The foil to Katla in my EAH fanon is, obviously, Sophia, the would-be Clever Princess (from The Snow Queen, and my favourite supporting character [aside from my favourite character overall!] in fairy tale!). Kindly, learned, cultured, of Katla's social standing, and sharing the same wish (Charles Liddell for a fiancé).
"Foil" means here a character very similar to another yet somewhat different, both characters being either "strange" allies, rivals and/or enemies. To put a few examples: In Les Misérables, we have Valjean as foil to Javert and vice versa, Fantine and Madame Thénardier, Cosette and Éponine, Enjolras and Marius (or, alternatively, Enjolras and Grantaire).In Othello, the titular general is a foil to Desdemona, Iago, and Cassio. The latter two are foils to each others, while Emilia is a foil to her husband Iago and her lady Desdemona.
In A Song of Ice and Fire, brothers Stannis and Renly Baratheon are foils to each other, and so are Drogo and Daenerys (dead ringers for Othello and Desdemona!), and Queen Mother Cersei and her daughter-in-law Margaery Tyrell.
All right, now comes the iconography bit: where did I draw the inspiration for Sophia Eleonora von Lilienstiel (and for Schloss Lilienstengel)? Let's have a look at different views of the Fourth Story!
SNOW BOUND LAND - VISUAL NOVEL
Here are Alfred and Natalia (those are their names, he is 19 and she is the same age) in their splendid eighteenth-century clothes. There's even a bookcase behind her to hint at her cultural level! Good looking and quick-witted, and their clothes fit them... they look like characters in The Ringstetten Saga (GOOD R'HLLOR, THAT FAIR PONYTAIL, THOSE EPAULETS, THAT RUFFLED SHIRT, THAT COPPER POMPADOUR WITH RINGLETS, AND THOSE SATIN ROSES...)!!
Alfred is a free person who's narcissistic and doesn't listen to anyone, but somehow he's also endearing. He loves women and dislikes men, but more than anything else, he hates people who stand out more than he does.
She's very strict about time and would get angry whenever things don't go according to her schedule. Once she opens her heart to someone, she will tell them anything. She might appear strong-willed, but is surprisingly romantic at heart.
MUSICAL THEATRE:
Princess
A Prince
a boy just married the Princess.
the bedroom of the Prince and Princess.
the always up-beat and highly caffeinated royal couple.
The sassy anti-princess anthem "Never Give Up" is a hoot.
In the musical, the Prince, played by Rhett George, is afro (and looks like Othello!)
The Princess is a redhead, played by Asian Cindy Im.
It pleases me to see them portrayed by non-Caucasians for a change.
Japanese 2005 (Andersen bicentennial) version (episode 28 of Yuki no Joou):
The kingdom in this version is lovely, and so are the Ouji and Oujo (Japanese names of my favourite Snow Queen characters). The courtship account is told with chibi figures in a flashback, as you will see:
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| The Kingdom of Eternal Spring, with a baroque palace and all. |
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| The Clever Princess on her throne, upon her coronation. |
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| A tongue-tied suitor. |
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| Then, he came... |
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| He was confident and cheerful. |
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| And she was as pleased with him as he was with her. |
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| So they are betrothed (notice: she is strawberry blond, while he is ashy blond!) |
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| The royal palace on an island in a lake (which couldn't be seen from afar in the kingdom landscape) |
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| The pikemen at the gate |
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| The royal guards and their nutty commanding officer |
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| Guards attacking, in blue doublets, wielding pikes. |
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| Close-up of both in night garb. |
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| Individual pictures, night garb, rather beautiful young people |
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| Another picture of both in night garb. To look at them full body. |
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| Here you can see the size and age difference, as well as elegant surroundings. |
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| Hee hee hee! |
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| Looking gorgeous even from behind! |
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| These beautiful royals do clean up nicely! |
ZDF German-Finnish 2014 Christmas version (upcoming) (Paula Knüpling as the Clever Princess, and Moritz Jahn as her bridegroom):
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| German (ZDF) and Finnish studies have recently completed a co-produced live action version of THE SNOW QUEEN for Christmas this year 2014... The summary speaks of "the luxurious life of the princess", portrayed by stunning brunette Paula Knüpling, aged 19. Her intellectual equal Karl is incarnated by strawberry-blond heart-throb Moritz Jahn. The courtly setting of the Fourth Story is reimagined as Neoclassical/Gustavian, and the costumes are Regency/Napoleonic-era (The princess dons a Jane Austen-style gown without petticoats, with puffy sleeves and an empire waist. The young man wears a waistcoat and long trousers, thus resembling Mr. Darcy) to fit the interiors of the Schloss. Everyhing recalls the historical period during which the author Andersen was a child. The scenes will be shot in and around Schloss Schöneiche, a Rococo/Neoclassical eighteenth-century estate in the Eastern German region of Brandenburg (former Kingdom of Prussia!). The young couple's relationship is interpreted as slightly hot compared to the sheerly intellectual attraction, featured in most versions, that Andersen had in mind. The film will be extremely faithful to Andersen's original, so we will have at least an oral account, if not a filmed scene, of the courtship. |
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| Stay tuned for transcripts and more screenshots next year, ASAP!
About the actors:
19-year-old Paula Knüpling lives in Berlin. She plays sports, the drums, the piano, and the guitar, aside from being an actress. Born in January 1995, she stands 165 cm tall, has got nutbrown eyes and dark auburn hair (so dark it seems to be black).
Moritz Jahn, né
Moritz Glaser, was born on the 17th of April (which makes him a brave
Aries) 1995, which means he's also 19 years old. He's strawberry blond,
with steel-blue eyes, and 187 cm tall. Moritz Jahn speaks English and
French aside from German, and he plays tennis, hockey, rugby, and the
drums. He's also a skater, a snowboardist, and a singer. He debuted as
Karol, the
Polish brawn of Die Pfefferkörner, in 2007.
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BBC 20th century version (atrezzo by Errol Le Cain, Tracey Childs as the Clever Princess, and Adam Richens as the Clever Lad/"Young Man"):
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| The baroque/fantasy style royal palace. The girl in question is a princess. And so intelligent is she, that she has read all the newspapers in the world! Die Welt, The Washington Post, the Women's Weekly, etcetera, etcetera. She is also very rich. |
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| The equally baroque (Louis XIV) throne room. The strawberry blond princess is dressed like her counterpart in the Le Cain illustrations (see below), in a Regency-style white gown, while the court ladies wear Regency gowns and Rococo-style wigs. A few weeks ago, she became a queen. And she didn't like that at all. For a kickup, she had to shake the fingers of every man and chick in the whole kingdom, and she found that she was quite unable to cope all by herself. So, one day, the little princess says:... |
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| "I must marry some young fellow. But he must have brains and be completely at ease with everyone he meets. If I should find that he loved me too, then I would indeed be fortunate!" |
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| In no time at all, invitation cards were sent all over the kingdom, and hundreds of extremely unsuitable men applied for conversation with the princess. They all had so much to say for themselves outside the palace... |
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| ...but once they came face to face with her, they found their tongues completely tied. They appeared in the order of the alphabet, and by the time the H's were going through, the princess was beginning to despair. Next! Good afternoon, Mr. Homework. Erm... Certainly! So! What do we talk about? Do we talk about...? Yes. Don't you... want to ask me any questions? N-No, I don't think so. Thank you very much, Mr. Homework. Next! And so it went on. All the H's, I's, J's and K's. It was when she got to the K's that her heart was given a jolt. |
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| A young man, who went on foot dressed poorly, appeared. He looked rather untidy, and his shoes made a loud squeaking noise. On his back, a knapsack. |
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| Anyway, even though they were officially closed for the day, he strode into the palace without fear anywhere. Through the hall ornamented with Portuguese escudos, past the anteroom designed in the Scottish banknote style, and down the corridor paved with German Marks. With every footprint he took, you could hear the squeak, squeak, squeak of his shoes. |
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| The staircase as proof of the Baroque/Slavic style of Le Cain's Fourth Story. |
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| Undaunted by the beauty and cost of splendour. The script of the BBC film lists several (20th century!) European currencies to describe the cost of the palace. Here, the Clever Lad is raven-haired once more, and his modest attire also has a Regency feel. |
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| And so, into the presence of the princess at last. Even then, he went up boldly to her, then down to his knees, and said: "Would you mind if I removed my shoes, Your Royal Highness? They're killing me." "Well... I see no reason why not. Though the conversations are really over for today. So, you seek my hand in marriage too?" "No. Not especially." |
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I understand you get all the newspapers in the world. And I wanted to know if all that reading had made you particularly clever.
Oh, not at all! I forget everything almost immediately.
How wonderful! Maybe we have more in common than I thought.
Ladies! Would you leave us, please? There is much to discuss!
And I don't even know his name...
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| In their nightgowns, in the royal bedchamber. He is raven-haired, while she is strawberry blond (appears mahogany in the dark). |
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| Once more in their day clothes: she is wearing a Regency gown (I retained it for Sophia), while he looks dashing in that russet waistcoat! |
Czech 20th century version:
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| The Royal Palace looks pretty Gothic/Baroque... |
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| The nightgowns and a glimpse of the bedchamber with its lily-shaped beds (whose shape is based on the French lily or fleur de lys). Notice her dark hair and Regency-style gown. He is blond and wearing a doublet... |
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| And here they are in their day garb... that looks like something out of an Austen or Brontë novel! |
This version goes along with the following, equally precious, retelling (which also captures the essence of the Clever Princess and Young Man characters... rather emotive!!):
The princess of this kingdom is so wonderfully clever, she's usually read all newspapers in the world before breakfast. Twice! Not that there's ever much news in them, mind. Mostly just gossip about her!
But being a clever princess can be a lonely job, and boring too. So, one day, she announces a contest to find herself a husband! Someone she can actually talk to! But good-looking too, obviously!
Young men of all backgrounds lined up from far and wide. But it was always the same! No one knew what to say or how to act! They were all too afraid of appearing foolish in front of her!
This princess's palace: there it is, down yonder.
Eventually, one handsome, bold young man comes along, saying he's long been curious to meet such a famously clever princess! But he couldn't possibly marry her, for they had barely been introduced.
And the princess laughed!
Now, that was a sound that hadn't been around the palace for a while.
So they got acquainted, they fell in love... and that, as they say, was that.
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| The royal palace. Shown their work: it looks like Läckö or Gripsholm (this was made in Scandinavia). |
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| Portraits of ancestors in different attitudes |
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| The door and staircase to the bedchamber |
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| The vaulted glass ceiling of the bedchamber |
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| The walls of the bedchamber |
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| Gothic/Tudor windows... and the impressive lily beds! |
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| And even a floral pattern on the floor! Take a close peek at the good-looking sleepers: this young lady with a strawberry blond ponytail, and this young gent with broad shoulders and dark hair... |
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| And finally she awakes, rises from her white lily-bed, and opens her nutbrown eyes... |
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| The Gustavian-style bedchamber at night. Here, she is a lighter shade of dark-haired (either nutbrown or strawberry blond), while he is raven-haired and spots a fine moustache. |
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| He's wearing a nightgown in the colours of Sweden, while she has donned one white as her lily-bed. |
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| And he happens to be so Renly-like! |
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| In their winter clothing... |
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| In their Regency-style winter outfits, also reminiscent of Austen, with their pet crows in tow. |
German puppet series, January 1980 (my translation of the account, from the German):
In this kingdom where we now are, there lives a very clever princess, who has read all the newspapers in the world.
This princess wanted to have a husband who should look elegant and be far more clever than she was.
The princess had a notice published in the newspaper: that every young man could come to the castle/palace and carry out a conversation with the princess. Then, she would take the most intelligent of them as her husband.
It was on the third day. Then came a little person without a carriage, without a horse, with a knapsack on his back.
The little man was cheerful and nice. He had come to hear the cleverness of the princess. He approved of her, and she approved of him as well!
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| The garden gate appears to be baroque or Art Nouveau. |
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| Their attire appears to be something in between Medieval and Renaissance (Pre-Raphaelite?). This Clever Princess is auburn, while her husband is blond. |
- Illustrations from storybooks
FLEMMING B. JEPPESEN (Danish 2005 bicentennial edition, one of my favourites):
This one's atpyical since it portrays things as they would look on a courtyard or
garden path, from the palace door... maybe from the Clever Princess's own POV.
The setting is Andersen's own time, the mid-nineteenth century, as one
can see from the characters' attire.
Here we see a nice queue of suitors, carrying white bouquets,
most of them in top hats and overcoats.
Some of them, who look very old, are just leaving the palace, having dropped their
bouquets at the doorway.
Did they throw their flowers away in disappointment? My headcanon says so.
The suitor at the top of the row, this thirty-something young man in maroon,
looks rather smart, yet he's looking shiftily to the side (at the Clever Lad,
away from all splendour, or both things)?
The Clever Lad is here strawberry blond, thin and modestly dressed (a black cap,
a brown waistcoat on the shirt, and Prussian blue breeches), bringing not a single flower
("he had come not to woo, but to hear her clever speech!"),
cheerfully and quickly marching forwards on his own,
attracting the attention of the ordered and better-dressed queue of suitors,
and that of the powdered-wigged valet who can be seen overlooking
the whole scene, leaning against a pillar.
This impatient and confident loner, who stands apart from all the other
suitors, and whose lack of material gifts betrays his purpose (intellectual
interest, rather than greed or lust), is thus established as the one who will succeed.
JORDI VILA DELCLÒS (One of my favourite Spanish illustrators, who has done several Andersen stories, wonderful historical fiction, Treasure Island...):
We find her doing her favourite activity (and mine as well), which establishes her personality.
She is platinum blond, and she is wearing a white mid-nineteenth-century gown, along with a satin belt and hair ribbon in cobalt blue, a colour both royal and intellectual.
Nice touches of Jordi Vila's, and also establishing character moments, are that heap of already finished newspapers (she reads all newspapers in the world), and the valet in a powdered wig and scarlet coat on white breeches (Danish colours) who cleans up the mess she is making in the name of multilingualism.
CHARLOTTE CLANTE (one of my favourites):
In her version, the princess is strawberry-blond and the prince is auburn-haired, their smiles and nightclothes are priceless, the lily bed looks like a real lily, there's even a red and white lily pattern on the bedchamber floor tiles...
UWE HÄNTSCH:
The lily-bed in this version is a puffy, fluffy rarity.
The princess is here magenta-haired or crimson-haired, and she even sleeps with a Westeros-style chaplet (a little crown) on. She even wears pink high heels!
LORENA ÁLVAREZ (so kawaii!):
This version goes along with the following easy and detailed retelling by Mairi Mackinnon:
You see, our princess recently decided to get married. She advertised in the newspapers and all the fine gentlemen came calling, but she didn't care for any of them --- until a brown-haired boy came along with shiny black boots that squeaked.
He told the princess he only wanted to talk to her because he'd heard she was so wise.
Of course, that impressed her more than anything, so now he is a prince.
If they see, the guards and the footmen will never let near the prince and princess...
...to the palace grounds... to the kitchens...
That evening, ...a little door at the foot of a tower. ...up the winding stair. At the top was a magnificent bedroom with two beds shaped like red and white lilies. In the white lily bed, the princess slept soundly.
The prince opened his eyes.
The prince sat up sharply and the princess woke in a panic, but when they heard the story, they were truly sorry. The next day, they dressed in velvet and furs, and sent on way in a gilded coach,
....and in the princess's kingdom there were spring flowers in the hedges.
SVENSK VERSION:
Salamandra HB:
Du förstår, vår prinsessa bestämde sig nyligen för att gifta sig. Hon talade om det i tidningarna, och många fina herrar kom på besök. Hon tyckte inte om någon av dem, men så kom en brunhårig pojke med skinande svarta stövlar som knarrade.
Han sa till prinsessan att han bara ville prata med henne eftersom han hade hört att hon var så klok. Det gjorde förstås större intryck på henne än något annat så nu är han en prins.
...att komma in i slottet...
Om vakterna eller betjänterna får syn på kommer aldrig i närheten av prinsen och prinsessan...
...till slottet... in i köket...
Den kvällen ...till en liten dörr vid foten av ett torn, ... upp för en svindlande trappa. Högst upp fanns ett praktfullt sovrum med två sängar formade som röda och vita liljor. I den vita liljesängen sov prinsessan djupt.
...den andra sängen...
Prinsen öppnade ögonen.
Prinsen satte sig hastigt upp, och prinsessan vaknade förskräckt, men när de fick höra berättelsen tyckte de synd om.
Nästa dag gav de kläder av siden och päls och lät åka i en gyllene vagn.
...och i prinsessornas rike hade blommor slagit ut bland häckarna.
VERSIÓN ESPAÑOLA:
Gemma Alonso de la Sierra:
Verás, nuestra princesa se casó hace muy poco. Puso un anuncio buscando marido, pero luego rechazó a todos quienes se presentaron, hasta que llegó un muchacho de pelo castaño y botines negros que chirriaban al andar.
Le dijo a la princesa que sólo quería conversar porque había oído hablar de lo inteligente que era. Obviamente, la princesa se sintió tan halagada que lo eligió.
...entrar en el palacio...
Si ven los guardias o los criados ... no dejarán ver ni al príncipe ni a la princesa.
...a las cocinas de palacio...
Esa noche, ...una puerta que había a los pies de una torre y... las escaleras. Arriba... una habitación magnífica con dos camas enormes con forma de lirio, uno rojo y otro blanco. La princesa dormía profundamente sobre el lirio blanco.
la otra cama. ...el muchacho que dormía en ella...
El príncipe entreabrió los ojos.
El príncipe se incorporó y la princesa se despertó muy sorprendida, pero cuando oyeron toda la historia sintieron mucha pena. Al día siguiente, vistieron con terciopelo y pieles y dieron un carruaje de oro para que siguiera su búsqueda.
... y en el reino de la princesa, los arbustos ya habían florecido.
The clever princess is blond and her prince is auburn-haired once more.
There's also an illustration of the spring flowers in the kingdom's hedges. I will post it soon below this kawaii bedchamber scene.
ALAN MARKS (also did other lovely illustrations): Usborne Snow Queen, chapter titled:
A helpful princess (!!!!)
This version goes along with the following retelling:
There's a princess in this kingdom and she was looking for a prince...
Then a young boy appeared from nowhere. His clothes were torn and his boots creaked. But he went inside the palace and - would you believe it - the princess liked him so much, she married him!
Inside the palace, its grand rooms were wrapped in the purple night.
Through the ballroom, shadowy figures swept by.
Who are they? Dreams.
In the most splendid room of all, two giant flowers hung from a palm tree. The first flower had pure white petals and curled up in the middle lay the princess, fast asleep. The flower beside her was red.
The modest young man has auburn or strawberry-blond hair, and he is wearing breeches.
CATHIE SHUTTLEWORTH
(This version goes along with the following retelling by Nicola Baxter, whose Swedish translation was the first version of the story I ever read):
A princess who was very clever. She advertised for a husband, and before long the castle was packed with young men lining up to see her. Unfortunately, when they came into her presence, all of them were too overcome to say a word. So she sent them away.
A boy who was not afraid of anyone came along, and delighted the princess by talking with her about all the things that interested her.
...to the castle... up the back stairs past swift shadows of horses and knights.
...the princess's room. There, sleeping soundly, was a young man.
... the prince and princess. They felt sorry for (Gerta), and did what they could to help her. They gave her some new boots and a golden carriage with footmen to take her on her way.
Their attire is medieval, the princess is blond, and there's a tongue-tied suitor we can see from behind.
The beds are, for once, normal beds instead of lily-shaped, their canopies decorated with the kingdom's coat of arms (though topped with lily-shaped ornaments!), and still the princess and the young man (here, dark-haired, like in many other versions), sleep in separate beds, his with warm-coloured tartan covers and hers with cool-coloured.
Nicola Baxter chose a medieval castle as setting, and Shuttleworth went precisely from this premise (look at the chandelier and the beds!)
JAROSLAV VRLCHLICKÝ
The carriage is baroque, the servants wear eighteenth-century clothes, the prince and princess are but half-shaded, distant figures, also in attire from the same period.
The garden gate is located on a bridge across a river or moat. Beyond it one sees the garden, the ornate door arch, and a sentry box to one side.
This illustration goes along with the following translation:
Translated by Bedřich Peška and/or Josef Mikuláš Boleslavský
Příběh čtvrtý. O princi a princezně
V tomto slavném království, jež obýváme, žila někdy princezna chytrá a rozumná nad všechny kozly a vrány. Však čítávala všechny noviny a všecky zase zapomínala a proto mohla býti tak chytrá a rozumná. — Onehdy — praví se o ní — sedíc na svém trůně, zpoměla si na píseň a dala se do zpívání: „Proč bych já se za muž nevdala“. Tak ta píseň začíná. Ta píseň je velmi rozumná — pravila princezna — a chtěla se mermomocí vdávat. Ale její pan manžel měl uměti mluvit a neměl býti pouhým panákem a hrát sobě na velikého pána; to prý je — říkávala — věc velmi směšná. I dala k sobě svolati všechny své dvořánky a komorné panny a tyto, uslyševše, co princezna v úmyslu má, nad míru se zaradovaly a jedním hlasem volaly: „Dobrá, dobrá! To jsem i já v úmyslu měla.“
Druhý den ráno vyšly noviny s červenými okrasami ze srdcí a z písmen jména kněžnina. I stálo v novinách červeně na bílém, že z mladých mužův každému, kdokoli k tomu stav i postavu má, na vůli ponecháno, přijíti do zámku a promluviti s princeznou, a kdo z nich tak dobře jako doma dovede mluviti řečí nejpěknější, toho že si princezna vezme. I přihnalo se na zámek mladíkův množství veliké, že nastala veliká běhanice a tlačenice — ale ani první ani druhý den nikomu štěstí nepřálo. Kdož tam šli, všickni dovedli mluviti, pokud byli na ulici, než jakmile branou do zámku vešli a tam stráže v odění stříbrném, služebnictvo na schodech v odění zlatém a v síních zámeckých blíštící se svícny se zlatými korunami uviděli, byli ihned tak zaraženi, že pak jsouce předvedeni k princezně na trůnu sedící ani slova svého od sebe vydati s to nebyli a toliko poslední slovo od princezny pronesené opakovali, což princezna nikomu trpěti nechtěla. I dělo se jim, jakoby měli tipec na jazyku, byli učiněná nemluvňata; než vyšedše opět na ulici, věděli pak, co a jak mluviti měli.
Teď jsme právě u něho. Třetí den octnul se tam neveliký mladičký pán; přišel pěšky a lehko, hrál se s celou důvěrou do zámku: oči jeho jiskřily, měl dlouhé krásné vlasy, ale oblek chudičký.
Měl na zádech raneček.
Panáček, spatřiv v zámku stráže v odění stříbrném a služebnictvo v obleku zlatém, pranic se nedivil, a přívětivě je pozdravil, řka: „Toť bych se dlouhou chvílí ukousal, kdybych na schodech stál. Půjdu raději na horu.“ — Nádherné síně zámecké třpytily se od tisíce a tisíce světel; královští radové a panstvo vysoce urozené bosýma nohama vyšlapovali nesouce zlaté nádobí, a jemu tajil se dech a bylo mu velmi ouzko, neboť boty mu strašně vrzaly, ale on si směle vykračoval.
Ano, ano! boty mu vrzaly, a on srdnatě kráčel ku princezně, sedící na lesknaté perle tak veliké jako vozní kolo, a kolem ní stály všechny dvořánky a jich komorné paní a panny, a za nimi stály všickni dvořeníné a jich komorníci a myslivci a běhouni, jestliže jaké měli, a kteří stáli blíže dveří, hrději se vypínali. Až k smíchu bylo, s jakou nadutostí roztahovali se u dveří do síně vedoucí, každý hraběcí myslivec a běhoun panský.
Byl samá upřímnost a laskavost a nepřišel tam, aby si princeznu namluvil, nýbrž aby její chytrost a rozum poznal a shledal, že princezna je srdce dobrého a totéž shledala ona na něm.
dlouhým stromořadím, kdež se stromů listí již padalo. Když pak světla v zámku shasla...
a kolem ní něco zašustlo, něco kmitlo jako míhající se stíny na stěně — stíny koní s hřívou rozvlněnou, stíny hraběcích myslivcův a pánův i paní na koni jedoucích.
„Sny — pouhé sny to jsou a přicházejí pro myšlenky vysokého panstva, aby se na lov odebraly. Právě dobře pro nás; nyní můžete snadněji a lépe podívati se na prince a princeznu, jak v postélce spějí."
první síně, která měla stěny růžovým atlasem potažené a umělými květinami vykládané.
Síň druhá byla první mnohem krásnější, tak krásná, že i oko i srdce trnulo. Za chvilenku byly v ložnici knížecí. — Strop se klenul jako vysoká palma s listím skleněným a uprostřed podlahy na silném proutku ze zlata houpaly se dvě postélky jako dvě lilije. Jedna postélka byla bílá a v ní ležela princezna; druhá byla červená... šiji od slunce opálenou.
Maličký princ mladičký a hezký mládeneček. Princezna vyzdvihnuvši hlavičku z bílé liliové postélky, tázala se, co se tu děje?
Ubohé děvčátko!“ litovali ji princ i princezna a pochvalu ptákům dávajíce, pravili, že se na ně nehněvají, ale podruhé aby toho nečinily. Ostatně chtěli se jim za to odměniti.
„Co si přejete?“ tázali se ptákův, „chcete býti na svobodě, anebo chcete míti stálou službu při našem dvoře jako vrány komorné se vším, co v kuchyni zbude?“
Princ vyskočiv z postélky dal děvčátku znamení, aby si do ní lehlo a se vyspalo.
mnoho dobrého ji učinili lidé i zvířata.
v zámku, kdež se dobře míti bude
čekal na ni před branou kočárek ze zlata, na němž rodinné znaky prince a princezny jako hvězdy se třpytily. Kočí a sloužící její, na kočárku i jízdecký měli šatstvo zlatem premované a princ i princezna pomáhali děvčeti do kočárku a přáli ji šťastnou cestu.
Kočárek byl plný cukrovinek a truhlice pod kozlíkem byla plná ovoce a perníku.
„S Bohem! S Bohem!“ volali princ i princezna
Ráda bych věděla, kde as nyní princ a princezna meškají?“
„Ano, ti odjeli do cizých dalekých krajin,“ odpovědělo děvče loupežníkovo.
HELEN STRATTON (Victorian. One of the first and foremost).
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| In Stratton's illustrations, both the Clever Princess and her fiancé are dark-haired. The royal residence is Mannerist, similar to a Rhineland or Loire Valley chateau. Even surrounded by a French-style garden. The courtiers, ladies, other suitors... all wear doublets or frocks, the typical attire of a medieval or renaissance fantasy like Shakespearean drama. Notice the princess's pet fawn (in picture II, the one with the tongue-tied suitor) and the crest of the kingdom, which is here a sun (is this Dorne?) as another symbol for fulfilment. And the cramped throne room, with all those courtiers' faces, in picture II. The crowner is the last picture, in which he gallantly takes up her hand to kiss it. |
T. PYM (pseudonym for CLARA CREED. Victorian British, an awesome female illustrator. My favourite vintage version):
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| On her throne, feeling alone, when she comes up with the idea of marrying. I based my character of Sophia Eleonora upon this Clever Princess.
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CHRISTIAN BIRMINGHAM (another of my favourite illustrators):
This version goes along with the Naomi Lewis translation:
The Snow Queen
Part the Fourth:
Prince and Princess
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| Once more, the royal palace has the air of a Loire or Rhineland château rife with slender turrets and spires from which banners flutter. The towers and roofs are of verdigrised bronze. |
In the kingdom, a princess dwells. She is extremely clever; she has read all the newspapers in the world and forgotten them again -- that's how clever she is. She was sitting on her throne the other day when she happened to hear a little song. It goes like this: Why should I not married be? Why not? Why not? Why not? Well, there's something to be said for that, she thought. So she decided to find a partner, but she wanted one who could speak to himself when he was spoken to --- one who didn't just stand and look important. That's very dull. She ordered her ladies-in-waiting to be called together (it was done by sounding a roll of drums) and when they heard her plan they were delighted.
"What a splendid idea! We were thinking something of the kind just the other day!" They went on making remarks like these.
The newspapers promptly came out with a border of hearts and the princess's monogram. They announced that any good-looking young man might come to the palace and meet the princess; the one who seemed most at home in the princess's company but who was also the best and most interesting talker --- that was the one she meant to choose.
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| Like owner, like pet. The female crow ("Muninn") reading a book or newspaper. Neat border of flowers! |
Well, the suitors flocked to the palace --- there never was such a crowd! But nobody won the prize, either the first day, or the next. They could all talk smartly enough when they were out in the street, but when they came through the palace gate and saw the guards in their silver uniforms, and the footmen in gold all the way up the stairs, and the great halls with their brilliant lights --- they seemed to be struck dumb. And when they stood before the throne where the princess sat, they could find nothing to say but the last word she had spoken herself, and she had no wish to hear that again. Though once they were back in the street, it was all chatter, chatter as before.
It was on the third day when a little chap appeared without horse or carriage, and stepped jauntily up to the palace. His eyes were shining: he had fine thick flowing hair, but his clothes were shabby.
He had a little knapsack, or bundle, on his back.
When he reached the palace gate and saw the guards in silver and the footmen in gold, he was not in the least dismayed. He only nodded pleasantly and said to them: "It must be dull work standing there; I'd sooner go inside."
The great halls blazed with light; it was enough to make anyone feel small. The young chap's boots squeaked dreadfully, but even this didn't trouble him.
Well, they squeaked to be sure. But he went merrily up to the princess, who was sitting on a pearl as big as a spinning wheel; all the ladies-in-waiting, with their maids and their maids' maids, and all the gentlemen courtiers with their serving-men and their serving-men's serving-men were ranged around her in order.
Well, they squeaked to be sure. But he went merrily up to the princess, who was sitting on a pearl as big as a spinning wheel; all the ladies-in-waiting, with their maids and their maids' maids, and all the gentlemen courtiers with their serving-men and their serving-men's serving-men were ranged around her in order.
He is said to have spoken well. He was so lively and confident; he hadn't come to woo the princess, he declared, only to hear her wise conversation. He liked it very well, and she liked him.
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| The back door is definitely Gothic, with its pointed arches and rose windows. The autumn leaves are also a nice touch. |
Into the garden, and along the avenue where the leaves were falling, leaf after leaf; then, when all the lights in the palace had gone out...
The staircase; a little lamp was glimmering on a stand.
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| The rococo interior and late-eighteenth/early-nineteenth-century clothing make this version of the Fourth Story stand out. Notice that the Clever Princess and her beau are both dark-haired, and that her parents appear to be in the picture as well (the crowned couple next to the courtiers who flank the throne to the left, the pet crow/raven before the Queen). 
And indeed, something did seem to rush past; it looked like a flight of shadows on the wall, horses with thin legs and flowing manes, huntsmen, lords and ladies on horseback.
“Those are only dreams. They come and take the gentry's thoughts on midnight rides and that’s a good thing, for one will be able to observe them more safely while they are asleep.”
The first room, where the walls were hung with rose-coloured satin embroidered with flowers. Here, the dreams were racing past so swiftly that one could not distinguish any one of the lords and ladies.
Each hall was more magnificent than the one before; then, at last, at the royal bedroom.
The ceiling was like the crown of a palm tree, with leaves of rarest crystal; and, hanging from a thick gold stem in the centre of the floor, were two beds, each in the shape of a lily. One was white, and in this lay the princess. The other was scarlet, and, if you turned one of the red leaves over, you would see a boy's brown hair. The dreams on their wild steeds came whirling back to the sleeper; he woke -- he turned his head --
The prince was a handsome boy. And now the princess looked out from the white lily bed and asked what was happening.
“You poor child,” said the prince and princess, and they praised the ravens, adding, though, that they must not do it again. This time, all things considered, they would be given a reward.
"Would you like to fly away free?" the princess asked. "Or would you like a permanent place as Court Ravens?"
The prince stepped out of his bed --- and who could do more than that?
to stay at the palace and pass delightful days...
A new carriage of pure gold drew up before the door; on it, the coat-of-arms of the royal pair glistened like a star. Coachman, footmen, and outriders --- for there were outriders too --- wore gold crowns. The prince and princess personally helped into the carriage and wished good luck.
The inside of the coach was lined with iced cake and sugar candy, while the space beneath the seat was packed with fruit and ginger nuts.
'Farewell! Farewell!' cried the prince and princess.
The carriage gleamed as bright as the sun.
.......................................................................................................
... and asked after the prince and princess.
'They've gone travelling to foreign parts', said the robber girl.
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| A close-up of both in the royal bedchamber. The lily beds and the sleeping young royals are exquisitely pictured by Christian Birmingham. His hair is brown and hers as well; and the setting appears to be early nineteenth-century, post-Congress of Vienna: Andersen's own lifetime and the setting most illustrators choose for his tales. |
HERMANN WÖHLER
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| The bedchamber is blue, both lily beds spring from the same stem, the Clever Princess is blond and her fiancé is dark-haired. Both are wearing Victorian nightgowns. "In diesem Königreich wohnt eine kleine Prinzessin, die ist ganz liebenswürdig und vor nicht allzu langer Zeit kam ein Junge auf einem Schlitten durch das Königreich gefahren, hielt vor dem Schloss an und die kleine Prinzessin, die schon lange einen Freund suchte, freute sich über den Besuch und ließ den Jungen nicht mehr fort. Seitdem lebt der Junge im Schloss und die beiden sind ein Herz und eine Seele. " |
SUSAN JEFFERS, a goddess of fairytale artwork:
Amy Ehrlich wrote the retelling that this illustration accompanies:
Many had tried to win the princess, but it was the stranger she wanted, because he was far cleverer than the rest.
As they entered the castle... up the back stairs to the bridal chamber. Suddenly, there was a whirling, rushing sound, and shadows of horses and hunters, of dogs and falcons, moved upon the wall.
"They are only dreams come to fetch the princess and her bridegroom. They will be asleep..."
... at the royal bedchamber... the bridegroom... his long brown hair...
Then, the young man awoke and looked...
As... told... , the princess held... close. They said... must spend the night, and in the morning, they gave... a silk dress and a pair of boots and a coach drawn by four horses.
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| The dreams are wearing Mannerist clothes, yet the female dream has a flapper air about her. The royal residence, called "the castle" in the text, is something in between Rococo and Neoclassical (see below!) |
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| The princess has red, strawberry blond, or mahogany hair. The young man's hair is auburn ("brown", says the text). Their faces are beautiful, their nightgowns sober and comfortable. Note that the text and its illustrations show, instead of Andersen's symbolic lily beds, a more normal canopy bed for two. |
VLADIMIR KIRIN (Croatian):
The following illustration by Vladimir Kirin
accompanies the translation by Maja Gluševic,
who translates the setting as a Croatian dvora (castle)
with influences of both Eastern and Western architecture.
Though she says the guards wear uniforms,
here everyone is dressed in 16th- or 17th-century fashion.
The prince and princess here are nearly invisible.
This illustration goes along with the following Croatian translation:
SNJEŽNA KRALJICA
Četvrta priča
Kraljevic i kraljevna
– U kraljevstvu, u kojem se sada nalazimo, živi kraljevna, iznimno
mudra, koja je procitala sve novine svijeta, ali ih je i zaboravila, premda je jako
pametna. Prije negog vremena sjedeci na prijestolju, za koje ljudi kažu da nije
tako ugodno kao što se misli, zapjevuši ona pjesmicu koja pocinje stihom:
"Došlo vrijeme da se udam!"
– A zašto i ne bi? – rece ona i odluci se udati, ali samo pod uvjetom da
naðe muža koji bi znao pametno odgovarati na njena pitanja. Ne bi htjela
takvog koji bi se samo pricinjao otmjenim i pravio se važan. Uz takve je
dosadno živjeti.
Zapovjedi da se udaranjem u bubanj dozovu sve dvorske gospoðe.
Kada su došle i cule za njezinu namjeru, vrlo se obradovaše i rekoše:
– Baš nam je drago, i same smo o tome vec razgovarale.
Ubrzo su izašle novine, s oslikanim srcima uz rub stranica i s imenom
kraljevne meðu njima. U njima je objavljeno da svaki lijepi mladic može doci u
dvorac i razgovarati s kraljevnom. Oni koji ce moci odgovoriti na njezina
pitanja, ostat ce živjeti u dvorcu. A onaj koji ce najljepše govoriti bit ce
odabran za muža kraljevni.
Ljudi su dolazili u gomilama. Sve su se sudarali i naguravali, ali nitko
nije uspio ni prvoga ni drugoga dana. Svi su znali lijepo govoriti dok su bili
vani na ulici, ali cim su prekoracili vrata dvorca i ugledali na stubištu cuvare u
srebrnastim odorama i lakaje u zlatnim livrejama, i rasvijetljene dvorane,
odmah bi se zbunili. I kada stajahu pred prijestoljem na kojem je sjedila
kraljevna, nisu mogli ništa izgovoriti nego samo ponavljati njezine rijeci. A
ona baš nije uživala ponovno slušati svoj vlastiti govor. Pricinjali su se kao
da su svi uzeli neko sredstvo za spavanje. Tako su nesigurno teturali
dvorcem. Nisu došli k sebi niti su mogli govoriti sve dok nisu izašli na ulicu.
Protegla se duga povorka ljudi od gradskih vrata do dvorca.
Bili su gladni i žedni, jer ih nitko u dvorcu nije
pocastio ni cašom vode. Neki pametniji ponijeli su sa sobom nekoliko komada
kruha s maslacem, ali ne bi to podijelili sa svojim susjedima. Mislili su, ako ce
neki pred kraljevnom izgledali gladni, to ce biti bolja prilika za njih site.
Svanuo je treci dan, kadli u
palacu stupi veseo momcic, bez konja i kocije, ociju svijetlih.
Imao je lijepu dugu kosu, ali mu odijelo bijaše trošno.
Imao je malenu torbu na leðima.
Je prošao kroz vrata dvorca, na stubištu pogledavao na
stražare u srebrnastim odorama i na sluge u livrejama od zlata, ali ga to nije ni
najmanje zbunilo. "Mora biti dosadno stajati na stubama", rece on, "idem
radije unutra".
Dvorane su blistale svjetlom. Brzonogi savjetnici i vijecnici hodali su
okolo noseci zlatno posuðe. Doista je sve odisalo svecanošcu. Dok se kretao,
su cizme škripale, no njega to nije plašilo.
Uistinu su škripale ali on je smiono prišao kraljevni, koja
je sjedila na biseru velikom kao kolovrat, a okolo nje bile su dvorske gospoðe
s dvorkinjama i vitezovi sa svojim slugama. A svaka dvorkinja imala je još
posebnu dvorkinju i svaki vitezov sluga drugog slugu, pa i skutonošu. Svi
stajahu u krugu oko kraljevne, i što su bili bliže vratima, to su se ponosnije
držali. Cak i slugine sluge, koji su uvijek bili u papucama, jedva su se dali
pogledati. Tako su se ponosno ustobocili kraj vrata.
Je bio potpuno slobodan i mio. Rekao je kako nije
došao udvarati kraljevni nego slušati njezine mudrosti. Naravno, veoma joj se
svidio, kao i ona njemu.
Oni uðoše u vrt prošavši dugim drvoredom, gdje je s grana padalo lišce.
Mogli su primijetiti kako se u dvorcu svjetla gase.
Kao da je nešto proletjelo poput sjene na zidu.
Kao da su poput sjena prošli grivasti konji tankih nogu, lovci, gospoðe i gospoda
u sedlima.
– To su sigurno sanje pojavljuju se da skrenu kraljevicu i
kraljevni misli na lov. Tim bolje jer cemo ih moci sigurnije u krevetu promatrati.
I uðoše u prvu dvoranu, kojoj su zidovi bili obloženi tamnocrvenom
svilom, izvezenom umjetnim ružama. I opet snovi zatreperiše tako brzo kraj...
Zaredaše dvorane sve jedna ljepša od druge – upravo da zaslijepe sjajem.
Naposljetku doðoše u kraljevsku ložnicu. Svod je nalicio na veliku palmu,
kojoj lišce bijaše od skupocjena kristala. U sredini sobe lebdjela su dva
kreveta, svaki slican ljiljanu, obješenu o zlatnu stabljiku. Jedan, na kojem je
ležala kraljevna, bio je bijel, a drugi crven. ... smeði vrat.
Kraljevic jednako mlad i lijep.
Uto i kraljevna proviri iz svoga kao ljiljan bijela kreveta, te upita što se
zbiva.
– Jadno dijete – uzdahnu kraljevic i kraljevna.
Kraljevic zatim ustane iz kreveta i prepusti ga Gerdi da u njemu spava.
Više od toga i nije mogao uciniti.
Kako su mi svi dobri, i ljudi i životinje!
Dobila je ne samo cizmice nego i muf. Elegantno je obukoše. Kad je
trebala poci, pred vratima ju je cekala kocija od suha zlata. Na kociji je poput
zvijezde blistao kraljevski grb. Kocijaš, sluga i prednji jahaci – nosili su krune
na glavama. Sam kraljevic i kraljevna pomogoše joj uci u kociju i zaželiše
sretan put.
Kocija je bila puna slatkiša, a pod sjedalom našlo se obilje voca i
medenjaka.
– Zbogom, zbogom – dovikivahu kraljevic i kraljevna.
Gerda je pomiluje po obrazu i upita za kraljevica i kraljevnu.
ANA GRIGORJEV (Serbian), 2013:
The prince enters the throne room here in a simple white shirt. The court ladies' attire is seventeenth-century, and so are the crimson and golden dais above the throne (which, btw, reiterates once more the baroque motif of all the world a stage), the equally crimson and golden baroque chaise longue on the left, the chandelier on the upper right corner, the columns that flank the Pearly Throne... heck, even the princess herself wears these colours, which, together with her golden hair, makes her look like a young Cersei Lannister. Her fiancé is equally blond.
Another of my favourite illustrations for this scene:
The palace is obviously as Rococo leaning on Neoclassical (Gustavian) as can be:
classical statues, curtains, pillars, vaults...
A male dream on horseback wears a cavalier hat: so seventeenth century.
The princess has now two pets: her crow and a staghound.
Notice also the fruit on the table... a then costly pineapple besides other
ones, colourful and scrumptious!
The bedchamber has oh this game of light and dark with so many pink curtains,
the palm leaves on the ceiling are reimagined as a lovely green crystal chandelier,
while the lily beds are patterned after water lilies or lotuses.
Both the princess and her prince are here strawberry blond.
All I can say is: Ana... thank you for so lovely pictures!
MISS CLARA (Another of my favourite authors, a Frenchwoman who makes cute dolls of fairytale characters and takes photos of them, the result being as beautiful and detailed as Fabergé eggs):
Marie Diaz wrote the retelling ("Le Chevalier et la Damoiselle") that this illustration accompanies (my translation from the French):
QUATRIÈME HISTOIRE
Le Chevalier et la Damoiselle
Her parents, the lord and lady of the shire, organized an audience for all the young men in the land. The best eligible bachelors presented themselves, even woodcutters and farmers, since everyone would have a chance.
The dashing suitors crowded the staircase, cheerfully talking to each other. They spoke eloquently, yet none of them passed the test. Upon entering the damsel's bedchamber, as they saw her before her rows of ornate picture books, the young men were seized by some kind of trance: they turned pale, they stuttered, and they could hardly recitate a single poem in praise of the damsel's fair visage, or of her beautiful complexion.
On the third day in the evening, a young knight without entourage or carriage presented himself, and he marched confidently up the staircase: he kept his hair long, and his eyes sparkled. He was carrying a knapsack...
The stranger passed beneath the brocades and the golden dragons of the great hall without even flinching; he saluted, with a smile, the lord and his vassals with their shining swords; and then, he greeted the lady and her maids, who were looking with scorn at his torn garments. His boots creaked and clinked in the silent room...
He passed before the armed and breastplated guards, and he finally arrived in the presence of the damsel, who was reading, sitting by the music stand she used to hold her books: she was reading a thousand-page book, as eagerly as if she were relishing the most delicious among desserts. She was so tired of listening to so much foolishness in a row that she didn't hear him come, nor notice that he had arrived.
All those who have seen the damsel dream of wedding her!
The strangest thing by far was that the young knight hadn't come to court her: he only felt curious about her knowledge. He asked her a question in some unknown foreign language, and the damsel replied immediately, looking rather pleased. That overjoyed her. She liked the knight so much, and he liked the damsel as well! She was overjoyed with him, and he was overjoyed with her too!
The fortress, which towered in the middle of the heath, was surrounded by a high palisade. Beyond the fence, the streets were deserted that night. In the tavern, the suitors that the damsel had scorned were drowning their sorrows in tankards of hot chocolate.
The bedchamber was sumptous: there were two wooden beds with golden carvings, covered in velvet brocade. Under the white canopy slept the damsel, and under the crimson one slept the knight. The young man was dashing.
In the stables, there were the best steeds, brought over from all corners of the world.
Later on, when autumn had given way to winter and winter had changed into spring, the knight and the damsel took a trip abroad. They loved to speak Pig Latin.
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| Here, we have another dark-haired one, in a cozy library, wearing spectacles to emphatize her intelligence and a frilled sixteenth-century collar. This is an illustration for the Marie Díaz version, in which this character is demoted to daughter of local/provincial nobles, and her baroque palace is exchanged for a wooden fort (the author disliking the baroque style). Still she loves her library, foreign languages, other cultures/nations, reading books, and her wealthy parents have got things from all over the Western world (the books in her library included). |
ERROL LE CAIN
This version goes along with the Naomi Lewis retelling (see above, at Christian Birmingham):
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| Le Cain envisions the Royal Palace as a Rhineland chateau, half-merged with nature and located in a wild Sturm und Drang landscape as an oasis of culture. Compare the interior below! |
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| In a beautiful setting where indoors and outdoors combine, influenced by Gustav Klimt and by Slavic folk art, this English author has managed to take the best out of the excerpt: the courtiers' disbelief, the pet crow, the princess's content and the suitor's confidence. The setting and clothing appear to be particularly Slavic. |
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| The royal palace has a Loire Valley or Rhineland chateau feeling to it. |
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| Diodorov takes the sixteenth-century (mannerist) route also within the palace, as seen with the clothing of courtiers, ladies, and suitors, and by the pikemen who can be seen as royal guards. The tongue-tied suitor who appears before her has the air of a fop born a century ahead of his times. And yes, she's a worldly brunette once more (Or not? See below!). |
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| The bedchamber, with its lily beds patterned after the fleur de lys (French lily). Notice the consort's rapier and boots on the table, and the fact that the princess's hair appears fairer than by day (was she, then, wearing a dark wig, like Queen Christina of Sweden?) |
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| The castle is art décò style, and the colours of autumn in the great avenue suggest the season this story takes place in. The prince is auburn, the princess is red-haired, and their clothes speak more of fairytale in general than of a historical period. Notable because the account of the courtship is absent. But a lovely picture in warm colours indeed... |
VICTORIA FOMINA:
Victoria Fomina's illustration for the test-interview scene is truly gold worth.
A real rarity I had, luckily, found the chance to peruse.
This triptych of three panels (left, right, and centre), full of warm colours and eclectic art styles
(from Corinthian classical to those of various other cultures),
with courtiers portrayed as sirens in outrageous headgear, and,
in the centrepiece, a blond and white-clad princess towering like a goddess above the stripling below,
the crown on her head and the sceptre in her right hand being equally outré and ostentatious...
while he is, once more, highlighted as a fish out of water in his dark, modest clothing.
From a montgolfière, court ladies fire confetti and streamers at the newlyweds below.
Can you see the prince and the princess crossing the bridge?
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A pretty nice autumn/sunset illustration.
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| Formina places the Royal Palace on a river or lake, and gives it a Loire/Rhineland feel, as well as to the surrounding landscape. The Clever Youth on the bridge, in seventeenth-century clothes, gives an idea of its colossal size.  |
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| The garden gate. The kingdom's coat of arms looks here like Sweden's (hearts instead of crowns), while Lions of the North decorate the wall. Autumn in the garden beyond, warm colours... |
(Retells the Fourth Story in a straightforward manner, that can be easily understood by anyone. From what I have read, he makes the pictures of the Clever Princess and her beloved as beautiful as this abridged version):
The land belonged to a princess who not long ago had decided to get married.
She had decreed that all the eligible men in the land could come to the castle and woo her. Whoever was most clever would receive the princess's hand in marriage.
The eager men lined up at the palace. There was a boy with blue eyes and brown hair.
This boy was so clever that the princess chose him to be her husband.
The royal garden led to a door at the back of the castle. The door opened into a long, winding staircase. Once upon the stairs, one ornate hallway gave way to the next before arriving at the royal bedchamber.
The prince and princess awoke and lit the lamp between their beds.
They were good people.
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| So far, I have only found this picture of the ambush/attack in the dark woods. The coachman is dressed Elizabethan style, while the carriage is baroque. I will post pictures of the "pleased with" or "bedchamber" scenes, or both, if I ever come across them. |
UPDATE: 24th of Jan 2018
Aren't they stunning young adults?
The Princess: hair, attire, overall colour scheme
She appears to be in her twenties. She's wearing a scarlet cloak right upon her back, and a royal blue/aqua mid-sleeve ballgown with a light golden petticoat beneath and a matching corset (also light golden) over it. She wears her long titian hair falling loosely upon her shoulders, above the cloak. Her facial expression is a sincere smile.
The Prince: hair, attire, overall colour scheme
He appears to be in his twenties as well. His long hair is loose and light brown leaning on titian; he is completely clean shaven (as this character is most usually portrayed). His attire consists of a full court dress combining Elizabethan and Baroque/Rococo elements: the cravat, the Prussian blue coat embroidered in gold, the golden brocade waistcoat beneath it, the Prussian blue knee-high breeches to match the coat, the stockings and low buckle-shoes are all distinctly Rococo court dress, along with the loose hair that resembles an allonge wig, but the ruff collar around the cravat and matching cuff ruffs are distinctly Elizabethan. His facial expression is also a sincere smile.
The Prince and the Princess, Side by Side: their facial expressions convey that these two are good people who wear their hearts upon their sleeves. Also, their coordinated clothes and hairstyles reinforce the idea that they're one another's equal, two halves of a whole. Sickeningly Sweethearts like to choose matching outfits for fancy occasions or costume parties to make it clear that they are together. Here, not only their attire, but also the hairstyles and the smiles are matching, as they willingly wear the same look to show that they belong together.
The Castle: architecture style, landscaping
Here, the Slot appears to be a fortelesque early Renaissance/Gothic château (just look at the windows and towers), made of some cream-coloured stone. I have not seen the garden proper, but there are some bushes and climbing plants, all of them evergreen, lining the walls.
The Ambiance (light, colour): This scene is very light and cheerful and effectively conveys the idea of good people who live in a safe and sound place, what with the first winter snow, the royal couple's coordinated outfits in the colours of Sweden, their earnest smiles, the crisp air, the evergreen plants along the walls...
PAVEL TATARNIKOV:
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| The sleeping prince in his scarlet lily-bed. |
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| The vast royal palace complex. surrounded by a French garden, reminds us of Versailles and its many lookalikes (Drottningholm, Buckingham). The coachman's riding coat and tricorn hat add more rococo feel to it (coachman, footmen, and outriders are also wearing powdered wigs and breeches!). |
OTHERS:  | ||
| A wonderful version in a seventeenth-century setting: the princess and her fiancé look gorgeous with all that lace! |
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| Here, her hair appears to be redder than at night. And again, that seventeenth century garb (even Gerda dressed as a noblewoman looks better!) knows few equals! |
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| An art decó version of the bedchamber scene, with both fiancés as "worldly brunettes". By Croatian artist Manuela Vladic. |
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| Another Croat, Manuel Sumberac, has chosen to make his Clever Princess a redhead, her consort being dark-haired. The steampunk/Art Nouveau interior in Sweden's colours stands out for its originality. This version goes along with the Kay Woodward retelling:
In this kingdom, there lives a princess who is extraordinarily clever.
She longed to marry. But she did not want an ordinary sort of husband - one who would be charming and handsome and say only what he thought she wanted to hear.
The princess wanted a husband who was as wise as an owl and as clever as a cat. She wanted a man who knew what to answer for himself.
Before long, the queue of suitors stretched three times around the palace. But as soon as they met the princess, each one of them was struck dumb. All they could do was repeat the same few words, over and over again.
The princess was not impressed.
The next day, a boy with neither horse nor fine clothes marched boldly up to the palace. His eyes sparkled like diamonds, but his clothes were shabby and his shoes creaked.
When he spoke, the princess fell under his spell.
But he wanted to hear what she had to say too, which made her love him all the more.
At the top of the stairs, there was a room...
Its glass ceiling was shaped like the leaves of a palm tree. Two lily-shaped beds hung from a thick golden stem in the centre of the room. In one bed lay the princess. In the other lay ---
The royal couple were as good as their word.
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| This Russian author has also made our lovers an auburn-haired princess and her blond bridegroom. The royal palace is Scandinavian Baroque, like in the Egmont film, while the clothing is definitely in tune: early eighteenth-century. |
GALYA ZINKO:
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| The former caption's comment on hair colour can be done on this illustration by Galia Zinko as well, but not the one on costume: those pajamas-like catsuits, lined with lace, look extremely timeless and cozy! HENRY J. FORD: ILLUSTRATION AND TRANSLATION FOR ANDREW LANG'S PINK FAIRY BOOK. |
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| Victorian artist Henry J. Ford has chosen a Renaissance court for his interpretation of the "pleased with" scene. The Clever Princess is blond, the guards are landsknechts, and the pet crow is present. This was done for the Lang version, which you can read below: |
'In the kingdom in which we are now sitting lives a princess who is dreadfully clever. She has read all the newspapers in the world and has forgotten them again. She is as clever as that. The other day she came to the throne, and that is not so pleasant as people think. Then she began to say, "Why should I not marry?" But she wanted a husband who could answer when he was spoken to, not one who would stand up stiffly and look respectable—that would be too dull.
'When she told all the Court ladies, they were delighted.
'The newspapers came out next morning with a border of hearts round it, and the princess's monogram on it, and inside you could read that every good-looking young man might come into the palace and speak to the princess, and whoever should speak loud enough to be heard would be well fed and looked after, and the one who spoke best should become the princess's husband.
'The newspapers came out next morning with a border of hearts round it, and the princess's monogram on it, and inside you could read that every good-looking young man might come into the palace and speak to the princess, and whoever should speak loud enough to be heard would be well fed and looked after, and the one who spoke best should become the princess's husband.
'Young men came in streams, and there was such a crowding and a mixing together! But nothing came of it on the first nor on the second day. They could all speak quite well when they were in the street, but as soon as they came inside the palace door, and saw the guards in silver, and upstairs the footmen in gold, and the great hall all lighted up, then their wits left them! And when they stood in front of the throne where the princess was sitting, then they could not think of anything to say except to repeat the last word she had spoken, and she did not much care to hear that again. It seemed as if they were walking in their sleep until they came out into the street again, when they could speak once more. There was a row stretching from the gate of the town up to the castle.
On the third day a little figure came without horse or carriage and walked jauntily up to the palace. His eyes shone; he had lovely curling hair, but quite poor clothes.'
'He had a little bundle on his back.'
When he came to the palace door and saw the royal guards in silver, and on the stairs the footmen in gold, he was not the least bit put out. He nodded to them, saying, "It must be rather dull standing on the stairs; I would rather go inside!"
'The halls blazed with lights; councillors and ambassadors were walking about in noiseless shoes carrying gold dishes. It was enough to make one nervous! His boots creaked dreadfully loud, but he was not frightened.'
'And, not one bit afraid, up he went to the princess, who was sitting on a large pearl as round as a spinning wheel. All the ladies-in-waiting were standing round, each with their attendants, and the lords-in-waiting with their attendants. The nearer they stood to the door the prouder they were.'
He was merry and quick-witted; he had not come to woo, he said, but to listen to the princess's wisdom. And the end of it was that they fell in love with each other.'
They went into the garden, and when the lights in the palace were put out one after the other.
Through beautiful rooms they came to the sleeping-room. In the middle of it, hung on a thick rod of gold, were two beds, shaped like lilies, one all white, in which lay the princess, and the other red. He was young and handsome. The princess sat up in her lily-bed and asked who was there.
There in front of the door stood a coach of pure gold, with a coachman, footmen and postilions with gold crowns on.
[···] asked after the prince and princess.
'They are travelling about,' said the robber girl.
Elizabeth Ellender portrays her a tall and slender btrainy brunette.
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| Elizabeth Ellender, in this two-tone Roaring Twenties illustration (the only known one of the Fourth Story by the author), portrays the Clever Youth en route to the throne room, marching up the staircase against the setting sun. |
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| Russian illustrator Viktor Pivovarov has imagined a Scandinavian Gothic/Baroque Royal Palace. Both the Clever Princess and her betrothed are strawberry-blond. Notice the guards' pikes and Tercio uniforms, and the suitors' attire, and compare with the courtiers' attire in the previous pic! This one, along with the previous, is one of the most iconic illustrations for this chapter of the novella. |
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| With a Scandinavian Baroque palace and a heart-shaped garden, this shadowplay version is rather atypical being monochrome. |
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| Another strawberry-blond Clever Princess and a Clever Lad of the same hair colour, in a lily-pond bedchamber atypically located at the bottom of a staircase. The author is John Patience. |
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| Yet another outright Rococo bedchamber, with dreams soaring about, Here, the Clever Princess is blond, while the Youth is auburn. |
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| A more Baroque (Louis XIV) version of the bedchamber. Just drink it all in when it comes to interior design! Here, the Clever Princess is blond, while the Youth is auburn. |
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| Another Scandinavian Baroque reimagining of the Royal Palace. The courtiers seen in the garden are wearing Victorian-era clothes. |
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| The Rococo interior to the former picture's awesome exterior (same artist). However, the Dreams on horseback are wearing seventeenth-century clothes (have they been with the royals for generations?) |
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| Another seventeenth-century court. The Clever Princess is strawberry blond once more, while the Clever Lad shares her hair colour. Look at the servants' uniforms, the garden gate... |
Cute mini-illustrations from the Monsieur Chat edition by Stasys Eidrigevicius.
Judging from the characters' clothing, I can place the story in the seventeenth century.
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| Another Russian illustration, this one clearly set at an eighteenth-century court. Featuring detailed costumes of those days (lots of powdered wigs and petticoats), and set in an elegantly beautiful Rococo interior. Look just at the sneers the guard and the older ladies (in purple) give the Clever Lad, who is dark-haired for the umpteenth time. While the Clever Princess, in royal/ intellectual blue, may have powdered her hair. |
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| Lucia Masciullo has given the lily-beds the colours of Sweden, and made the Clever Princess a brunette with a blond fiancé. |
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| Angela Barrett's Versaillesque Royal Palace from without... |
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| Julia Griffin gives us a Clever Princess with tomboyishly short, dark hair. And she gives the bedchamber the air of an eerie Art Nouveau greenhouse, where lily beds are completely in tune. |
EDMUND DULAC:  |
| Edmund Dulac's Victorian-era classic with an Enlightened flair: dressed in royal or intellectual blue, her hair powdered and finely styled, in a fittingly Rococo/Gustavian throne room littered with newspapers (in different languages, you may suppose) feeling alone and lonely. |
SARA PLANTE:  |
| The Clever Princess and the Clever Lad when they first take to each other. Notice that both of them, and the courtiers, are dressed in eighteenth-century clothes, while the guards are breastplated pikemen. Circles like the throne-room gate and the stainglass windows act as a leitmotif (to symbolize the idea of fulfilment as "full circle"?). The contrast between warm and cool colours (intellectual and emotional?) is not the only plus: With its breastplated pikemen, and completely surreal and original architecture, along with the detailed eighteenth-century costumes, this illustration by one Sara P., one of my favourites, can't be placed in any historical context in our world, exudating fairytale atemporality and/or timelessness (Plus, a blond AND ponytailed Clever Lad like Charles Liddell! By the way, the Clever Princess and her courtiers seem to have powdered hair). |
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| The Slavic exterior to the eclectic/timeless interior of Sara P's royal palace. The kingdom appears to be a hilly land, with the palace on a river or lake. |
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| This auburn-haired Clever Princess reminds the reader of a Menina (Castilian seventeenth-century court lady), while her courtiers are dressed... |
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| ...In eighteenth-century clothes! The dark-haired Clever Lad, on the other hand, is wearing a folk costume in dark colours to contrast with the ladies' pastel garb. |
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| The Royal Palace looks once more like a Rhineland or Loire chateau. But the Russian author has given the character's attire (see the pictures above as well!) a great dash of Slavic folk motifs. |
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| The greatest picture so far besides Birmingham's. An awesome Louis XIV throne room, all wrapped up in pink roses. The dark-haired Clever Lad is sporting a 30YW officer's hat and boots. The über-effeminate pikeman guards in their lace, cravats, and wigs look completely in tune (even with ribbons on their pikes!). The red-haired or strawberry blond Clever Princess blends in with her elegant surroundings, and the curtain frame gives the impression of a theatrical scene, in tune with the Baroque and Louis XIV-era worldview. The curtain is topped with the kingdom's coat of arms: a lone pink and white rose against a background of both its colours, to fit in with the pink rose motif. It is sky blue for contrast, decorated with French Bourbon lilies (fleurs de lys): the height of Baroque courtly culture. |
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| The bedchamber scene by Nikifor, who pictured the courtship above. The curtain frame, here pink, is an excellent device in this one too. The lily beds, topped with French Bourbon lilies, are also worthy of notice, and so is the kingdom's coat of arms, twin pink roses that entwine against a pink and white background, having changed to symbolize that "she is no longer alone" (she was looking for a suitor in the previous panel)·. Gerda in her modest peasant garb really stands out, while the Clever Princess in her beautiful gown and her royalized betrothed in breeches and cravat really catch one's sense of elegant beauty. One can't recognize the Clever Lad as the young soldier from the previous picture, save for his hair colour. |
NIKA GOLTZ (one of my all-time favourite illustrators for this chapter):
Nika Goltz's interpretation of the famous "pleased with" scene.
The courtiers' Louis XIV attire, the Clever Princess in her
elaborate baroque bridal gown, and matching Pompadour parure,
the Clever Lad's modest clothing singling him out at court...
lots of lace and cravats... One of my favourites!
A corridor hung with tapestries, with lovely floor tiles and huge mirrors.
The dreams are wearing nineteenth-century clothes typical of riders in civilian attire.
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| Nika Goltz makes the Royal Palace Scandinavian Baroque, the Clever Princess blond, the Clever Lad darkly blond-haired (Titian-haired), and even has the royal crow dressed up! Here we can see the lad-turned-prince in more elegant attire than the one he wore for the courtship. |
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| This other illustrator has, like Birmingham and Tatarnikov, chosen to recreate a baroque or rococo court (the guards' uniforms, her fan and hairstyle, the interior design!). The prospective suitors in the background are going to have their hearts broken! Plus, both the princess and her consort appear to have strawberry blond hair! |
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| And here they are all dressed up! Notice the baroque balustrade and the fact that she is wearing a blue gown, with powdered hair (Dulac influence?) |
MODERN AU BY ZAMPANO PRODUCTIONS (ASIAN SETTING):
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| The impressive estate looks like something out of a shojo anime series... |
The husband of the newlywed daughter of a couple of wealthy politicians...
In Andersen's story, the crow tells us about the princess and her exigent choice of a bridegroom.
The wealthy couple's daughter is meant to represent Andersen's princess character.
She is an emancipated young lady, with clear objectives for her life, and who, though
the marriage her parents have arranged, sees her future self as no homemaker.
Her self-confidence is displayed by her upright attitude and her arms, fixed upon her hips.
Her clothing is chic, yet it appears always as youthful and modern.
To reach her independence, the daughter is particularly exigent in her choice of a husband,
in which she'd like to have a say.
The chosen one is, in the end, an unremarkable, yet straightforward and reliable young man, who
is also determined to grant his successors the liberties they wish for.
(He looks like a university student, modest, intelligent, and really adorably nerdy with those spectacles, aside from the Asian features!)
Different character designs, all of them in Occidental clothing to reflect she's a "haikara-san" ("Miss Highcollar", or young woman in love with Western culture and values): self-made, independent, and feministic, like the final model.
ALAN MARKS (USBORNE VERSION!!)
The chapter is called: A helpful princess (!!!!)
There's a princess in this kingdom and she was looking for a prince...
Then a young boy appeared from nowhere. His clothes were torn and his boots creaked. But he went inside the palace and - would you believe it - the princess liked him so much, she married him!
Inside the palace, its grand rooms were wrapped in the purple night.
In the most splendid room of all, two giant flowers hung from a palm tree. The first flower had pure white petals and curled up in the middle lay the princess, fast asleep. The flower beside her was red.
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| Here, the princess is platinum blond and her throne is Rococo style. Her gown is equally platinum. The modest young man has auburn or strawberry-blond hair, and he is wearing breeches. |
YANA SEDOVA:
Sedova pictures the clever princess as a rococo royal (pompadour+ringlets and lots of frills, hand fan) on a spiral throne, with the proportions of an adult, yet petite in comparison to her throne and cape (to highlight her youth and inexperience), with a vague fixed expression that can mean lots of things. Most surely detachment and/or loneliness, given the cold colours (various shades of blue) that dominate the picture, contrasting with the gold of her crown, her corset ribbons, and the crest of the kingdom (some kite-shaped/diamond-shaped solar cross) on her long cobalt cape (again, a colour scheme hinting that the "kingdom" or "land" of the Fourth Story may be Sweden).
The blue, cool colours of night envelop this scene.
From outside the crystal ceiling, one sees the hilly countryside around the castle, and a flying fish equipped with a sail, which is most likely to be a dream.
The Princess is blond (she wore a wig or rice powder on the throne) and the Prince is auburn once more. Their innocent sleep is as well-captured as in the Birmingham and Diodorov pictures, and their faces are adorable.
As for the lily-beds, here they appear the most realistic, with tendril- or twig-like legs. Love also the fine details that are the lilies and dots on the covers, which, like the pillows, are lined with lovely lace.
RIE CRAMER:
The castle has once more got that Mannerist Rhineland/Loire feeling, or like the Reach in Westeros.
These delectable illustrations remind me of Westeros
because of the characters' medieval/Pre-Raphaelite attire and the architecture around them.
Both the Princess and her other half are here exceedingly beautiful!
The princess is still blond, while the Prince appeared dark-haired in bed and Titian-haired by daylight. This is most likelt to be a light effect (hair looks darker in the dark, or he had washed himself and gone to bed with wet hair, for water darkens it as well). Both of them wear the same colour scheme, though hers is pastel and his is intense (pink and sky blue vs. scarlet and cobalt blue), to establish that they are kindred spirits.
SILWERAIN
SilweRain gives us a picture with both Klimtian and Baroque overtones.
Both the Prince and the Princess are auburn, his skin is darker than hers (he's a suntanned traveller, she is pale and sheltered)... and their attire also contrasts (his Prussian blue against her beige and scarlet). The composition of both lovely young sleepers, with their contrasting colour scheme in beds, attire, and appearance, and their lily beds (his scarlet, hers white) into a vague and chaste 69 arrangement, like a taijitu to signify they are not that different, and kindred spirits at heart, is both original and worth praise.
UNKNOWN GERMAN ILLUSTRATOR I, 20TH CENTURY
This is yet another lovely Baroque/Rococo interior. The princess is blond, the prince is dark-haired, and their lily beds stem, both of them, from the same stem (a sign of unity?), covered by the same crowned canopy.
UNKNOWN GERMAN ILLUSTRATOR II, NINETEENTH CENTURY
This picture, given the shape of the lily beds (here, chaises longues) and the way the royal pair wears their covers, along with the rainforest-like air (though all the plant life is artificial) of the bedchamber, makes both the prince and princess, here both blond, appear to be gods on Earth.
They look good, and the arrangement of the lily beds also surprises me. Recommended.
RUTH KOSER-MICHAËLS, GERMANY, 1938
A throng of suitors, some in civvies, others in uniform, standing in line before going to woo the clever princess. The one furthest to the right, in the black top hat, is an expy of Franz/Ferenc Liszt.
This part of the Fourth Story is very rarely covered in illustration.
IRIS HARDT, GERMANY, 2007
The palace ("das Schloss") has got a Byzantine-like or Slavic-like exterior. The great promenade (die große Allee) is here of junipers or cypresses, for no apparent reason than keeping them green in winter. I prefer lindens myself.
Neither the prince nor the princess are seen in the lily beds, but this bedchamber is stark original: the stem of the lily beds drops from the ceiling instead of rising from the ground, and the staircases that entwine recall both Brueghel and Escher.
The carriage, seen on the other page, looks like a toy carriage.
SVEND OTTO SÖRENSEN, DENMARK, 1972
"The first room, whose walls were covered in rose-red satin with artificial flowers."
Once more, we get a Gustavian interior, this time with a (rose-)red carpet and all.
"And from the white lily-bed, the princess stood up and asked what the matter was."
Here, both of them look so innocent and their lily beds are accurately described as hanging from the ceiling. He is dark-haired and she is blond, and both of them look adorable in their nightgowns.
MARTIN JÖRGENSEN, DENMARK, 2012
The royal pair: detail from a splash page showing the whole cast and setting of the story.
Both the prince and princess are blond, good-looking young adults. Their clothing could be from any time period, and the princess is wearing flower-shaped earrings (given the flowers on the walls, shape of the beds...) She appears to be wielding a sword, but who is actually wielding it is the hideous and horrible robber leader.
The castle/palace: detail from a splash page showing the whole cast and setting of the story.
Notice that the setting (from the Snow Queen's palace to Gerda's hometown) appears to be at least medieval. While the robbers' fortress is ruined and crowned with a masked cranium, the royal castle is kept with utmost care, banners fluttering from its slender towers, the kingdom's coat of arms on its massive stone façade, flanked with two swords.
The castle here is simple yet adorable. Something like a country estate, but with a crown on its only tower. Sometimes, this means more than a baroque Versailles or a Rhineland château.
Instead of the prince and princess, here we see but their crowns (metonymy).
One of them is flatter than the other, and both are inlaid with folk-baroque crown motifs.
"On it (the coach), the coat of arms of the royal pair shone like a star."
"'Farewell! Farewell!', cried the prince and the princess."
The coachman is wearing a top hat, and the coat of arms can't be seen on the carriage, which is here as austere as the castle in this version, conveniently.
MARGARET II OF DENMARK, 2000
At the turn of the millennium, the Queen of Denmark illustrated "The Snow Queen" with an extreme mastery in the technique of collage. Her rendition of the Fourth Story ranks among my personal favourites.
The princess, with her dark eyes, auburn chignon and sapphire necklace, in her cherry-red brocades, is a beautiful sight.
The royal castle is here black instead of red, with blue domes and silver-capped towers, but still recalls Scandinavian baroque architecture. It appears to stand on a lake, like many other residences in Sweden. Notice the clock and the gemstones of the baroque façade, the baroque silver frames of the door, the clock, the strawberry weathervane, and the flag of the kingdom from the highest tower. Since Gerda is allegedly Danish, many have identified the kingdom in the Fourth Story with Sweden. The flag is cobalt blue with a cross, yet we can see it's of a fantasy counterpart of Sweden (not the real-life country) because the cross is silvery (instead of golden), with a scarlet square in the middle. A lovely detail!
"He is said to have spoken well. He was so lively and confident; he hadn't come to woo the princess, he declared, only to hear her wise conversation. He liked it very well, and she liked him."
The courtship of the young man has who won the princess through his clever liveliness in the fateful test-interview. Margaret portrays it with a picture of brightly-dressed and cultured sixteenth-century courtiers from the Vasa era/reign of Charles V, which has inspired her for illustrating the Fourth Story.
The courtly setting is here retooled as an outrageous and extravagant yet beautiful chaos of arches, staircases, jewelry (mostly rubies), brocades, Mannerist art...
Their attire and hairstyles recall the sixteenth century even more. His hair is auburn, kept in a page hairstyle, hers is black and flowing. And, while he is too fair for being a traveller come on foot (has he stayed long enough at court for his suntan to disappear?), she is olive-skinned and black-eyed, Mediterranean (would have been Dornish in Westeros). Both are wearing sixteenth-century court dress, his black and surmounted with a frilly collar, hers a scarlet brocade rife with Flemish lace, according to court fashions of the era (gentlemen dressed in black and ladies in bright colours).
Both of them are wearing heart-shaped pendants, to signal how kind/good they are, literally wearing their hearts upon their sleeves (at least upon their attire): his is of crystal or diamonds and hers is of ruby, garnet, or some other blood-red gemstone.
This is one of the most beautiful portrayals of these two characters I have ever seen.
ANASTASIA ARKHIPOVA
The warm colours and snowy blanket of the November royal garden, with a balustrade staircase crowned with urns...
The wrought-iron garden gate, ornamented with crowns and baroque abstract motifs, is a piece of art as well.
Notice the urns on the pillars: this is yet another Gustavian first room.
Also noteworthy is the fact that the dreams are here wearing capes and cavalier hats from the seventeenth century, while the story appears to be set in the Victorian times when it was written and published.
OLGA POLJAKOWA, GERMANY, 2012:
The frame, with the few fruits and evergreens of November, echoes the time of year when Andersen sets the tale.
There's an evergreen hedge maze in the garden, and the nearly leafless lindens in the wide promenade ("die grosse Allee, wo ein Blatt nach dem anderen abfiel") set the action in the bleak November.
But the wrought iron garden gate is redoubtaby lovely. Something between Art Nouveau and Baroque, with spiral and floral motifs (foreshadowing flowers on the walls of the first room, lily beds), and crowned with a wrought iron crown.
Inside this bedchamber, the five-petal, star-like lily beds hang from the leaf-pattern glass ceiling. The panel motifs are abstract rococo (rocaille), whole the "Stengel aus Gold" takes the form of two entwining vines, similar to a caduceus (or a coil of DNA): an arrangement not bereft of symbolism. This detail also makes the lily-beds resemble the moonflowers in the frame to the left and right.
"'Farewell! Farewell!', cried the prince and princess."
Once more, both of them are dark-haired (she's a dark brunette, while his hair is
more a mahogany shade of auburn).
Note that both of them, the coachman, and the outriders all wear Prussian blue, which appears to be the national colour of the nameless kingdom. A pure, cool colour associated with both intellect and royalty, and even more if it's such an intense, deep shade.
Notice the urn on which the pet crow is perched, at the end of a balustrade leading from
the front door into the garden. It just screams of baroque/rococo style!
If you notice closesly, there is a purple crest on the carriage door:
the coat of arms of the royal pair (or of the kingdom), which shines like a star.
Something golden or silvery on a mauve field.
(Since this picture is so small, I can't see what the coat of arms represents clearly.
It appears to be some kind of floral or spiral motif.)
The frames for the pictures, with hardy autumn flowers, are also adorable.
ANNIE WU (one single illustration, that happens to be a great character study):
Sprawled on a heap of pillows in a sexy manner, dressed in a puffy-sleeved ballgown (with an eighteenth-century cleavage worth looking at!) without petticoats, a flapper-like necklace, and a massive pompadour, her cuppa (coffee? chocolate?) and her already read newspapers, and her left
slipper, lying on the floor in disarray at her feet... and an expression of discontent worth noticing.
This portrait/character study in black and white, inspired by Tim Burton, just breathes decadence and ennui coupled with sexiness. According to Annie, this image
"is the super-bored princess that has read every newspaper in the world."
Obviously, it depicts the state of things at the court of the kingdom before the engagement challenge and the fateful test-interview.
Though the Clever Princess is to me more of the "learned lady" type, a sexy variation (that cleavage and that pose!) is here more than welcome.
JINDRA CAPEK, 1993
The prince here looks gorgeous in his scarlet lily bed. Not only do we see the starry sky through the glass ceiling of the bedchamber dome, but the prince is also established as an attractive young adult: not only by his height and proportions, but also by the stubble that gilds his upper lip (and, apparently, also his whiskers and chin).
The architecture of the royal castle, once more a Scandinavian red-brick country mansion (Vasa-/Christian IV-era) topped with domes and corner towers, is quite similar to its portrayal by other illustrators.
Jerzy Srokowski, 1973
The princess here is golden-haired. She looks like a porcelain doll of the kind that can shut her eyes, and her height gives off that she is a young adult or in her late teens. The lacy high collar of her négligée is a lovely detail, isn't it?
The white lily-bed looks rather like a datura flower... (shudders)
UNKNOWN RUSSIAN ARTIST, 2014
The castle looks more like a country estate than a royal residence.
The princess is golden-haired and the prince is auburn. Notice also their beds on the ground (not hanging from the ceiling), their collars (hers is a frilly Tudor collar, his is more seventeeth-century), and their hairstyles (her golden ponytail, his dark pageboy haircut).
V. G. BRITVIN, RUSSIA, 2005
(the baroque one)
The redoubtable palace recalls the Tsarskoye Selo Peter the Great raised according to Western Baroque-Rococo style.
The autumn season is seen by the lindens in the promenade, here golden and shedding leaves.
The interior of the halls is likewise Rococo style.
Like in the Pedersen illustration, the prince and princess are rendered as tiny figures in the distance.
Both of them are dark-haired, and their attire is a mix of Slavic headgear and Western body clothing: a true echo of Czarist courtly life.
The archway at the palace way, a baroque floral arabesque, is crowned with the pet crow (that black speck) and the whole castle-palace is now seen to have a tower, a spire, surely that of the chapel.
MAJA CHMURA
This Polish illustrator gives us a pretty surreal castle and a grotesque crowd of suitors in Tudor-era clothes. The whole scene is reminiscent of Pieter Brueghel's artwork.
JOEL STEWART, UK, 2004
This illustration runs across two pages. Notice how both members of the royal pair are mirrored, facing one another.
His hair is brown and hers is black. Notice also how they are dressed. Interestingly, he, the born commoner, is crowned and dressed in his nightgown, while she, the born royal, is wearing her nightcap and wrapped in her covers. A sign that she cares for more relevant things than her appearance.
(This version goes along with the Naomi Lewis translation [see under Christian Birmingham]. The "krager" are "ravens".)
WILLIAM HEATH ROBINSON, UK, LATE VICTORIAN/EARLY EDWARDIAN ERA
(I'll put the Robinson illustrations here)
This version goes along with the following translation:
PART THE FOURTH
THE PRINCE AND THE PRINCESS
In the kingdom wherein we are now sitting, there dwells a princess, a most uncommonly clever princess. All the newspapers in the world has she read, and forgotten them again, so clever is she. It is not long since she ascended the throne, which is not quite so agreeable a situation as one would fancy; and immediately after she began to sing a new song, the burden of which was this, "Why should I not marry me?' "There is some sense in this song!" said she, and she determined she would marry, but at the same time declared that the man whom she would choose must be able to answer sensibly whenever people spoke to him, and must be good for something else besides merely looking grand and stately. The ladies of the court were then all drummed together, in order to be informed of her intentions, whereupon they were highly delighted, and one exclaimed, "That is just what I wish"; and another, that she had lately been thinking of the very same thing.
'Proclamations, adorned with borders of hearts, were immediately issued, wherein, after enumerating the style and titles of the princess, it was set forth that every well-favoured youth was free to go to the palace and converse with the princess, and that whoever should speak in such wise as showed that he felt himself at home, there would be the one the princess would choose for her husband.The people all crowded to the palace; there was famous pressing and squeezing; but it was all of no use, either the first or the second day; the young men could speak well enough while they were outside the palace gates, but when they entered, and saw the royal guard in silver uniform, and the lackeys on the staircase in gold, and the spacious saloon, all lighted up, they were quite confounded. They stood before the throne where the princess sat, and when she spoke to them, they could only repeat the last word she had uttered, which, you know, it was not particularly interesting for her to hear over again. It was just as though they had been struck dumb the moment they entered the palace, for as soon as they got out, they could talk fast enough. There was a regular procession constantly moving from the gates of the town to the gates of the palace.
On the third day arrived a youth with neither horse nor carriage; gaily he marched up to the palace; his eyes sparkled; he had long beautiful hair, but was very meanly clad.
He carried a knapsack on his back.
When he entered the palace gates and saw the royal guard in silver, and the lackeys in gold upon the staircase, he did not seem in the least confused, but nodded pleasantly and said to them, "It must be very tedious standing out here; I prefer going in." The halls glistened with light, cabinet councillors and excellencies were walking about bare-footed and carrying golden keys—it was just a place to make a man solemn and silent—and the youth's boots creaked horribly, yet he was not at all afraid.
Indeed they did creak, but merrily went he up to the princess, who was sitting upon a pearl as large as a spinning-wheel, whilst all the ladies of the court, with the maids of honour and their handmaidens, ranged in order, stood on one side, and all the gentlemen in waiting, with their gentlemen, and their gentlemen's gentlemen, who also kept pages, stood ranged in order on the other side, and the nearer they were to the door the prouder they looked. The gentlemen's gentlemen's page, who always wears slippers, one dare hardly look at, so proudly he stands at the door.
The young man spoke well. He was handsome and lively—"He did not come to woo her," he said, "he had only come to hear the wisdom of the princess," and he liked her much, and she liked him in return.
And they went into the garden, down the grand avenue, where the leaves dropped upon them as they passed along, and, when the lights in the palace one by one had all been extinguished...
They went up the staircase. A small lamp placed on a cabinet gave a glimmering light.
and in fact there was a rushing sound as of something passing; strange-looking shadows flitted rapidly along the wall, horses with long, slender legs and fluttering manes, huntsmen, knights, and ladies.
'These are only dreams! they come to amuse the great personages here at night."They now entered the first saloon; its walls were covered with rose-coloured satin, embroidered with gold flowers. The Dreams rustled past them, but with such rapidity. The apartments through which they passed vied with each other in splendour, and at last they reached the sleeping-hall. In the centre of this room stood a pillar of gold resembling the stem of a large palm-tree, whose leaves of glass, costly glass, formed the ceiling, and depending from the tree, hung near the door, on thick golden stalks, two beds in the form of lilies—the one was white, wherein reposed the princess, the other was red, and here, if bent aside one of the red leaves, one saw a brown neck.
the Dreams again rushed by—he awoke, turned his head, and behold!
The Prince; he was, however, young and handsome; and the princess looked out from the white lily petals, and asked what was the matter.
'Poor child!' said the prince and princess; and they praised the ravens, and said they were not at all angry with them. Such liberties must never be taken again in their palace, but this time they should be rewarded.
'Would you like to fly away free to the woods?' asked the princess, addressing the ravens, 'or to have the appointment secured to you as Court-Ravens with the perquisites belonging to the kitchen, such as crumbs and leavings?'
Then the prince arose...
'How kind men are to me!'
The next day she was dressed from head to foot in silk and velvet. She was invited to stay at the palace and enjoy all sorts of diversions, but she begged only for a little carriage and a horse
And as soon as she was ready there drove up to the door a new carriage of pure gold with the arms of the prince and princess glittering upon it like a star, the coachman, the footman, and outriders, all wearing gold crowns. The prince and princess themselves helped her into the carriage and wished her success. The carriage was well provided with sugar-plums, fruit, and gingerbread nuts.
'Farewell! farewell!' cried the prince and princess.
.............................................................................................................................
...and asked after the prince and princess.
'They are gone travelling into foreign countries,' replied the robber-maiden.EVALISA AGATHON, SWEDEN, 1958:
YEVGENIA YERETSKAYA, 2013
Here, both the Princess and the Prince are dark-haired, like in the Birmingham version, and her covers are royal blue/lilac while his are scarlet like his covers.
OLGA KOROCHINSKAIA (Russian artist living in the Netherlands), 2015
First Meeting:
Fourth Story
The Prince and the Princess
"He was quite free and agreeable and said he had not come to woo the princess, but to hear her wisdom; and he was as pleased with her as she was with him.”
"First Meeting" is now, together with "At the Court" by Christian Birmingham, one of my favourite Fourth Story illustrations.
The princess, titian-haired in green, an adolescent rather than a young adult, is adorable. Her face, her smile, her hairstyle, her gown and slippers... everything about her makes you wish you were the prince, who, an adolescent as well, a dark-haired wanderer in his shirt, wearing a brown knapsack and wellingtons, and darker trousers with braces the colour of his lovely, glossy hair, and that worn shirt of his... Indeed, he is as pleased with her as she is with him. An unafraid lad and a finally smiling princess, and no courtiers around, only a tête-à-tête to be left in peace and have some decent conversation. The background consists only of that scarlet curtain with tassels, tying in to the baroque "all the world's a stage" motif in a lovely way.
Sometimes less is more, and sometimes vice versa. Therefore, I give "First Meeting" and "At the Court" a shared first place.
Dreams:
Fourth Story
The Prince and the Princess
something rushed by like a shadow on the wall, and then horses with flying manes and thin legs, hunters, ladies and gentlemen on horseback, glided by, like shadows on the wall.
“They are only dreams, they are coming to fetch the thoughts of the great people out hunting.”
The dreams are here misty, ethereal, translucent figures that disappear not long after they have appared. They are rendered in cool colours, except for the dream ladies' skirts, which are brightly coloured.
Cherstiin, 2015
The characters are here adorable. Both of them look adolescent, the princess rather 20s-ish with her attire and hairstyle/hair decs is blond, there's a lily growing by her side.
The prince looks like something more from Andersen's own times and tales, dressed in what appears to be an army uniform, armed with a rapier and one-eyed (I have given this character a wartime backstory so often!), which also recalls Odin...
Kawaii, eh?
MargoMeiko (Margaret), Canada, 2015:
They make a lovable couple, don't they?
Ghostyheart (Serena), 2015
Looks like an anime heroine with that gown and that ribbon behind her back, but does not convince me.
BlueHydrangea, France, 2013:
For a project about The Snow Queen from H. C. Andersen. It's a perfect princess, a porcelain doll with the Denmark color.
La robe est rouge et blanche, aux couleurs du Danemark. Le corset est rouge, le motif rapelle le drapeau danois. Les manches sont bouffantes et rouge foncé. Les parties blanches sur les bas de la robe seraient plutôt écrus. Je pense que je vais rajouter quelques broderies dorées dessus, ça fait vide.
The colours of Denmark and eighteenth-century fashion (scarlet and white ballgown, eighteenth-century conquérant hairstyle with golden tiara) make this another of my favourite depictions of my favourite fairytale character.
Closer up. Such a risqué décolletage as hers was actually in vogue in the eighteenth century.
Isn't she beautiful?
INGRID & VIKTOR!!!
Princess Ingrid and Prince Viktor were created by Hillygon in 2015 upon wondering... what if Disney Pictures had followed Andersen canon a little closer?
This is the Disney version of the prince and the princess from the original tale.
This case, they both have names.
Boy's name: Viktor
Girl's name: Ingrid
Viktor's age: 9
Ingrid's age: 8
P.S In this version, they are both siblings.
This case, they both have names.
Boy's name: Viktor
Girl's name: Ingrid
Viktor's age: 9
Ingrid's age: 8
P.S In this version, they are both siblings.
He's 9 and she's 8??? :O Doesn't the author mean he's 19 and she's 18? (she was 18 in the Dumas version too...)
Anyway, they look lovely. Remind me of Jaime and Cersei Lannister in mid-nineteenth-century court dress (blond and green-eyed, good-looking, cultured young people)
Speaking of Lannisters... Viktor and Ingrid are brother and sister, not twins but at least one year apart. Which means they know each other since childhood (unless they were separated as children) and nothing more than an intellectual/friendly attraction can come in between.
Fanart by clarinking
Fanart by Fantasynarium
Fanart by EnvyQ00
Fanart by TigersSunshyn
The stage version by Charles Way. (The crows were named JJ and Lil and made humans: in my version, I retained them as crows and gave them the names of Odin's.)
Nota bene:
Frederica: The Queen of Spring and a princess on the verge of marriage.
JJ: Fred’s best friend and an instigator in getting him into trouble.
Lil: Princess Frederica’s best friend, but cannot tell her no.
PRINCESS FREDRICA A beautiful Princess - in love and about to get married to Prince Fredrick. Loves a giggle and having fun. Self-assured and bossy, thinks she can always have anything she wants.
FREDRICK A young Prince - “impossibly charming”. In love and about to get married to Princess Fredrica. Confident and successful with the ladies. Loves a good party. He assumes his Prince-like responsibilities.
(JJ Prince Fredrick’s best friend and secretly in love with Lily. Very proud of his rich friend - he wants to keep him happy and entertained and is always up for a laugh.
LILY Posh best friend of Princess Fredrica. A snob who means no harm. Secretly in love with JJ.)
Fred and Frederica both wear unisex costumes that make them look androgynous.
The first we see of the princess in Elena Green's illustrations is a royal blue ribbon, a mirror with a ribboned pearl frame, a clear blue tsurime eye with a confident eyebrow above, and dark hair that is wavy and soft. The combination of Brainy Brunette, Innocent Blue Eyes, and True Blue Femininity, with many ribbons and Tomboyish Ponytail, instantly recalls the Belle of my adored childhood animated musical.
Vague images, diffuse, as the story is told by a third party, the whole form of the princess and that of her unseen prince first coming to light in their twilit bedchamber.
Masks? Bathtub lily beds? Nudity? A handless clock? Arches?
Here's the best French translation (Dumas and Diaz aside, those are translated expanded adaptations) I have fricking found of the Fourth Story of the Snow Queen. It appears to be translated direct from the Danish, but retold in such a French style that what comes to my mind is rather Voltaire. One of my favourite French authors. So yes, this is written à la manière de Voltaire. As if he had been the original author. It also sounds like a chanson by Clesse or Brel (albeit less than like a Voltairian tale).
The illustrations are by a Frenchman known as Yan d'Argent. Art Nouveau, as you readers will see. This is an encouragement, like a carrot for me to finish with a university task.
Traduction par Ernest Grégoire et Louis Moland.
Garnier, 1873
La Reine des Neiges/4
QUATRIÈME HISTOIRE
PRINCE ET PRINCESSE
Dans le royaume règne une princesse qui a de l’esprit comme un ange. C’est qu’elle a lu toutes les gazettes qui s’impriment dans l’univers, et surtout qu’elle a eu la sagesse d’oublier tout ce qu’elle y a lu. Dernièrement, elle était assise sur son trône, et par parenthèse il paraît qu’être assis sur un trône n’est pas aussi agréable qu’on le croit communément et ne suffit pas au bonheur. Pour se distraire, elle se mit à chanter une chanson : la chanson était par hasard celle qui a pour refrain
Pourquoi donc ne me marierai-je pas ?
«Mais en effet, se dit la princesse, pourquoi ne me marierai-je pas ? » Seulement il lui fallait un mari qui sût parler, causer, lui donner la réplique. Elle ne voulait pas de ces individus graves et prétentieux, ennuyeux et solennels. Au son du tambour, elle convoqua ses dames d’honneur et leur fit part de l’idée qui lui était venue. « C’est charmant, lui dirent-elles toutes ; c’est ce que nous nous disons tous les jours : pourquoi la princesse ne se marie-t-elle pas ?
Les journaux du pays, bordés pour la circonstance d’une guirlande de cœurs enflammés entremêlés du chiffre de la princesse, annoncèrent que tous les jeunes gens d’une taille bien prise et d’une jolie figure pourraient se présenter au palais et venir deviser avec la princesse : celui d’entre eux qui causerait le mieux et montrerait l’esprit le plus aisé et le plus naturel, deviendrait l’époux de la princesse.
Les jeunes gens accoururent par centaines. Mais ils se faisaient renvoyer l’un après l’autre. Aussi longtemps qu’ils étaient dans la rue, hors du palais, ils babillaient comme des pies. Une fois entrés par la grande porte, entre la double haie des gardes chamarrés d’argent, ils perdaient leur assurance. Et quand des laquais, dont les habits étaient galonnés d’or, les conduisaient par l’escalier monumental dans les vastes salons, éclairés par des lustres nombreux, les pauvres garçons sentaient leurs idées s’embrouiller ; arrivés devant le trône où siégeait majestueusement la princesse, ils ne savaient plus rien dire, ils répétaient piteusement le dernier mot de ce que la princesse leur disait, ils balbutiaient. Ce n’était pas du tout l’affaire de la princesse.
On aurait dit que ces malheureux jeunes gens étaient tous ensorcelés et qu’un charme leur liait la langue. Une fois sortis du palais et de retour dans la rue, ils recouvraient l’usage de la parole et jasaient de plus belle.
Ce fut ainsi le premier et le second jour. Plus on en éconduisait, plus il en venait ; on eût dit qu’il en sortait de terre, tant l’affluence était grande. C’était une file depuis les portes de la ville jusqu’au palais.
Ceux qui attendaient leur tour dans la rue eurent le temps d’avoir faim et soif. Les plus avisés avaient apporté des provisions ; ils se gardaient bien de les partager avec leurs voisins : « Que leurs langues se dessèchent ! pensaient-ils ; comme cela ils ne pourront pas dire un mot à la princesse !
Le troisième jour on vit s’avancer un petit bonhomme qui marchait à pied. Beaucoup d’autres venaient à cheval ou en voiture et faisaient les beaux seigneurs. Il se dirigea d’un air gai vers le palais. Ses yeux brillaient. Il avait de beaux cheveux longs. Mais ses habits étaient assez pauvres.
Il portait sur son dos une petite valise…
Ayant atteint la porte du château, il ne fut nullement intimidé par les suisses, ni par les gardes aux uniformes brodés d’argent, ni par les laquais tous galonnés d’or. Lorsqu’on voulut le faire attendre au bas de l’escalier, il dit : « Merci, c’est trop ennuyeux de faire le pied de grue. » Il monta sans plus attendre et pénétra dans les salons illuminés de centaines de lustres. Il n’en fut pas ébloui. Là, il vit les ministres et les excellences qui, chaussés de pantoufles pour ne pas faire de bruit, encensaient le trône. Les bottes du jeune intrus craquaient affreusement. Tout le monde le regardait avec indignation. Il n’avait pas seulement l’air de s’en apercevoir.
Oui, elles faisaient un bruit diabolique. Lui, comme si de rien était, marcha bravement vers la princesse, qui était assise sur une perle énorme, grosse comme un coussin. Elle était entourée de ses dames d’honneur qui avaient avec elles leurs suivantes. Les chevaliers d’honneur faisaient cercle également : derrière eux se tenaient leurs domestiques, accompagnés de leurs grooms. C’étaient ces derniers qui avaient l’air le plus imposant et le plus rébarbatif. Le jeune homme ne fit même pas attention à eux.
— Ce devait pourtant être terrible que de s’avancer au milieu de tout ce beau monde ! Mais finalement il a donc épousé la princesse ?
— Ce devait pourtant être terrible que de s’avancer au milieu de tout ce beau monde ! Mais finalement il a donc épousé la princesse ?
Il parla aussi spirituellement... ...comment l’entrevue se passa. Le nouveau venu fut gai, aimable, gracieux. Il était d’autant plus à l’aise qu’il n’était pas venu dans l’intention d’épouser la princesse, mais pour vérifier seulement si elle avait autant d’esprit qu’on le disait. Il la trouva charmante, et elle le trouva à son goût.
dans les beaux appartements du palais.
le château n’est pas loin ; à la grille. »
à l’office où il y a tant et tant de pains. Quant à entrer au palais, il n’y faut pas penser : Les gardes chamarrés d’argent, les laquais vêtus de brocart ne le souffriraient pas. C’est impossible. un escalier dérobé par où l’on arrive à la chambre nuptiale,
dans le parc par la grande allée, et de même que les feuilles des arbres tombaient l’une après l’autre, de même, sur la façade du palais les lumières s’éteignirent l’une après l’autre. à une porte basse qui était entre-bâillée.
Les yeux vifs et intelligents, les beaux cheveux longs, la langue déliée et bien pendue, comme on dit, tout.
l’escalier. En haut se trouvait une petite lampe allumée sur un meuble.
On voyait, en effet, se dessiner sur la muraille des ombres de chevaux en crinières flottantes, aux jambes maigres, tout un équipage de chasse, des cavaliers et des dames sur les chevaux galopants.
« Ce sont des fantômes ; ils viennent chercher les pensées de Leurs Altesses pour les mener à la chasse folle des rêves. Cela n’en vaut que mieux. Le prince et la princesse se réveilleront moins aisément, et on aura le temps de les mieux considérer.
dans une première salle, dont les murs étaient tendus de satin rose brodé de fleurs. Les Rêves y passèrent, s’en revenant au galop, mais si vite, qu'on n’eut pas le temps de voir les pensées de Leurs Altesses, qu’ils emmenaient. Puis dans une autre salle, puis dans une troisième, l’une plus magnifique que l’autre. Oui, certes, il y avait de quoi perdre sa présence d’esprit en voyant ce luxe prodigieux.
Les voici enfin dans la chambre à coucher. Le plafond en cristal formait une large couronne de feuilles de palmier. Au milieu s’élevait une grosse tige d’or massif, qui portait deux lits semblables à des fleurs de lis : l’un blanc, où reposait la princesse ; l’autre couleur de feu, où reposait le prince. On releva une des feuilles jaune-rouge, qu’on rabaissait le soir ; on vit la nuque du dormeur, dont les bras cachaient le visage. cette nuque légèrement brune, . Les fantômes du rêve arrivèrent au triple galop, ramenant l’esprit du jeune prince. Il s’éveilla, tourna la tête.
Le prince ne laissait pourtant pas d’être un joli garçon. Voilà que la princesse avança sa gentille figure sous les feuilles de lis blanches, et demanda qui était là. « Pauvre petite ! » firent le prince et la princesse attendris. Et ils complimentèrent les deux braves bêtes, les assurèrent qu’ils n’étaient pas fâchés de ce qu’elles avaient fait contre toutes les règles de l’étiquette ; mais leur disant qu’elles ne devaient pas recommencer. Ils leur promirent même une récompense : « Voulez-vous un vieux clocher où vous habiterez toutes seules, ou préférez-vous être élevées à la dignité de corneilles de la chambre, qui vous donnera droit sur tous les restes de la table ? »
Le prince sortit de son lit et y laissa reposer. C’est tout ce qu’il pouvait faire pour elle. «que les hommes ont de la bonté pour (moi) ! »
Le lendemain on l’habilla, de la tête aux pieds, de velours et de soie. La princesse lui proposa de rester au château, pour y passer sa vie au milieu des fêtes.
Elle reçut de jolies bottines, et de plus un manchon. Lorsqu’elle fut au moment de partir, elle trouva dans la cour un carrosse neuf, tout en or, armorié aux armes du prince et de la princesse. Les coussins étaient rembourrés de biscuits ; la caisse était remplie de fruits et de pain d’épice. Le cocher, le groom et le piqueur, car il y avait aussi un piqueur, avaient des costumes brodés d’or et une couronne d’or sur la tête.
Le prince et la princesse aidèrent eux-mêmes à monter en voiture et lui souhaitèrent tout le bonheur possible.
« Adieu, adieu, mignonne ! » dirent le prince et la princesse.
...le carrosse, qui brillait comme un vrai soleil.
............................................................................................................................
On arriva dans une forêt sombre ; mais on y voyait très clair à la lueur que jetait le carrosse. Cette lumière attira une bande de brigands, qui se précipitèrent comme les mouches autour de la flamme : « Voilà de l’or, de l’or pur ! » s’écriaient-ils, et ils saisirent les chevaux, tuèrent cocher, groom et piqueur...
.........................................................................................................
... demanda ce qu’étaient devenus le prince et la princesse. « Ils voyagent à l’étranger, » répondit la fille des brigands.
SANNA ANNUKKA, 2015
This illustration goes along with the translation by
JEAN HERSHOLT
Fourth Story
The Prince and the Princess
In the kingdom where we are now, there is a Princess who is uncommonly clever, and no wonder. She has read all the newspapers in the world and forgotten them again - that's how clever she is. Well, not long ago she was sitting on her throne. That's by no means as much fun as people suppose, so she fell to humming an old tune, and the refrain of it happened to run:
"Why, oh, why, shouldn't I get married?"
Why, that's an idea!' said she. And she made up her mind to marry as soon as she could find the sort of husband who could give a good answer when anyone spoke to him, instead of one of those fellows who merely stand around looking impressive, for that is so tiresome. She had the drums drubbed to call together all her ladies-in-waiting, and when they heard what she had in mind they were delighted.
'Oh, we like that!' they said. 'We were just thinking the very same thing.'
The newspapers immediately came out with a border of hearts and the initials of the Princess, and you could read an announcement that any presentable young man might go to the palace and talk with her. The one who spoke best, and who seemed most at home in the palace, would be chosen by the Princess as her husband.
Men flocked to the palace, and there was much crowding and crushing, but on neither the first nor the second day was anyone chosen. Out in the street they were all glib talkers, but after they entered the palace gate where the guardsmen were stationed in their silver-braided uniforms, and after they climbed up the staircase lined with footmen in gold-embroidered livery, they arrived in the brilliantly lighted reception halls without a word to say. And when they stood in front of the Princess on her throne, the best they could do was to echo the last word of her remarks, and she didn't care to hear it repeated.
It was just as if everyone in the throne room had his stomach filled with snuff and had fallen asleep; for as soon as they were back in the streets there was no stopping their talk.
The line of candidates extended all the way from the town gates to the palace. They got hungry and they got thirsty, but from the palace they got nothing-not even a glass of lukewarm water. To be sure, some of the clever candidates had brought sandwiches with them, but they did not share them with their neighbors. Each man thought, 'Just let him look hungry, then the Princess won't take him!'
But when did he come? Was he among those people?
We are just coming to him. On the third day a little person, with neither horse nor carriage, strode boldly up to the palace. His eyes sparkled, and he had handsome long hair, but his clothes were poor.
He had a little knapsack on his back.
When he went through the palace gates and saw the guardsmen in silver, and on the staircase the footmen in gold, he wasn't at all taken aback. He nodded and he said to them:
'It must be very tiresome to stand on the stairs. I'd rather go inside.'
'It must be very tiresome to stand on the stairs. I'd rather go inside.'
The halls were brilliantly lighted. Ministers of state and privy councilors were walking about barefooted, carrying golden trays in front of them. It was enough to make anyone feel solemn, and his boots creaked dreadfully, but he wasn't a bit afraid.
Oh, they creaked all right. But it was little enough he cared as he walked straight to the Princess, who was sitting on a pearl as big as a spinning wheel. All the ladies-in-waiting with their attendants and their attendants' attendants, and all the lords-in-waiting with their gentlemen and their gentlemen's men, each of whom had his page with him, were standing there, and the nearer they stood to the door the more arrogant they looked. The gentlemen's men's pages, who always wore slippers, were almost too arrogant to look as they stood at the threshold.
They say he spoke as well as ... He was dashing and handsome, and he was not there to court the Princess but to hear her wisdom. This he liked, and she liked him.
Then they went into the garden and down the wide promenade where the leaves were falling one by one. When, one by one, the lights went out in the palace, ... led ... to the back door, which stood ajar.
Now they were on the stairway. A little lamp was burning on a cupboard, and there ...
Now they were on the stairway. A little lamp was burning on a cupboard, and there ...
"It seems to me that someone is on the stairs behind us," ... Things brushed past, and from the shadows on the wall they seemed to be horses with spindly legs and waving manes. And there were shadows of huntsmen, ladies and gentlemen, on horseback.
Those are only dreams. They come to take the thoughts of their royal masters off to the chase. That's just as well, for it will give ... a good opportunity to see them while they sleep.
Now they entered the first room. It was hung with rose-colored satin, embroidered with flowers. The dream shadows were flitting by so fast that one could not see the lords and ladies. Hall after magnificent hall quite bewildered ..., until at last they reached the royal bedroom.
The ceiling of it was like the top of a huge palm tree, with leaves of glass, costly glass. In the middle of the room two beds hung from a massive stem of gold. Each of them looked like a lily. One bed was white, and there lay the Princess. The other was red, and there ... saw the nape of a little brown neck... The dreams on horseback pranced into the room again, as he awoke-and turned his head-and ...
The Prince ..., but he was young and handsome. The Princess peeked out of her lily-white bed, and asked what had happened.
"Poor little thing," the Prince and the Princess said. They praised the crows, and said they weren't the least bit angry with them, but not to do it again. Furthermore, they should have a reward.
"Would you rather fly about without any responsibilities," said the Princess, "or would you care to be appointed court crows for life?"
The Prince got up, and let ... have his bed. It was the utmost that he could do. ... and thought, "How nice the people ... are."
The next day ... was dressed from ... head to ... heels in silk and in velvet too. They asked ... to stay at the palace and have a nice time there, but instead ... begged them to let ... have a little carriage, a little horse, and a pair of little boots, so that ... could drive out into the wide world ...
They gave ... a pair of boots, and also a muff. They dressed ... as nicely as could be and, when ... was ready to go, there at the gate stood a brand new carriage of pure gold. On it the coat of arms of the Prince and the Princess glistened like a star.
The coachman, the footman, and the postilions-for postilions there were-all wore golden crowns. The Prince and the Princess themselves helped ... into the carriage, and wished ... Godspeed.
Inside, the carriage was lined with sugared cookies, and the seats were filled with fruit and gingerbread.
"Fare you well, fare you well," called the Prince and Princess. ... as long as ... could see the carriage, which flashed as brightly as the sun.
"That's gold! That's gold!" they cried. They sprang forward, seized the horses, killed the little postilions, the coachman, and the footman, ...
FIFTH STORY
THE LITTLE ROBBER GIRL
The carriage rolled on into a dark forest. Like a blazing torch, it shone in the eyes of some robbers. They could not bear it."That's gold! That's gold!" they cried. They sprang forward, seized the horses, killed the little postilions, the coachman, and the footman, ...
SEVENTH STORY
...
WHAT CAME OF IT
But ... asked her about the Prince and the Princess.
"They are traveling in foreign lands," the girl told ....
On the third day a little person, with neither horse nor carriage, strode boldly up to the palace. His eyes sparkled, and he had handsome long hair, but his clothes were poor.
He had a little knapsack on his back.
When he went through the palace gates and saw the guardsmen in silver, and at the staircase the footmen in gold, he wasn't at all taken aback. He nodded and he said to them:
"It must be very tiresome to stand on the stairs. I'd rather go inside."
(Translator: Jean Hersholt)
Sanna Annukka has a pretty idiosyncratic style, inspired by the Art Nouveau and Art Déco graphic design of Finland, her home country.
Her prince and princess are both of them blond, and their colour scheme involves golden, white, blue, and deep purple (cool colours, the last two). These colours are associated with Finland and Sweden, aside from making them look intellectual, regal, mature, and dignified.
Their design also suggests the typical face cards in playing cards, and one sees from her waistline and his curly moustache that they are both young adults around their twentieth year.
The dream shadows, towering and carved in a certain way, bring to mind Trojan Horses.
The coat of arms on the carriage is here the shield with the jewelled crown above the windows. Notice also the lantern hanging on the spiral hook.
Talk us through your creative process from getting an idea, to bringing it alive.
I start with loads of sketching. Quite a lot of time is spent experimenting with composition and trying to push the boundaries with it. It can be very easy to illustrate something quite literally.
So the key challenge is to be visually as inventive as possible so that it heightens intrigue and therefore enjoyment for the reader. Once there is a potential contender for the composition, I scan the drawing and construct the rest of the design on the computer using illustrator.
At the beginning of this project I also researched all other illustrated versions of the Snow Queen so that I wouldn’t end up illustrating the same kind of scenes. I also compiled Pinterest mood boards of all sorts of reference material from wintery settings to golden carriages.
What tools do you use?
Pens, paper, a scanner app on my phone and then many long hours using illustrator.
EKATERINA VOLZHINA:
I think I've got a pair of new favourite TSQ-IV illustrations, sharing place with Christian Birmingham's "At the Court": these rarities by Ekaterina Volzhina.
She recreates "The Snow Queen" in the Belle Époque: for instance, the titular character drives a horseless carriage (instead of a one-horse open sleigh).
But what I adore the most is her portrayal of my favourite characters in the tale and of their courtly surroundings:
Here we can see the clever prince and princess as portrayed by Volzhina.
She is a Brainy Brunette and he is equally dark-haired, as usual through the iconography of these characters.
His hair is long, while hers is short. And he dresses more sharply, while she dresses more modestly.
One of the reasons why I adore these two secondary characters (aside from their good looks, kindness, and intellectual level) is their deviance from gender roles: the princess is described first as "of unusual cleverness" ("uhyre klog", "umnitsa, chto i szkazaty nelyzya"); while the prince is described first as "dashing and charming" ("frejdig og nydelig", "svobodno i milo"), and then, when he is seen in person, as "young and handsome" ("ung og smuk", "molod i krasnv"). And, since her version is set in the Belle Époque, Volzhina has made her princess a FLAPPER (with a bob of nutbrown Boyish Short Hair, a modest white gown, and the typical flapper hair dec) and her prince a DANDY (in a rose-red coat and bow ascot, with long flowing auburn tresses upon his shoulders)!!!! I FRICKING ADOOOORE THIIIS!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
Note also that they are in the typical arrangement of a married or bridal couple (she's on the left and he's on the right), hinting at their relationship and also that they are wearing the colours of their lily beds: she is wearing white (for purity) and he is wearing rose-red (the word used in Russian to translate both "röd", red/scarlet, and "smuk", handsome, happens to be the same colour adjective, "krasny")!!!
The six-petal flower motif in the frame is also the flower in the bedchamber stainglass windows, which ties in to the bedchamber picture pretty nicely... <3 <3 <3 <3 and those cool colours suggesting intelligence, distance, and tranquillity, with that starry night-sky background... <3 <3 <3 <3
The initial Cyrillic P is also a palace archway with the same cool colours, six-petal flower, symmetric leaves, and night sky motifs, which is yet another adorable detail that ties in to the bedchamber scene... <3 <3 <3 <3
The lily-shaped beds in the bedchamber. Notice also the princess's flapper bob contrasting with the prince's long dandy locks, as well as the lanterns hanging above them and the floral motifs (same flowers as in the frame and same symmetric leaves as on the P) on the stainglass window... I simply lack words to describe these wonderful pictures!!! This one in particular features soothing cool colours to suggest the midnight athmosphere: even the lanterns and the prince's lily bed, supposed to be rose-red, appear a mauve shade in the moonlight!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
MANUELA ADREANI:
MANUELA ADREANI:
In this illustration, her face is not shown, but the clever princess is once more a Brainy Brunette as usual, while her daring suitor is golden-haired.
Neither one's faces are seen, which lends the scene an air of intimity and obscurity (she is seen from behind, half her hair hidden behind the curtain, while he boldly and deftly peers in as he opens the door). Likewise, the curtain is a device reminiscent of baroque art and its conception of the world as a stage.
Her attire is mostly white (with a steel-blue flower pattern) as usual, while he wears green. Notice that his golden hair, and her pearly throne and red shoes, are the only contrasting notes of warm colour aside from their skin.
The picture, in which serene and detached cool colours dominate, features a lot of patterns in the throne room: flowers on her gown, hearts on the curtain (a reference to the border of hearts on her proclamation?), geometric motifs on the floor, and Art Nouveau floral motifs on the wall. Through the plain, unpatterned door enters the youth in a plain green suit: he is entering the heart of her realm, the man of the world ready to win the fateful test-interview with destiny and win his sheltered bride.
Ghostly dreams of armed lancers on gargoyle-like steeds cast their sinister shadows on the hallway pavement and walls. Here, cool colours have given way to warmer shades, but patterns are still a leitmotif in the castle of this Fourth Story: chartreuse geometrical patterns and four-petal flowers deck the sky-blue floor, while golden baroque/Louis XIV motifs gild the glittering walls.
LIVING STORYBOOK:
This illustration goes along with the following retelling:
It seems that the princess in yonder castle just married a clever little fellow who came walking up to the palace with nothing but the clothes on his back. She vowed she would have no other.
...that he was happy with his bride. At night, when everyone was asleep... up a back stairway of the palace and peep into the royal bedchamber. But, alas, ...over the head on the pillow the startled prince in his nightcap turned out to be someone else... The prince and princess invited to stay with them, but when not, they persuaded to accept a little golden carriage and a pair of horses, a fur-lined coat, a red bonnet and boots and a little fur muff.
The prince here (like in Arkhipova, the princess is a ghost character) is a kawaii ragdoll, that looks more like a child than like a young adult.
TOHRU-SENPAI:
The Princess-A princess who desires a prince as intelligent as she is. She finds ... in her castle and helps by giving warm rich clothes,servants,and a golden coach.
The Prince-Originally a poor boy. He arrives at the castle and becomes a prince/the princess's fiancee by passing the princess's test.
Made with Snow Queen Scene Maker by AzaleasDolls.
On the Princess's physique and attire: (gown, eye colour, hairstyle and colour, accessories, general impression)
On the Prince's physique and attire: (uniform, freckles, eye colour, hairstyle and colour, clean shave, general impression)
VLADISLAV YERKO:
The royal pair in the Fourth Story of The Snow Queen are commonly portrayed as young adults (Gerda and Kay, the heroes, being pre-teen bourgeois). The retelling by Dumas (author of The Three Musketeers book series) gives, among much more information about these secondary characters, their age: the princess is dix-huit ans (18, just having celebrated her birthday in mid-autumn [I make Sophia a Libra for personality reasons, which I hopefully will later on explain]), while her consort's age is determined between vingt et vingt-et-cinq ans (between 20 and 25). Dumas, who also rewrote The Nutcracker and The Little Mermaid among other children's classics, may have influenced the retellings, being the gateway to German and Scandinavian fairytale fantasy for French and Russian (Yes, he inspired Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker ballet!) children.
The author of the Musketeers also gives her consort dark/raven hair because of an important plot point: the young man who succeeds and lives at court is meant to be a ten years older dead ringer for Kay, and thus, to share the missing hero's hair colour. Andersen, in the original Danish tale, states that both males had "dejlige" hair, with an adjective that can be read as both "blond" and "beautiful". Nowadays, the latter meaning is the only accepted one in standard Danish. Yet later on, in the bedchamber, the nape of the sleeping beau's neck is depicted as "brun", nutbrown: from the hair colour or from suntan? Dumas solves the problem by informing that he had beautiful, dark hair (thus rendering both "dejlig" and "brun" as "cheveux beaux" et "noirs"): a pattern generally followed by retellers and illustrators. But a blond Kay, and thus a blond Karl or Klaus (names given to the princess's consort in extended versions), is neither that unusual: Miss Clara, the Czech film, and Le Cain among others have done so. (Ráb Zsuzsa, however, renders "dejlig" as "szép" -beautiful- in "szép (hosszú) haja", beautiful (long) hair, keeping its colour vague, and "brun" as "nápbarnitott" -sunburned- in "egy napbarnított nyakat", a sunburned nape of a neck, leaving it crystal clear that it's the prince's skin colour).
The royal palace is described by both Andersen and Dumas as a baroque Versailles, surrounded by a vast French garden with a wide linden avenue or promenade, countless rows of windows, and vast halls glittering with thousands of dazzling chandeliers and walls decked with satin brocade. The crowner is, indeed, the royal bedchamber with its glass ceiling and lily beds on golden stems. Some illustrators have rather had a Mannerist-style Rhineland/Loire château, or even an outpost fort (Marie Diaz/Miss Clara), for the setting of the Fourth Story.
As for the princess herself, her hair colour is not mentioned by Dumas nor Andersen, yet dark hair of a shade or another seems to be a rather popular choice. Gerda, the younger and lower-class heroine, is innocently blond (like Alice or Sleeping Beauty), while dark hair (another example is the highway-girl in the Fifth Story, whom I reworked as Roswitha) stands for experience and more knowledge of the world.
Some adaptations prefer to give her red or strawberry-blond/Titian (Le Cain, Sumberac, 2005 Danish) hair: a darker shade than Gerda's, but nevertheless warm and indicating self-confidence.
Nevertheless, nutbrown hair seems to be the most popular choice, so I made Sophia auburn/mahogany (something in between Miss Clara's, Birmingham's, Le Cain's, and Egmont's incarnations, among many others). Charles Liddell, her beau, is blond partly as a descendant of Alice (yes, that Alice!), partly as a tribute to the blond Kays, like Miss Clara's, that show up from time to time. The Clever Lady, Sophia's mother, is a dead ringer for her daughter, while late consort/husband/father Karl was raven-haired like in the Dumas and following versions (Birmingham, Sumberac, Egmont...) Both live at the versaillesque Schloss Lilienstengel (Lilystem) in the realm of Lilienstiel (Lilystalk). And have I told you that their story is closer to the Diaz version, while Sophia's own is closer to Andersen's? The motto of both the household and kingdom is "Truth and Rarity".
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| Finally, Vladislav Yerko subverts our expectations by having the couple portrayed as children... both dark-haired, and dressed in seventeenth-century clothes: he sleeps in the red lily bed and hers is the white one... but it's their portrayal as children Gerda's age, in a bedchamber littered with toys, that brings the surprise on! For these secondary characters are supposed to be young adults or at least in their late teens, and share a high cultural level... |
Commentaries:
The royal pair in the Fourth Story of The Snow Queen are commonly portrayed as young adults (Gerda and Kay, the heroes, being pre-teen bourgeois). The retelling by Dumas (author of The Three Musketeers book series) gives, among much more information about these secondary characters, their age: the princess is dix-huit ans (18, just having celebrated her birthday in mid-autumn [I make Sophia a Libra for personality reasons, which I hopefully will later on explain]), while her consort's age is determined between vingt et vingt-et-cinq ans (between 20 and 25). Dumas, who also rewrote The Nutcracker and The Little Mermaid among other children's classics, may have influenced the retellings, being the gateway to German and Scandinavian fairytale fantasy for French and Russian (Yes, he inspired Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker ballet!) children.
The author of the Musketeers also gives her consort dark/raven hair because of an important plot point: the young man who succeeds and lives at court is meant to be a ten years older dead ringer for Kay, and thus, to share the missing hero's hair colour. Andersen, in the original Danish tale, states that both males had "dejlige" hair, with an adjective that can be read as both "blond" and "beautiful". Nowadays, the latter meaning is the only accepted one in standard Danish. Yet later on, in the bedchamber, the nape of the sleeping beau's neck is depicted as "brun", nutbrown: from the hair colour or from suntan? Dumas solves the problem by informing that he had beautiful, dark hair (thus rendering both "dejlig" and "brun" as "cheveux beaux" et "noirs"): a pattern generally followed by retellers and illustrators. But a blond Kay, and thus a blond Karl or Klaus (names given to the princess's consort in extended versions), is neither that unusual: Miss Clara, the Czech film, and Le Cain among others have done so. (Ráb Zsuzsa, however, renders "dejlig" as "szép" -beautiful- in "szép (hosszú) haja", beautiful (long) hair, keeping its colour vague, and "brun" as "nápbarnitott" -sunburned- in "egy napbarnított nyakat", a sunburned nape of a neck, leaving it crystal clear that it's the prince's skin colour).
The royal palace is described by both Andersen and Dumas as a baroque Versailles, surrounded by a vast French garden with a wide linden avenue or promenade, countless rows of windows, and vast halls glittering with thousands of dazzling chandeliers and walls decked with satin brocade. The crowner is, indeed, the royal bedchamber with its glass ceiling and lily beds on golden stems. Some illustrators have rather had a Mannerist-style Rhineland/Loire château, or even an outpost fort (Marie Diaz/Miss Clara), for the setting of the Fourth Story.
As for the princess herself, her hair colour is not mentioned by Dumas nor Andersen, yet dark hair of a shade or another seems to be a rather popular choice. Gerda, the younger and lower-class heroine, is innocently blond (like Alice or Sleeping Beauty), while dark hair (another example is the highway-girl in the Fifth Story, whom I reworked as Roswitha) stands for experience and more knowledge of the world.
Some adaptations prefer to give her red or strawberry-blond/Titian (Le Cain, Sumberac, 2005 Danish) hair: a darker shade than Gerda's, but nevertheless warm and indicating self-confidence.
Nevertheless, nutbrown hair seems to be the most popular choice, so I made Sophia auburn/mahogany (something in between Miss Clara's, Birmingham's, Le Cain's, and Egmont's incarnations, among many others). Charles Liddell, her beau, is blond partly as a descendant of Alice (yes, that Alice!), partly as a tribute to the blond Kays, like Miss Clara's, that show up from time to time. The Clever Lady, Sophia's mother, is a dead ringer for her daughter, while late consort/husband/father Karl was raven-haired like in the Dumas and following versions (Birmingham, Sumberac, Egmont...) Both live at the versaillesque Schloss Lilienstengel (Lilystem) in the realm of Lilienstiel (Lilystalk). And have I told you that their story is closer to the Diaz version, while Sophia's own is closer to Andersen's? The motto of both the household and kingdom is "Truth and Rarity".
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