Plate 3 from The Ring of Nibelung
Alice, the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon
One of my secret passions is for children's literature. Not so secret anymore.
The illustration for Wagner's The Ring of Nibelung (I assuming the libretto), first above, brings to mind Waterhouse's nymphs - a much more romanticized depiction of these Nordic Valkyries - and Hokusai's Great Wave off the Coast of Kanagawa.
I wish I'd have had it read to me when I was little.
It's the ultimate Norse saga of a man named Sigurd who, after winning the ring of Andvarinaut by slaying its dragon guardian, is cursed and doomed by it. He falls in love with a Valkyrie called Brunhild, but is bewitched to marry another woman - Gudrun. Brunhild encourages, vengefully, the envy of some guys called the Nibelung Brothers which drives them to murder Sigurd for his gold.
It all ends rather tragically.
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