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1. PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT POST SPOILERS.
2. Don't be rude toward the artists, their work, or other readers.
3. Disagreements are fine, insults are not.
4. Joking at the fairy tales silly nature is fine, crude jokes and comments are not. This is an all-ages site. Let's keep it that way.
5. Comments can be removed at moderator's discretion.
↓ Transcript
Panel 1: The princess is in her bedroom packing away her treasures. Narration: With no hope left, the princess decided to make fate into her own hands. She packed the dresses in a nutshell and her three most precious possessions into a small pouch. Princess: I have no choice but to run away.
Panel 2: She pulls the coat of all furs on.
Panel 3: She dirties her face and hands.
Panel 4: The Princess flees the castle. Princess: May God watch over me!
Panel 2: She pulls the coat of all furs on.
Panel 3: She dirties her face and hands.
Panel 4: The Princess flees the castle. Princess: May God watch over me!
Love the style of this one.
but how on earth can a nutshell hold three dresses, and three prized items?
I sense a missing thing from the tale, but with the origins not your version. might I add that this is just beautiful. I can’t wait to see more.
Yeah, I’ve read a few tales where the princess will pack away her three dresses in something equally small and nut-shaped. I don’t quite get it unless it’s supposed to be some magical element… or some long-lost reference to something back in those times XD
Nuts were often thought of as magical by the Celts, although they were usually connected with knowledge and wisdom. Still, there could be a connection, perhaps?
I always applied DnD terms in cases like this. Sort of like how in the Storyteller, there’s the man with his magic bag. I called it the “Bag of Ultimate Holding” In a nutshell, pardon the pun, the idea of the bag of holding does exactly what the magic bag in the Storyteller did. ^^; I’m just strange like that.
Well, I tend to think of it the other way around. Since the folk tales came first and were the inspiration for much modern fantasy, I use that as my frame of reference. For example, many people would associate invisibility cloaks with Harry Potter or, I suppose, DnD or some other modern fantasy concept, I associate it with the story of the “Twelve Dancing Princesses”.
You mean I’m not the only one who know that tale? ^_^ The Twelve Dancing Princesses is one of my favorites.
I found this while wandering the net: Nutshells, being the hard exterior within which the kernel of a nut is enclosed (Oxford English Dictionary), don’t get very big since nuts themselves are generally fairly small. Nutshells themselves were first used as metaphors for something very small back in 1602, when Shakespeare had Hamlet declare, O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count my selfe a King of infinite space. Anything that could fit in a nutshell would have to be very small, and by the 18th century all the major writers were cramming things into nutshells.
but I’m not sure, did Shakespeare come before or after the Grimms?
There was also an explanation about the Iliad :Entry for “Nutshell”, _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_, E. Cobham Brewer, 1898: ”The Iliad in a nutshell. Pliny tells us that Cicero asserts that the whole Iliad was written on a piece of parchment which might be put into a nutshell. Lalanne describes, in his Curiosités Bibliographiques, an edition of Rochefoucault’s Maxims, published by Didot in 1829, on pages one inch square, each page containing 26 lines, and each line 44 letters. Charles Toppan, of New York, engraved on a plate one-eighth of an inch square 12,000 letters. The Iliad contains 501,930 letters, and would therefore occupy 42 such plates engraved on both sides. Huet has proved by experiment that a parchment 27 by 21 centimètres would contain the entire Iliad, and such a parchment would go into a common-sized nut; but Mr. Toppan’s engraving would get the whole Iliad into half that size. George P. Marsh says, in his Lectures, he has seen the entire Arabic Koran in a parchment roll four inches wide and half an inch in diameter.
the Iliad would come before the Grimms for sure, maybe it had become a common expression at that point?
When my family says “in a nutshell” we mean “really quickly” but i think thats just something we use, because iv never heard anyone else say it.
The nutshells or things equally as small pop up in a number of different tales. In some stories, eggs are used for this sort of thing. If you’ll recall Jim Henson’s The Storyteller, the nutshells popped up in “The True Bride”, only in that they contained jewels, gold coins and silk. I’ve always just taken it as one of those old folk tale quirks that can’t be explained.
Nutshells. For all your luggage needs.
I’ve thought in the past that someone should make a Zelda-esque fantasy adventure video game, but instead make all the items the strange things found in folk tales. Seven-League Boots for super-speed. An invisibility cloak (like the one from Twelve Dancing Princesses) for stealth. Water of Life to restore health. A magic sack for capturing things (even Death). But what would be the equivalent of the item pouch? Nutshells, of course. :p
I can’t find any references for it at the moment, but my understanding is that a “nutshell” was a specialized hatbox used for larger-than-normal ladies hats. They were tall, dome-topped affairs and were usually made of either wood or wood-reinforced cardboard and papier-mâché. I’m guessing that they were probably made and used well *after* this story was written, however.
I recall in one of the tales that they said that they dresses were so fine that they could fit into a nutshell. The Thousand Furs tale from a book I have of folktales from around the world. But I could be mistaken as it has been a while since I read it.
Extra-dimensional physics. :P
I agree with both the magic and item that is no longer used or has any archival value.
this was one of my favorite stories growing up, so thank you for bringing it to life. I think it was in one of the fairy books but I don’t remember.
I remember a version of this story. I don’t think the version I heard included the King wanting to marry his daughter though. I remember the dresses and the nutshells!
I heard a version where the king had three daughters, the first two cruel and wicked, and the last, his favorite, sweet and wonderful. There was a law that the king could only marry the woman who’s finger fit his passed Queen’s ring. No one in the land could, to the delight of his first two daughters. One day they decided to mess with the ring. It wouldn’t fit either of them. The girl came and tried to stop them from playing with it. It ended up on her finger, and fit perfectly. The king came in, and found out what had happened and was distressed.
Ah! I remember reading this story somewhere! Or a version of it. I remember the dresses and the nutshell, but I do not remember the father wanting to marry his daughter. :/
A lot of stories have been watered down, or ‘disneyfied’ to make them less difficult for modern audiences. Often, these stories were to used to warn children of dangers, and teach them important lessons. So, in the past, they dealt with harder issues. This particular story is often retold without the father having incestuous impulses, as that is a very hard concept for modern children.
Also of note, the early stages of this story bear a *striking* similarity to the story of St. Dymphna.
I recall a version where the princess had very specific requirements for the dresses. One of those was that they must each fit inside a nutshell. The idea was that she thought this would be impossible to do and so would stop the marriage.
Also, dresses of fabric fine enough to fit into a nutshell were a common fairy tale trope as only the VERY wealthy or fairy-aided could procure such fabric.
so true but it is the same with that of royal dresses before the modern day royal families and I’m talking pre-panniers, hope skirts and the other lovely under garments.
I can’t wait to see the dresses though. the one that shines like moonlight sounds just beautiful and I love Mrs. Biggs style so I can’t wait to see it.
This story is actually drawn by Elle Skinner, if you look at the cover, not Gina. I love both their styles, though, and can’t wait to see the other dresses either. :D
Adds new meaning to the phrase “My life in a nutshell”
Obviously the nuts are from Gallifrey, hence being bigger on the inside.
Nice.
Nice!
I think Rayna is right- The finer a fabric is, the smaller it can fold up. There are other fairy tales that talk about fabric so fine you can pull the whole length through the eye of a needle, or keep it inside a nutshell. Being able to pack the three dresses into nutshells was a requirement in at least one version of the story from my childhood, and just adds a level of expense and impossibility to the task- making shiny gold, silver, and white dresses wouldn’t really be that hard.
I recall a similar story done by the Jim Hensen company in the 80s. “The Story Teller”