"The Marsh King's Daughter" Illustrations

The Marsh King's Daughter by Anne Anderson

I'm finally posting my slow-growing collection of illustrations for The Marsh King's Daughter (by Hans Christian Andersen) illustrations. If you've been reading this blog for a while you'll know that this is one of my longtime favorite fairy tales, despite all the heavy handed religious aspects of the second half. I haven't included every single one if there were multiple pictures by one artist so if you look at the links (each name should link you to their work or the image source).

Papercut - Maria Dorte

Anne Anderson

Brochure - Artist Unknown

Contest "Disney's New Musical" Winner by Ashamyn

Dugald Stewart Walker

Harry Clarke

Lorenz Frølich (1820-1908)

Frølich's drawings really feel like they fit the story in mood and story telling style.  I really like them.

Postage stamp -  Lorenz Frølich (1820-1908)

Lorenz Frølich (1820-1908)

Lorenz Frølich (1820-1908)

Esben Hanefelt Kristensen

Arnold Thornam

The Walt Disney Company

Kay Nielsen

Kinuko Y. Craft

Book Illustration 1926 The Marsh King's Daughter - Artist Unknown

Arthur J. Gaskin
I wish he had illustrated more aspects of the story. I love this style of illustration.

Ricki Klages

Marsh King's Daughter, Egyptian Princess - Artist Unknown (can't find image source either)

Dugald Stewart Walker

Tiziana Gironi

Volquartz
This looks really interesting! There is a whole section of the site dedicated to this production. Only problem is it's in Danish (I think).

W. Heath Robinson

Avi Katz

Oscar Klever
This is one of my favorites in the collection here. It really seems to fit the mood of the story and  manages to incorporate many of the elements without feeling like a mural.

Rex Whistler
I really like this one too.

amytaluuri
This looks much nicer large but I wish the artist had dug a little further into the story and incorporated more key elements.

drawmeapicture (silk dye on silk)

W. Heath Robinson

W. Heath Robinson

I can't find Andersen's own papercut work for The Marsh King's Daughter online, and my H.C. Andersen fairy tale collection book which is printed with his original papercuts as the illustrations, is packed away in storage right now. I do know that it has a stork, a baby and marsh reeds and it isn't a "mirror image" or snowflake-type cut. When I find it - or find my book - I'll add it to the post.

There was also at least one animation made of this story which I remember seeing somewhere back in the 70's too. Not all of it seems to be on YouTube but what parts there are, are below:

I'm surprised there aren't many more illustrations floating around for this story. There are so many things going on in this one, it's rich fodder for an artist's imagination. (This illustration HERE by Beatriz Martin Vidal isn't based on the fairy tale  - which is why I haven't included it in the collection here - but it would work well both for Frog King or for The Marsh King's Daughter.)

I'm certain I saw some illustrations in my childhood that have helped keep this story so vivid in my imagination all these years - especially regarding scenes the beautiful but scary and out-of-control wild child Helga, of the transformation from vicious Viking girl to toad-like creature and of the nurses kindness. Either that or the story really spoke to me strongly at the time and I created my own in my head!

I have a favor to ask: if you find, create, make any new or different illustrations from those posted here (ie by other artists), please email me or put a comment below and let me know - or send me a copy (with artist credited if at all possible). I'll add it to these and give you finder's credit/artist's credit (whichever is appropriate).

Also, as per my previous post, I recently realized my Marsh King's Daughter inspired short story, Torn, was no longer available to read on the web anywhere, so I've made a dedicated page here at Once Upon A Blog so it will have a (hopefully) permanent home.

by Tom Mazzocco

You can click the tab labeled TORN under the Once Upon A Blog header or just click HERE to read.

Fairy Tale Inspired Writing Pages Coming

The Carlo Collodi Fountain Pen nib detail

It's come to my attention that almost all my fairy tale inspired short stories, podcasts and other work have been slowly disappearing from the web due to personal site upgrades, defunct blog programs and various other things...

So:

I am going to be adding pages to the Once Upon A Blog site when I can so some of my fair tale writing can have a (hopefully permanent) home here. :)

First cap off the rank:

Torn

(A short story inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's The Marsh King's Daughter)

It was originally written for as a Halloween story for Supernatural Fairy Tales, a great site which has recently had an upgrade. (Note: This is STILL an awesome site full of fantastic fairy tale short stories by Dorlana Vann and other wonderful finds. At last look, my two-part article on True Love and Fairy Tales is still there.)

You can read more about the initial publishing HERE in the announcement post on this blog (which I have also updated with the new page link).

The direct link to the story is under the header next to the About InkGypsy page or you can click HERE.

And, since we're on the topic of fairy tale writing, what better than a fairy tale pen? Look at this lovely, lovely Montblanc Carlo Collodi Fountain Pen I found recently. (They come in rollerball and ballpoint pens too apparently, but you need to contact them for prices. I'm guessing $$$!) It was released just in time for Christmas last year (2011).

Though I haven't been able to write (or blog or be online!) much at all the past year or so, I am beginning to write again and just the thought of this pen is very inspiring. Though it will likely take me a little while to publish anything new, I am excited to go dig up some fairy tale bits and pieces of my own and share them with people again.

I hope you enjoy the pages to come.

:)

Fairy Tale Food Warning

I'm not going to post on the reason this image (originally made for The Guardian by Franck Allais) was being used in "food fight" political campaigns last year (see article here) but I will say that this is an extremely effective view of the fast food way too many kids (and adults) eat way too much of.

Half of the effectiveness of this "PSA" (it's not an ad but works very well as a Public Service Announcement) is in using a kid versus the "fries (fried?) wolf", instead of including an adult in the scene, despite it not being aimed at kids. After all, no one wants to put their kids in danger.

Although the red is on the "wolf" (I know it's a monster) there's no doubt about the fairy tale it's referencing here. I also really like the woods behind being echoed by the dumpster.

Nice job on this!

Disney's "The Little Mermaid" Before Ariel (& Other Disney Takes On HCA Tales)

Isn't this just.. odd? I wonder if any of The Little Mermaid artists ever saw this?

Because Hans Christian Andersen has been in the news lately in a controversial LGBT festival intended to honor him, (click the links in the sentence if you want to read more) his tales have been on my mind more than usual.

I knew Walt Disney and some of his early artists/workers were familiar with lesser known fairy tales but I didn't realize Disney had contributed several sets of stamps themed with Hans Christian Andersen's stories, starring Mickey and the gang. (Apologies if the layout of images is weird. I cannot get Blogger to cooperate on making them stay put today.)

You can see the titles right on the stamp, in case there's any doubt as to their origin (some are a little difficult to figure out).

Interestingly, the sets don't seem to include all of the better known Andersen tales (eg Snow Queen, Little Ida's Flowers etc). There are others that seem rather, well ordinary and don't capture any of the tales magic (or use much of the trademark Disney/Mickey humor). Still, they are fun to look at when you know the tales.

 

I'm particularly pleased, though, to see The Marsh King's Daughter included among these. It's one of my favorites and has stuck with me since I was small, despite it's heavy religious tones in the second half. 

Here's Grenada stamp portrait set of Hans Christian Andersen, which isn't by Disney.

Grenada seem to hold the contract for producing Disney stamps (sorry - I have no research time at this writing to check this myself). I actually still have a Snow White stamp set from one of the theatrical releases when I was young. I like the different views of HCA here. You can see how a wealth of different stories are produced by one person when you view them like this.

There are quite a few that have been animated as shorts - either for Fantasia or as "training short films" for Disney artists. MOst are nothing like these but I think that's a good thing. These are really a good way for Disney fan-kids to learn more HCA tales - stories they may not read otherwise.

In the meantime, enjoy the HCA/Disney parodies. :)

Happy New Year!

May you find wonder in every new day...

Happy New Year!