Illustrated by Brinsley Le Fanu and George Morrow
Books for the Bairns No 162
This book brings five less-known fairy tales by different authors.
But first of all, there are a few ads (for cocoa, soothing powder, the French edition of Books for the Bairns, etc.). We'll skip that.
Contents:
The King of the Swans (Rudolphi)
The Little Farmer (Grimm)
The Jew in the Thornbush (Grimm)
The Strange Story of Little Thumbling (Grimm)
Valentine and Orson (unknown)
The first story is written by JJ Rudolphi, which is a pen name for Johann Jakob Rutz (1800-1851), a German pastor, who wrote botanical books and fairy tales.
The next three fairy tales are from the collection by the Grimm Brothers. They are all known by different names as well. Even this book uses different names in the list and the content. Their official classification numbers are KHM 61, KHM 110, and KHM 37.
The last story is more of a legend than a fairy tale, although it doesn't lack fairy tale elements. The author is unknown.
Let's go through the stories with short summaries and original illustrations by Le Fanu and Morrow:
The King of the Swans
Delphine and Hilda are best friends. Hilde becomes ill. Her sickness is getting worse and worse. She not-stop cries for strawberries. She claims that strawberries will help her. But nobody can find strawberries in winter.
Delphine decides to go out and try to find strawberries, no matter what. In the woods, she meets a strange-looking little man.
She asks for help and he takes her to a distant place protected by iron doors. He unlocks the doors. Delphine passes through and finds beautiful nature at its best. There is no sign of winter and there are plenty of strawberries. She fills a basket with them and wants to return, but she can only find an iron fence. There is no gate. She wanders around until she hears whistling. She finds another little man who is watching the lake full of swans. It seems they listen to his whistle and obey his commands.
Delphine asks for help and he rides a swan to get across the lake.
He returns with more swans and a boat. Delphine is taken to the castle, where the king of the swans asks her about her problems. He is willing to help, but he says it's customary to give a present to the king. Delphine has nothing but strawberries, which she needs for her sick friend.
They find a compromise. She gives him some of the strawberries, and he arranges for her to return. Delphine gives Hilda the strawberries and she immediately feels better. Soon, she completely recovers.
Several years later Delphine, who is already a young woman, walks outside of her home when a giant black swan flies to her. The swan carries the swan king, who rewards Delphine with a golden crown, covered with precious jewels.
The Artful Little Farmer
There is a village full of rich peasants. But there is one who is so poor he has only a calf made of wood. He asks a shepherd to take this calf to pasture, where somebody steels it. The peasant demands compensation, and the major gives him a live cow. Unfortunately, the peasant and his wife don't have the resources to raise it, so they soon slaughter it. The peasant takes its skin and carries it to the market.
On his way, he finds a crow with a broken wing. He wraps the crow in the cow's skin. The peasant is passing the mill when the weather changes, so he knocks and asks for shelter.
The miller's wife takes him in. She gives him some bread and cheese and a straw, where he can lie down. She thinks he is asleep when another visit comes. This man is obviously more welcome because he gets meat and wine, which makes the peasant a bit angry.
Not long after, the miller returns. His wife hides the visiting man in the closet and puts food in different places around the house, so the miller can get only bread and cheese. She doesn't hide the peasant who is introduced to the miller. The miller notices the cow's skin and asks what it is. The peasant claims it can reveal secrets. He squeezes the crow in the skin and translates the sound. He reveals the location of food and drink, which amazes the miller.
He wants to learn more and the peasant demands a lot of money. Then he reveals the hideout of the miller's wife's visitor, who escapes.
The peasant returns with a lot of money, and everybody wants to know how he earned it. He tells them they shall just kill their cows and sell their skins, like he did. They really do that, but nobody wants to pay good money for the skins.
The peasants are angry and demand punishment. The poor peasant (who is not poor anymore) is locked in a barrel with holes. They bring him to the bank of the river. A priest stays with him alone to pray together. Sometime later, the priest leaves to bring other peasants to the river so they can watch the execution. The poor peasant hears a shepherd coming by with his flock. He tricks the shepherd into thinking that the peasants are looking for a new major. To become one, you have to go into a barrel and be thrown into the river.
The shepherd wants to be the new major, so he frees the peasant and gets into the barrel. The peasant takes his flock and goes home.
The other peasants come to the river and throw the barrel in. The shepherd drowns, and they return to the village where they find the poor peasant with a flock of sheep. He tells them that he got them in the river.
They want sheep too, so they jump into the river one by one and drown. The poor peasant takes all their possessions.
The Jew in the Thornbush
A very rich man has a very good servant. After the first year of service, he doesn't pay him a dime because he is afraid that the servant will leave him. He does the same after two years. After three years, the servant tells his master he wants to leave and to be paid.
The rich man gives him only three coins. The servant doesn't know much about money and leaves happily. He meets a dwarf who asks him for help. The servant gives him all three coins, and the dwarf promises him to fulfill three wishes.
The servant wishes for a gun that can't miss a target, a fiddle that makes everybody dance, and the power that anybody can't refuse his demands.
He gets a gun and a fiddle. The dwarf disappears.
The servant continues on his way and spots a Jew who is listening to the bird's song. The Jew wants to catch the bird. The servant wants to try his gun and shoots. The bird falls into the bushes full of thorns. The Jew goes in to get the bird.
The servant thinks it would be fun if the Jew would now start dancing. His fiddle does the job. The Jew dances until he pays the servant a full purse of gold.
The servant continues, but the Jew goes to the judge and tells him he was robbed. The servant is caught and brought in front of the judge. He is sentenced to death.
He has his last wish. He wants to play the fiddle. Everybody starts dancing. He stops only when the judge pardons him. The Jew has to tell how he got his gold. He confesses he stole it and is executed.
The Strange Story of Little Thumbling
An older couple wishes for a kid, even if it's no bigger than a thumb. Finally, they got one. He is so small they name him Thumbling.
Thumbling is a smart boy and wants to help his parents. He can command the horse by sitting in his ear.
Two men see how him and ask Thumbling's father if he is willing to sell the boy. He doesn't want to, but Thumbling convinces his father he will be back soon.
His buyers want to sell tickets to people who would want to see this little guy. Tumbling has other plans. When he notices a mouse's hole, he escapes into it, and his owners can't get him out.
Thumbling continues by night. He hears two robbers planning a breakdown. He offers them help.
They go to the parson's house and Thumbling squeezes in between the bars. He brings the robbers some stuff and makes a lot of noise. Everything is just fun to him. Eventually, a maiden wakes up, the robbers escape, and Thumbling goes to the barn, where he falls asleep.
He is eaten by a cow and is afraid to be splashed by more and more eaten hay. He starts yelling that there is enough food. The sound coming out of the cow's stomach scares the maid, who calls the parson.
When he hears Thumbling's screams, he believes that the cow is possessed.
He orders slaughtering. When the cow is cut to pieces, a wolf comes by and steals the piece of meat with the Thumbling. The little boy is caught in the wolf's belly.
He tells the wolf where he can find more food. He explains to the wolf how to get into Thumbing's home, where the wolf squeezes into the storage and eats himself so fat he can't get out. Then, Thumbling starts screaming. He wakes up his parents and warns them he is inside the wolf's stomach. His father kills the wolf and Thumbling is saved.
He shares the stories of his adventures with his parents. They decide he shall stay at home from now on.
Valentine and Orson
King Pepin has a beautiful sister Belisance who marries Emperor Alexander. Everything looks fine at first and Belisance gives birth to two sons.
Unfortunately, Alexander has a Prime Minister who is jealous of the Empress' popularity and lies to his master about her unfaithfulness.
Belisance and her sons are expelled.
When they sleep in the woods, a bear comes by and takes one of the sons.
Belisance runs after the bear, but can't catch it. When she returns, the other boy is missing, too.
She doesn't know that her brother, King Pepin, is hunting in the woods the very same day. When he saw the boy sleeping on the moss, he took him to the court. Belisance is desperate. She has no idea what to do. Then, a giant comes by and takes her into his place.
The boy, found in the woods on the day of St. Valentine, is named Valentine. He is raised at the court of King Pepin. At eighteen years old, he is already a skilled warrior.
The boy, taken by the bear, is given to the bear's cubs but they don't want to eat the baby. They prefer to play with him. He is raised by the bears. He becomes very strong. At eighteen years old, he is a real wild man. People are afraid to go into the woods because of him. They call him Orson because he resembles a bear (orson is French for bear cub).
Princes, living in King Pepin's court are jealous of Valentine's popularity, so they propose that Valentine goes into the woods and catches Orson. They hope Orson kills him. Valentine is not afraid of the challenge and accepts it.
He goes to the woods and has a fight with Orson. It's a great fight. Valentine's skill eventually defeats Orson's strength. Orson becomes Valentine's prisoner, but the boys soon become attached to each other.
They both live at the castle of King Pepin for the next two years.
Then a new challenge comes. Black Knight, who has magical powers, kidnaps a noble lady, and the boys come to the rescue. Valentine is unable to defeat the Black Knight, who is protected by the magic shield. He says he can be defeated only by a king's son raised by the beasts.
Then, Orson defeats him. Black Knight tells the boys they shall go to the castle, where an evil giant lives. There they can save more prisoners and find the truth about their origin.
They go to the giant's castle and free their imprisoned mother (who they don't know) and several others. They find a dwarf who takes them to the brazen head. The head tells them about their royal origin.
Together with their mother, the Empress, they find Emperor Alexander, who is already sorry for the injustice to his wife he revealed years ago but couldn't help.
A series of great parties in different castles follows.
***
Conclusion
We are dealing with five less-known stories. All of them share several characteristics with much more-known fairy tales.
Here are some examples to inspire your further readings:
The King of the Swans presents a motif of finding strawberries in winter, which also initiates the action in The Three Little Men in the Woods.
The Little Farmer is a typical trickster story, comparable to stories about Reynad the Fox.
The Jew in the Thornbush is today considered politically incorrect, which is even more true if we consider that older versions presented a Christian monk instead of the Jew in the role of the antagonist. It's a nice proof that the Grimm Brothers wrote their collection more as a document of their time than an archive of the past.
The Strange Story of Little Thumbling is one of the numerous stories with heroes who, despite their physical handicaps, achieve extraordinary results or even use their disadvantages to their advantage. Despite the similarities in different versions of the title, don't confuse this story with Hop o' My Thumb.
Valentine and Orson feature many popular fairy tale themes, like false accusation, kids in the woods, separation of siblings, damsel in distress, etc. A fine example of rivalry between the princess at the court and the newcomer, resulting in putting Valentine in grave danger, is similar to the tests of the Brave Little Tailor.
There is more, of course, but we need to stop somewhere. Spread the word and have a nice day!
