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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This one is obvious – it’s Cinderella, of course. Cendrillon, Aschenputtel or Aschenbrödel. In the fairy tale the number of doves helping her to sort the lentils from the ashes is not clear but in this depiction (the same half-timbered house which illustrated the story of the seven little goats) there are seven doves. Seven doves for the seventh fairy tale! I have to admit to cheating again – in order to get the mural square I had to delete a panel. It only contained the prince, though.
It’s the most international of all fairy tales, with Italian and French sources, a couple of German versions, and apparently versions of this story are found in India, Arabia, Iran, and South East Asia.
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I lied before. There is one fairy tale that I snug in that is not from the Brothers Grimm but by Charles Perrault called Le Petit Poucet, Little Thumb or Little Thumbling. The tiny son of a woodcutter, sometimes also called Hop-o’-My-Thumb, has six brothers. The parents abandon their seven (!) sons and Little Thumbling makes up for his size with cleverness and wisdom. He ends up stealing the seven-league boots from an ogre who was trapping and planning to eat the boys.
This picture is from my favourite fairy tale books as a child, it was Die schönsten Märchen der Welt für 365 und einen Tag (The most beautiful fairy tales of the world for 365 and one day, edited by Lisa Tetzner). It consisted of four volumes and I can’t find the one with this particular picture in it. It must come from a different fairy tale but the boots are definitely seven-league boots.
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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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It takes a lot of gumption to challenge a dragon. Ragtag Daily Prompt: Gumption
Another 6 Word Saturday. More of these can be found on Debbie’s Travelwithintent.
pictures imperfect blog 