Omslag til "Den ny Eventyrbog" 1847 - 1873

Curator: This intriguing print before us is the cover design for “Den ny Eventyrbog,” or “The New Book of Fairy Tales," dating from 1847 to 1873. It’s a woodcut piece created by F. Hendriksen, and it resides here at the SMK, the Statens Museum for Kunst. What strikes you first about it? Editor: Whoa, this image feels dense. Like a dark fairy tale condensed into a single, impactful graphic. The main figure is gripping and unsettling all at once, but there are so many small things happening—mini narratives playing out in the margins. Curator: The chained figure, centrally positioned, does carry a weighty symbolism, doesn’t he? In Jungian psychology, chains often represent the repressed aspects of the self. Considering this image as a book cover, the figure could be interpreted as the struggles and challenges one encounters on their path toward individual transformation. Editor: That tracks. And the little angel there in front of the captive…Is he offering a way out? He looks tiny and fragile against this gigantic man. Like hope clinging on in a moment of great struggle. Curator: Absolutely, there’s a visual and thematic tension there. Also, above the main character, a city scene looms; to me this calls out the "heavenly city," representative of humankind at its highest expression and potential. In cultural studies, cities become coded to stand for humanity's drive toward progress, or the ideal forms toward which humankind might evolve, for better or worse. Editor: It's almost like he's chained *to* this image, isn't it? We're all chained in a way to expectations, hopes, and dreams about what we're meant to become. To look at his sorrowful, yearning face makes you think how it may be an illusion to find liberation, or heaven, just above. Curator: Indeed. This reminds us that myths and fairy tales have long acted as containers for cultural fears, desires, and the blueprints for our social organization, constantly in flux through the changing of images. It speaks to our collective anxieties about fate, self-discovery, and the seductive—yet perhaps unattainable—nature of paradise. Editor: Makes you think twice before cracking open this particular story book. It might change you from the inside. Thank you for unlocking a new dimension within the New Book of Fairy Tales. Curator: My pleasure. Let's carry our transformed vision with us, onwards to the next image!