How the Hedgehog Married: And Other Croatian Fairy TalesBoard Books, 1 December 2022

Fairy tales occur both in oral and in literary form. The focus in this book has been on preserving the elemental structure of oral tradition without embellishment. But, this is a distinctive literary collection, one that gathers a dozen fairy tales which come from the Croatian national folklore tradition. This is also a contemporary English-language version that respects the ancient Slavic mythology of pre-Christian Croatia. And, through exceptionally communicative translations, Dasha C. Nisula has elevated them to be superlative examples of a how common plots, motifs, and elements of the fairy tale are their own best explanation--that is, the tale's meaning is contained in the totality of the threadline in the story. And these are 12 great stories! The book also includes a detailed introduction to Croatian fairy tales, and, in a historical and cultural sense, to the wider genre of fairy tales. In this bilingual edition the Croatian and English-in-translation are presented together, accompanied by a selection of original colour artworks by the cover artist, Josip Botteri Dini.