Nordischer Fabeln

Abstract

Here is our tenth book in uniform format, most of them from Alfo and all of them edited by Jakob Szliska. Like the others, this book has a canvas binding, a colored paper cover with a colored illustration at the center, and 32 pages. Here a T of C at the beginning announces fourteen fables. Each fable has a two-page spread. On the left page is a fable; on the right a triple illustration. Contributors here, listed on 32, include John Gay, Baron von Holberg, Hans Christian Andersen, August Strindberg, Waldemar Liungnam, Johann Larssen, Olaf Forsen, and a semi-anonymous Frau J . . . n, from Loartsberg. I enjoy Gay's fable of the pig which, following his master's instructions, ate not the tulips but their roots (4). The illustration here is typical, with a good colored picture balanced above by a black-and-white drawing of the pig and master on good terms and, below, of the master beating the pig, which still has a plant in its mouth. The black-and-white designs above the colored pictures often give a before and those below an after for the central scene pictured in color. Also good is Baron von Holberg's fable of the sick wolf who hired an ass doctor, deteriorated, and sued the ass. The court rejected his suit, since he was silly enough to employ a doctor who was an ass (14). Again, a hare seeks a post with King Lion and asks his friends, the goose and the fox, to offer recommendations. The goose recommends him for his understanding and the fox for his honesty. The lion rejects the hare, saying he would have accepted him if the source of each recommendation had been reversed (18). Nice, since, I suppose, geese have no idea of understanding and foxes none of honesty. One fox prophet outdoes another by prophesying that his competitor would die of poison in the fourth month of the coming year. The prophet fox in question is so afraid that he eats and drinks nothing -- and dies (20). The semi-anonymous fable is the old Aesopic story of the farmer saying no about the pursued fox but nodding in his direction. This illustration is among the best (28).