This vintage picture book retelling of the Grimms' fairy tale, "Frau Holle", was published by Ward Lock in 1967 as "A Kingfisher Colour Book". Unfortunately no author or illustrator is attributed for the work.
Cover, front and back matter
I picked up this book at a second bookstore for its beautiful front cover, which shows a girl with long, braided gold hair sitting on the edge of a well, a European town in the background. I particularly like the design of this cover, with the tip of the well roof protruding into a bar of white along the top, which contains the title in orange-red.
The split design of the front is repeated on the back cover, this time with a plain blue bar at the top, and a whitish illustration of children playing in the snow beneath. This image comes from an interior illustration (part of a double-page spread with the left page showing the young girl beating snow from Mother Well's pillow).
The front inside cover repeats the front cover illustration, including the white bar at the top, while the front loose endpaper is the title page, presenting title and publisher information, with an image between of the girl in her patched dress, looking very Cinderella-like¹, sweeping and crying (an illustration that is repeated in the pages of the story). The other side of the front loose endpaper is the first page of the story.
The back loose endpaper is the final page of the story, with the copyright and printing information at the bottom, and the back inside cover is a new final image, showing the unkind sister covered in tar.
Story
She had to scrub and brush and sweep and toil until the house was as clean and bright as a new pin. And when all the work was done, the poor girl had to go to the market and carry all the food, and when this was done she would sit on the edge of an old well and spin. She had to do so much spinning that it made her fingers raw and bleeding, but neither the sister nor the step-mother ever showed any kindness towards her, or helped her with her work in any way whatsoever.
There were a few story additions or differences of note:
- when the kind girl drops her "bobbin" into the well she is not just mercilessly "scolded" as in the Grimms' story – instead "the step-mother beat her cruelly" and tells her to "get it back again and be quick before I give you another beating", which gives more context to why she is terrified enough to jump into the well
- when she helps the bread and the apple tree she says "I'm very happy to help you" and is thanked by them both, the apple tree elaborating: "Now I can stand up straight and stretch my branches again and have another big family of apples next year"
- the old woman tells her: "My name is Mother Well because I live at the bottom of a well" (I can't find any other versions of this story with this particular difference in name)
- the old woman does not look scary (unlike in the Grimms' version where the girl is frightened by her very large teeth) but "looked such a kind person"
- Mother Well elaborates that she is pleased the girl wishes to go back home because "it is very right and proper that a daughter should wish to be with her family"
- rather than a "gate", she takes the girl "along various passages and corridors" to an "outside door"
- the girl's golden reward is not just for being industrious but for her kindness and "services to an old lady"
- There is a change to the translated refrain of the rooster, the second line using a 'yoo hoooo' to rhyme with 'Cockadoodledooo"
- instead of a short statement, Mother Well gives a longer moralistic explanation about the 'reward' given to the unkind sister: "If you had not worked so badly for me, and if you had made my bed as I asked every day, your reward would have been very different. You're lazy through to the bone and tar is all you're worth."
Illustrations
The cover illustration reminded me a little of Janet and Anne Grahame-Johnstone's illustrations of young people, but otherwise the illustrations have their own unique style.My favourite was this one of the kind girl beating Mother Well's pillow to make snow:
There is also a lovely image of the girl beneath Mother Well's window:
We were also treated to images of the girl collecting apples, and standing before the oven (which is illustrated with a cute little face). There are three separate images of the girl showered in gold. In terms of other characters, the stepmother is depicted as hag-like, wearing a white mobcap with a stiff bonnet, a dark pink dress, and a large grey belt with keys (chatelaine), indicating her position as mistress of the house. Mother Well is pictured as a kindly old lady in a wimple. The unkind sister is shown in several images looking cross, two covered in tar, one entering the tar, and in two other images – one showing her saying no to helping the bread, the other showing her napping, chores incomplete.
I thought it was interesting that she was illustrated with red hair, as this was also an illustration choice for another unkind sister in a retelling of the Russian fairy tale of this tale type, "Father Frost" – see my review of Fantasy Tales (1982, Brimax Books, adapt. Lucy Kincaid, ill. Eric Kincaid and Eric Rowe).
As a final note, I found the positioning of the illustrations throughout this book a bit peculiar. The story begins with a juxtaposed image of the two girls experiencing quite different results on walking through Mother Well's doorframe – one showered with gold coins, the other with tar. The images that follow otherwise appear in what seemed to me a slightly jumbled order, often not on the same page as their accompanying written descriptions.
Summary and availability
Despite its unusual title, this is a fairly faithful retelling of the Grimms' fairy tale, "Frau Holle", with some minor additional interesting details. It is told in a fresh way, and supported by lovely vintage illustrations.
I've seen only a few copies of this book available online. It doesn't appear to be commonly available, and also doesn't appear to have been reprinted in any form.
Footnotes
¹ The Grimms fairy tale specifically describes the heroine as Cinderella-like. In D. L. Ashliman's translation, the wording is: "And the other ...[daughter] had to do all the work, and be the Cinderella of the house." That description is not used in the text in this retelling, but this illustration certainly brings Cinderella to mind.
² Grimm's tale numbers are the numbers of the fairy tales collected in Kinder- und Hausmärchen (KHM). The numbers range from KHM 1 (The Frog Prince/King) to KHM 210 (The Hazel Branch). The numbers are based on the 1857 edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen, which is divided into 2 volumes. The original Kinder- und Hausmärchen was first published as two separate volumes (Vol. 1 in 1812 with 86 stories) and Vol 2. in 1815 with 70 stories). The 1857 edition was the seventh edition, much expanded, and with changes to the tales. This is the edition that most English translations are based upon and is the quintessential "Grimm's Fairy Tales".
³ Tale types are a way of classifying fairy tales and folk tales that have the same characteristics. For more information, see Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index (Wikipedia).
⁴ I've used D. L. Ashliman's translation of the Grimms' story as my source – see Frau Holle.