Folktale Week Illustrations: Dawn - The Firebird and the Maiden of Dawn

The Maiden of Dawn and the Firebird, 11" x 14" linocut print by Ele Willoughby, 2025

I look forward to it every year! It's time for Folktale Week. Hosts post their 7 prompts for artists and/or writers to create illustrations or tell stories on these themes inspired by folktales, folklore, fables, myth and fairytales! There’s always a lot of magic submissions and it’s open to all. Most of the action is on Instagram (see @folktaleweek for more information) but you can find artists and writers sharing on other socials too. I am going to post my new illustrations here. And now the final day, Day 7: Dawn.

Here is The Maiden of the Dawn & the Firebird inspired by Edmund Dulac's retelling of a Russian Fairytale.

A Prince is prophesied to fly away on the Firebird on his 15th birthday & marry the Maiden of the Dawn. So the King imprisons him in a luxurious tower prison & holds an elaborate 15th birthday, without him. 

Frustrated, the Prince escapes by the window to the garden, unobserved by the guards enjoying the festival. At the edge of the garden he found a cave, illuminated by a giant bird. In the crystal pool below he saw an image of a beautiful Princess & fell in love. The bird indicated that he should climb aboard & they flew thousands of miles to a beautiful crystal palace at the Home of Dawn with the beautiful Princess asleep in the garden. The prince alighted & failed to wake the Princess. They returned the next night, to no avail but on the 3rd night she awoke at dawn as the Firebird stopped to pluck & give her a feather before leaving the Prince with her. They fell instantly in love & blissfully wandered the garden together. 

But her evil jealous sister enchanted the Prince & his body fell as if dead. The sorrowful Princess kissed his lips, which trembled & she understood her wicked sister must have enchanted him. In desperation she searched the palace then remembered the feather & used it to call the Firebird & fly far west to a cave. There her sister the witch was singing by her cauldron containing the Prince's heart. The Princess rushed forward, overturning the cauldron; the icy brine splashed the witch, killing her. The Princess grasped the frozen heart to her chest & they flew home. 

As they reached their destination, the Princess realized the heart had melted & was gone! Terrified she rushed onward. The Firebird alighted on the roof & the Prince himself came out to greet them. They embraced & she understood that his heart was back where it belonged in his chest, beating against hers. The Firebird's work was done & he flew away, but returned to circle their garden for their wedding, & brought them a feather each anniversary. They ruled as King & Queen of the People of the Dawn for many years & lived joyfully together.

Exciting news!

This linocut shows how I imagine the great white stork of European folklore, who carries babies to new parents. The stork is printed in teal ink on Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper, 32 cm by 17.5 cm or 12.5" by 7". There are 4 prints in the edition.

The ancient stork-the-baby-bringer legend was made popular by Hans Christian Anderson's story called 'The Storks'. The stork is quite stylized, inspired by ancient Chinese art, and not an attempt to accurately portray Ciconia ciconia, the white stork, because - spoiler alert! - storks are not actually where babies come from. (The baby is a little more naturalistic and has very cute toes, if I do say so myself). This print definitely goes in the 'UnNatural History' category, with other mythical creatures.

As some of you know and some may have deduced, I'm printing the baby-carrying stork because I'm thinking about how to decorate a nursery. RJH and I are expecting a baby this winter!* I've been debating when to tell people, but I think it should be clear now, should you happen to see me, that something is afoot**, and am far enough along that risk has decreased a fair bit, so it seems like the right time. I'm doing pretty well. I haven't had morning sickness. My doctor is wonderfully relaxed and says the right things to put people at ease. (She told me half her patients are my age or older. She lets me have one large coffee a day, saying there's been no rigorous study showing any harm. She blamed my swollen feet on the weather, rather than my suspicion it was from eating salty Triskets and sun-dried tomatoes, saying, "The truth is, in this heat and humidity all pregnant women have swollen feet." So, I think she's great.) I confuse sonographers with my technical imaging questions, cause it's fascinating and the physics of ultrasounds is basically the physics of seismology, so I get it. I've had some discomfort from other symptoms. Why does no one every warn you about the leg cramps? It's always "weird food cravings" and never "violently awoken by Charley horse at 4 am". Also, I am thirsty all of the time  which is weird for a girl whose mother called her 'the camel' who was rarely thirsty (or needed to pee). I was keeping a glass of water by my bedside until I realized Minouette thought this was a new, convenient bedtime cat watering station, so now I have a cat-proof bedside water bottle. Sleeping is a bit of a challenge and I'm finding the 'extreme heat alert' weather unpleasant. Me and the cat are hiding in the cool basement right now. Mainly, I feel like I've swallowed a large and unruly water balloon, which is flattening all the things I normally keep in my belly.



As you might imagine, I've responded by making things! So far, I've made 7 reversible fabric bibs (whales, mermaids, fortune cats, psychedelic blue squirrels, an urban scene, mushrooms, vintage cameras, constellations, flowers, numbers, cupcakes and elephants) and a block printed camera toy (because baby will want to be like Daddy I figure). I'm planning some fabric, block printed alphabet blocks too. I'll make duplicates for my shop, should you want any for your favorite wee one. I have other plans too, of course, but this is a good start.




* I'm pretty sure if he reads this he'll tell me I've buried the lede, but I'm not a newspaper man and like a little suspense. 

**Though, luckily for me, all the summer clothing is light, and airy and not fitted, so it seems not everyone figures it out on sight.