The illustration of folktales. Creating a book of Norwegian folktales for Ukrainian readers

Abstract

Folktales have been an oral tradition for generations. It was transformed into literal work and since then they exist in books. The illustrating of folktales is a single artistic work with the main aim of showing the readers the traditions, cultural context and authenticity of the stories. In studying the illustrations of folktales I see a link with researching traditional arts and traditional culture. From the early beginning of working with the illustrations of folktales I realized that there is a difference in illustrations of folktales between Ukraine and Norway. I was surprised for the first time, when I saw the book of folktales, illustrated by Theodor Kittelsen. It has not got such obvious "speculation" on traditional elements as is typical for illustration of folktales, in my country for example. Moreover, it gave me an emotional context of the stories after the first glance at the pictures. This also is not very common for the illustrations of folktales in Ukraine. All these observations formed my interest and led to the question - do specific rules and principles in illustrations for folktales exist with the intention of showing the traditional context? What are the differences in illustrations of folktales in Ukraine and Norway? Is there any possibilities to create a book with the common practices that exist in my country, but with the knowledge I have received through analyzing the Scandinavian artists, while studying in Norway?