This is the story of a young boy named Brendan who lives with him uncle who is the head of the monastery, Kells. They are living in a time where invaders are pillaging and killing small villages and Brendan's uncle is obsessed with building a wall he thinks will keep them out. He has forbidden Brendan from ever travelling outside of the walls. Then another monk, brother Aiden, comes to Kells and he is the holder of a book that has the most amazing illuminations in it. The book is supposed to change with life of anyone who reads it, but it isn't finished yet. Brendan's uncle has also forbade Brendan and the other monks from doing any illumination because he wanted everyone to be as consumed with the building of the wall as he was. When brother Aiden came however, he inspired Brendan to want to see his illuminations. Aiden sent Brendan into the forest to find berries he needed to make ink, and he went. This was Brendan's first rebellions against his uncle and he was very nervous and got lost in the forest. There he meets a wolf who turns into a girl, named Ashley. She's a fairy and befriends and helps Brendan. On the way back to the monastery they come across an evil presence which we deal with later. So Brendan studies illumination under the tutelage of Aiden and things are progressing quite well until Aiden realized he lost a glass that helps him do the most intricate work, and the name of the glass shares the name of the evil presence Brendan and Ashley passed in the forest. So Brendan takes it upon himself to fight this beast for the sake of the book that will change the world.
This film is a visual masterpiece. Everything is geometrical. At first glance the animation looks juvenile and simple, but the scenes are so well laid out and intricate. The characters are very geometrical in nature, and when they run in a group they form a single shape. The cracks or shapes in between objects or objects themselves are all patterned.
One flaw I found in the film was that the monks were all of different nationalities and the portrayal of their different nationalities was really racist, almost offensively so. They weren't a large part of the film though, so it didn't bother me as much as they would have if they'd played a larger role.
Another fairy artist with an interesting style. Some of the subjects in her paintings remind me of Amy Brown in their poses or colour choice, but the style is definitely her own.
One of the most well-known fairies of the season are of courses Santa's elves. There have been many different versions of elves over the years in as presented in movies and other media.
Most of what we know about elves we know because of movies or books. Here are some of the more popular films that have created what we know about Santa's little helpers.
Elf- The story of a human who was raised by elves.
Santa Claus is Coming to Town- The elves take in Kris Kringle.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer- Hermes the elf doesn't conform to 'regular elf behaviour' and wants to be a dentist. (So we see a little bit about what elf behaviour is by seeing what it isn't)
The Santa Clause- elves don't really play a large role in the film, but are essential in creating the mood of the north pole. They are also presented as children instead of little old men as others have done in the past.
There's also a song by the Barenaked Ladies about how elves aren't so happy doing what they do called Elf's Lament. The whole album is pretty fun, it's called Barenaked for the Holidays. here's the band's page on the album http://barenakedladies.com/music/barenaked-holidays
I recently discovered this book at a bookstore that comes with a little doll called Elf on the Shelf. The idea behind it is you put up the doll on the fireplace mantle or somewhere visible and the elf watches the children's behaviour to tell Santa whether or not they've been naughty or nice. This seems just slightly creepy to me, and I have a feeling that I would have been more frightened of the doll than enchanted. It also seems like a cheap way to make your child behave by causing psychological trauma, but that might just be me. The doll also looks rather creepy. It comes with a book. http://www.elfontheshelf.com/#/home
As it is the Christmas season I thought I'd feature some Christmas faeries. Namely, the Sugar Plum Fairy.
The Sugar Plum Fairy is from the popular ballet, The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky. The story of the Nutcracker is about a young girl named Clara who receives a nutcracker from her godfather as a Christmas present. That night she wakes up to find that the nutcracker has come alive and is fighting an army of evil rats. Just as the rat king is about to kill the Nutcracker, Clara throws her slipper at him to distract him and the rats retreat. The Nutcracker transforms into a handsome prince and takes Clara through the trees and across a lake in a nutshell boat into the land of the sweets, ruled by the Sugar Plum Fairy. After the Nutcracker prince tells the Sugar Plum Fairy of how Clara saved him from the mouse king and the court puts on a performance to honour the heroine. They then make Clara and the Nutcracker prince rulers of the realm. In the movie versions of the story Clara wakes up thinking that it must've been all a dream and then meets either an apprentice or a nephew of her godfather's that looks strikingly like the Nutcracker prince and there are hints that they'll fall in love.
Many of the songs from The Nutcracker are recognizable, and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy is one of them, if not the most recognizable.
There are a couple of Christmas films or tv episode specials but my two preferred movies are the 1993 version of The Nutcracker, which has Macaulay Culkin in it and is basically a filming of the ballet.
The second is Barbie in the Nutcraker. Many people may feel hesitant and superior to the Barbie movies, but they are great movies with strong heroines and actual orchestras for the soundtrack. In my opinion it is one of the best film series for your average young girl, and the Christmas films are no exception.
I was browsing through my local bookstore recently and I saw this book in the discounted section. It being of a fairy nature I of course picked it up.
It's a fairy- themed cookbook. It has a brief introduction with a few fairy bios and some fairy decorating ideas before getting into some creatively constructed and displayed items of food that actually look like they're be quite good to eat. Before each section of recipes begin there is a cool little 2 page spread with 4 or 5 food facts or very quick recipes with a fairytale related name. The sections are; 'potions'- drinks, 'little mouthfuls'- appetizers, 'feeding the wolf'- small main courses. 'cheesy treats'- dairy dishes, and 'sweet delights'- dessert. The dishes themselves call for lesser used ingredients in an imaginative way. It's really a fantastic, fun little book if you can manage to get your hands on it. It's a tiny 157 page book that is about the size of my hand.
yes these are radishes
pumpkin soup with nutmeg
The difficulty might be actually getting a copy of this though. I managed to stumble across this in english, but it's apparently a French book originally. So unless you speak French you may have issues in getting a copy.
My name is Opal Sunflower Leaf. It might be better for story writing purposes or for make-believe play purposes just to use one of your names instead of all three, or two if you don't have a middle name.
This is another two categories most faeries fall under. Seelie means that they are friendly towards humans. They will help humans when asked and will protect them from harm. The unseelie faeries are obviously the opposite of this. They are more likely to assault or harm travellers or plague humans.
Both solitary faeries and court faeries fall under these categories. Some of the solitary fae that fall under the seelie category would be selkies or leprechauns or brownies. Some that would fall under the unseelie category would be boggarts or nixies or red caps. As for court faeries, there are seelie courts and unseelie courts. The courts are either all seelie or all unseelie, there are not some that have a mix of seelie and unseelie faeries, and of course the seelie and unseelie courts are at war most of the time.
There are two categories of faeries, court faeries and solitary faeries.
Many people are more familiar with the solitary fae, the leprechauns, the selkies, the banshees, brownies, etc. Basically beings of the earth. These faeries are bound to either an element or an animal or a lifestyle or a place, etc. that defines their existence. For example selkies are seal people bound to the sea. Banshees are faeries bound to the deaths of a family. You get the idea. Because these creatures are bound to the earth as they are, they are in a way beholden only to what holds them to this world.
The court fae on the other hand are not faeries of the earth. They are breathtakingly beautiful and operate in a sort of Victorian court system with a king and queen and so on. They sometimes even dress in old English court fashions, depending on the story teller. When people tell stories of humans falling in love with a faerie or vise versa, or a faerie liking a human's gift with music or healing so much that they take him or her away, they are referring to the court fae and not the solitary fae. These are also known as Trooping Faeries, as they like to travel in long processions on various nights. These faeries, more than the solitary fae, live in other realms and create portals between their world and ours.
This is one of my favourite songs ever. There is nothing better in the world than the first minute or so of this song. Truth. Amon Amarth is a Swedish band in the melodic death metal or viking metal genre. In general metal bands can be kind of ridiculous. If you've ever seen the documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey there's a scene when Dunn is interviewing Alice Cooper and he says that it's hilarious to see some of these death metal magazines with the pictures of different bands on the cover because they're all trying to out bad-ass each other to almost the point of hilarity. (By the way if you haven't seen the film go out and watch it, even if you aren't in the slightest a fan of heavy metal. It's a highly entertaining and informative documentary on one of the lesser discussed genres of music. And it's done by an anthropologist so you know it was done well... no bias what so ever here......) Anyway. I find that this band is more pleasant to listen to than some of the other hard-core metal bands out there simply because of the melodic mastery. I also like the vocals. If you listen to even a small variety of metal you'll notice that some, or most, of the singers have very sharp, piercing vocals that either remind you of a squealing pig or a vacuum tube with a hole in it. And everything has a time and a place I suppose, but in comparison the vocalist of this band almost sounds soothing and smooth. It almost has a sort of gravel-y aspect to it that gives it a sort of earthy feel. Also, and maybe most importantly, I love the poetic flavour of the lyrics. Songs now a days, I don't care what genre... they don't sound like this. Baby, honey, boo, girl, oh yeah, I got the money, you're my life I'll die without you, etc. Very rarely do you find a song with actual content and even more rarely is it as poetic and descriptive as this song is. I mean it's no Yeats or anything, but I enjoy it.
The song itself is the retelling of a part of a Norse myth. A guy named Hermod (a sort of messenger for the gods) goes down to the under world on the mythological eight- legged horse, Sleipnir, to beg the life Balder (god of light, beauty, innocence and joy who was killed by Loki, trickster god, who was jealous of him) from Hel, a supernatural being who presides over Helhiem, aka house of Hel. So he pleads with Hel saying- the entire world is mourning the loss Balder, please let him go and give him life once again. And Hel says, well I guess if the entire world is feeling his absence... sure.
In the actual story though, Hel's terms for Balder's release was that everything had to weep for him, since he was so beloved, and if not everyone in the entire world, alive or dead, wept for Balder he would not be released. And when he was released almost everyone did weep for him, all except for Loki, the one who orchestrated his death in the first place. So of course he had to remain dead.
This video has some pictures to go with the story and annotations with all the lyrics, so enjoy!
Believe it or not, Hannah Fraser is a professional mermaid. She is a model, ocean environmentalist, and performance artist. She has always been interested in the mermaid myth, enough so to make being one her career. She has done photo shoots, commercials, and just some random swimming around in the ocean.
Boy in the Oak is a picture book that almost can’t be called a picture book. The story is told in full pages of text which are punctuated by black and which drawings and divided by translucent pieces of coloured, patterned paper. The pages of text are pretty full, I would almost be tempted to say that the book was meant for early readers, but the font is too small. Not your average picture book.
The story is about a young boy who was very rough and mean when he played outside. He would scare the animals in his backyard and do not so nice things like cut trees and pull out plants. The fairies in the area took notice and got so angry at the boy that one day they put a curse on him that trapped him inside an ancient oak tree. His parents went sick with worry and finally moved away when they couldn’t find their little boy anymore. A new couple moved into the house. There were rumours that when it was very windy you could hear a boy crying near the house, but the couple ignored the rumours and moved in with their little daughter. The parents took care of the house and planted new flowers, and though the fairies were cautious of people they liked this. They really liked the daughter though. She was kind to all of the plants and animals and the fairies took note of this and appreciated her, especially in comparison with the mean boy. She fell asleep under the oak one day and because the fairies liked her so much, decided that they would put a spell over her so that she would never wake up and leave them. The boy in the oak over heard this and was outraged. He’d spent so much time in the tree that he had more than learned his lesson and had learned about the fairy’s magic in the process, and he pushed both the girl and himself from the fairies.
The story is well told and unique, but the thing that will set this book a part is the presentation. I wouldn’t personally associate that kind of art with a children’s book. It is somewhat abstract and its displayed in the traditional way picture books associate pictures to text. The two translucent sheets that separate each page of text have nothing to do with the story and are there for a purely ornamental purpose and from my experience that is a little too intellectual for the average 3-5 aged child. I still recommend the book however. As I said the story is pretty good and it might be a fun way to introduce new art forms or storybook formats.
When people think of Iceland the first thing they think of is either some remote and cold island or Bjork. What most people probably don't know about Iceland is the persistent belief in elves and trolls amongst some of the residents, and as a tourist one can actually go on a trail ride in Iceland to learn about the faeries.
The ride is 8 days long and essentially allows tourists to come in contact with the wilds of Iceland as a tour guide informs you of the myths and legends of the area. And apparently you will do all of this while travelling with a wild pack of horses and will be able to ride a couple of different ones as the days pass. Sounds pretty amazing.
Fairies Pyjamas is a fair trade clothing retailer that makes very flowing, loose-fitting clothing for both men and women. Some of the pieces are more obviously fae inspired than others, but the clothes are fashionable and you could wear most of them in a contemporary casual setting. Here's the website. It has links to the online store, locations, a travel log, and a statement on fair trade http://thefairiespyjamas.com/
Schleich is a company that makes action figures for children. The figurines they make range from animals to knights to dinosaurs to Native Americans to fairies. And of course in this case I would be interested in the fairy figurines. The product line is called Bayala. It has figurines of fairies (standing, sitting, and on horse back), unicorns, and dragons. The line has figurines that will appeal to both boys and girls (and this is true for all of the lines, there are both male and female figurines in each product line that involves humans). There are more on the website which you can check out for yourself here http://www.schleich-s.com/en/action_figures/collectables/product_range/world_of_fantasy/bayala_the_world_of_elves/index.html
The story of Thumbelina was originally a fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson. It's the story of a thumb- sized girl and her adventures in life and love.
The movie most popular film version is probably the 1994 cartoon by Don Bluth, I wrote a review on my other blog so instead of copying and pasting because I think this'll be kind of lengthy as it is, I'll just link it if you want to read it here.
There have been many film adaptations of the story, here are a few I found on YouTube. I haven't seen all of them, but it kind of blows my mind a bit at the number of different versions there are. I mean it's a good fairy tale, don't get me wrong, but doesn't have the same level of popularity or publicity as do some of the other fairy and folk tales out there, so I didn't expect this many variations of the story.
This version is probably most well-known of them all. It was done by Don Bluth who worked on other films like A Troll in Central Park and Anastasia. This was also the version I came to know first, so obviously has a special place in my heart.
This is one of the Timeless Tales movies. If you've never heard of them they were these films released in the 90's hosted by Olivia Newton John and each one retold a different fairy tale. I would definitely check out the others and share them with the children in your life.
This one is very short, the whole story crammed into 8 minutes or so, so if you are unfamiliar with the story of Thumbelina, here it is in a condensed version. This is from a series of shorts called World's Greatest Fairy Tales.
Here's a version done by Faerie Tale Theater
Some anime version called Thumbelina: A Magical Story
A Golden books version
There's also a Barbie version apparently, but judging from the trailer I'd assume they take some liberties with the plot
This isn't actually the story of Thumbelina, but is from the movie about Hans Christian Anderson and it's kind of funny. Not that it's meant to be of course... but if you take the scene out of context as I guess I am here, he looks like a mad man.
A short cartoon about these sunshine worshipping gnomes who have a sort of battle with another troop of gloomy dark loving gnomes. My favourite part of the cartoon is at 6:11- 6:25 or when the gloomy guy is hit with the sunshine and starts dancing around and the other one beside him looks at him in disgust and calmly sprays him back to a gloomy state. Then they both get hit and prance around like idiots. I laugh every time.
This movie was actually something of a disappointment for me. It moved rather slowly, and to be honest I was kind of glad when it ended. The story is about this rich lumber owner named Mr. Mulrooney, and he's having his grand kids from England come over to visit him. The grandchildren are the kids from Marry Poppins, that's actually how they're introduced too. So Mulrooney takes the kids to a forest he owns for a picnic and while he and the grandson set up camp, the granddaughter goes off for a walk and comes upon this gnome who asks for her help. She rushes back to get her grandfather and brings him back to the gnome. As it turns out the gnome's grandfather is dying. Gnomes only die if they've given up the will to live and the grandfather has given up the will to live because he and his grandson are the last gnomes in the forest and he will never see his grandson married. The grandfather offers to take the two to another forest where there might be more gnomes and they agree to go with them to this forest in the grandfather's car, now effectively, the gnome mobile. The party has to stop off at a hotel for the night and grandfather gnome gets angry at Mr. Mulrooney who gets angry enough to call off the trip and storms out of the room. A travelling freak show owner happens to pass by as this happens and see the gnomes. He then proceeds to kidnap them as they will make for an interesting new attraction. When Mr. Mulrooney finds out the gnomes are missing he calls his security team to help find them, but when his employee hears what he has to say he thinks he's gone mad and has him put in an insane asylum. His grandkids break him out and they go retrieve the gnomes and get to the forest, where the young gnome finds some girl gnomes to fight over him and they all live happily ever after.
The acting in this movie was horrible. It was so forced and stereotyped and fake, it was almost painful to watch. This film is by Disney, and because of that I was quite disappointed with the overall quality. Darby O'Gill and the Little People was also a Disney film about faeries and it was quite well done so we know they are capable, but this is definitely b film material. The songs were cheesy, but I'm less distraught about that as many b film songs are usually quite poorly done. Many parts of the plot weren't given enough explanation. Some scenes seemed to flow along as they did because it would best suit what happened next and not so much because it was a logical scene that fit into an overall plot. Some of the actions taken by people in response to the gnomes, for example, were too extreme or convenient to be taken seriously by the audience. The special effects are pretty good and the guy who does the voice for the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland makes an appearance as one of the gnomes, I think that's all that can be said for this movie. All in all, ok for an initial viewing, but definitely not a keeper.
On a completely unrelated side note for this last picture, I spent at least 10 minutes going through the last scene looking for a decent picture of all the characters, but that Mr. Mulrooney, what a face. He's really animated when he's singing, but when you pause the movie almost every face he makes is unflattering. In a funny way, like when you pause a movie and the person is in mid-word and has a funny face... but all of his faces were like that. It was funny.
Here is a fan vid that shows clips from all the significant parts of the movie
