Faerie Magazine: Spring 2009 Issue

The Spring 2009 issue of Faerie Magazine should be available by now at your local booksellers and should remain on shelves for another month or so. Most Barnes and Noble and Borders locations carry them in their periodical sections if you're not interested in a subscription. My column in this issue is about Beauty and the Beast, one of my favorite fairy tales, so it took me a few years to finally write about it.

The article is titled "Beauties and Their Beasts." In it, I discuss the tale's literary origins and the two versions by Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve and Madame Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont as well as some modern versions that are well-known today.

Quotable: Greensleeves by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

I was recently rereading one of my favorite books from my teenage years, a gem by Eloise Jarvis McGraw whose more popular titles include The Moorchild, Mara: Daughter of the Nile, The Golden Goblet and The Moccasin Trail. While all of these are worthy books, I consider McGraw's masterpiece to be her little known Greensleeves. You can see how popular it is by looking at its high prices for used copies with Amazon and other used booksellers.

To my knowledge it has never been reprinted since it's original run in the late 1960s. Somehow I discovered it dusty and neglected on the school library shelf a few decades later, borrowed it and fell in love. No, it doesn't have much of a fairy tale influence although one could argue for it being a brilliant modern day (albeit 1960s, so not so modern) Cinderella. There's a secret identity, a fairy godfather of sorts and a hero who behaves like a prince.

But its appearance on this blog is brought about by a small quote during a conversation between the main character and a friend. Here it is:

“There’s a whole book here about it that she used to read me out of. She used to read me Grimm’s Fairy Tales, too.” Wynola glanced at me defensively. “You might think I was too old for those, but she read them herself, all the time. She said fairy tales were good for people.”

“Good for people? How?”

“Well said, ‘Same way helium is good for a balloon.’”

What more can I say? Until tomorrow...

Emily Anderson as Little Red Riding Hood

Here is another treasure I discovered at the Huntington last summer. One of the most common trends for portraiture in the 1800s was to portray young girls as images of Little Red Riding Hood. This portrait is of Emily Anderson painted by Thomas Lawrence for her father circa 1821. According to the placard, Emily had performed as LRRH in an amateur theatrical performance, so this painting also reflected an event in her life unlike many of the portraits in this subgenre.

Portraits like this one are the most common treasures found in my searches for fairy tale related art in my museum visits. It is pretty easy to find little girls wearing red hoods or cloaks forever captured on canvases. This particular one by Thomas Lawrence is one of my favorites. I have some other versions included in the Little Red Riding Hood Illustration Gallery on SurLaLune.

Cinderella Decorative Tiles

I was raised with many family vacations involving trips to art museums since my mother is an art historian. I've continued the trend into adulthood and usually find at least one fairy tale related piece in any museum I visit. The usual suspects are Cinderella or Little Red Riding Hood.

Last summer, I visited the Huntington Library and Art Collections in San Marino, CA during a business trip. I discovered this collection of Cinderella tiles designed by Lucy Faulkner for the William Morris Studio (Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company to be exact). She based her designs on those of Edward Burne-Jones. According to the placard, the tiles were originally designed to ornament a fireplace, but were framed to create a single picture. I am always fascinated to see which images are used to tell the story and some of the choices here are a little bit less common for Cinderella.

Fairy Tale Poll #1

For the next month I've place a fairy tale poll on the blog, allowing visitors to vote for their favorite fairy tale out of a list of the most popular tales. The summer months are slow for SurLaLune and this blog is brand new, so I've left the poll open until the end of July to see how many votes I can collect. I plan to have a new poll every month in the future.

Just page down to the bottom of this blog and vote for your favorite fairy tale! I'll save and post the final results at the end of the month and start a new poll. The poll shows current results in real time so you can see where yours compares at any time. If anyone has any suggestions for the next polling topic, feel free to make recommendations in the comments below.

Have a great weekend! I already have new posts in the queue for next week so remember to come back and read more about fairy tales and folklore...

In the News: Fairy Tales on Trial

I discovered this little gem about fairy tales. A school in Kentucky just held a two-week summer camp called: "Guilty or Not Guilty, You Be the Judge--Fairy Tales on Trial" Apparently the camp ended last week after several days of studying versions of Three Little Pigs, writing a script that put the Big Bad Wolf on trial and then acting it out.

Using fairy tales for mock trials is not a new concept (see Finding Justice in Fairy Tales, for example), but I've not heard about any summer camps for younger students exclusively covering the subject before.

You can read the entire article at: Student learn about justice through fairy tales.

And on a related note, thinking of fairy tales and books about justice, I recommend Sharon Creeden's Fair is Fair: World Folktales of Justice. It is the best collection of justice tales that I have seen to date.

Swan Lake Ballet & Anna Pavlova

Here is Anna Pavlova's tutu for the her role in Swan Lake, one of the most famous of all the fairy tale and folklore based ballets. This was displayed in a special exhibit in the Opéra de Paris Garnier in Paris. Of course, in the U.S. the opera house is perhaps most famous as the residence of the Phantom of the Opera, but it has hosted many famous performers and performances, including Pavlova. The costume was designed by Leon Bakst for her role as the white swan in 1905.