This is the beginning of my mini series within Seven for September. 7 was always an important number in western cultures. It is often considered a lucky number (not so in some East Asian countries, though). It is the addition of 3 and 4 (3 in Christian culture signifying the Holy Trinity, 4 signifying the four elements: fire, earth, water, and air). According to the Hebrew bible the world was created in 7 days, we still organise our modern life in weeks of 7 days. Adding the facing sides of a die always makes 7, and we had the 7 wonders of the ancient world (the modern wonders are only a copy).
And of course, 7 is often found as a special number in fairytales. I decided to have this series directly after yesterday’s seven-year-old. Although fairy tales were not originally created for children they soon became the main audience for them.
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My first illustration of a Grimm fairytale is the story of The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats as depicted on a half-timbered house in Michelstadt im Odenwald which houses a toy store on the groundfloor.
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Oh, brilliant, I’m looking forward to these…
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😊
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I love it Elke. The goat should be told how to carry scissors 😂 or is part of the story
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You know, as a child I’ve always wondered how she managed to cut the wolf open and sew him closed again.
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🤔
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like Sue I am really looking forward to this series – fairy tales have become so much more gentle over the years now they are mostly aimed at children
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True. But the mama goat still cut up the wolf, let her six children out (remember the one who helped her hid in the waist of the clock), put stones in his tummy, sewed him back up and then drowned him. Still pretty gruesome.
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Ahhh good point!
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