The present book of German and Norse folk and fairy tales is based on Rolf Brandt's two anthologies, Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm (1943) and Why the Sea Is Salt and Other Fairy Tales (1946), both published by Peter Lunn in London. Brandt changed many of the tales and created over 40 unusual illustrations that shed new light on the original tales. Brandt was a surrealist, and he used a pencil method to elaborate on the meanings of the tales. Since his original illustrations were published during World War II, they reflect upon the conflicts in this period. Brandt is essentially an imaginer. His work is subjective. It comes out of his head. But it is not a head stuck blindly in the clouds. Brandt has lived - and he goes on living in everything he puts on paper. His work is endlessly an expression of impression. But it is no field of daffodils recollected in tranquility - it is a vital outpouring of vivid and sometimes obviously painful experience.