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Categories: Science fiction Fantasy Mystery Romance Business Classic Sports Young adult Humor Memoirs See all categories... |
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Categories: Science fiction Fantasy Mystery Romance Business Classic Sports Young adult Humor Memoirs See all categories... |
Whilst I adore the illustrations by Mercer Mayer, I'm both baffled and bothered by the introduction of elements from other fairy tales that have a) nothing to do with East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and b) are foreign to the Nordic culture and setting that adopted this tale and made it their own. What are the Grimms' The Water of Life and The Frog Prince have to do with this tale? Why take away the very idiosyncratic polar bear and replace it by a run-of-the-mill pond frog? It's Scandinavia, for goodness' sake, the white bear makes more sense! And why have the girl consult elements such as a salamander instead of the Four Winds about how to find the castle of the troll Queen? What is Andersen's The Tinderbox doing here? There are all sorts of creatures that help the girl, frog, salamander, unicorn, Father Forest, carp, goat, great fish, etc., for no reason at all, and there's no reason provided for why the girl should either be helped out of every scrape or go to rescue the frog-prince in the first place. Besides the element of looking for the kidnapped prince at the castle east of the sun and west of the moon, the tale is changed for no sensible reason that I can tell. It's the second picture book of this tale that I find in which the story has been changed in ways that mess up the plot, but the art remains so gorgeous that it's a pity it wasn't matched by better storytelling.
