"There be wondrous things..." ;)

[med_cat]

Originally posted by vasily_sergeev at Там чудеса, там Леший бродит... :)

Там чудеса, там Леший бродит... :)

Утащено отсюда, спасибо О_себе_-_Молчу

~~~
(anyone recognise the literary work? ;) comments are screened)

Comments

[earthspirits.livejournal.com]

What lovely and vibrant artwork...thanks for sharing with us, Cat!

Are these illustrations for Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tales?

[med_cat]

Very glad you enjoyed the artwork! Nobody else wants to venture a guess, I see ;)

Not Anderson, although the work is, indeed, based on folk tales. These are illustrations to Pushkin's "Ruslan and Lyudmila".

Here is the beginning, you can see that is what's illustrated:

"By the sea-strand there is an oak green,
A gold chain winds around that oak.
Day and night, a learned cat
Walks and walks around on that chain.
When he goes right, he begins singing a song,
When he goes left, he narrates a fairy tale.

There be wondrous things: a forest spirit wanders there,
And a mermaid sits in the tree branches.
There, on the unseen paths, are footprints of unheard-of beasts,
A hut stands there, on chicken legs, without doors or windows..."

In the second picture, there is a scene from later in the poem, the regiment of warriors rising out of the sea, with their grey-bearded guardian. And in the sky, Ruslan has captured the villain sorcerer Chernomor, and is about to cut off his beard, the source of his magical powers.

And you can see Pushkin himself, a stylized depiction of him, conversing with the learned cat in the second illustration :)

[earthspirits.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this info, it's lovely! And I'll definitely be checking out Pushkin's writing! : )

[med_cat]

It is my pleasure :)

The second illustration also refers to the text in the intro to the poem (rather, it's a tale in verse):

"and I was there too, and drank mead there,
And sat under that oak, and the learned cat
Told me fairy tales there"