Heidi Anne Heiner's Blog, page 133

Fairy Tale Gifts 2012: Julie

Our next entry in the Fairy Tale Gifts 2012 Giveaway is from Julie:

Only five on a list is difficult! Some of my picks:


1. Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale by Carolyn Turgeon. I loved her last book, Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story, a take on "Cinderella." I'm really looking forward to seeing how she reimagines "The Little Mermaid."


2. Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu. I read this one about a year ago and loved it. I'd love a paperback copy.


3. Calamity Jack by Shannon Hale. The sequel to Rapunzel's Revenge, this graphic novel examines the backstory of Jack, of beanstalk fame. I'm obsessed with anything Hale writes; I'm sure her grocery lists are gorgeous. (From Heidi: If you ever have the opportunity to hear Shannon Hale present at a conference or booksigning, don't miss it. She's great!)


4. Once Upon a Time: The Complete First Season DVD--Does anything get better than Robert Carlyle as Rumpelstiltskin?


5. A red riding cape from Etsy--because Little Red is a fashion icon.

Fairy Tale Gifts 2012: convergingnow

Our next entry in the Fairy Tale Gifts 2012 Giveaway is from convergingnow (don't miss the last one which is appearing on the blog for the first time):


1) Cinderella Tales From Around the World - Heiner


2) Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version by Philip Pullman


3) In a Glass Grimmly - Gidwitz


4) Once Upon a Time: The Complete First Season DVD


5) Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov (Penguin Classics) - Chandler (From Heidi: Fascinating! I'd missed this one probably because although it has just been released in ebook in the US, it won't be released in paper until June 2013. I just wish it had some Tolstoy fairy tales in it... but it's a must-own for me at some point, too!)

Fairy Tale Gifts 2012: Гоар Меликян

Our next entry in the Fairy Tale Gifts 2012 Giveaway is from Гоар Меликян:


1) Cinderella Tales From Around the World by Heidi Anne Heiner


2) Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights by Marina Warner (new edition 2012)


3) The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre by Jack Zipes


4) Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version by Philip Pullman


5) The Annotated Brothers Grimm (The Bicentennial Edition) by Maria Tatar

Fairy Tale Gifts 2012: Christina

Our next entry in the Fairy Tale Gifts 2012 Giveaway is from Christina:

Great idea! I'm getting lots of ideas just from reading the posts. Here are my current top five:


Shadow and Bone (Grisha Trilogy) by Leigh Bardugo (not a retelling but many fairy tale elements here)


Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version by Philip Pullman


Russian Fairy Tales (Illustrated) by Alexander Afanasyev and illustrated by Ivan Bilibin (From Heidi: Bilibin, yes!)


This simple yet lovely "Arwen" ring

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This understated t-shirt. :)

I could go on and on with books, and books, and more books. . . but most of them I read about here first!

Choosing Grimms

In honor of the Grimms' Anniversary being celebrated today, I thought I would share an older post, slightly edited, about choosing a Grimms collection for your shelf.

Today's library essential is a reprint of an old post about Grimms' Fairy Tales collections. In a nutshell, I rely most heavily on my copies of The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm translated by Jack Zipes and Grimm's Household Tales, with the Author's Notes translated and edited by Margaret Hunt with an Introduction by Andrew Lang, originally published in 1884, and reprinted by Singing Tree Press in 1968. The Hunt translation is problematic but it is the most complete--although edited--English version of the Grimms' notes to the tales. It is also very difficult to find at times--the many editions online barring the one on SurLaLune claim to have the notes, but don't. The SurLaLune doesn't have all the notes either because I've never had the time to finish editing them. The edition is actually two volumes with a total of 454 and 598 pages respectively and about 25% of that page count is notes.

Here's the post in its entirety:

A fairly regular question over the years has been what version of Grimms I use. I have addressed the issue a little on SurLaLune--it is buried at the bottom of the page of the Grimms collection on SurLaLune here, but I'll quote the essential info here:


 
In the 21st century, two of the most accurate and best translations of the Grimms' tales are by Ralph Manheim and Jack Zipes. The Zipes translation, currently in a third edition, includes extra fragments and earlier manuscripts, but some readers prefer Manheim's translations. The choice is aesthetic and should be decided by the individual reader. However, if you are looking for a reliable English translation, I recommend selecting either one or both of these translations. I myself use the Zipes edition regularly, especially for those extra tales that are harder to find.

Still, that one doesn't describe my particular methods and madness, so for today, I thought I would share a little more.

First of all, I do not use just one version of Grimms, for a multitude of reasons, a few of which I'll discuss here. I liken it to asking a Bible scholar which version of the Bible they read. The answer would be several! My list is much shorter, but definitely numbers more than one.

I am not a proficient German reader without much painstaking effort. (With Romance languages, especially French, I am MUCH more fluent.) So I usually rely on translations into my native English, of which there are an abundance.

Finding a reliable translation can be tricky. I don't have the time and inclination to discuss the issues--besides which they are not my specialty--so I will instead recommend a wonderful thesis by Martin James Sutton: The sin-complex: a critical study of English versions of the Grimms’ Kinder- und Hausmärchen in the nineteenth century in comparison with the German originals. A shortened version was printed into a book, but is difficult to find and out of print to boot. The good news is that the thesis is available in full online for your edification from The University of Auckland. I so appreciate when this happens! The thesis is provided as a PDF in three parts, all of which are linked from the handling page. Here's the abstract, too:

This thesis investigates the English versions of the Grimms’ Kinder- und Hausmärchen (= KHM) published between the years 1823 and 1884, i.e. from the first translation by Edgar Taylor and David Jardine, German Popular Stories (1823 and 1826), to the first complete edition of the Grimms’ collection of stories and notes by Margaret Hunt, Grimm’s Household Tales (1884). Each of the first eleven chapters deals with a specific English edition and gives an analysis of one or more stories from that edition together with the texts of the German original. The two versions, German and English, are placed alongside each other in parallel columns to facilitate comparison. The twelfth chapter takes the final paragraph of one story, ‘Sneewittchen’ (KHM 53), and examines the seven different English versions of it in the editions discussed in the previous chapters. The final chapter compares the quality of English translations of the KHM in the nineteenth century with that of the Grimms’ sole venture in translating tales in the English language into German, viz. Wilhelm Grimm’s Irische Elfenmärchen (1826). Included as an appendix is a tabulated concordance of the contents of the twelve major editions discussed in this thesis. The investigation shows that the areas deemed to be sensitive ones by English translators were those which had to do with what Darton (Children’s Books in England, 1982, p.99) has singled out as ‘a deep-rooted sin-complex’ in England. Any story that touched on the issues of religious belief and superstition, the human body and its physical nature, violence and evil, and the intense emotions felt by human beings which prompt them to commit violent and destructive acts, was inevitably viewed with concern and mistrust, especially by purveyors of children’s literature in the nineteenth century. All these issues, as well as the element of fantasy which so readily admits and entertains them, were prone to considerable revision by successive translators of the KHM.

In other words, Sutton explains the issues with various early translations of Grimms. He includes references to later translations such as Manheim and Zipes, overall supporting the consensus that these are two of the best translations available today, and ever, in English.  Professors across the land agree for either one of these are most commonly assigned as textbooks for classes using fairy tales.

Personally, I use the Zipes much more often than the Manheim simply because there are extras included--and added in subsequent editions since it is now in its third edition.  My needs are for as much material as possible with a reliable translation.  The Manheim is excellent, too, and sufficient for most people's needs.

However, the nature of SurLaLune requires a public domain text which makes Sutton's The Sin Complex a helpful resource.  Years ago, thanks to availability I chose to depend primarily on Margaret Hunt's translation for the website.  It appears quite often in printed versions today, sometimes uncredited.  Of the many nineteenth century editions, it is considered one of the most reliable and is also one of the most easily attainable.  I have a reprint version which also includes the Grimms' notes to the tales, at least the best English translation of them available.  Most print editions of Hunt's do not include the Grimms' extensive notes.  The notes are problematic, a strange mesh of Hunt's own knowledge and the Grimms, but they are available, more than I can say for other translations.  Year ago, I scanned the notes and started editing them to include on SurLaLune.  Many are available, although I have never finished editing all of them. 

When I am looking for kid-friendly versions of the popular tales, I usually use versions found in Andrew Lang's colored fairy books.  When I first started SurLaLune 12 years ago, those were the most accessible for me and thus ended up as many of the annotated versions on SurLaLune.

At times, I also use D. L. Ashliman's site where he has translated many of the most popular tales himself with his own notes and occasional comparisons. 


    
For the armchair reader not as concerned with the strictly academic, I also recommend Maria Tatar's The Annotated Brothers Grimm .  There is a new expanded edition this year (2012) with extra tales. It only provides many of the most popular tales, but the introductions and annotations are informative for most readers and includes illustrations.  The Opies' The Classic Fairy Tales is not strictly Grimms, but provides some more insight into the most popular tales as well as some from other sources.  Finally, it is out of print again, but Grimm's Grimmest is another standard recommendation for those seeking the "grittier" versions of some Grimms--there aren't many tales there, but they are presented grittier than the standard Grimms.  The versions in there rely on the earlier, less edited, tales from the Grimms.

So the simplest answer if you just want to have one version of Grimms on your shelf would be to choose the Zipes translation or the Manheim, if you prefer it aesthetically. You may choose to supplement it with many of the versions mentioned here if you want more information.


Also of note here is a new translation of the 40 most popular Grimms, translated by Maria Tatar as The Grimm Reader. It is not a complete Grimms but offers a new translation of the tales for those looking for a new version to compare and contrast.

The real Brothers Grimm were stranger than fiction By Jeff Ward-Bailey

The Christian Science Monitor also has a nice, short article about the Grimms this week. From The real Brothers Grimm were stranger than fiction By Jeff Ward-Bailey,:

The Grimms published the first volume of their collected folk tales -- called "Children's and Household Tales" -- in 1812, and a second volume in 1814. Though they continued to write scholarly books and articles on linguistics and medieval studies, their folk tales gained them the most recognition, and they even received honorary doctorates from their alma mater.

By the way, if you've ever read "Grimm's Fairy Tales" and felt they were a little dark for kids, you have German culture during the early 1800s to thank. After the book was published it attracted criticism for its sexual content, so the brothers edited these themes out of subsequent editions. But because the violence of the stories wasn't frowned upon in the same way, it was retained and in some cases even increased.

****

The Grimm's collection of folklore had already been popular during their lifetimes, but it went on to become one of the most celebrated works of German literature and the basis for countless books and movies during the next two centuries. On the list of the best-selling authors of all time, some figures place the Grimms in third place -- preceded only by Shakespeare and the Bible.

200th Anniversary of Grimms: Google Doodle

Don't miss today's Google Logo, a salute to the 200th anniversary of Grimms with a flat logo and a slide show version with 22 slides retelling their own version of Little Red Riding Hood. I see the flat version in IE and the slide show in Chrome at Google.com. If you are having a hard time seeing the slide show, all the images are available at PCMag's slide show, too. Nice twist on how the huntsman finds Granny and LRRH, too.

From Brothers Grimm Honored With Interactive Google Doodle at PCMag:

Google today is celebrating the 200th anniversay of Grimm's Fairy Tales with an interactive homepage doodle that tells the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

"Today we celebrate Grimm's Fairytales with an interactive story of Little Red Cap (aka Red Riding Hood)," Google tweeted this morning.

The doodle begins with "Little Red Cap" replacing the "O" in the Google logo. A flashing red arrow on the right beckons users to follow her journey. The following 21 slides tell the story of a girl en route to visit her sick grandmother, who encounters a mischevious (and hungry) wolf. The Big Bad Wolf's plan is ultimately thwarted thanks to a nearby lumberjack, and Red Cap is reunited with her grandmother. The tale ends with grandmother in a rocking chair, knitting a purple scarf that unfurls into the Google logo. For more, see the slideshow below.

There is also an article at Huffington Post, Brothers Grimm Google Logo Celebrates 200th Anniversary Of Children's Story Collection :

Things are looking Grimm on Google.com.

On December 20, Google posted an interactive logo on its home page to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the "Grimm's Fairy Tales," an 1812 publication of a German folklore collected by brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.

The Brothers Grimm anthology (then known as "Children's And Household Tales," now commonly known as "Grimm's Fairy Tales") is still in print 200 years after its first publication, and the stories themselves, relatively unchanged, have also endured. A number of the collected tales are today part of the canon of oft-told children's stories, with "Sleeping Beauty," "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Hansel and Gretel" among some of the most famous.

Or see a video version:

Free Ebook: The Goddess Hunt (Goddess Test) by Aimée Carter

The Goddess Hunt (Goddess Test) by Aimée Carter is free today in ebook format from Amazon. It is part of a series of books drawing on Greek mythology. I've not read them but see them around and hey, FREE!

Book description:

A vacation in Greece sounds like the perfect way for Kate Winters to spend her first sabbatical away from the Underworld...until she gets caught up in an immortal feud going back millennia. Castor and Pollux have been on the run from Zeus and Hades's wrath for centuries, hiding from the gods who hunt them. The last person they trust is Kate, the new Queen of the Underworld. Nevertheless, she is determined to help their cause. But when it comes to dealing with immortals, Kate still has a lot to learn....

A Goddess Test series ebook novella.

Fairy Tale Gifts 2012: Spike

Our next entry in the Fairy Tale Gifts 2012 Giveaway is from Spike (Spike is in the UK so many of these links are to Amazon.co.uk with some US links added in.):

Seriously, I could create sublists here. One for fiction books, one for nonfiction, one for artworks, one for.... so to cut it down to 5 items.

I'm entering cause it's a fun list (I already own a copy of irresistible fairy tales)

Some of the items really are BIG wishes


1. Gossip from the Forest: The Tangled Roots of Our Forests and Fairytales: A Search for the Hidden Roots of Our Fairytales by Sara Maitland or the US version: From the Forest: A Search for the Hidden Roots of our Fairytales (I was so disappointed that this book hadn't come out earlier, as it seems to link closely with my own past research of the last year)


2. Mermaid and Other Water Spirit Tales From Around the World by Heidi Anne Heiner or the US edition: Mermaid and Other Water Spirit Tales From Around the World (yes really! The last two years has been about forests and woods, I want a different focus...well maybe)


3. Any print by 'Jazmina Cininas', I really like "Angela prefers the company of wolves" (but I think it is sold)
(From Heidi: Ah, to already imagine the image by the title before I saw it...there is a select language some of us know in Fairytalelandia, isn't there?.)


4. One of Jane Godbold's ceramic mermaid sculptures, there were 6 more mermaids on rocks, but this is the best shot have that includes the boat. (see attached image)



5. A book sculpture by Su Blackwell. Hmm which one? I think "Wild swans" but again I think it has sold..and out of my price range too. (From Heidi: That's my favorite of her limited edition lithographs, too. And it is sold out. I'm gonna have to settle for the book: The Fairy-Tale Princess: Seven Classic Stories from the Enchanted Forest or the UK edition: The Fairytale Princess: Seven Classic Stories from the Enchanted Forest)


Cheers, Spike.

Bargain Ebook: Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr is $1.99 today only in ebook format on Amazon as one of their daily deals. There is another edition that is $7.99 so be sure to click on the right one.

Book description:

Rule #3: Don't stare at invisible faeries.

Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in mortal world. Aislinn fears their cruelty—especially if they learn of her Sight—and wishes she were as blind to their presence as other teens.

Rule #2: Don't speak to invisible faeries.

Now faeries are stalking her. One of them, Keenan, who is equal parts terrifying and alluring, is trying to talk to her, asking questions Aislinn is afraid to answer.

Rule #1: Don't ever attract their attention.

But it's too late. Keenan is the Summer King who has sought his queen for nine centuries. Without her, summer itself will perish. He is determined that Aislinn will become the Summer Queen at any cost—regardless of her plans or desires.

Suddenly none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe are working anymore, and everything is on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; her life; everything.

Faerie intrigue, mortal love, and the clash of ancient rules and modern expectations swirl together in Melissa Marr's stunning 21st century faery tale.