Stories for the Season: The Elves & the Shoemaker

"The Elves and the Shoemaker"
Retold from The Brothers Grimm and Illustrated by Jim LaMarche

The story of "The Elves and the Shoemaker" by the Grimm Brothers takes place around Christmas and used to be much more well known than it is now.

Here's the fairly straight retelling from Golden Books (plus an annoying cuckoo that kids seem to love), which includes at least some nods to the Christmas aspect:


I found a lovely trio of illustrations by Steve Morrison which succinctly tell the story in just three panels.You can see more of Mr. Morrison's lovely work HERE. (He's currently showing pen-and-ink style illustrations he's done of A Christmas Carol.)

Strangely, there don't seem to be a lot of similar tales across cultures but I wanted to point out that one of them "The Hand With the Knife" is now available to read online HERE. The similarity lies in the good hearted being helped by an elf but there's no thankfulness or Christmas in sight.

I also found a panel from an apparent book in progress and there's a familiar visitor to the Shoemaker's shop in this one...You can find more by artist Kasia Dudziuk (a.k.a. Kasiacreations on deviantArt) HERE. She's done illustrations for a number of other fairy tales too.

We also have The Muppets to thank for keeping fairy tales in the public consciousness. Muppet Classic Theater which is both out of print and has never been released on DVD (!) retells six fairy tales in true muppet style, "The Elves and the Shoemaker" being one of them. (The other five are: Rumpelstiltskin, King Midas & the Golden Touch, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Boy Who Cried Wolf and The Three Little Pigs.)

The clip below starts from the beginning of this story rather than the beginning of the overall presentation so it appears as though you're starting in the middle of something, but you're not missing anything important from the tale.

Enjoy!

Kate Beaton's Comic Fairy Tale Endings

Here's some fresh fairy tale fracturing you may enjoy, newly created by popular comic artist Kate Beaton:Kate is a comic artist (and webcomic artist) from Nova Scotia who, using her Gaelic sense of humor, draws lots of historical cartoons and turns history "on its head" (read a great article about her work HERE). You can find out more about her at her Live Journal account HERE or at her website "Hark! A Vagrant" HERE.

Zelinsky's Rapunzel & Other Award Winning Fairy Tale Picture Books on DVD

In May this year, Scholastic released a lovely collection of beautifully illustrated fairy tales on DVD with a stellar cast of narrators to complement.

All of the books contained in the volume are illustrated by award winners.

Here are the descriptions from Amazon.com:

RAPUNZEL (Retold and illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky, narrated by TK) A unique retelling of the story of Rapunzel, the girl with the long, golden hair.THE ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKER (Retold and illustrated by Jim LaMarche, narrated by Patrick Stewart) A pair of elves secretly create an amazing pair of shoes for a poor but kindly shoemaker.THE TALKING EGGS (Written by Robert D. San Souci, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, narrated by Danny Glover) When a young girl befriends a mysterious elderly woman, magical things happen.THE THREE BILLY GOATS GRUFF (Retold by P. C. Asbjornsen and J. E. Moe, illustrated by Marcia Brown, narrated by TK) Follow the adventures of three billy goats named Gruff as they bravely hunt for fresh green grass to eat.LON PO PO: A RED RIDING HOOD STORY FROM CHINA (Written and illustrated by Ed Young, narrated by B. D. Wong) This Asian version of the classic fairytale brings lessons about strangers, trust and courage.PRINCESS FURBALL (Retold by Charlott Huck, illustrated by Anita Lobel, narrated by TK) A king falls in love with a princess after she hides her identity under a coat made of a thousand furs.This looks like a lovely collection. If anyone has seen the DVD please do let us know how the presentation comes across.

You can click HERE to see more details.