France Month: Les six frères cygnes par Elsa Oriol (Illustrateur)

Les six frères cygnes par Wilhelm Grimm (Auteur), Jacob Grimm (Auteur), Elsa Oriol (Illustrateur) is better known as The Six Swans to us in English. I was thrilled to find so many illustrations from this book to share for it is a beloved tale, not often seen illustrated in picture books.

Book description:

La fratrie des frères Grimm se composait de cinq garçons et d'une fille, très importante dans l'histoire familiale, C'est pourquoi Les six frères cygnes occupent une place particulière parmi les contes que les frères Grimm ont fixés par écrit. Nous sommes ici d'emblée au cœur de toutes les tensions: la famille éclatée, recomposée, est source d'épreuves, de rivalités, de désirs, d'interdits, de transgressions et c'est seulement en surmontant ces épreuves que la fratrie parviendra à dénouer les fils du sortilège
et à construire enfin son destin.

Short Story Online: Swans by Kelly Link

Fantasy Magazine Online reprinted the short story, Swans by Kelly Link, last month. The story originally appeared in A Wolf at the Door and Other Retold Fairy Tales edited by Ellen Datlow & Terry Windling. It is a Wild Swans/Six Swans retelling.

Here are the first few paragraphs to spark your interest but you'll have to visit the site to read the rest:

My name is Emma Bear, and I am eleven years old. I live on Black Ankle Road beside the Licking River. I live in a palace. My father is a king. I have a fairy godfather. This summer I read The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and learned how to make blue dye from a flower called woad. I have six brothers. My mother is dead. I’m in the seventh grade. My father remarried this summer. My favorite class is home ec. I love to sew. I make all my own clothes. My mother taught me how to sew. I can also knit, crochet, and quilt.

Yesterday my stepmother pointed her pinkie finger at my brothers and turned them all into swans. They were being too noisy. I’m never too noisy. I don’t talk at all.

This year I was failing choir. I opened my mouth to sing, and nothing came out. I hadn’t been able to say a word since my mother died. In my other classes, it was okay. Homework was okay. Math was okay, and English. Art was okay. I could write down answers on the black board. I carried around a pad of paper and a pen. You’d be surprised how often you don’t actually have to say anything. Mostly if I just nodded, it was okay. But choir doesn’t work that way. You can’t sing by writing on a pad of paper. But nothing came out of my mouth when I opened it.

And if you enjoyed the story, you might also enjoy some of Link's other works, including Stranger Things Happen: Stories and Magic for Beginners and Pretty Monsters: Stories.

 

De Vilde Svaner / The Wild Swans Film

Oh, how lovely and how very much not in English... But at least you can view the trailer and read an article about the new Danish film of The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen, a variant of The Six Swans. Then hope that a DVD release is made available with subtitles someday... From the article Queen of Denmark makes film debut...as an extra.

Face smeared with soot and wearing rags, Denmark's Queen Margrethe debuts as an extra in a film based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale on Friday.

The 69-year-old queen, known for painting, designing ballet costumes, chain-smoking and speaking frankly, will appear in "The Wild Swans" as a poor spectator to the threatened burning at the stake of the film's heroine, Princess Elisa.

"The idea emerged spontaneously as we were all working together on the set," said producer Jacob Jorgensen.

The queen designed sets and costumes for the film, which premieres on Friday, but her minor screen role was only recently revealed.

Andersen's 1838 fairy tale has earlier been adapted for ballet, television, an animated film -- and now a movie.

So I found the trailer and am sharing it with you here but an English one (for which I couldn't find embedding code) is available here: The Wild Swans trailer. Once again, not entirely in English, but beautiful to look at. Here is also a link to the official movie site: De Vilde Svaner. FYI, this is not the first fairy tale film Queen Margrethe has contributed to. She previously contributed to the production of Snedronningen (The Snow Queen), too.

Be sure to watch this one full screen. The details shouldn't be missed.




Leveret af Filmtrailer.com

De Vilde Svaner / The Wild Swans Film

Oh, how lovely and how very much not in English... But at least you can view the trailer and read an article about the new Danish film of The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen, a variant of The Six Swans. Then hope that a DVD release is made available with subtitles someday... From the article Queen of Denmark makes film debut...as an extra.

Face smeared with soot and wearing rags, Denmark's Queen Margrethe debuts as an extra in a film based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale on Friday.

The 69-year-old queen, known for painting, designing ballet costumes, chain-smoking and speaking frankly, will appear in "The Wild Swans" as a poor spectator to the threatened burning at the stake of the film's heroine, Princess Elisa.

"The idea emerged spontaneously as we were all working together on the set," said producer Jacob Jorgensen.

The queen designed sets and costumes for the film, which premieres on Friday, but her minor screen role was only recently revealed.

Andersen's 1838 fairy tale has earlier been adapted for ballet, television, an animated film -- and now a movie.

So I found the trailer and am sharing it with you here but an English one (for which I couldn't find embedding code) is available here: The Wild Swans trailer. Once again, not entirely in English, but beautiful to look at. Here is also a link to the official movie site: De Vilde Svaner. FYI, this is not the first fairy tale film Queen Margrethe has contributed to. She previously contributed to the production of Snedronningen (The Snow Queen), too.

Be sure to watch this one full screen. The details shouldn't be missed.




Leveret af Filmtrailer.com