#andersen tales

[lescarnetsdehaku]

The little mermaid (and every that came after), 1836.

The King married the Little Mermaid, and then, what is left? 🐙

[dommnics]

FAIRY TALE ART SERIES | Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Little Mermaid' | PART II

Here's the human form of Iniya, my take on Hans Christian Andersen's little mermaid character.

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Check out more of my work on other platforms!

My Instagram -- My Twitter

[lepetitdragonvert]

Thumbkin and Other Stories

Text Version by W. K. Holmes

Artist : Barbara C. Freeman (1906-1999)

Blackie & Son Limited

London and Glascow

[laurenillustrated]

Thumbelina 🪶

[the-evil-clergyman]

Illustrations from Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales by Kay Nielsen (1924)

[misandriste]

La Belle Endormie (2011) dir. Catherine Breillat

[bethanydelleman]

I want to tell you about my favourite fairy tale as a kid that I wish got a real adaptation (Frozen was supposed to be but they changed it). It's called The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson.

Summary (because this is a long one): There are two kids, Kay and Gerda. They live across from each other, they are extremely close and very cute friends. Then suddenly, Kay gets a shard of demon mirror in his eye and it makes him a massive jerk. Like just the worst. He is then kidnapped by the Snow Queen who kisses him on the forehead so he can't feel cold.

Gerda thinks he's dead, but when she finds out that he isn't she goes on a Persistence Hunter Quest to bring back her platonic bestie (there is never a hint of romantic love). She has no skills except being good at telling her sob story and just keeps freaking going until she find the Snow Queen's castle. She even convinces a robber girl to give her a tame reindeer to ride at one point.

Eventually she finds Kay, whom she hugs to melt his heart and then he cries out the mirror shard. They escape all the way back home and then are like, "Huh, we are all growed up now." End of story.

I don't know why I loved it so much as a kid, but it has similar vibes to East of the Sun and West of the Moon, which is also about a woman who has no skills except the ability to keep going no matter what. I love it as an adult because Gerda wants to save Kay even though he doesn't deserve it at all and I love how persistent she is in the face of severe adversity. She's an incredibly strong character just for going on, not because she is badass in some unrealistic way. It makes me think about trying to save a friend from addiction or a bad relationship.

This was my childhood copy:

The illustrations are beautiful, but I can't find them online. Here are two:

[chocolatechipkraken]

Honestly, it's quite a pity that whenever people design the Snow Queen, they never take any inspiration from the fact that she's specifically the queen of the snow-bees.

Hey, @dimetrodone, you've been on a HCA kick lately, what are your thoughts?

[rowanrowlandridley]

PiB drawigs that I forgot to upload here 👌

[thefugitivesaint]

Paul Hey (1867-1952), 'Die Wilden Schwäne' (The Wild Swans), ''Deutsche Märchen'' (German Fairytales), 1939 Source

[tomtefairytaleblog]

Diamonds, Toads, and Dark Magical Girls

According to Bill Ellis in "The Fairy-Telling Craft of Princess Tutu: Meta-Commentary and the Folkloresque," the fairy tale of Cinderella can be seen as one of the earliest examples of the transformation sequences/henshin seen in magical girl anime, particularly in how the title character is given items that help her achieve a goal, usually given to her by a magical being (her mother's spirit in a tree, a fairy godmother, etc.).

Thinking again about the connection between magical girls and fairy tales--even if they aren't as meta as Tutu, many magical girls do use imagery and ideas from European fairy tales (Sailor Moon alone has references to Hans Christian Andersen and Charles Perrault)--I wondered what other character types from the genre may have some precedent in fairy tales. Then I started thinking about the Dark Magical Girl character.

Not every magical girl story has a Dark Magical Girl, but they do crop up in a lot of works. To name a few, there's Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Homura Akemi from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Rue/Kraehe from Princess Tutu, and countless others that would be too numerous to name. In general they tend to be more cynical, darker counterparts to the main protagonists, who tend to come from relatively more stable environments. Whatever magic they possess also may be more sinister, at least initially.

Tying in somewhat to the story of Cinderella is the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index fairy tale type "The Kind and Unkind Girls" (ATU 480). Many of the stories of this type involve a rivalry between two stepsisters, one being favored by the stepmother due to being the latter's biological daughter. The general idea in most versions of the tale is that both girls encounter a magical being at separate points in time. The kind girl helps the magical being in some way, at which point the magical being gives her a magical ability or magical presents. Meanwhile, the unkind girl refuses to help the magical being and is cursed in some fashion, or, worse, killed. The kind girl meanwhile usually ends up marrying a prince, or a similar character. One of the more popular versions of this story, "Diamonds and Toads," has the kind girl gain the ability to have a jewel or flower fall from her mouth when she speaks, while the unkind girl is cursed to have toads and snakes fall from hers. And while the kind girl does marry a prince, the unkind one is kicked out of her house and dies alone in the woods. (Insert something about Revolutionary Girl Utena's comment about how a girl who cannot become a princess is doomed to be a witch.)

Typically in these fairy tales, the unkind girl is never shown to be a real threat to the kind one; the ultimate threat is the stepmother, who uses her daughter as a means to an end. In contrast, Dark Magical Girls tend to have, well, magic that helps them attack the magical girl protagonist. In this regard, they're the Heavy in the plot, while the witch/mother-like figure/real enemy waits in the background (as is the case in a lot of magical girl shows--the Raven and Rue, Precia and Fate, Fine and Chris in Symphogear etc.). Sometimes the Dark Magical Girl will be a major threat, though--like the Princess of Disaster in Pretear (who is loosely-inspired by the Evil Queen in Snow White).

In The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (1976), Bruno Bettelheim argues that the stepmother as a character is a way for children to process the negative traits of their own mothers, while still idealizing the good qualities of them. With that in mind, the unkind sister and the Dark Magical Girl can be viewed as a way of processing/externalizing the negative traits that a girl can have, being cruel, rebellious, and uncaring. They also embody their fears, too--the fear of being alone, rejected, and doomed to fail.

Of course, nowadays, Dark Magical Girls have a tendency to be redeemed and reconcile with/befriend the main magical girl, something the kind and unkind girls never seem to do in the fairy tales. Maybe it's just emblematic of society deciding that killing a girl off for being a little rude is a bit unfair. She's just a kid trying to find her place in the world, too, after all.

[lescarnetsdehaku]

How the little mermaid met the Prince, and what ensues 🐙

How does regret taste, after glory?

[dommnics]

FAIRY TALE ART SERIES | Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Little Mermaid' | PART I

I previously uploaded this design for my interpretation of Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid, but added a new look for her, based on the original story, complete with a wreath of lilies and oysters from her grandmother, and her veil as well.

I plan to draw designs for the other characters in the story as well!

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Check out more of my work on other platforms!

My Instagram -- My Twitter

[lepetitdragonvert]

Légendes et contes d’Andersen

Éditions Gründ

1962

Artist : Jiri Trnka

The Little Mermaid

[huariqueje]

Andersen’s Fairy Tales    -    Janet Fish , 1999.

American, b. 1938 -  

Oil on canvas , 60 x 50 cm.

[the-evil-clergyman]

Illustrations from The Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by Kay Nielsen (1924)