These tales are told to children to show them that anything is possible and to ignite their imagination. They are scary tales and some children do have nightmares from these but again they are told to them to prepare them for the real world and the dangers in the outside world.
I was struck by the beautiful imagery that accomponies these tales and the play on beauty and ugly. I was particularly interested in the Trolls and the human animal cross over and the tales of outsmarting the Trolls.
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| A Troll counting his fortune, John Bauer http://www.themeshack.net/2008downloads/200812/1228/patches/JohnBauerArt-wallpaper.jpg |
The tales of Trolls show that money can buy you happiness as the Trolls are very rich but very unhappy and that they are mesmerised by beauty as they are so scary looking. Young Scandinavian children understand the concept of Trolls and are scared of them as they often steal children in the tales, and a way to teach children to brush their teeth is to tell them to get rid of the very small "tooth trolls" that otherwise will make holes in their teeth. (Torbjørn Egner's "Karius og Baktus").
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| The Huldra was supposed to be an breath taking beauty, often naked woman, inhabitant of the deep of the forests. John Bauer. http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRiBxTV9iIDyVAdefw7epZtfO8cf8N7foDDuf84EW_7yHbpQ8YCOF1cxTcQNQ |
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| John Bauer http://www.artsycraftsy.com/bauer/jb_queen.jpg The illustartor John Bauer is prevalent in the illustration of the folklore tales the and his work had a lot of elements of Gustav Klimt's paintings within it, they were painting at the same time and I wonder if Bauer was influenced by Klimt's colour schemes and style. |
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| Klimt's "Forces of Evil" http://www.iklimt.com/ |
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| Trolls transfixed on the Huldra, John Bauer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Bauer_1915.jpg |
Here you can see the similarity between the subject matter and some of the patterns between Bauer and Klimt's work. I would like to use these creatures as a starting point to create my own folk tale. Im thinking of creating my own creatures with their own personalities to design clothes around, maybe to use each personality of the creatures as a basis for designs. Im thinking of looking into traditional folklore clothing to compliment this?
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