A Little Late, But Here We Are

 

Perhaps This Is Why

More Fritz Eichenberg, this time from Mistress Masham's Repose, by T. H. White, in which a young girl named Maria finds an island inhabitated by Lilliputions. There is a slight shadow on these scans because the book wouldn't open perfectly flat.

Illustrations By Fritz Eichenberg

From Heroes of the Kalevala, Finland's Saga, by Babette Deutsch, a simplified adaptation of the Kalevala for young people. Fritz Eichenberg is a rather famous artist better known for his work on heavy religious and social themes, but during his career he also illustrated and wrote many "children's books." Considering that the Kalevala was one of Tolkien's major influences, I sometimes can see these pictures as a sort of transposition of themes, a kind of "Silmarillion-Lite," especially images of two trees with the Sun and Moon at their tops.