#folktales

Hi there!! I’ve been working on a retelling of the tale “East of the Sun, West of the Moon”. Here are the first characters I’ve designed for it, Ellinor (the protagonist) and the troll princess. 

In the original tale, the troll princess was meant to be an ugly princess with a big nose, as a way to make worse the fate of the prince, but I think that it doesn’t matter how pretty she is, the prince is not going to accept someone by force.

And well, my troll princess is not very smart, she’s kind of clumsy and gets easily distracted, specially if it is about jewels and treasures (I added this after discovering that some trolls love gold and some details of the story). She is kind, but always tries to please her mother.

Ellinor is a bit fragile, kindhearted, clever and gets easily scared, but she is very brave, and faces her fears, usually tries to pretend she’s not scared. She’ll travel to save the prince from the curse. I still have a long way to go with her, but I’ll get there!!

These might not be the final designs, but I’m having a lot of fun in this journey! n.n  

The Firebird!  From Ballet Stories for Young Children.  

A John O’Brien illustration for The Stone Cheese from Favorite Tales of Monsters and Trolls retold by George Jonsen 1977 #folktales #fairytale #monstersandtrolls #johnobrienart #oldchildrensbooks
https://www.instagram.com/p/CG8hJvYHI21/?igshid=1x5v40rk15af2

At a time when the most despicable persons can be held to the highest standards, to show you the cover for this book seems relevant. Education and culture are the key, more than ever…

Often folktales and fairy stories can be quite brutal and serve as warnings not to mess with the fae. This story, set in Humshaugh, near Hexham in Northumberland, England, is very simple and rather charming. It’s the story of a ploughman who, one day in summer, heard the sound of the fairies churning their fairy butter. He knew not to pry, so he didn’t stop to listen for too long or try to see them, so he continued with his work. However, as he returned to the spot with his plough he heard a tiny voice saying, “Alack a-day, what shall I do? I’ve broken my churn staff”. He called back, “Leave it out for me to fix!” then walked away, knowing they wouldn’t come out with it whilst he was standing there. When he came back, there waiting for him was the broken churn which he immediately set about fixing. He left it, and once again returned to his ploughing, and when he returned for the final time he found the churn was gone and, in its place, a pile of fairy bread and fairy butter was left in thanks.

[Source: Fairy folk celebrating around a plough by Charles Altamont Doyle,Folk Tales of the North Country by F. Grice]

These two fairy tales are somewhat unusual as they are set not in the natural environment as so often folklore and fairy tales are, but in coal mines. The first is set in Shilbottle Colliery in Northumberland, England, near Alnwick and is the story of a mine spirit: the Bluecap. The second is from Callington Pit (also Northumberland) and tells the story of a boggart - Cutty Soams.

In the first, the Bluecap worked alongside the miners as a putter - someone who pushed (or dragged) the coal tubs. He worked hard, and kept the miners safe, manifesting himself in a blue flame. The miners paid him: if they overpaid him he would leave the surplus behind, but if they underpaid him he would become indignant, leave his wage, and potentially put the miners in danger. 

Cutty Soams, on the other hand, delighted in putting the miners in danger (he was thought, perhaps, to be the ghost of a miner killed years earlier). As the Colliery Guardian wrote in 1863,

One [Cutty Soams] was a spiteful elf; who indicated his presence only by the mischief he perpetrated. He rejoiced in the name of “Cutty Soams,” and appears to have employed himself only in the stupid device of severing the rope-traces or soams, by which an assistant-putter – honoured by the title of “the fool ”– is yoked to the tub. The strands of hemp which were left all sound in the board at “kenner-time,” were found next morning severed in twain. “Cutty Soams” has been at work, could the fool and his driver say, dolefully knotting the cord.“

[Sources:Thomas Hair,The Faery Folklorist]

by John Bauer 

The climactic scene of Japanese folktale The Grateful Crane, as interpreted by @stuartayre.

irreducibilitas:

Grimm and Other Folk Tales

by Cory Godbey

Baba Yaga, illustrated at the top by Russian artist Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin (1876-1942) in our special collections copy of Василиса Прекрасная - Vasilisa Prekrasnai͡apublished in St. Petersburg in 1902, is one scary supernatural being. But at times, she’s also known to be helpful. Baba Yaga, who lives in a house described as having chicken legs (seen behind Vasilisa the Beautiful in the bottom image), is one of the most prevalent characters in eastern European folklore, going back at least until 1755…

Baba Yaga; 18x24 Watercolor & Acrylic 

almost done! #babayaga #illustration #drawing #art #painting #acrylicpainting #watercolor #folktales