Saturday, July 2, 2011

Inspiration Avenue:The Brave Little Tailor

"Before you win my daughter and half my kingdom," said the King, "you must accomplish yet another heroic deed. You must capture a unicorn that is at large in the wood and doing great harm there."

The tailor took a halter and an axe and started for the wood, telling the party that was with him to wait outside. The unicorn came in sight immediately, and made for the tailor as if to gore him without ceremony.

"Steady, steady," cried the tailor. "Not so quick!"

He stood still and waited till the animal was quite close, and then sprang nimbly behind a tree. The unicorn made a frantic rush at the tree and gored it so firmly with his horn that he could not get it out again, and so was caught.

"Now I've got you my fine bird," said the tailor, coming from behind the tree. He put the halter round the beast's neck, cut it's horn out of the tree, and when all was done, led the animal home to the king.

The Brothers Grimm
The Brave Little Tailor


Fairy tale by The Brothers Grimm. Artwork by Kay Nielsen (1886-1957). Challenge this week (yes, it's Saturday, not my normal day to post the challenge) at Inspiration Avenue is nursery rhymes or fairy tales and was issued by Charlie.
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10 thoughtful remarks:

Marlynn said...

The Brothers Grimm were always my favorite fairy tale tellers - believe me not for the weak of heart! LOL - Have a fantastic Saturday my friend!

voodoo vixen said...

Aaaaw, poor unicorn! Such a lovely drawing too!
Hope you sort your shelving problems out soon, nothing worse or more depressing than to see piles of work in front of you and not be able to do anything about it.

Darla said...

This fairy tale is new to me although I do know a lot of the stories from the Brothers Grimm. Lovely painting.

Darla

Steph said...

Happy Long weekend to you dear E!!!

Liverpool Lou (Anne) said...

Hi Elizabeth, I've not heard this tale before, just glad the Unicorn didn't get killed.
Love the colours for you journal pages below and the birds are fab. I adore the ABC swap pages, gorgeous colours and I do so love using stencils with paste of some kind for texture :-)
Anne xx

Jo Murray said...

A GORGEOUS image, and the Grimm Bros. were a fave of mine too.

Dianne said...

very cool illustration! I hadn't heard this fairy tale...the Brothers Grimm definitely were sanitized by Mr. Disney. I'm wondering if you left out any frightening details...!(grin)

Kat W said...

I feel all sad for the Unicorn :-( The Brothers Grimm did some fab tales, not always nice & happy, but I loved them as a kid and revisiting them is fun. Thanks for sharing.

Kat X

Judy Goddard said...

I used to think that the reason maidens were used to lure unicorns was because unicorns ate them. So, the king had a good reason for wanting to get rid of this one!

Great illustration!

Priti Lisa said...

I didn't remember this tale and I thought I had read them all...thank you for sharing it, Elizabeth. I had always thought of unicorns as sweet, magical beings.
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