An Art Post.
Sep. 14th, 2009 07:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regndoft(A post for the community ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
told_tales
Went to the library a while back and found a book with folktales from different parts of Europe and Asia. Naturally, I picked it up to see if it was anything interesting, but in the end, what made me borrow it was not the stories but the illustrations.
Hans Arnold was born in Switzerland in 1925, studied art in Luzern and came to Sweden in 1948. Here, he has been mostly recognized for his horror illustrations but he has also worked with folk- and fairytales, which is why I picked this book up. When I was young I read a lot of the collections of ghost stories he'd illustrated, books you now may find in many Swedish schools and Summer camps, and which used to haunt me quite a bit when I was a child.
As far as I know, he's not that renowned outside of Scandinavia. So I decided to post them here. I've tried to post the original titles of the stories and translations, but they're not always available and sometimes the Swedish titles have been changed...
We start with two illustrations from "Kong Lindorm", King Lindorm, a folk tale from Denmark in which a young maiden marries a gruesome dragon, who turns out to not be quite what he seems...
Later in the story, the maiden is not really a maiden anymore and after her two sons have been taken away from her, she has to empty her breasts of milk. A swan and a crane comes down to suckle and they turn out to be her enchanted sons.
From Germany comes something of a horror story, "Die Verwünschte Prinzessin", The Enchanted Princess. Here we see the princess and her lover, the mountain troll.
"The Son of Seven Queens"; An Indian tale that shows the danger of looking too deeply in the eyes of a hind, especially if you've already got seven wives.
"Marigo and the Fourty Dragons", Albania.
The Swedish title means "Donn and the Giants", while the original name of the tale is "An Crochaire Tárnocht". On Ireland lives this fighter who has to cope with more violent rows and more gruesome giants than what you with difficulty can imagine, but like all the heroes from the green island loves and kills with the same happy soul.
Very gruesome indeed.
From Dalsland in Sweden comes the story of "Askefisen", a lad with more luck and brains than most. For all of those familiar with Norwegian folk tales you would recognize his characterization as Askeladden. And indeed, this story reads as a remix of several stories both found in Asbjørnsen and Moe's Norske Folkeeventyr as well as Swedish sources.
In "O Zółmirzu co mu Pau Jezus Torbeczkę Dał", The Soldier who got a Backpack from Jesus, a Polish legend, we meet a soldier who handles officers and devils as well as Saint Peter, or, as here, Death.
The illustration is kind of huge and was hard to scan well, but it's one of my favourites...
A king's daughter stands looking out over the sea, seeking a ship to take her and her comrades home from an island inhabited by witches and trolls. From "Sagan af Surtlu i Blálandseyjum", The Tale of Surtlu on Blue Land's Island, Iceland.
A Russian tale about the use of a mother's blessing when you run into a witch who's got glowing skulls on her fence posts, is the introduction of Vasilisa the Beautiful, Василиса Прекрасная.
"The Exquisitely Beuatiful or The Three Lemons" is the alternative title for this tale that hearkens from Greece. The hero enters the house of the Exquisitely Beautiful, which is full of nereids.
And finally, a tale from Karelia, "The Heavy Chest", a kind of distant Finnish relative to the infamous Bluebeard tale.
If you're interested in more of Hans Arnold's works, there are a number of smaller examples on his website.
I hope you enjoyed. :)
P.S. Yes F-List, I'm back from Italy. Expect posts on the subject when I'm not completely drained.
told_talesWent to the library a while back and found a book with folktales from different parts of Europe and Asia. Naturally, I picked it up to see if it was anything interesting, but in the end, what made me borrow it was not the stories but the illustrations.
Hans Arnold was born in Switzerland in 1925, studied art in Luzern and came to Sweden in 1948. Here, he has been mostly recognized for his horror illustrations but he has also worked with folk- and fairytales, which is why I picked this book up. When I was young I read a lot of the collections of ghost stories he'd illustrated, books you now may find in many Swedish schools and Summer camps, and which used to haunt me quite a bit when I was a child.
As far as I know, he's not that renowned outside of Scandinavia. So I decided to post them here. I've tried to post the original titles of the stories and translations, but they're not always available and sometimes the Swedish titles have been changed...
We start with two illustrations from "Kong Lindorm", King Lindorm, a folk tale from Denmark in which a young maiden marries a gruesome dragon, who turns out to not be quite what he seems...
Later in the story, the maiden is not really a maiden anymore and after her two sons have been taken away from her, she has to empty her breasts of milk. A swan and a crane comes down to suckle and they turn out to be her enchanted sons.
From Germany comes something of a horror story, "Die Verwünschte Prinzessin", The Enchanted Princess. Here we see the princess and her lover, the mountain troll.
"The Son of Seven Queens"; An Indian tale that shows the danger of looking too deeply in the eyes of a hind, especially if you've already got seven wives.
"Marigo and the Fourty Dragons", Albania.
The Swedish title means "Donn and the Giants", while the original name of the tale is "An Crochaire Tárnocht". On Ireland lives this fighter who has to cope with more violent rows and more gruesome giants than what you with difficulty can imagine, but like all the heroes from the green island loves and kills with the same happy soul.
Very gruesome indeed.
From Dalsland in Sweden comes the story of "Askefisen", a lad with more luck and brains than most. For all of those familiar with Norwegian folk tales you would recognize his characterization as Askeladden. And indeed, this story reads as a remix of several stories both found in Asbjørnsen and Moe's Norske Folkeeventyr as well as Swedish sources.
In "O Zółmirzu co mu Pau Jezus Torbeczkę Dał", The Soldier who got a Backpack from Jesus, a Polish legend, we meet a soldier who handles officers and devils as well as Saint Peter, or, as here, Death.
The illustration is kind of huge and was hard to scan well, but it's one of my favourites...
A king's daughter stands looking out over the sea, seeking a ship to take her and her comrades home from an island inhabited by witches and trolls. From "Sagan af Surtlu i Blálandseyjum", The Tale of Surtlu on Blue Land's Island, Iceland.
A Russian tale about the use of a mother's blessing when you run into a witch who's got glowing skulls on her fence posts, is the introduction of Vasilisa the Beautiful, Василиса Прекрасная.
"The Exquisitely Beuatiful or The Three Lemons" is the alternative title for this tale that hearkens from Greece. The hero enters the house of the Exquisitely Beautiful, which is full of nereids.
And finally, a tale from Karelia, "The Heavy Chest", a kind of distant Finnish relative to the infamous Bluebeard tale.
If you're interested in more of Hans Arnold's works, there are a number of smaller examples on his website.
I hope you enjoyed. :)
P.S. Yes F-List, I'm back from Italy. Expect posts on the subject when I'm not completely drained.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-09-14 07:45 pm (UTC)(The mermaid is so purty! She's what I like best about that picture. XD)
Whenever Arnold gets around to illustrate good ol' Nordic pine forests (such as in Askefisen, or a Norwegian tale that I sadly couldn't scan because it was too big) I can't help but think that he reminds me an awful lot of John Bauer...
... *Compares the illustration to her match box with Soviet propaganda on the cover* Well, I honestly can't really tell... I'm not an expert on Soviet propaganda or Orthodox art...