The Seven Swabians is a tale found in the collection of fairytales by the Brothers Grimm. Although grouped with fairytales, it is rather a droll story about seven not very bright, not very brave Swabians and their adventures – like fighting a hare which they mistake for a monster.
In Bad Wildbad House Swabia features a mural around some small panelled windows.
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Technically not a fairy tale but rather a “funny tale”, however The Seven Swabians appeared in the collection of the Brothers Grimm. The people in the photo might not be born Swabians or even Germans some of them but they lived long enough in the Stuttgart area and identify as Stuttgarter and therefore Swabians.
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The title is The Brave Little Tailor. The story is about a puny tailor who is so bothered by flies while eating his bread and jam that he swats them with a rag and kills seven of them. He then stitches SEVEN AT ONE BLOW on his belt and emboldened by his story leaves to find his fortune in the world. The characters he meets all think that the inscription refers to seven men, rather than flies.
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The Seven Ravens – not quite as well known, also by the Brothers Grimm. It’s the story of seven brothers who are magicked into ravens and their sister goes through many hardships to break the spell.
Okay, technically these are crows or possibly rooks but it’s close enough, I think. And there is seven of them.
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Another Grimm fairytale (Who am I kidding? I only have Grimm fairytales in this series).
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. These are from the Märchenwald (fairytale forest) in the Obrunner Schlucht, near Höchst im Odenwald.
And here is the potted version:
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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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pictures imperfect blog 