White as Milk Red as Blood: The Forgotten Fairy Tales of Franz Xaver von Schnwerth

About this book

Ferocious. And funny and moving and delightful . . . Illustrated with wonderful freedom and zestful inventiveness. Philip Pullman from the Foreword This striking richly illustrated edition of long-lost German fairy tales is not a book for children. It is a book for adults. Or for adults to frighten children into behaving...whichever you prefer. In 2009 a trove of lost fairy tales collected by Franz Xaver von Schnwerth--a 19th-century collector of Bavarian folk tales and contemporary of the Brothers Grimm--was unearthed in a municipal archive in Germany. Unlike the Grimms who polished the stories they collected adapting to contemporary tastes von Schnwerth recorded the stories as they were told plucking them directly from the living breathing tree of oral storytelling retaining their darker themes and sometimes shocking violence. Von Schnwerth published a single volume of these tales in his lifetime but the vast majority languished and were forgotten over the years effectively frozen in time until their recent rediscovery. Now award-winning illustrator Willow Dawson in collaboration with translator Shelley Tanaka has brought these long-lost tales unforgettably to life illuminating with striking woodcut-style illustrations a spectacular collection that will change the way you look at fairy tales forever. Paired with Dawsons arresting artwork the stories in White as Milk Red as Blood race with palpable energy through fantasy landscapes darker bawdier and racier than anything we find in Disney or the Grimms. Following the tradition of illustrated fairy-tale collections White as Milk Red as Blood is the very first fully illustrated full-colour edition of Franz Xaver von Schnwerths work. It is a timeless tome of enchantment and foreboding: tales--as haunting as they are profound--of powerful princesses helpless men lecherous villains virtuous girls witches giants at least one female serial killer mer-people shape-shifters and talking beasts--a kaleidoscope of wonders both familiar and entirely new; rich and strange. Dawson and Tanakas dark and lively take on von Schnwerths collected tales will appeal to fans of Mike Mignolas classic fantasy comic-book series Hellboy.