Folktale Week
An
Instagram challenge.
For 7
days in November of 2018 illustrators made art inspired by specific prompts, recorded at #folktaleweek and #folktakeweek2018. I
chose to illustrate some of my favorite Grimm Brother's tales. Here are my favorites.
DAY 1: FOREST
The
Robber Bridegroom as translated by Jack Zipes in TheOriginal Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition.
A father wants to marry his daughter off to a rich suitor but she has a bad
feeling and refuses to go to his home in the dark wood. The suitor assures her
he will wrap the trees in red ribbons so she can find her way home. He isn't
there when she arrives and an old woman warns her to hide. She watches he and
his robber friends kill her grandmother. She sneaks home and the next time he
visits recounts the murder, producing her grandmother's ringed finger as proof.
DAY 2: MAGIC
The
Hand with the Knife. In this tale a girl must cut peat from a bog daily for her
cruel family. Her admirer, an elf, lends her a magic knife so she can cut the
peat faster but she must return it to his outstretched hand each day. Her
brothers catch on and chop off the elf's hand with his own knife. You can read
a translation of the story here.
DAY 4: GHOST
Another
illustration from Jack Zipes' translation of Little Brother and Little Sister
from The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm:The Complete First Edition. In this translation the brother is
turned into a doe and the sister, eventually killed, by a witch. After death,
the sister returns for three nights as a ghost to feed her newborn baby and say
goodbye to the doe.
DAY 5: INSECT
The
Queen Bee. A son goes out into the world, gains magical transformative powers
and helps out some bees (among other animals). He hears of a King offering the
hand of his youngest daughter if the suitor can pick her out from her two
identical sisters. The boy learns that the youngest ate honey before falling
asleep and the Queen Bee offers her help. Check out this translation of the tale.
DAY 6: MIRROR
The
Summer and the Winter Garden is a version of the classic Beauty and The Beast.
The Beast has a summer garden growing in winter and makes a trade with a
traveling man. He can take the rose to his daughter but he must eventually
forfeit her to the Beast. While she's imprisoned the Beast gives the girl a
magic mirror where she sees her father wilting from sadness in his home at
having lost her. You can read a translation of the tale here.
DAY 7: ANIMAL
The
White Snake. (One of my very favorite Grimm Tales!) A servant opens a dish for
the King and finds a white snake. When he eats from it he gains the ability to
understand the language of animals which he uses to overcome a number of
obstacles and win the hand of his eventual wife. Here is one version of the tale.