Strawberries in the Snow Illustrations by Folkard & Anderson

The Three Dwarfs in the Wood, Grimm's Fairy Tales
by Charles Folkard

Remember my post on The Twelve Months/Strawberries in the Snow from December HERE?

It's taken me a while but I finally found where I'd read the version with the strawberries. It's a German fairy tale included in Andrew Lang's Red Fairy Book, called "The Three Dwarfs", and includes the paper dress the girl is forced to wear too (don't know how I forgot that part). While I'm certain I've blended parts from different tales in my memory I know I've also read a Russian version with strawberries somewhere too. Strawberries, apples or violets, I do love this variant on diamonds and Toads. I also like that the story continues after the girl is found by a king. Her troubles don't stop until the troublesome step-relatives are dealt with once and for all.

The Three Dwarfs
by Anne Anderson

Once I found the name/s of this variant of "Diamonds & Toads" with the strawberries, I also found these lovely illustrations by Charles Folkard and Anne Anderson too. Pretty, no? (You can see more of his fairy tale illustrations on the SurLaLune page for Folkard HERE and Anderson HERE.) Just like "The Twelve Months", I'm surprised there aren't more illustrations for this story - there's a wealth of subjects for illustrators to explore in this tale.

Stories for the Season: The Months/Strawberries In the Snow

"The Enchanted Princess"
Photo-manipulation by Krysta (a.k.a. GettysGirl on Flickr )

I think of the Russian tale "Strawberries in the Snow" (also known as "The Months", "The Twelve Months", "The Tale of the Kind and the Unkind Girls") as basically a Winter/Yule form of "Diamonds and Toads" and again, this tale seemed commonly known when I was a girl but it's now hard to find any 'regular' tale collections that include it or any picture book retellings, which is a shame because this tale should be an illustrator's dream.

Russian Fairy Tale "Twelve Months"
by M. Pichugina

Basically a girl (with a good heart) is sent out by either her evil/just-plain-mean mother or stepmother to find strawberries in the dead of Winter (sometimes it's strawberries, sometimes apples). On her futile trip through the snow drifts she sees a campfire in the woods and approaches in the hopes of a little warmth. It turns out the twelve men around the fire are the months of the year and it's not long before the girl, through her manners and selflessness, is helped by the Months to find whatever it is, she's been sent to collect (a patch of snow melts, sweet and large strawberries grow before her eyes and ripen/a tree shakes the ice off it's branches, buds, blooms then grows bright red apples etc). Often The Winter King or December is involved in providing warmth/curbing the frost as the pertinent months do their part in helping the plant grow. Of course, you know what happens. The girl joyfully returns home without even taking one bite herself. Sometimes she's sent back out on multiple trips to get different things but ultimately the other sister (or stepsister) with the selfish heart is sent out to find more of the same or something better but her rudeness to the men around the fire causes her to end up lost and frozen in the snow.

Belarus 2006 20Ru Twelve Months Fairy Tale Silver UNC

There are, of course, many variants on this (you can read a version in which the girl must look for snowdrops HERE) and it's very possible I've mashed a few of them together in my own summary but the basic idea of being aided by The Winter King and his brothers/comrades and gifting the good girl is very much a Christmas/Yule scene.

Those interested in this tale in a scholarly fashion may find this link interesting: a book discussing the conundrum in fairy tale studies of "The tale of the kind and the unkind girls", or "Strawberries in the Snow", published in 1994. You can read a few of the pages if you do a Google book search. The link to the whole book is HERE and though out of print still seems available if you search for it. (No lovely cover sorry - I gather it's just purple with type.)
S. Marshak wrote several plays for kids based on Russian fairy tales in the late 1800's and The Twelve Months is one of them. The book I'm linking to is an illustrated version and is described as "light and witty". Need I say 'it's on my wishlist'? You can find it HERE.

* The artist who did this photo-manipulation said the fairy tale she was illustrated is called "The Enchanted Princess". She includes a summary and although parts of it are familiar from different tales I've never read all these elements in a tale called "The Enchanted Princess" before. The beginning is similar so I'll include it here:

Evil stepmother, ugly and mean stepsister; the girl is sent into the woods in a paper dress and shoeless to find strawberries in mid-winter. Magic elves enchant her - she'll grow more beautiful every day, gold coins will fall from her mouth when she speaks, and she'll lead a long and wonderful life.

I've read 'sent out in rags' before but not the paper dress. It's a nice touch. You can read the rest HERE.

Neil Gaiman's Retelling of 'Diamonds & Toads'

I admit it: I'd heard about the book but never ventured further in my investigations - I should have.

[A note: Initially this post had a lot of exclamation points - a condition I slip into when I get excited about something. I've tried to edit most of them out but I'm sure a few have slipped through. Instead of speaking in frogs or sapphires I've been spouting exclamation marks!]

"Who Killed Amanda Palmer" by Neil Gaiman, has a retelling of Diamonds and Toads as part of the text.

This is one of those fairy tales I came to know as a child and so didn't realize it wasn't well known till much later. It's one of those tales that has many (MANY!) variants in many countries and is begging to be explored. In the Western world it's also known by the titles: Mother Holle (or Frau Holle) and The Fairies. SurLaLune - the best fairy tale resource on the web for text, annotations and interpretations - has a page on the VARIANTS around the world and the list is very long. Clearly, this is one of those stories that resonates across time and culture very well.

One of the short stories that has stayed with me is a retelling of this very tale and can be found in "Twice Upon a Time", edited by Denise Little. The title is "How I Came To Marry A Herpetologist" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman and turns the usually perceived curse of speaking toads and snakes on its head. To this day, I'm on the fence about whether I'd choose to speak jewels or reptiles as a result.

So, back to Neil Gaiman's version: Amanda Palmer (yes, the same Amanda Palmer as the title) was recorded reading the Diamonds and Toads retelling at one of her concerts. She does a lovely job of telling it, as you can see below:

Thanks to the community at Told This Time for alerting me. I couldn't help but expand on this news and add a little extra information about the tale for those curious. You can see the original post HERE.

NOTE: The illustration is by Lealand Eve, who has other illustrations exploring 'discomfort in fairy tales'. This tale definitely qualifies. You can find out more about Lealand Eve and see more work HERE.