Revisiting a Fairy Tale Through LMAC Collage #211
Jack, Cutting Down the Beanstalk
This one was hard, and fun! When I first saw @shaka's template, I remembered an underwater collage I had done once before. I didn't want to revisit that theme. I like to start fresh. So I looked at the picture and noticed most of all the tall green plants.
The Template by @shaka
The fairy tale, Jack and the Beanstalk, came to mind immediately. Once I had that idea the collage plan was clear ahead, with a lot of bumps on the way.
Transfer of the 'beanstalk' was hard and did not go well. After the transfer, I had to reconstruct the stalk. In the picture below you see a stalk, a plant and a rock extracted from the original. These needed work.
I cut and pasted leaves on both the plant and the stalk. I smoothed the edges of the stone. Then I ran that result through a Lunapic Paint filter. This was the result:
I needed a landscape. @yaziris had contributed a beautiful landscape to LIL, the LMAC Gallery.
I wanted to use more of the template in the foreground so I extracted a stretch of sand.
I expanded that, played around, ran the sandy stretch through Lunapic, then attached this to the front of @yaziris' landscape.
More rocks and plants. I tried to give the impression of stones, like stepping stones, going down the hill. This was to help tie the foreground and background together. Then I added the beanstalk.
I was ready for the action! Giant! Goose! Golden eggs! Jack! and an Axe!!
Had to double the stalk so I could make the giant's leg and hand go around the outside of it.
I needed a peasant boy, but found a peasant man who was holding a beer mug. I had to take the mug out of his hand, put an axe instead, and wipe the grin off his face. After all, he was about to kill a giant.
The axe I found in my family photos where there was a remarkable photo of my oldest brother carrying an axe. Besides being struck by the evident poverty in the picture, I am always amazed by the madness of letting someone who is almost a baby hold such an axe.
I had my boy. I had my axe. I got my goose from an @muelli Gallery contribution and the egg from a Pixabay contributor.
At this point, everything fell into place.
Most of us know some version of this story. One version has a foolish boy from a poor home trading the family's last cow for a bag of magic beans. His distraught mother throws the beans out the window and next morning a giant beanstalk has sprouted.
The boy, Jack, climbs the beanstalk and finds himself in a giant's lair, where the giant's wife is cooking. She feeds Jack. When the giant comes home, Jack hides. The giant falls asleep, Jack steals from him, and then climbs back down the beanstalk. This visit and theft are repeated twice again.
In the last visit, Jack steals a goose that lays golden eggs. The giant awakens before Jack has made his getaway. Giant pursues Jack down the beanstalk, but before the giant reaches bottom, Jack cuts the stalk with an axe and the giant falls to his death.
Some versions of this fairy tale place the blame on the giant. He stole the goose and other goods from Jack's family, so the goods are rightfully Jack's. It's not a theft at all. Some versions have the giant eating children. You can read eight versions of relatively recent origin at this University of Pittsburg site.
The version from which the picture below was taken has a fairy meeting Jack at the top of the beanstalk. She explains the tragic history of his family and how the giant stole from them. You can read that version here.
Image credit: Charles Herbert Sylvester. 1922.Public
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One of the issues authors sometimes have with this fairy tale is its moral ambiguity. Jack is a thief, after all. Characterizing the giant as a thieving ogre makes Jack's theft morally acceptable.
The story I read as a very young child had a magic harp singing and waking up the giant. In that story, the giant was fierce and would certainly kill (eat) Jack if this child's presence was discovered.
The picture below comes from a version of the story in which the giant eats little children, specifically, boys. No reference is made though, to the giant as a thief. You can read that version here.
Image credit: Arthur Rakham. 1918. Public
Fairy tales are said to be important, culturally, and also to be important to child development. Bruno Bettelheim's theories on fairy tales are perhaps the most well known, of many that have been put forth. Bettelheim believes a child intuitively recognizes the symbolic language of fairy tales. Also, since fairy tales are designed to be told by adults to children, they are a means, according to Bettelheim, of transmitting lessons and tradition.
It is recognized that many classic fairy tales have their roots in the folklore of earlier centuries. According to some experts, though, the origins go much further back than that. Scholars out of Durham University (UK) assert that they can trace the roots of this fairy tale, Jack and the Beanstalk, to stories that were told during the Bronze Age.
If something endures for such a long time, we should probably assume that it does have value. Perhaps fairy tales are more than simple stories told to entertain children.
Elements Used in Making My Collage
Two of these came from LIL, the LMAC Image Gallery (Thank you!) and three came from Pixabay contributors (Thank you!). One came from my personal photo collection.
Giant
https://pixabay.com/es/illustrations/cuento-de-hadas-encantada-fantas%C3%ADa-1735371/
Landscape
@yaziris
https://www.lmac.gallery/lil-gallery-image/7651
Goose
@muelli
https://www.lmac.gallery/lil-gallery-image/8115
Golden egg
https://pixabay.com/es/illustrations/huevo-dorado-huevo-7465531/
Peasant boy
https://pixabay.com/es/illustrations/medieval-cerveza-medio-litro-8111112/
Axe: Personal Photo
LIL is not only a valuable image resource for the Hive community, but is also a way for community members to participate in LMAC. Anyone on Hive can contribute to the library and everyone can borrow from it. Learn about the procedure here.
Every week we offer prizes to fifteen finalists in the contest, but it's not only the prizes people create for. I, for example, don't compete but spend hours giving vent to my imagination. Others in the community have developed the habit of 'speaking' through collage.
This week's contest, Round # 211, will not end until tonight, so there is time to make a collage and get in the contest. A new contest will begin on Thursday, with a brand new template. Please join in the fun.
As @shaka has said many times, everyone is an artist. I may not be an artist in the technical sense, but LMAC allows me to nurture my own unique artistic voice.
Thank you for reading. Peace and health to all.
That's a large axe and a small child alright. Not long ago, I saw a kid on a tricycle wearing a helmet. How the world has changed.
For us Irish there was no moral dilemma. It mattered not that the Ogre was a villain. If he was keen to eat an Englishman he was on the side of the righteous and we could not but cheer him on:) Again, how the world has changed.
It is a different world, but children were more expendable in the past. There were spares waiting in the wings if something should happen to one. My family had six children. Grandparents had 12. Plus kids were expected to work if they lived on a farm. Safety was a luxury. Swimming lessons? Throw the kid in the lake and hope for the best. Operate serious farm equipment as children.
Nowadays, parents have one or two kids. Precious cargo. Not enough spares to be be careless ;)))
Ah, of course. I didn't think of it from that point of view at all. Your lateral thinking skills are far superior to mine, oh wise one.
😂
It’s crazy how some people can give that axe to a little boy and at the same time, there are some kids who are very brave and they won’t get scared no matter what
I love the concept and the inspiration behind those images
Good job!
Those tails are a mistery to me, and when i try to read something about the topic i was just surrounded by so many stuff that i leave it for another time. Then i guess i just forgot but is an interesting topic, after all we just have Disney and mainstream versions of those tales and the real ones are pretty different
Nice both the article and the image, thanks for sharing!
That's the story of my life :)) The good part about this is, we care. We have ideas and we want to explore them. There are just so many ideas that we can't do it all.
Thank you for stopping by and commenting.
If there are such beautiful areas, a person forgets the problems of his life and starts enjoying the natural views a lot.
`___
Makes me nervous seeing your young brother carrying the axe. Did he use it to chop the firewood so it would fit into the stove. He seems too young to have such a weapon in his hands.
Children were expected to help more with the chores in bygone days, such as, bringing in wood to the house for heating and cooking.
Love the beanstalk … it stands out nicely in your lovely creation.
Keep well and enjoy the sunny days, my friend. 😊
Hello my dear friend, @redheadpei,
Wonderful to see you here. I hope you and your husband are well.
As for the axe, my brothers did chop wood with an axe, but I think he was a little young for that in the picture. I think someone thought it was funny. My father's family had a rather brutish sense of humor...not all of them, but several of my uncles. I can remember guffaws at the most horrible things.
Thank you for liking my beanstalk. I did did have fun with this. Not sure anyone else likes it, but my husband did, and you did :))
Thanks so much for stopping by. I love to 'see' you.
Your friend, AG