becoming the giver of Christmas gifts, in Finland as well as the rest of Scandinavia, with one of the men in the family dressing up as the Yule Goat. The goat was replaced by jultomte or julenisse (Father Christmas/Santa Claus) at the end of the century, and the tradition of the man-sized goat disappeared.

(fromVisWiki- click HERE for more information on the history, tales and the Yule & Christmas traditions involving a Yule Goat.)

Folk depiction of Father Christmas riding on a goat. (Found at Wikimedia)

So there you go.

You may also be interested to know the tradition* of having a 'Christmas Ham' as part of a Christmas dinner is thought to be related.

Happy feasting!

*You can find a lot of well summarized information and stories about the origins of Christmas traditions (including the Christmas Tree - you'll need to scroll down a bit for that one) HERE.

Stories for the Season: Fire & Ice

Here's a story that most of you won't know. It's actually a full length 'ice-ballet' devised by world champion skaters Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean and Australia's most famous contemporary choreographer Graeme Murphy.

It's called "Fire & Ice" and has gorgeous sets, costumes and scenery for both the Fire land and the Ice land (in which most of the story takes place) as well as a lot of inventive and beautiful choreography. While it isn't specifically about Christmas it definitely has that seasonal feel- music included. I don't think it was out of convenience or by coincidence that saw this film originally have a Christmas release.I'm positive I've read fairy tales similar to this (Japanese? Russian?) but time is against me to research this properly. If you know of any tales please do add a comment with the title and/or link.

Here's a story description of "Fire & Ice" from Wikipedia:

Fire and Ice is a full length company piece creating narrative ballet on ice. Set between the Planet of Fire and the Planet of Ice, it tells of a love story between a Prince of Fire and a Princess of Ice. It is a full set piece with visual designs and effects depicting different locations on the two planets and telling the story.

The piece opens with Dean performing actually ballet within the catacombs of the Plant of Fire, while seeing Torvill in the blue flames of their alter. Upon diving in he finds himself upon her planet. He meets her, and after taking some time to adapt to her planet, they fall in love. She gets called away to a Royal Ceremony but she rejoins him later. The following morning they are discovered and a violent attack is carried out on the Fire Prince by her own people. She pleads with her father to have mercy on him but he banishes her from his sight and the Fire Prince is left trapped in a prison of ice. Later the Ice Princess sneaks back to him and melts the ice with all her strength, leaving her close to death. The Fire Prince revives her and they are together once more. Meanwhile the Prince’s own people have witnessed his fate in the flames and have arrived on the Planet of Ice. A war breaks out which ends in the death of both the Prince’s and Princess’s fathers. Devastated and alone, they find each other once more and grieve. As time heals their wounds and their love endures a distant archway appears, touring over the icy mountains. We watch them make their journey towards the arch and finally enter and make their break for freedom and a new life together.

Torvill and Dean devised Fire and Ice in Australia with Graeme Murphy, sold it to LWT (London Weekend Television – part of ITV). It was written by Tom Gutteridge and Carl Davis and rehearsed and filmed in Germany ready for its UK television premier in Christmas 1986.

You can find out more about the production HERE and occasionally DVDs surface like the one below and become available to own (yay!). I gather it's also available on the 'Dancing On Ice' DVD from 2006.Some lovely person put up the whole ice-ballet on YouTube (in 19 very short parts - between 30 seconds and 5 minutes each) and I've made a playlist so you can press "go" and watch them all automatically play in order. Just press play.

Enjoy!

Stories for the Season: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardobe

I know this isn't exactly classed as a fairy tale but the Narnia tales and creatures blended completely with the many fairy tales I read as a child, as I know they did many others, so I feel I can mention C.S. Lewis' Narnia stories here (Yes, I was one of those kids who excitedly- and a little tentatively -checked the back of each new wardrobe I was brave enough to open.)The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is completely centered on Christmas: when Lucy enters Narnia and meets Mr. Tumnus the faun for the first time, he's sneaking around with packages when he really shouldn't be, according to the White Witch's commands (Snow Queen anyone? Complete with sleigh and nasty dwarf). The White Witch has taken over Narnia, plunging the land into a perpetual Winter - without Christmas! The appearance of Santa later in the story is key to showing the tide is turning for good (and he gives awesome presents so the kids can help kick the White Witch's butt!). We're finally able to see Christmas celebrated, hope revive and the season begin to turn to Spring.The recent film from 2005 was/is stunning and makes for uplifting viewing during a holiday season. The book stands alone though and the movie shouldn't take the place of reading the movie - do both!

I found this amazing promotion for a Christmas party after the release - I'll leave you to read it, to see what I mean. (Click to enlarge.)How could you NOT have a good time at such an event?

By the way, Christian Birmingham illustrated a version of the book and is a must-see. As much as I love the movie, I prefer the old illustrations to read with, however this book is an exception to the rule. The link is HERE (I haven't seen this version with the black and white cover, which is lovely. The version linked to is the colored one I've seen in stores.)

Stories for the Season: The Fir Tree

I have a lot of these stories I still want to highlight for you (and it's still not a 'complete' collection by any means) so please forgive me if the rest of these Stories for the Season posts are on the brief side!

The Fir Tree is a Christmas story by Hans Christian Andersen and is unusual in that it's told from the perspective of the discontented fir tree who wishes to become the grandest thing there is (a Christmas tree) and gets his wish - at a price. You can read it HERE.

Just in time for Christmas is a new comic book adaptation of the tale (cover pictured at the head of the post) and it's getting good reviews.

Here's an excerpt from one:

The Fir-Tree is Lilli Carré's sometimes enchanting graphic interpretation of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic Christmas tale.

... This is a fine adaptation of a beloved, abeit bottom shelf Yuletide narrative, but Carré squeezes the drama out ad infinitum. (The ShamWow® guy would be proud.)

... The lesson that the tree learns at the end is slightly cruel and aligns well with Andersen's slightly dark storytelling (the original The Little Mermaid.) Even though the plot is extremely slim, Carré has a masterful grasp of the clear line style and imbues a lovely watercolor palette into the mix.

You can read the whole review HERE.

Illustration for Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales
Jiri Trnka 1959

I want to point out that this tale always brings to mind the "Friends" TV series Christmas episode* where Phoebe is very concerned that all the not-so-great-looking Christmas trees for sale, achieve their 'Christmas destiny'. The scene with the resolution of this plotline is particularly heart-warming. :)

* Season 3 Ep 10 "The One Where Rachel Quits" - available to see in 2 parts on YouTube HERE and HERE

Stories for the Season: The Gingerbread Man/Boy/Baby

You wouldn't normally add "The Gingerbread Man" to a list of Christmas fairy tales but at a time when it's customary to build gingerbread houses and eat gingerbread cookies it's a story that easily comes to mind. To top it off, there's one author/illustrator who will confirm that this is, indeed, a story for Christmas. The much-beloved Jan Brett found a way to combine the story with the season in her book "The Gingerbread Baby"*.It's full of snow, Christmas colors and sprinkled throughout with Christmas motifs (these illustrations are packed with details!), though it isn't specifically a Christmas book (I did notice copies of Ms. Brett's book had made it to the 'children's holiday books' stand at the bookstore this year though!). While it essentially remains the traditional story of The Gingerbread Man, Ms. Brett's version has a twist children, in particular, love: the little boy outwits the gingerbread baby (and all the grownups) by baking a gingerbread house and luring the baby into it. The very last page has a flap you lift where you can see the baby safe, happy and snug in his new house, while the rest of his pursuers are left none the wiser, staring at a pile of crumbs in the snow.It's not the story with the excellent warning that the original is, of course, (I do prefer the Gingerbread Man being gulped down in one bite by the fox) but it's a sweet (pardon the pun) twist - especially when the other most current and recurring image of the gingerbread man is the version forever under threat of losing a limb (or head) from the Shrek movies. (Of course, that makes me think of a dark updating/retelling for a Christmas-thriller... but I digress.)Jan Brett was onto something and she knows it. The book is still in print, in hardcover, after ten years and Ms. Brett has catered to her enthusiastic children (and Mama) fans by making a ton of Gingerbread Baby activities available at her website. She was kind enough to put up all the links via her blog at the end of November HERE. There are bookmarks you can print out (shown in this post), cards to print & send, t-shirts to make, gingerbread houses to decorate and, of course, instructions (for paper) and recipes (for baking) for your own gingerbread houses and babies/men.You can get your own copy of the book HERE and there's also a board book available now too.

* The story can be read/told calling the 'gingerbread baby' a 'gingerbread man' too if you prefer.

Stories for the Season: The Elves & the Shoemaker

"The Elves and the Shoemaker"
Retold from The Brothers Grimm and Illustrated by Jim LaMarche

The story of "The Elves and the Shoemaker" by the Grimm Brothers takes place around Christmas and used to be much more well known than it is now.

Here's the fairly straight retelling from Golden Books (plus an annoying cuckoo that kids seem to love), which includes at least some nods to the Christmas aspect:


I found a lovely trio of illustrations by Steve Morrison which succinctly tell the story in just three panels.You can see more of Mr. Morrison's lovely work HERE. (He's currently showing pen-and-ink style illustrations he's done of A Christmas Carol.)

Strangely, there don't seem to be a lot of similar tales across cultures but I wanted to point out that one of them "The Hand With the Knife" is now available to read online HERE. The similarity lies in the good hearted being helped by an elf but there's no thankfulness or Christmas in sight.

I also found a panel from an apparent book in progress and there's a familiar visitor to the Shoemaker's shop in this one...You can find more by artist Kasia Dudziuk (a.k.a. Kasiacreations on deviantArt) HERE. She's done illustrations for a number of other fairy tales too.

We also have The Muppets to thank for keeping fairy tales in the public consciousness. Muppet Classic Theater which is both out of print and has never been released on DVD (!) retells six fairy tales in true muppet style, "The Elves and the Shoemaker" being one of them. (The other five are: Rumpelstiltskin, King Midas & the Golden Touch, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Boy Who Cried Wolf and The Three Little Pigs.)

The clip below starts from the beginning of this story rather than the beginning of the overall presentation so it appears as though you're starting in the middle of something, but you're not missing anything important from the tale.

Enjoy!

Stories for the Season: Prep & Landing

You could definitely argue that the story and traditions surrounding Santa are a modern-day folktale so I think it's appropriate to draw your attention to a new featurette (about 25 minutes) now available online from Disney.

It aired on ABC on December 8th but now you can watch it ('with limited commercial interruption') in HD online.Now: I've known about this for a while and the promo posters and artwork I saw didn't interest me at all BUT I finally saw this yesterday and found this short to be very sweet, full of heart, (lots of great and gentle humor that doesn't try to be too clever (most of the time) and doesn't veer TOO much into the 'self-referential' realm, very Christmas-sy (nodding to more Christmas traditions than you may realize we include in our Holiday celebrations) and, overall, possibly one of the best things to come out of Disney features in a decade.So take a look. It's free to view HERE (and I strongly suggest full screen so you can properly enjoy it).

I'm including a preview below, just in case ABC takes it offline (I know they're planning to air it yearly from now on, so in all likelihood it will disappear sometime soon). It doesn't quite give the sweet feeling that the actual short manages to capture but it explains the premise (not necessary to know to enjoy the short by the way). If you just watch this promo/making of and it still doesn't appeal, give the short a go anyway. I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe you will be too. :)