Deviation Actions
Description
Sad story ALERT! Don't read/look if you don't want a dose of Grimm fairy tale tragedy.
---
Entry for the Grimm's Fairy Tale Contest over at
It was very difficult for me to choose a single fairy tale to illustrate for this contest. I read straight through my Grimm book and my mind is buzzing with ideas! Watchers, expect to see my gallery filling with fairy tale stuffs. 
There are three "Tales of the Paddock" in the Grimm collection and this, the first, is my personal favorite even though it is sad. It's pretty short so I'm just going to give you guys the full text from my copy of The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales:
There was once a little child whose mother gave her every afternoon a small bowl of milk and bread, and the child seated herself in the yard with it. But when she began to eat, a paddock came creeping out of a crevice in the wall, dipped its little head in the dish, and ate with her. The child took pleasure in this, and when she was sitting there with her little dish and the paddock did not come at once, she cried:
"Paddock, paddock, come swiftly,
Hither come, thou tiny thing,
Thou shalt have thy crumbs of bread,
Thou shalt refresh thyself with milk."
Then the paddock came in haste, and enjoyed its food. It even showed gratitude, for it brought the child all kinds of pretty things from its hidden treasures, bright stones, pearls, and golden play-things. The paddock, however, drank only the milk, and left the bread-crumbs alone. Then one day the child took its little spoon and struck the paddock gently on its head, and said: "Eat the bread-crumbs as well, little thing." The mother, who was standing in the kitchen, heard the child talking to someone, and when she saw that she was striking a paddock with her spoon, ran out with a log of wood, and killed the good little creature.
From that time forth, a change came over the child. As long as the paddock had eaten with her, she had grown tall and strong, but now she lost her pretty rosy cheeks and wasted away. It was not long before the funeral bird began to cry in the night, and the redbreast to collect little branches and leaves for a funeral wreath and soon afterwards the child lay on her bier.
I took a few liberties. ^^ By the way, "paddock" can mean frog or toad or snake. Or an enclosed field, haha.
I haven't attempted a comic in I don't know how long. Wow, it is so much work. For some reason it came out rather ... retro manga, haha.
I drew it all out in pencil, did a watercolor wash over it, inked the lines, added extra color and texture with colored pencils, and finally assembled all the pages together with Photoshop Elements. I hope you guys like it!
Psssst! If you're feeling sad, don't worry! This is a quite common tale in Germany, but not all versions are the same. Here‘s one that is a little less tragic:
There once was a girl, who often went out in the garden to eat. A paddock would come slithering to her, and the girl always left a bowl of milk for the little critter to eat from. The girl grew up with the little animal, and noticed that it wore a little golden crown on its head. When she married, there was a great celebration, but people started screaming when thez saw a snake came into the house. It was the paddock! The bride asked the guests to step back and put a towel on the ground, to carry the paddock out. The little snake saw the towel, bowed her head to let the crown fall off, and slithered away. The young woman never saw the paddock again, but the little crown always brought her good fortune and riches.
in German legends, paddocks are a kind of underground faeries, who take the shape of toads and snakes, or even worms and loopers. In other Grimm tales, like „The three feathers“ or „The iron stove“ we even see their queen.