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Description
A quick (really quick) watercolor I did for an art project. It is a scene from one of the fairy tales that the brothers Grimm put into written form. This particular one (from where the scene is taken), The Three Snake-Leaves, was always a favorite of mine when I was a young child, but I did not enjoy it quite as much when I reread it recently.

In the story a princess is having trouble finding a suitor because she demands that if she is the first one to die, her husband must follow her into the grave. The hero of the story will not be scared away though and marries her, but not long thereafter she falls ill and dies. The man regrets his promise but has no choice but to be locked inside his wife's tomb. Then a snake appears in front of him and the man, frightened, cuts it into three parts. Not long thereafter another snake appears with three leaves in its mouth and uses them to heal the first snake.
The man sees an opportunity to save himself and uses the leaves to bring the dead princess back to life. But the awakened princess does no longer love her husband and falls for a skipper instead. She ploys to kill her husband (I do not think that divorce was an option in these times) but with the help of the leaves the man survives and tells the king (the princess's father) about his wife's betrayal. When arriving home the princess is sentenced to death and placed on a burning ship where she meets her end. And so the man can live in richness without the nagging woman

There is no excuse for murder (infidelity is not good either), but the woman was really put in the most unflattering light possible. The man did not do anything noble (did he do anything else but marry?) that would earn him the many rewards he received either.

Description
A quick (really quick) watercolor I did for an art project. It is a scene from one of the fairy tales that the brothers Grimm put into written form. This particular one (from where the scene is taken), The Three Snake-Leaves, was always a favorite of mine when I was a young child, but I did not enjoy it quite as much when I reread it recently.

In the story a princess is having trouble finding a suitor because she demands that if she is the first one to die, her husband must follow her into the grave. The hero of the story will not be scared away though and marries her, but not long thereafter she falls ill and dies. The man regrets his promise but has no choice but to be locked inside his wife's tomb. Then a snake appears in front of him and the man, frightened, cuts it into three parts. Not long thereafter another snake appears with three leaves in its mouth and uses them to heal the first snake.
The man sees an opportunity to save himself and uses the leaves to bring the dead princess back to life. But the awakened princess does no longer love her husband and falls for a skipper instead. She ploys to kill her husband (I do not think that divorce was an option in these times) but with the help of the leaves the man survives and tells the king (the princess's father) about his wife's betrayal. When arriving home the princess is sentenced to death and placed on a burning ship where she meets her end. And so the man can live in richness without the nagging woman

There is no excuse for murder (infidelity is not good either), but the woman was really put in the most unflattering light possible. The man did not do anything noble (did he do anything else but marry?) that would earn him the many rewards he received either.