04 March 2010

"Pop! Out flew the moon."

I love the illustrations of Kai Nielsen.  This one from The Lassie and Her Godmother from East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North, 1914.
When the girl was old enough to know right from wrong, the lady went on a journey, forbidding her to go into certain rooms. The girl could not resist looking into one, and a star sprang out. When her foster mother returned, she was angry with her, and threatened to send her away, but at her pleading, let her stay. The next time the foster mother went away, the girl opened the second door, and the moon sprang out. Again, the angry foster mother was appeased by the girl, but the third time, when she let out the sun, the foster mother insisted that the girl had to leave. Before sending her away, she gave her the choice of being ugly and able to speak, or being beautiful but mute. The girl chose to be beautiful.
It's curious how often "ugly" enters fairy tales, folk tales, and children's literature.  And it is almost always correlated with evil.  I think some children may get a skewed understanding of what is important in that regard.

1 comment:

  1. I own that book! :) has a lot of creepy stories in it.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...