{"id":31356,"date":"2016-11-18T14:57:46","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T18:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/?p=31356"},"modified":"2016-11-18T14:57:46","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T18:57:46","slug":"enchanting-fairy-tales-dressed-in-powder-and-crinoline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/2016\/11\/enchanting-fairy-tales-dressed-in-powder-and-crinoline\/","title":{"rendered":"Enchanting Fairy Tales Dressed in Powder and Crinoline"},"content":{"rendered":"

By:\u00a0 Sydney Vollmer<\/em><\/p>\n

\"12<\/a>Over the next few months, the Archives & Rare Books Library will open another of our exhibit websites that introduces our extensive collection of fairy tales and folklore for research and teaching. \u00a0There are many volumes to sift through, but one I recently pulled caught my eye. \u00a0In Powder and Crinoline<\/em> doesn\u2019t contain any stories with which I was familiar, but when I paged through it, I was more than a little pleasantly surprised.<\/p>\n

This collection of stories retold by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863-1944) was first published in 1912 by Hodder and Stoughton. \u00a0\u201cQ\u201d was a Cornish writer who was well known for his fiction and anthologies, particularly for his Oxford collection of English poetry in 1900.\u00a0 In the preface to Powder and Crinoline<\/em>, he speaks of his first impression of the work:<\/p>\n

When Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton told me that Mr. Kay Nielsen wished to employ his pencil upon a volume of Fairy Tales [sic], to be called In Powder and Crinoline<\/em>, I answered that the title and notion it conveyed were, in my opinion, capital\u2026but that if anyone knew where to find in the age of Crinoline<\/em> a stock of such tales as we wanted I should be obliged by the information.<\/p>\n

\"Arthur<\/a>

Arthur Quiller-Couch<\/p><\/div>\n

The Danish Nielsen (1886-1957), an artist in the \u201cgolden age of illustration\u201d with the likes of Edmund Dulac and Arthur Rackham, primarily worked in his home in Copenhagen and provided the artwork for many Scandinavian stories and legends.<\/p>\n

Blessedly, they found just the tales they so desired and arguably the most famous work from this collection is the story of \u201cThe Twelve Dancing Princesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the briefest summary I can write, a common boy named Michael wishes for a great destiny. \u00a0A woman in a golden gown appears to him in a dream and orders him to leave home for the kingdom where twelve princesses live. \u00a0There, she says, he will marry one of them. \u00a0Michael sets off on this adventure and becomes the gardener\u2019s helper at the palace. \u00a0When he sees the youngest princess, Lina, he knows he wants to marry her. \u00a0Each morning, he delivers a unique bouquet to all of the twelve princesses.<\/p>\n

\"Kay<\/a>

Kay Nielsen<\/p><\/div>\n

These princesses, like many of the princesses we know and love, are not well-behaved girls. \u00a0The king has a terrible time keeping track of them. \u00a0Every night they go to bed, but in the morning all of their dresses are torn and their shoes have holes in the bottoms. \u00a0Having explored all options, the king finally offers one of his daughter\u2019s hands in marriage to whoever can figure out where it is they go at night and how they get there. \u00a0Princes near and far stand wait at their door all night, but no one can solve the mystery. \u00a0Michael wishes he could wager a guess.<\/p>\n

That night, the woman in the golden gown appears in another dream and gives \"Powder<\/a>Michael two laurel bushes saying that if he follows her instructions of planting, raking, and reciting a poem to them, each will give him exactly one wish. Michael wakes up to find the bushes next to him and gets to work planting. From the first bush, he wishes for invisibility. \u00a0With the new power, he sneaks into the room of the princesses and follows them at night as they escape through a secret passage in their floor and meet princes by the shore. \u00a0They get in boats and arrive at a ball where they dance the night away. \u00a0Michael finds out that none of the princes have told the king about his daughters because they were given a potion which left nothing in their hearts but the love of dance.<\/p>\n

\"12<\/a>The morning after they return, Michael puts flowers in Lina\u2019s bouquet that she saw on the way to the ball. \u00a0When she finally figures out Michael followed them, she confronts him. \u00a0Michael assures her he has no desire of telling the king. \u00a0Eventually, Lina tells her eldest sister what happened and all the princesses demand that to show his loyalty to them, Michael must accompany them to the ball. \u00a0He goes to the second laurel and wishes to be dressed like a prince. \u00a0The wish is granted and he spends the entire night dancing with the woman he loves.<\/p>\n

\"Princess<\/a>At the end of the night, when the potion is presented to him, he willingly takes the cup. \u00a0Princess Lina screams out that she would rather marry a gardener than have his heart be changed. \u00a0Happy his love is reciprocated, Michael throws the cup to the side and tells the king about the princesses when they return to the kingdom. \u00a0He gets to marry Lina and become a prince, and his story ends happily.<\/p>\n

Of course Sir Quiller-Couch tells it much better than I, but it isn\u2019t the writing that sets this story above other fairy tales\u2014it\u2019s the illustrations. \u00a0Never in my life have I seen something so vibrantly colored with such ornate detail as I have in this collection. \u00a0You should come to the library to see these pictures for yourself, as they were all handcrafted and meant to be looked at up close. \u00a0The scholarly importance of the tales and the illustrations which accompanied them is considerable, not only in a literary sense, but in educational and psychological aspects as well.<\/p>\n

\"Gardner<\/a>In my next blog, I will tell you all about illustrator Kay Nielsen\u2019s life as well as his process for creating these drawings. \u00a0For now, enjoy the beauty of something created by the human mind and hands.<\/p>\n

Working in the Archives and Rare Books Library, I have a lot of books I can brag about holding and flipping through, but this quickly made its way to the top of that list. \u00a0Come appreciate these works and let yourself enjoy all the whimsy like you did as a child. \u00a0ARB is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, and we\u2019re located on the 8th<\/sup> floor of Blegen Library. \u00a0You can call us at 513.556.1959 or email at archives@ucmail.uc.edu<\/a>. \u00a0Visit \u00a0us on the web at \u00a0http:\/\/www.libraries.uc.edu\/arb.html<\/a> and our Facebook page can be found at \u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ArchivesRareBooksLibraryUniversityOfCincinnati<\/a> where we post all sorts of delights about our various archival and rare book collections every day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By:\u00a0 Sydney Vollmer Over the next few months, the Archives & Rare Books Library will open another of our exhibit websites that introduces our extensive collection of fairy tales and folklore for research and teaching. \u00a0There are many volumes to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,83],"tags":[1248,959,67],"class_list":["post-31356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arb","category-langsam-library","tag-fairly-tales","tag-illustrators","tag-rare-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31356\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}