A review of White as Milk, Red As Blood: The Forgotten Fairy Tales of Franz Xaver von Schonwerth – a translation of the ‘lost’ fairy tales collected by Franz Xaver von Schonwerth, translated by Canadian scholar Shelley Tanaka and illustrated by Canadian illustrator Willow Dawson.
Not Grimm… But Grim
A review of Willow Dawson and Shelley Tanaka’s White as Milk, Red as Blood: The Forgotten Fairy Tales of Franz Xaver von Schonwerth (Alfred A Knopf Canada, 2018).
By Derek Newman-Stille
When I first read the fairy tales recorded by Bavarian folklore collector Franz Xaver von Schonwerth, the tales seemed whimsically short and light even though many of the tales featured the grim characteristics of fairy tales like abuse, murder, violence, hunger, and torture. This underscores the power of translation and the influence that it has on the way we read folk narratives. Simple things like word choice, tone, or presentation on the page can shift our readings of fairy tales.
When I encountered Willow Dawson and Shelley Tanaka’s White as Milk, Red as Blood: The Forgotten Fairy Tales of Franz Xaver von Schonwerth, my reading of von Schonwerth’s tales changed drastically, and I attribute…
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