1881 edition of Mother Goose with Kate Greenaway’s illustrations
The Brownies’ Book, edited by W.E.B. Du Bois
Arthur Rackham (1867–1939)
“The King’s son asking for the Giant’s Youngest Daughter.,” illustration for “The Battle of the Birds” in The Allies’ Fairy Book
Pen and ink with watercolor, 1916
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Spencer Collection
“The King’s son asking for the Giant’s Youngest Daughter.,” illustration for “The Battle of the Birds” in The Allies’ Fairy Book
“The Battle of the Birds” is the Scottish selection for The Allies’ Fairy Book, a 1916 anthology of fairy tales from the countries that composed the Allies in World War I. This original illustration shows the scene where the King’s son, who has been raised by the Giant as his own, asks to marry the Giant’s youngest daughter. The young man’s request is granted only after he seemingly performs a series of impossible tasks (the first: cleaning seven years’ worth of dung from a hundred-cow cowshed in one day). It is actually the Giant’s daughter, who possesses powerful magic, who completes the tasks. Later, she must kill her father to prevent him from murdering her new husband.
: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Spencer …
Currently on View at Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
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