"Hansel and Gretel and the Witch " Rough drawing (study for figurine) by Scott Gustafson
A quickie post to point you to an excellent list of witches from fairy tales and other classic literature by Kate Coombs, also known online as "The Book Aunt".
Strega Nona Written & Illustrated by Tomie dePaola
Her list includes Baba Yaga and Strega Nona, as well as some books for both I also recommend. She even includes the awesome story/book called The Talking Eggs that I found only a few years ago. Please note the actual books she recommends for the fairy tales. I can vouch for the illustrations being as lovely as she says.
Here's the fairy tales she includes:
Hansel and Gretel (with the Gingerbread House architect) Snow White (with her stepmother - or mother, if you prefer) Jorinda and Joringel (with The Witch of the Wood that gturns into an Owl...) The Tinderbox or The Blue Light (with an unnamed witch that gets killed) Rapunzel (with Mother Gothel) Vasilissa the Brave (with Baba Yaga) The Fearsome Inn (Jewish folktale) Strega Nona - she's a good one! The Talking Eggs (Grimm's Mother Hulda)
Also mentioned is Heckedy Peg (which is an original fairy tale by Audrey & Don Woods)
Bony Legs Written by Joanna Cole Illustrated by Dirk Zimmer
You can find Kate's blog and timely list of fairy tale witches HERE.
I found this great little article today title "Spooktakular Sonic Surprises" by the Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and, not only did it have a number of pieces I thought extremely appropriate for fairy tale enthusiasts, readers, listeners and writers, but it made me think of a few of my own.
Rather than repeat telling you about the pieces he lists I'll just list them, add a clip courtesy of YouTube and link you to his fun and very readable article. You'll be able to see the others on the list too - all of which will give you an excellent audio selection, Halloween-style, for your ears. :)
The pieces on his list I thought most appropriate for fairy tale people and stories are:
The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack by Danny Elfman (I couldn't find the music without the vocals but it's fabulous, even without the voices)
Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saens
Baba Yaga - The Hut on Fowls' Legs (from "Pictures at an Exhibition") by Modest Mussorkgsky
Funeral March of a Marionette by Charles Gounod (you probably know this piece, even if you don't know the title. I love this one!) I found a darling little stop-motion animation for Funeral March of a Marionette which I thought I'd share:
You can read the short explanations about each, and the rest of the article, HERE.
And here are my additions (off the top of my head - I planned on researching more for you but Halloween duties called sorry!):
In the Hall of the Mountain King (from Peer Gynt) by Edvard Grieg I love Ibsen's Peer Gynt tale (which was actually a play)! It's another suite of music I was exposed to as a young child and I didn't need to be told the story to imagine it. You can hear what's happening just by listening. I wasn't surprised to see Wikipedia mention it being used for Halloween concerts - it was the first piece that came to mind. (I apologize the first notes are cut off - it's the best [straight] played I could find where you could actually hear everything happening. It also goes into the next processional piece which I can't remember the name of sorry.)
L'apprenti sorcier (The Sorcerer's Apprentice) by Paul Dukas I loved this piece and the Goethe story it was based on well before I saw it used in Fantasia. Magical brooms ahead!
The Corpse Bride Theme (combining some pieces from the soundtrack) by Danny Elfman and John August It feels like an air of death or mourning haunts a few of these pieces yet still has a fantastical and hopeful air- especially that lovely piano solo
Midnight from Cinderella(Music for Ballet) by Sergei Prokofiev Ok - I admit I'm a huge Prokofiev fan (His Romeo & Juliet is my favorite) but all those (what I think of as) malevolent notes through the suites and the (what I like too call) "musical resistance" to Cinderella making it away from the ball on time? Delicious for suspense!
Aaaand I have to add another Russian piece: from Stravinsky's Firebird, The Infernal Dance of Kashchei. There are quite a few darker pieces from The Firebird suite but this one definitely fits the fairy-tale-Halloween bill on a number of levels. I found this piece conducted by Stravinsky himself and couldn't resist adding it for you.
That's about all I can think of without pulling out my CDs or doing some research but know I've probably forgotten some obvious ones. If you have fairy tale music favorites that you think would be a great addition to the Halloween playlist here, feel free to chime in!
Torn is no longer available to read at Supernatural Fairy Tales. Instead I have added it to Once Upon A Blog on it's own dedicated (and hopefully permanent) page.
Dorlana Vann of the wonderful Supernatural Fairy Tales site has posted my new short story "Torn", especially for your Halloween reading pleasure.
The genre for this one is dark fantasy and definitely verges on the creepy but isn't horror. (If you're in the mood for Halloween humor, Dorlana's story "Holiday" - also posted there - fits the bill beautifully.)
"Torn" is not a retelling like "Cages" is, but was instead inspired by a fairy tale I've loved since I was a girl. The fairy tale is "The Marsh King's Daughter" by Hans Christian Andersen. You can read the original HERE.
The only problem with "The Marsh King's Daughter" is I never liked the heavy religious stuff that it digresses into at one point before gaining back it's fairy tale form and resolving. It may be one of the reasons I rarely see it tackled. The topic of duality HCA's tale explores, however, I find fascinating - plus it has some awesome fairy tale characters and situations that are begging for more 'screen time'.
My heartfelt thanks to my wonderful @mudsock for creating the awesome illustration at the head of this post for me. I love it and think it suits the story perfectly. (He's all kinds of awesome - go check him out on Twitter and/or Facebook - you'll soon see what I mean.)
Heidi posted an awesome seasonal entry on pumpkin coaches and carriages this week on the SurLaLune blog HERE, showing some gorgeous examples of life-sized fairy tales coaches to drool over. Go have a look, then come back...
As a sort of sequel/addendum to that entry, I thought I'd show you some 'coaches' a modern-day Cinderella might use. Perhaps staying away from a bouffant outfit might be the way to go if she wants to get into these vehicles (and out of the ball in one piece):
(Found HERE at Motortopia The fairy godmother may have forgotten the 'meeting Royalty' factor here.)
'Vintage' Pumpkin Car - always classy (Many dress options with this one though some different curtains would be nice. Found HERE)
Eco-Friendly Superhero Concept Car
(Found HERE - it's powered by bio-diesel fuel and electricity,
both generated by pumpkin seed oil! The only outfits I can think of to compliment this ride are really only suitable for, well, Halloween.)
The FGM 2005 looks awesome - as long as it comes with the top-up. The last thing you need is to re-do your hair just as you're making your grand entrance. The speedy getaway options throughout are very appealing though.
For some steampunk options, watch for my Steampunk Cinderella entry coming next week!
The Pied Piper Linoleum Block Cut by M.S. West (M.S. West also has other fairy tale pieces available to see on her blog HERE)
What if the Pied Piper had no choice but to draw the rats to him? What if this curse was passed on to his descendants? And what if the creatures that followed you were not rats but the undead?
Lisa Kessler is one of those talented people who always seems to be writing new stories. While Urban Fantasy is her first love she's a very versatile writer and so I wasn't surprised to find she'd tackled a fairy tale or two. She regularly sets herself challenges to stretch her writing muscles and this story is the result of one of those exercises.
The Pied Piper is already very creepy but Lisa's given the story a very unusual - and extra creepy - twist...
Says Lisa about writing "The Curse of Hamelin":
This week's topic was Living the Lie and also mentioning diaphoretic sweating.... Hmmm....From that, a nervous OCD accountant popped into my head. Why was he so nervous?Apparently he was cursed... After some research into German history, this story told itself.
She's generously allow me to post an excerpt and link to her very Halloween-appropriate version of the Pied Piper (please note: there's a mild gore warning for this story - but then if you read the 'undead' comment, you probably expected that):
Here's the beginning to put you in the mood:
"The Curse of Hamelin" by Lisa Kessler
They were coming.
He couldn’t see them yet, but he could sense them. The scent of moist tilled earth teased his nostrils, and bile rose in response.
How could this have happened again so soon?
Harold made a frantic dash to the dresser, and yanked open the drawers. He had to get out fast. Snatching up his pressed and folded clothes, he placed them on the tidy bedspread and reached under the ruffled bed skirt for his suitcase.
Lisa is very active with her writing, her BLOG (just a note: you'll need to scroll down past the MySpace ads and banners but she's worth it!) and on TWITTER (known there as LdyDisney . It's also where we met). She's a lot of fun and constantly amazes me with both the quantity and quality of her output. I expect her to get a three-book publishing deal any minute now...
Go read her work and support her journey into print. You'll find yourself very entertained and can rest assured this lovely, generous and talented lady is someone worthy of your time.
A sincere thank you to Lisa for allowing me to do this post. I wish you every success, my friend!
Charles Vess, gifted artist of all things fantasy and fairy and close collaborative friend of Neil Gaiman and Charles de Lint, has a new hardcover art book coming in December. And we get to have a free preview! (This hasn't just appeared but I re-checked today and the preview is still available, though it isn't clear how long it will remain so.)
From the illustrated version of "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
My big, fat art book: Drawing Down the Moon, The Art of Charles Vess has taken a loooooooong while to wind its way from the completion of my initial layouts to actually seeing print this December. And along the way there have been multiple false alarms as to its publication date.
The folks at Dark Horse and I want to apologize for any confusion that these solicitations may have caused.
So, in an effort to make certain that you know that the book will indeed be available this December we are providing you with a sneak preview of the entire 200 pages.
Due to increasing requests for archived posts on various topics and tales I thought I should add some search options to Once Upon A Blog.
In the sidebar you'll find two ways of searching: 1) the 'search this blog' box - enter word or topic you're looking for 2) a (large) list/group of tags I've used to label the posts - tags are 'clickable' and will bring up all posts tagged with that label
The tags cover general topics, tales by title, regular features, artists, writers and other 'fairy tale people' and much more. They're a good way to discover things of interest to you.
For book titles or other specific works I suggest using the 'search' function. :)
I hope you find this useful for finding posts and browsing topics of interest!
And if you're looking for something and still can't find it, please feel free to drop me a mail at fairytalenews AT gmail DOT com and ask. I'm not able to get to my mail every day but I will answer as promptly as possible.
New posts are added daily and the topics and tales are steadily growing. There is much to delve into and discover in the world of fairy tale news!
End piece from "The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault" Illustrated by Harry Clarke
NOTE: *'Cinderilla' is not a typo! It's how the name is spelled in the book the illustration came from.
If you see the file name of the picture above, you'll see it includes Neilsen's name. Please note this is not accurate. The actual artist is Harry Clarke. The illustration is from "The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault" translated by Robert Samber & J.E. Mansion, with the whole book illustrated by Harry Clarke. Click on the image above to go to the Project Gutenberg page to view the book and see more illustrations.
Warning: "Disney meets social issues" topic ahead!
It's almost Princess day for little girls everywhere (better known as Halloween) and I find it interesting that this image is currently circulating the web right before multitudes of princess-ified trick-or-treat-ers arrive at the door. It's enough to give even the most pixie-dusted, pro-princess-patrons pause (Argh! Alliteration! You know it's going to be bad...)
... It's the classic Disney princesses roster -- Sleeping Beauty, Aurora, Jasmine, Ariel, Belle, and Cinderella. Above their smiling faces, however, are their basic characteristics and plot lines. When you boil it down to the basics, the story is enough to make anyone queasy. Snow White's hormones almost kill her, Aurora is married off in the crib for politics and saved years later with a kiss (or sex and slavery when Anne Rice has her say), Jasmine is a pretty girl saved by a street rat, Ariel gets to look pretty and say nothing, Belle works her sexuality, and Cinderella is saved because of her beauty.
Yikes.
And when you click on the picture for a full size to read the text it's even more blatant.
I don't happen to agree that the princesses are a completely lost cause but when you put things like this, it's easy to see why some begin to sound downright anti-(Disney)Princess.
To be fair, it's a little simplistic to summarize the ladies the way they have been in the image above, but nevertheless it's food for thought. But we can't blame it all on Disney. It's not like they haven't drawn daring darlings in the past (more alliteration - I can't help myself!). It IS, though, far harder to get a Mulan costume for Halloween than a Cinderella one.
Speaking of Disney's Mulan, that's one lady I'd like on my team and there are other Disney heroines I wouldn't mind sharing the room with either but we rarely see them. Clearly Disney CAN drawn females of substance. Could it be they just don't know how to market them (at least for substantial profit)? Is it the WDC marketing moguls that force these few and their faults/flaws into regular view, or is it we, the people (a.k.a. consumers), that don't know how to embody dreams and happy endings without the puffy skirts and got-my-prince smiles? Will the much touted character of "Disney's Newest Princess" Tiana, break the trend?
What's more, will there ever be a politically-correct-yet-still-romantic way for those actively searching for their Prince Charmings and aiming for happily ever after, to get PC validation and reach this goal without being seen as a sell out?
The Non-Princess Club by Mimi-Na (which includes some actual princesses) Caption reads: "Can I join? They said I wasn't pretty enough..."
I don't have a good answer. I'll admit I'm one of those who now has a negative reaction to the word 'princess' but I also think we're quick to point fingers (from both sides of the fence) and not sincerely consider our part in it all.
The only thing I can say with any certainty is that Mimi-Na from deviantArt titled her pieces well. (Check her comments on her deviantArt pages - clicking on each image will send you there - for a full roster of names in each piece.)
*Puts away soap box and returns to her regularly scheduled blogging*
Found this odd advertisement for Pizzetta pizza HERE.The text is: "Snow White and the Six Dwarfs - Think twice before you take the last slice."
Soooo... did the seventh dwarf run off with the pizza and abandon his duties or did the others eat him instead? You see the confusion. (You can click on the image for a larger view.. and for any clues...)
The other ads in the series are just as ambiguous. They can also be seen HERE (click on the back-arrow at the bottom of the image).
Note the 2nd: This entry was supposed to post yesterday and I only just realized I had saved but not published - sorry! I'm updating the time references so it makes sense when you read it today (Wednesday).
Note: I see SurLaLune has posted on this topic yesterday too with lots of great links so I'm adjusting my content to minimize the overlap. Be sure to check out Heidi's entry HERE for more information about the film.
After dealing with ongoing Russian resistance to Disney show 'products', The Walt Disney Company have smartly opted for producing an all-Russian cast-and-crew (including some of their most famous and popular actors) family fairy tale film to help smooth the way into the market. With the Russian penchant for home-grown over Hollywood, (as they should - they have an incredibly rich and diverse culture, folklore and history, not to mention volumes of amazing fairy tales), this seems like a good way to help Disney find even more acceptance than they've had to date.Their first piece of Russian film-making will be released tomorrow in Russia (October 29th) and is a fantasy film based on Russian fairy tales and folklore. The title is Книга мастеров (Kniga Masterov) and is translated as The Book of Masters. Unfortunately, the English title translation doesn't appear to capture the spirit of the film at all. Instead of letting the title mar your impression, it may help to remember that a lot of Russian tales tend toward the epic or grand scale when it comes to characters and events. From Russia Info Center:
The Book of Masters is a sort of a potpourri, where characters from Russian folklore, and Pushkin’s and Bazhov’s fairy tales are brought together.
Just take a look at some of these photos here to see what I mean. There's also been one preview scene released that people are calling 'very Lord of the Rings' where the Stone Queen creates an army of stone golems. (You can see that scene HERE.)I've also included some traditional Russian folk art in this post, in amongst the movie scenes from their lovely old fairy tale Ivan and the Firebird, so you can see where some of the inspiration for the characters, designs and ideas come from (there's a note on the influence of Ivan Bilibin further down the post).The posters (and title) are, without doubt, typical live-action Disney in style but there may be more Russian artistic influence than appears in the marketing.
For instance, this trailer here, while still looking a little 'Disney-esque' to me, makes lovely use of illustrative art (echoing the fabulous work of famous Russian illustrator Ivan Bilibin - you can see an illustrated biography HERE which shows you his style), to fade into the scenes. The other trailers I've seen don't seem to use this technique, but if the film includes any transitions or storytelling techniques like this, it makes me all the more interested in seeing it.
Sources: HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE (interesting info on the Director at this link) and HERE (quotes from the Russian filmmakers as they started production at this link).
Strega Nona
Bony Legs
