Well obviously things are not running on all cylinders here at Laputan Logic. I won't bore you again with the details, suffice it to say that posting will be light for the forseeable future.

While you're waiting, I thought I'd continue posting along the theme of images that intrigued or haunted me as a child. This time I'm taking images from my 1933 edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales illustrated by Noel Pocock.

There's some weird stuff in that book, not least Pocock's pictures. The following comes from the first part of the story Hans and his Wife Grettel (not to be confused with Hansel and Grettel).

I've also included the text courtesy of my newly aquired, end-of-financial-year scanner and OCR software which I bought at Safeway of all places.

Hans and his Wife Grettel

I. Showing who Grettel was.

HERE was once a little maid named Grettel: she wore shoes with red heels, and when she went abroad she turned out her toes, and was very merry, and thought to herself, " What a pretty girl I am I " And when she came home, to put herself in good spirits, she would tipple down a drop or two of wine ; and as wine gives a relish for eating, she would take a taste of everything when she was cooking, saying, " A cook ought to know whether a thing tastes well." It happened one day that her master said, " Grettel, this evening I have a friend coming to sup with me; get two fine fowls ready." " Very well, sir," said Grettel. Then she killed the fowls, plucked, and trussed them, put them on the spit, and when evening came put them to the fire to roast. The fowls turned round and round, and soon began to look nice and brown, but the guest did not come. Then Grettel cried out, " Master, if the guest does not come I must take up the fowls, but it will be a shame and a pity if they are not eaten while they are hot and good." " Well," said her master, " I'll run and tell him to come." As soon as he had turned his back, Grettel stopped the spit, and laid it with the fowls upon it on one side, and thought to herself, " Standing by the fire makes one very tired and thirsty ; who knows how long they will be ? mean­while I will just step into the cellar and take a drop." So off she ran, put down her pitcher, and said," Your health, Grettel," and took a good draught. " This wine is a good friend," said she to herself, " it breaks one's heart to leave it." Then up she trotted, put the fowls down to the fire, spread some butter over them, and turned the spit merrily round again.

The fowls soon smelt so good, that she thought to herself, " They are very good, but they may want some­thing still; I had better taste them and see." So she licked her fingers, and said, " Oh! how good! what a shame and a pity that they are not eaten ! " Away she ran to the window to see if her master and his friend were coming; but nobody was in sight: so she turned to the fowls again, and thought it would be better for her to eat a wing than that it should be burnt. So she cut one wing off, and ate it, and it tasted very well; and as the other was quite done enough, she thought it had better be cut off too, or else her master would see one was wanting. When the two wings were gone, she went again to look out for her master, but could not see him. " Ah ! " thought she to herself, " who knows whether they will come at all ? very likely they have turned into sometavern: Oh Grettel! Grettel! make yourself happy, take another draught, and eat the rest of the fowl; it looks so oddly as it is; when you have eaten all, you will be easy : why should such good things be wasted ? " So she ran once more to the cellar, took another drink, and ate up the rest of the fowl with the greatest glee.

Still her master did not come, and she cast a lingering eye upon the other fowl, and said, " Where the other went, this had better go too ; they belong to each other; they who have a right to one must have a right to the other; but if I were to take another draught first, it would not hurt me." So she tippled down another drop of wine, and sent the second fowl to look after the first. While she was making an end of this famous meal, her master came home and called out, " Now quick, Grettel, my friend is just at hand ! " " Yes, master, I will dish up this minute," said she. In the meantime he looked to see if the cloth was laid, and took up the carving-knife to sharpen it. Whilst this was going on, the guest came and knocked softly and gently at the house door ; then Grettel ran to see who was there, and when she saw him she put her finger upon her lips, and said, " Hush! hush ! run away as fast as you can, for if my master catches you, it will be worse for you; he owes you a grudge, and asked you to supper only that he might cut off your ears; only listen how he is sharpening his knife." The guest listened, and when he heard the knife, he made as much haste as he could down the steps and ran off. Grettel was not idle in the meantime, but ran scream­ing, " Master ! master! what a fine guest you have asked to supper ! " " Why, Grettel, what's the mat­ter ? " " Oh ! " said she, " he has taken both the fowls that I was going to bring up, and has run away with them." " That is a rascally trick to play," said the mas­ter, sorry to lose the fine chickens ; " at least he might have left me one, that I might have had something to eat; call out to him to stay." But the guest would not hear; so he ran after him with his knife in his hand, crying out, " Only one, only one, I want only one; " meaning that the guest should leave him one of the fowls, and not take both : but he thought that his host meant nothing less than that he would cut off at least one of his ears ; so he ran away to save them both, as if he had hot coals under his feet.