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Getting to know the Exhibit: Fairy and Folk Tales 

“Fairy and Folk Tales” celebrates the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Written by Lewis Carroll and first published in 1865, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland built upon existing traditions of literary fairy tales and nonsense verse. To commemorate this anniversary and participate in worldwide celebrations of the book, J. Murrey Atkins Library is exhibiting select holdings from Special Collections that embody the spirit of Carroll’s Alice and her magical Wonderland. Exhibited works pay homage to the fairy tales and folklore that have influenced stories and storytelling around the world.  This week we spotlight on the works of Hans Christian Andersen:

Hans Christian Andersen was a prolific Danish author of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems. Today he is best remembered for his fairy tales including: The Emperor’s New Clothes,  The Little Mermaid, The Nightingale, The Snow Queen, The Ugly Duckling, and The Little Match Girl. Andersen’s popularity is not limited to children and his fairy tales, or “eventyr” in Danish, express themes that transcend age and nationality.

One of Andersen’s most popular tales was published during the holiday season. “The Little Match Girl” is a short story written by Andersen and published in December 1845. The tragic fairy tale of a young girl keeping warm by lighting each of her unsold matchsticks. Each one invokes a vision of a memory or a wish.Sadly, the young girl died of hyperthermia. The interpretation by Andersen, is that the young girl suffers no more.

Andersen, H. C. (1900). Fairy tales and stories. London: Routledge.

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The Violet Fairy Book

Andrew Lang, editor

London

Longman’s, Green, and Company

1901 

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From The Olive Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, illustrated by Henry J. Ford.

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It is time to continue our mini-series of Andrew Lang fairy books! This post will be featuring three of these beauties: The Olive Fairy Book, The Green Fairy Book, and The Yellow Fairy Book.

First up is my personal favorite, The Olive Fairy Book, which was published in 1907. The cover features two fairies: one that is the focal point of the cover design, and another smaller one riding a bat that can be seen in the lower right-hand corner. Luckily, this is another one of Lang’s fairy tales in our holdings that still has its dust cover! The back of the cover advertises the previous books in this series, along with other stories Lang edited.

Published in 1892, The Green Fairy Book was originally supposed to be the last in a three part series of fairy books by Lang. Lang states in the preface “To the Friendly Reader - This is the third, and probably the last, of the Fairy Books of many colours.” It is safe to say that the popularity of these tales attributed to the continuation of the series.

Finally, we have The Yellow Fairy Book, which was published in 1894. Along with the fairy design on the cover, this book also has a little cat and mouse image on the spine. The last illustration, which comes from The Yellow Fairy Book, is from the Estonian fairy tale “The Dragon of the North”.

xPZ5.L263 O5, xPZ5.L263 G7, xPZ5.L263 Y4

-Lindsay M.

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TRICKSTER WEEK; day four: african

Once there were no stories in the world. The Sky-God, Nyame, had them all. Anansi went to Nyame and asked how much they would cost to buy. Nyame set a high price: Anansi must bring back Onini the Python, Osebo the Leopard, and the Mboro Hornets. Anansi set about capturing these. First he went to where Python lived and debated out loud whether Python was really longer than the palm branch or not as his wife Aso says. Python overheard and, when Anansi explained the debate, agreed to lie along the palm branch. Because he cannot easily make himself completely straight a true impression of his actual length is difficult to obtain, so Python agreed to be tied to the branch. When he was completely tied, Anansi took him to Nyame. To catch the leopard, Anansi dug a deep hole in the ground. When the leopard fell in the hole Anansi offered to help him out with his webs. Once the leopard was out of the hole he was bound in Anansi’s webs and was carried away. To catch the hornets, Anansi filled a calabash with water and poured some over a banana leaf he held over his head and some over the nest, calling out that it was raining. He suggested the bees get into the empty calabash, and when they obliged, he quickly sealed the opening. Anansi handed his captives over to Nyame. Nyame rewarded him by making him the god of all stories.

(Also known as Ananse, Kwaku Ananse, and Anancy)

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Anansi the Spider God, Spider-Man: Fairy Tales #2 (2007)

“On his quest for the legendary Spider-Orchid, Anansi is challenged by four elemental beings who seek to stop him from reaching his goal. Will Anansi be able to overcome the villainous forces of air, water, sand and fire to complete his journey and take his next steps in life?”

Story: C.B. Cebulski, art: Niko Henrichon, cover: Niko Henrichon

Get it now here

[ Follow SuperheroesInColor on facebook / twitter / tumblr ]

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“Mami Wata” 👸🏿🙏🏿my new favourite character from the ‘Anansi’ project @blckgold and I are busy working away on , Sy did a crazy great job of making the model work based off of the sketch . Once we get everything rolling we’ll be sure to share process stuff - stay tuned ! #Anansi #syblake #gyimahgariba

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👀👋 Working on a project with the talented Sy Blake (3d modeller) called “Anansi”.Once all the freelance work settles we’ll be sharing some things here and there but for now meet Anansi-very excited for this but there’s a lot to be done before we can get back to it.

Enjoy! 

© BlakeGariba

#Anansi #Blake #Gariba #PoC ✌️

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OF GODS AND MONSTERS (1/?) | ANANSI

We do not really mean, we do not really mean that what we are about to say is true. A story, a story; let it come, let it go.  -the traditional Ashanti beginning of an Anansesem, or ‘spider tale’

Anansi (also known as Ananse, Kwaku Ananse, and Anancy) is a West African god, considered to be the spirit of all knowledge of stories. He acts on behalf of Nyame, his father and the Sky Father, bringing rain to stop fires and performing other duties for him. In some beliefs, Anansi is responsible for creating the sun, the stars and the moon, as well as teaching mankind the techniques of agriculture. (x)

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Anansi the Spider God, Spider-Man: Fairy Tales #2 (2007)

“Adaptation of the African legend of Kwaku Anansi, with Spider-Man as Anansi as he travels across the land fighting various elementals.”

Story: C.B. Cebulski, art: Niko Henrichon

Get it now here

[ Follow SuperheroesInColor on facebook / twitter / tumblr ]

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Anansi

AKA: Ananse, Kwaku Ananse, Aunt Nancy, Nanzi

Origin: West Africa (more than likely Ghana)

History:

Anansi is an African trickster god. The word ‘trickster’ alone should already give hints to how he is as a god. But he is also a Creator God, having created rain, day and night. He is as wise as he is clever. And, in case you couldn’t tell by the image, he was a spider god, being able to morph into a spider and a normal looking human being. In some stories, he is the son of Nyame, the sky god, who got so annoyed with his son that he turned him into a spider.

Speaking of Nyame, there’s a story that explains how stories came to be.  Once, there were no stories in the entire world, because Nyame hoarded  them all. Anansi didn’t like this so he went to ask Nyame to let him have the stories to share. Nyame agreed but wanted Onini the Python, Osebo (leopard), Mmoboro Hornets, and the dwarf Mmoatia in exchange.

So Anansi set out to collect them by using his sly and tricky nature. He tricked the python into tying himself on a branch, the leopard was caught in his webs when Anansi offered to help him out a hole (which he dug), convinced the hornets that it was raining and the only shelter was this calabash he carried with him, and he got the dwarf stuck to a doll covered with sticky gum.

As promised, Nyame bestowed him the title of God of Stories. A title that he is most known for. In fact, a collection of stories and fables are called anansesem (spider tales).

West Africa isn’t the only place you can hear about Anansi. During the Slave Trade to the West Indies, the Africans who were taken as slaves kept his oral tradition alive. Countries like the United States, the Caribbean Islands, Colombia, Suriname, etc. has their own variation of Anansi. And as such, he became their symbol of resistance and freedom, telling stories of how Anansi could trick slave owners into granting freedom or humiliating them.

(Art found here!)

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If you do not think that Mr. Nancy is one of the cooler gods to have appeared in witty/delightful novels then you are wrong and you can just sit there and be wrong in your wrongness.

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Some illustrations for Farfaria’s Anansi and the Pot of Wisdom.

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and Shadow saw the gods.

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Anansi the Spider God, Spider-Man: Fairy Tales #2 (2007)

“Adaptation of the African legend of Kwaku Anansi, with Spider-Man as Anansi as he travels across the land fighting various elementals.”

Story: C.B. Cebulski, art: Niko Henrichon

Get it now here

[ Follow SuperheroesInColor on facebook / twitter / tumblr ]

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@blckgold and I have been crazy busy but more on #ANANSI soon 👀✌🏿️