Our Fairy Tale Mixtape

The soldier lifted the dog down on the floor and opened the chest. Hans Tegner

Adam of Fairy Tale Fandom had a great post quite some time ago now, on Andrew Lang, whom he describes as a sort of (slightly rebellious) "mixmaster", putting together mixes of tales that, at the time, went against trends and sensibilities and crossed many countries and boundaries and even strayed over into myth and legends in some of his color books. (Go see HERE for the whole recap on Lang's contribution to fairy tale book and collections.)

To quote Adam,

If the books of other fairy tale collectors are essentially albums, then Lang is the guy who takes tracks from all these different albums and puts them together into epic fairy tale playlists.  Sometimes it’s familiar hits you know.  Other times it’s stuff you’ve never heard of.  Sometimes he’ll just surprise the heck out of you by including something crazy like Gulliver’s Travels.  Every color fairy tale book is the equivalent of a fairy tale mixtape (or mix CD or Ipod playlist depending on your generation) all set to rock your weekend.

Charles Mikolaycak - Green Mantle

With this image (of Andrew Lang, fairy tale DJ) in mind, Adam created his own epic fairy tale anthology-mixtape and asked us to think what we would include if we made our own.

We've made lists before of favorite fairy tales we'd want to include in a book, but not one based on the "little bit familiar, little bit not, little bit surprising" premise, so we thought we'd have a go.

Predictably, we instantly had over 50, but even our best whittling only got down to 20. At this point it became painful and like the punushment of Sisyphus, edit, add, edit, repeat, so we called a halt and decided we'd just admit defeat and post 20. (After all, who makes a mixtape with only 10 songs?)

In no particular order (we are still sweating from editing this monster down. No way we're up to managing some sort of order of favorites):

1. Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave (Afanasyev)
2. The Wild Swans (HCA)
3. Jack and the Beanstalk (Jacobs)
4. The Boy Who Drew Cats (translated by Hearn)
5. The Tinderbox (HCA)
6. Tam Lin (Childs Ballad)
7. Lady of the Green Kirtle (tale akin to the legend of Morgan Le Fey from the Narnia series)
8. Sweet Porridge (Grimm)
9. Diamonds & Toads (Perrault)

Sidone in the Forest - Kinuko Y Craft

10. Little Snow White (Grimm)
11. Cap O' Rushes (Jacobs)
12. The Pied Piper (Legend, Grimm, Browning)
13. The Day Boy & The Night Girl (MacDonald)
14. Hansel & Gretel (Grimm)
15. Boots That Made the Princess Say "That's A Lie!" (Asbjørnsen and Moe )
16. The Black Bull of Norroway (Chambers/ Jacobs)
17. Jorinde & Joringel (Grimm)
18. The Heart's Door (Finnish fr Scandinavian Folk & Fairy Tales - Ed. Claire Booss)
19. Swan Lake (Russian & German tale hybrid)
20. The Boy Went Forth To Learn What Fear Was (Grimm)

Ta da!

We have a feeling, that as soon as we post it, we're going to want to do a PART II of this post. You know, for the flip side... of (Album I of the Box Set).

We'd love to see your mix of 10-20 (some classic, some lesser known, some other stories altogether) as would Adam, of course. It's a good exercise in making you think about why you like certain tales too. Give it a go!

Reflecting on the rumblings in the newsroom here, wouldn't it be awesome if we had a "new millenium fairy tale bloggers collective mixtape-anthology" of fairy tale must haves? (With pictures please!) There'd be some overlap for sure (at least one of ours is on Adam's list too because it's also a "must" for all here) but there'd be a really interesting variety and cross-section of tales too.

We can dream...

Rima Staines

Release Day: Schönwerth's "The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales"

There are two books I have been extremely excited about the last few months. 

One of them is Jack Zipes' recent translation (and commentary) of The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, that is, the first edition they ever put together, in English, so we can finally read it in total for the first time (I'm using the present tense with regard to my excitement because I am still reading it and very much enjoying it). I plan on doing a special post just for that book when I'm done but I can tell you without doubt that if you're really interested in fairy tales, how they are told, recorded and the influence of the Grimms, then you need this book. Yes. Need.

The second is the one being released today: Franz Xaver Von Schönwerth's newly-translated-into-English collection, The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales. We've heard a lot about how "raw and unsanitized" they are, and how devoid of editing the transcription of these tales was in general but unless you've read a lot of old tales (and even if you have), you're probably in for more than a few surprises.

Thanks to an interview with Maria Tatar, care of Salon.com, I can give you an idea of what you'll be in for if you join me in adding it to your library (Thank you Kate for posting the link). I'm including just a few short excerpts, despite that the whole article is fascinating:

Tatar: What we have here are stories that are less mediated than most of the more familiar fairy tales and folktales. There’s a primary process of storytelling going on. They’re less heavily edited and they’re uncensored. The Grimms took great liberties with the stories they collected. The genius of the Grimms was to create this compact, standardized form of the fairy tale. They almost invented the genre of tale that is part of an oral storytelling tradition but also in the literary culture. Schönwerth, on the other hand, was not interested in readership as much as in just capturing the tales as they were told to him.

(Edit FTNH: Re the underlined portion above - which is my emphasis - I just wanted to mention here that I am a HUGE fan of the Grimm's work. Although I don't always agree with the details they left out and those they added or altered, they effectively popularized tales that were rapidly going the way of the dinosaur and difficult to find intact in people's memories - even those who practiced storytelling. Schönwerth's collections won't ever replace the Grimm's, nor should they, but they can add a lot to our understanding of tales - and of people and our own history too.)

One example in this book is a version of the well-known story of “The Valiant Little Tailor,” the guy who kills seven flies with one blow. The Grimms’ version has the flies hovering over a sandwich that the fellow has made. In Schönwerth, the flies are hovering over a dung heap. So that gives you a sense of the raw energy of the stories and the way that Schönwerth decided he was going to tell it straight up, tell it like it was. 

King Golden Hair

Salon: ... You mean that he’s interested in recording these as accurately as possible, not in creating a bestselling book, like (the Grimms)?Tatar: Or (creating) a standardized form for the fairy tale itself. I think you have it exactly right, that is, it’s more of an anthropological, folkloristic model. Schönwerth just refuses to homogenize the stories, and so you find that there’s a lot more gender bending in Schönwerth. There isn’t that strict division of gendered labor that you find in the Grimms. The Grimms don’t have a male Snow White, for example, whereas Schönwerth does. Schönwerth has a male Cinderella. He has a boy who wears out iron shoes while searching for the woman he loves, a figure who is a girl in “East of the Sun, West of the Moon.” He has a prince who gets under the bedcovers with a frog so she can be turned into a beautiful princess. You just don’t find that in the Grimms at all. 

And in summary regarding fairy tales in general, Tatar says:

What I really love about fairy tales is that they get us talking about matters that are just so vital to us. I think about the story of Little Red Riding Hood and how originally it was about the predator-prey relationship, and then it becomes a story about innocence and seduction for us. We use that story again and again to work out these very tough issues that we have to face. My hope is that this volume will get people talking about not just the stories and the plot but the underlying issues.

There is so much more in this article I'd love to point out and discuss - you can read the whole of it HERE -  but for now, let's just get our copies and read it first. Discuss later!

Prince Dung Beetle

There is also another Schönwerth  book recently printed I wanted to draw your attention to as well and I'll include it with a recent relevant comment left by Jungian Analyst, Lara Newton, since it hasn't had much attention at all:

For the past several months I have been working on interpretations of some tales from another translation of some of Schönwerth's collection. This volume is translated by M. Charlotte Wolf (Dover publication 2014) and is titled, "Original Bavarian Folktales: A Schönwerth Selection." There are 150 tales in this dual-language edition. In the recent hoopla about the translation coming out by Maria Tatar, this volume published last year seems to never be mentioned. I am happy to see that Tatar is translating more of the tales, and I do love reading and working with the stories from Schönwerth's collection, but I just want to say that the translations of Wolf are really finely done and deserve attention! In her introduction, she gives a very thorough account of the manuscripts ("thousands of handwritten pages in 30 ungainly boxes"), their discovery in 2010, the publication of "Prince Dung Beetle," etc. The volume is worth looking at, for those of you who want to have the whole story!
As for the rawness, I do find Schönwerth's collections to be very raw and exciting to work with. As a psychological interpreter, I find the archetypal images to be amazingly close to the bone, so to speak, and I have been gaining so much from the work I am doing with these tales! 

You can read her whole comment HERE.

Note: For additional reference, HERE is the link to an earlier article from The Guardian, focusing on Erika Eichenseer, (pictured below), who is largely responsible for the revival the Schönwerth collection. It's a good read too.

There's also the New Yorker article from 2012 HERE, focusing on the "rediscovery" of those lost "Cinderfellas" that's worth a re-read as well.

Erika Eichenseer, a retired teacher who has dedicated herself to exploring Franz Xaver von Schonwerth’s work since the 1990s, on fairytale trail in woodland outside Regensburg, in Bavaria (source: The Guardian)

Fairy tale bonus of the day:

I have been unsuccessfully attempting to track down information online, on the newly opened (September 2014) Schönwerth Fairytale Road (yes, Fairytale is apparently one word - perhaps because it's translated from German Märchen which only needs the single word?), in which contemporary artists have created works based on his collected tales. 

Here are some excerpts from the Schönwerth Society website, explaining the objectives and implementation of the Fairytale Road project (autotranslation used):

The Dwarf King

The largest project of our relatively young organization is the "localization" by Franz Xaver von Schönwerth in a "Schönwerth fairytale path"...  

In Schönwerth fairytale path... seven Schönwerth tales are presented on forests, nature and environmental focus. Here visitors will primarily come to rest and feel the forest as a place of silence, meditation, relaxation, inspiration and motivation, as well as teaching values ​​and philosophy of life, enjoy, experience, comprehend with all their senses. 

Playful, are given an insight into the myth of "Upper Palatinate fairy tales and legends" children and adults. The imagination should be encouraged, and still carry on emotional-mental recognizing, understanding, interpreting to own creative work, ie for self-telling yourself writing, DIY Painting, DIY-crafts, games etc. The practical application of from fairy tales won lessons to their own lives are more overarching objectives. Ultimately, should be expanded by Schönwerth Wonderland path of awareness and appreciation of Schönwerth and his work in the general population and sustainable deepened. 

One of Schoenberg Werth's most beautiful fairy tale prince Roßzwifl (dung beetle, Scarabaeus sacer, scarab). Since this beetle with his egg-ball also lives in the forest experience center, he stands at the entrance to the monumental tale path. The ball is security, home, Ward, safety, but also maturation, transformation, which wants to convey the Schönwerth Society with this device as well. Local artists exhibit the above tale is symbolic and artistic value, to improve the motivation to think and put the imagination of the individual no limits.

The Singing Tree

Sounds interesting doesn't it? And I'm curious about the children's aspect... we've been given reason to believe these tales are anything but child friendly (but that doesn't mean children can't be told them in the correct context, in a suitable manner). Perhaps it's because I don't read German well enough to be able to find the right links or perhaps there just isn't record of it and I need to contact The Schönwerth Society directly to find out more, but I'm especially curious about this: What do the works look like in context? What inspired the artists? How will it practically serve to help keep these "newly discovered" tales in people's consciousness?

In case you're as curious as I was, below is a summary of the installations, the tales they reference and the artists who created them.

Clicking on the tale titles will take you to a transcription of the tale, along with photos of the artist at work on the installations:

The artists of the objects for the eight forest fairy tales are:

	Prince Roßzwifl	Korbinian Huber, Duggendorf
	Devil and Besenbinder	Florian Zeitler, Teublitz
	The dwarf king   crystal dome on the dwarf Palace	Engelbert Sweet, Pfreimd
	Wild Hunt	Korbinian Huber, Duggendorf
	The Höydl	(Installation)
	Schönwerth and his work	(Text table) audio file of Franz Xaver Schönwerth
	The stupid woman (The cracking way) (The bare birch) (The floating bed)	Renate Christin, Sinzing Herta Wimmer-Knorr Helmut Wolf, Regensburg
	The Singing Tree	Heribert Schneider, Nittenau Jakob Zeitler, Teublitz

Prince Dung Beetle

A New Journey Into Fairy Tale Films From Fandor

Traditions of folklore and fairy tale inspired the earliest of filmmakers and it didn’t take them long to discover how to visualize the miraculous via trick photography and special effects.

Yet who could have predicted just how “special” those effects would eventually become in the present day, when CGI-engorged new versions of old favorites like Snow White emerge yearly? Fairy tale-derived titles do, however, stray from the well-beaten commercial path and the best delight and terrify with their quirky imaginative breadth...

(continue reading on the Journey into Fairy Tale Films HERE)

Attention: fairy tale fans, film buffs, special effects people

and cultural history detectives! 

Welcome to a new online fairy tale film collection from Fandor: Journey Into Film (The Fairy Tales Edition), curated by longtime film critic (Variety & San Francisco Bay Guardian) Dennis Harvey!

I wasn't quite able to get the blog up and running again in time for the launch (so sorry!) but this is a not-to-be-missed, brand new and  extremely cool resource for fans of fairy tale and film. We are so fortunate to live in a time when resources like this are made available to us (where before we had to have special access to film archives and more) so please go take a look, let Fandor know we are truly excited to see this and that it was worth the effort (and that we'd love to see even more!).

Journey Into Fairy Tale Film, isn't your average, random, (or dry) collection either. The films within  are carefully chosen to be shown together. They're related via theme (and other insights the curator reveals as you go "on the journey"), go from the older films to the very recent and the presentation is designed specifically to help you "connect the dots" between them. 

 

Mr. Harvey*, was kind enough to give Once Upon A Blog an additional statement regarding curating the collection:

"Choosing films for this particular "Journey" was especially easy because fairy tales surface in many types of film that Fandor offers, particularly silent cinema and animation. 

Dennis Harvey - Film critic for Variety & SF Bay Guardian

Some of the later films in this "Journey" tap Fandor's sizable collection of camp and exploitation movies. "Cinderella 2000" is one of many erotic films from the 1970s that send up (and sexed up) childhood fables, while the completely nuts Hong Kong kung-fu fantasy "Deadly Snail vs. Kung Fu Killer" draws on their  Chinese equivalents.

The most recent films in the series illustrate the popular trend in recent years of taking legendary tales and figures (not least 20th-century ones like Batman and Superman) into "darker," more adult directions. The 2008 Korean "Hansel and Gretel" plumbs the macabre and disturbing qualities of a "children's story" the way Angela Carter or Gregory Maguire have in the literary realm. Then there's "Sita Sings the Blues," which puts a very modern and playful spin on primary piece of epic Indian mythology."

- Dennis Harvey (on curating Fandor's Journey Into Film - Fairy Tales collection)

 It's online, accessible to everyone (even without a Fandor "online cinema subscription") and just very cool to look at and move around in (no special skills required).

 

It's also interactive so you can choose to read a quick overview (with big beautiful pics), view clips or even view whole films.

Excerpted from the announcement in my mail:

Today (May 30, 2013), Fandor.com — the streaming source for indie film — launched a new series called Journey Into Film.  Each Journey Into Film theme is curated by a respected film critic or Fandor film buff, and offers viewers a behind-the-scenes look at specific films and genres through interactive visuals and expert insight.

...This collection of folklore and fairytale favorites utilizes trick photography and special effects  to bring fantasy to reality. 

OK - no more online time here. Instead, go to Fandor's Fairy Tale Journey and check it out. I hope the collection stays available in the long term but even if it doesn't, they have lots of fairy tale (and fairy tale influenced) films to browse through - especially if you're a real film buff. 

Take advantage and enjoy!

 

* To read more about Variety film critic Dennis Harvey and his work, click on the link to read an interview in which he speaks about his time at the University of Michigan (of which is an alum) and the changing nature of film criticism. You can also click HERE.

Once Upon A More-Than-Just-A-Blog!

Gypsy Thornton aka InkGypsy aka Fairy Tale Newhound updating everything!

That's right.

There's more going on here than just blog posts! 

OUAB on Facebook

(And I've been doing a little updating/cleaning house here too as you may have noticed if you look around the tabs on the menu above.)

I also have accounts on Facebook (both a page for Once Upon A Blog on which I post fairy tale news headlines and more, and my personal one, Gypsy Thornton). There's also a Twitter account (@inkgypsy) which sends out fairy tale news headlines and links too. 

OUAB on Twitter

What I'm most excited to share with you is that I have a very active (and super shiny!) Pinterest account, set up as an extension of Once Upon A Blog, with LOTS of fairy tale goodies to discover. (At the time of posting I have 227 separate boards and over 21, 000 images pinned!! *faints*) I already have a separate and permanent page here at the blog site (see menu bar at the top of the blog) to link you to all the fairy tale art boards by tale name and will update it as I add new ones.

227 boards to browse on Pinterest so far!

I am a visual thinker and Pinterest has been a wonderful way for me to explore myth, fairy tale and other related things I love, do research and to generally fill up my "creative juices jar".

I have many (many!) different boards that are fairy tale, folklore and/or myth based, either by story, aspect or theme, so there's a lot (a lot!) to explore. Think of it as a labyrinth of wonders that includes an "exit" button you can use at any time... should you really wish to leave... ;)


I've been creating boards for specific fairy tales for a while now, the purpose being to collect a variety of art styles (photo, illustration and more) and various/unusual representations of a tale. Seeing different ways a story or story moment has been captured (by artist, photographer and/or writers) helps me think about the tales in a fresh way. It's a good way to make unusual connections and get inspired to go make my own art or stories and I hope it will do the same for you.

A few of the OUAB Fairy Tale Mood Boards on Pinterest

The list of tale specific boards is very long (and only going to get longer!) so I'm going to just leave it all on the dedicated page for you to browse there.

With so many tales to choose from this will be a work in progress for, possibly, ever. No board is ever really "complete" and there are always more tales to explore. I tend to add fairy tale images almost every time I'm on Pinterest, either to existing boards or to new ones, so there will be new things to find every week (pretty much!).

Go check the page OUAB Fairy Tale Boards on Pinterest on the menu at the top of the blog for a list of all the tales I have created boards for so far, as well as other fairy tale related goodness. There is a LOT to explore!

Go! Explore! Enjoy!

500 Rediscovered Fairy Tales & a Hollywood Article: Hollywood Fairy Tale Feeding Frenzy

There's not a whole lot of new information in the Hollywood article regarding the fairy tale films being made or what's happening on the small screen BUT there are some interesting theories on why we're having a fairy tale zeitgeist and it pays homage to the fairy tale's most exciting news this year - the discovery of 500 "lost"* fairy tales in Germany:

A quick aside: if you have not read Heidi's post on this great piece of fairy tale news:

       Five hundred new fairytales discovered in Germany: Collection of fairytales gathered by historian Franz Xaver von Schönwerth had been locked away in an archive in Regensburg for over 150 years

-  and the Guardian article she's referring to, you should.

You can find it HERE.

I also like this neat and easy to read summary of the news from paperblog HERE.

King Golden Hair (from von Schönwerth's rediscovered tales) by Barbara Stefan

From Artinfo.com's article Hollywood Fairy Tale Feeding Frenzy: “Mirror Mirror,” “Snow White and the Huntsman”:

The discovery in Regensberg of 500 long-hidden German fairy tales assembled by Franz Xaver Schbnwerth (1810 – 86), which was  reported in The Guardian on Monday, is potentially excellent news for Hollywood. At the current rate with which the studios are racing to reformulate the fairy tales of Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and other writers and collectors into modish, mostly live-action films, they will exhaust the familiar canon in two years tops.

[FTNH edit: May I just quickly interrupt to point out that one of the coolest things about these rediscovered tales is their rawness. Unlike the Grimm's who edited, revised, polished and essentially turned told tales into literary ones, these 'rediscovered' tales were faithfully recorded in their incomplete inaccuracies as retold by common folk, almost complete with "um's and ah's". While I would hope - would be excited to know - that there are directors, writers and creators in Hollywood who would happily be inspired and/or mine a story for a movie or series out of such stories, it's a lot harder than finding a book of tales [which is conveniently out of copyright] and remaking a version of those and so quite unlikely we're going to see these tales spawn Hollywood-happy material. I would love to be proven wrong on this.  

After summarizing what's coming to the screen Reporter Graham Fuller goes on to mention the two Little Mermaid projects that I haven't seen anything on for quite some time and speculates what else may be coming:]

Joe Wright (“Atonement”) will direct a live-action film of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid.” Shana Feste (“Country Strong”) is prepping the film of Carolyn Turgeon’s comparatively dark 2011 novel “Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale.” 

Thirty-six years after the flowery British musical “The Slipper and the Rose” and 14 after the limp “Ever After,” a new “Cinderella” can’t be far behind, whether it’s based on the Greek version recorded in the first century B.C., the ninth-century Chinese one, the 1634 Neapolitan one, Perrault’s, the Grimms’, or Turgeon’s 2009 “Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story.”

[FTNH edit: I greatly appreciate that there was quite a bit of research that went into this article but I especially like what he has to say toward the end as it's a point of view I haven't seen put forward before. :]

The fairy-tale craze – which TV, too, has exploited with ABC’s “Once Upon a Time” -- was triggered by the massive success and prestige of Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” and the three films adapted so far from C.S. Lewis’s “Narnia Chronicles.” After  a wave of bland but violent period adventure films in the nineties, “LOTR” and then “Narnia” opened the doors to “romance” cinema – by which I mean medieval or medievally inflected stories and their ilk, as opposed to stories of romantic love. They depicted great deeds of heroism, invoked mysticism, deployed state-of-the-art special effects, and, crucially for grabbing the attention of female tweens and teens, had women or girl warriors. “King Arthur” (2004), with Keira Knightley as an aggressive proto-feminist Guinevere, extended this idea less convincingly, though the film was a global hit.

He's particularly referring to Snow White and the Huntsman here but I think this may play a part in the reason fairy tales are so popular right now. I don't think it's the reason it was "triggered" as he says  but I think it certainly may have helped it along.

You can read the entire Hollywood Fairy Tale Frenzy article HERE.

While we're on the subject of the re-found tales, what Hollywood people MAY find interesting is the unvarnished versions of familiar tales reported to be in the collection. From The Guardian (emphasis in bold is mine):

While sifting through Von Schönwerth's work, Eichenseer found 500 fairytales, many of which do not appear in other European fairytale collections. ... However, the collection also includes local versions of the tales children all over the world have grown up with including Cinderella and Rumpelstiltskin, and which appear in many different versions across Europe.

While I'm excited to see the new tales, I'm very interested to read unedited, raw versions of tales we already know - the popular culture versions of the time. My wish list now includes: a fully translated-to-English version of the whole collection, a book in which the raw tales are printed alongside the literary ones and a children's illustrated book of raw pop-culture tales from the mid-1800s (yes - like a children's storybook, only using those tales and having the artists use those as the source of inspiration). That would make for a fascinating reflection of society among the common people (like you and me) both then and now. (You know I'm not the only one wanting new illustrations!) The last on the list is a book in which a modern day "recorder" goes around and writes down familiar and not-so-familiar tales of the common/average people of today and contrasts it with the source (with illustrations please - children's stories today must have illustrations if they are to reflect how things are at present). I think we could learn a lot about ourselves, about our past and about fairy tales. Anyone up for it?

Mr. & Mrs. Vinegar at Home by Arthur Rackham

And for those that read Heidi's post and the Guardian article but not the comments posted on the Guardian article, I suggest giving them a read too, HERE. Among some superior comments and silly ones there are some useful insights, some great links and other useful notes. I'm including one that caught my eye by "Mercurey":

There is some interesting work being done my anthropologists on the cultural life of street people. And there, the oral tradition is very much alive. As a source of entertainment and as an education to those entering that world.
Very much like fairy tales once did for children.
Theater company called Cardboard Citizens well worth looking out for.

The 'homeless children' aka Hansel & Gretel, of ABC's Once Upon A Time

It reminded me of the myths told by homeless children in Miami, discussed years ago in the SurLaLune site boards HERE. The original article, Myths Over Miami, can now be found archived  HERE. It's an amazing read but I have to wonder, did anybody ever go and write them all down - as a collection of tales, I mean - or was it just recorded for study purposes only and eventually summarized for an article? If this BIG NEWS on rediscovering 500 fairy tales tells us anything, it's that we should be careful not to lose the treasures we already have. I would suggest that this very thing is happening too easily right now. It's the age of information overload but somewhere, somehow we need to distinguish what's important and find a way to record it - in a way that won't be lost - for future generations and history to grow upon.

Note: I have, of course, added Franz Xaver von Schönwerth to the board of Influential Fairy Tale People I have on Pinterest. I now have 73 pins of fairy tale people you should be aware of and be thankful for but and know I'm still missing some key people. While I don't have a picture of von Schönwerth I found his signature, which will have to do for now. :)

*There's some speculation about the "lost" thing. It appears they weren't really out of complete circulation (there are German texts available of some of the work online). They just weren't widely available or known. There's also no known English translation of the full collection but once that changes - go Dan Szabo! (this Munich based translator is working on it right now)- they won't likely fall out of circulation again. 

Influential Fairy Tale People Board Up On Pinterest

I've snatched minutes here and there over the past week to continue building boards at Pinterest and my latest one is for Influential Fairy Tale People.

I'd like to know the faces behind names so familiar to me so I've put them all together into a single board. Some of the images took a little hunting! (Apparently our much loved Heidi Anne Heiner of SurLaLune only ever appears as a gorgeous illustration or sweet silhouette... ;)

As with all the other boards, it's a work in progress so there's a good chance I'm missing some important people, but it includes: Writers, researchers, filmmakers, artists, advocates, collectors, recorders & preservers - past and present. There are currently 39 people there but I know there should be more.


I'm open to suggestions but please know I'm not aiming to put EVERY writer who has ever written on fairy tales here - just those who have had (and have) a wide-reaching influence. 

The link is HERE.

Enjoy, and if you ever bump into one, thank them for us all, will you?


Note: I haven't included illustrators in general because that list is so huge they could have their own board (or two or three!). I'll tackle that another day...

"Il Etait Une Fois": A Pop-Up Book of Fairy Tales by Benjamin Lacombe

Today , yesterday (don't you hate it when your planned computer time just doesn't happen?), Heidi posted my Fairy Tale Favorite Things Christmas Wish List on her SurLaLune Fairy Tales Blog and the first two items had something in common: they're both by the amazing Benjamin Lacombe*.

If you don't know who this artist is, this is the best way I can think of to introduce you to the wonder that is Benjamin Lacombe.

Just have a look at this amazing book trailer, which is for the second "most wanted" item on my wishlist:



The book is a brilliantly realized and beautifully printed pop-up and although there isn't a whole lot of text, you really don't need it (which is extra fantastic if you don't know much French). Take a closer look at some of the pages.

Peter Pan

Bluebeard

 Mr. Lacombe is not only talented in illustration,  he writes, was very particularly involved in the process of creating the cut outs and design for the pop-up and if I understand correctly, he was not only intimately involved in planning and designing the animation for the trailer, he even tried his hand at the actual animation himself (with amazing results!). It helps, of course, that he's obviously very drawn to fairy tales and even his other illustration that isn't based on fairy tales still has a fairy tale feel to it. I haven't found anything he's illustrated I don't like yet. :)

Red Riding Hood

Thumbelina

I'll write more about his many talents and the variety of his work another time but for now you may have noticed I wrote this amazing book is not Number 1 on my list but Number 2.

Why?

Because Mr. Lacombe has also illustrated his own version of "Blanche Neige" (Snow White), which has been on my must-have-as-soon-as-possible list since I first saw it and has been my number one wish item for the entire year...

Amazing, no? And the cover has this illustration wrapped around it.

Although Snow White (or Little Snow White) has been a favorite tale of mine since I was small (for different reasons at different times) it's not the only reason I'm drawn to this book. Wait until you see how Mr. Lacombe handled the telling (showing) of the story and oh-so-familiar scenes and you'll see why. This beautiful book is something even those skeptical about the Snow White tale seem drawn to.

I will (hopefully!) add another post just for this amazing book tomorrow (also known as the very next time I get some computer time to put the finishing touches on my post and make it live!). Stay tuned!

*Yes! Benjamin Lacombe IS on Facebook (that's where the link goes). And you get to see lots of lovely previews and extras if you 'like' his page. :)