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Bit of a different piece, I commissioned RayGunna956 to draw a duel from one of my favorite Christmas stories.

I've seen so many people write off the original version of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffmann as too frightening, but I read it several times as a child and loved it. While it's considered a novella because it's short compared to other works. Often I see it done to talk up the French rewrite by Alexander Dumas (yes, that one) and the ballet based on it.

Anyway, this isn't from the battle scene often seen in many versions of the story, but a later moment in the original story. The Mouse King wasn't killed by a shoe. We don't even know if it hit him there. Instead, he sneaks into the bedroom of Marie (the ballet renamed her Clara) and demands her beloved sugar dolls and Christmas candy in exchange for keeping the Nutcracker safe. Marie agrees, but when he demands more, she fears she'll soon run out of things to exchange. But the Nutcracker tells her he needs a sword, which she obtains from her brother Fritz.

Hoffmann doesn't describe the duel in which the Nutcracker finally defeats his seven headed foe, instead he tells us that Marie is lying awake in fear and dread when she hears the duel taking place in the parlor with "a clanging and crashing," and finally a "Squeak!"

The Nutcracker then knocks on her door, carrying a bloody sword and a candle, wearing the Mouse King's crowns on his arm.

And then they go to the Land of Sweets.

Anyway, Ray did a great job, especially trying to make a text accurate depiction of the Nutcracker. I let him have fun with the Mouse King, though.
RayGunna956

Description
Bit of a different piece, I commissioned RayGunna956 to draw a duel from one of my favorite Christmas stories.

I've seen so many people write off the original version of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffmann as too frightening, but I read it several times as a child and loved it. While it's considered a novella because it's short compared to other works. Often I see it done to talk up the French rewrite by Alexander Dumas (yes, that one) and the ballet based on it.

Anyway, this isn't from the battle scene often seen in many versions of the story, but a later moment in the original story. The Mouse King wasn't killed by a shoe. We don't even know if it hit him there. Instead, he sneaks into the bedroom of Marie (the ballet renamed her Clara) and demands her beloved sugar dolls and Christmas candy in exchange for keeping the Nutcracker safe. Marie agrees, but when he demands more, she fears she'll soon run out of things to exchange. But the Nutcracker tells her he needs a sword, which she obtains from her brother Fritz.

Hoffmann doesn't describe the duel in which the Nutcracker finally defeats his seven headed foe, instead he tells us that Marie is lying awake in fear and dread when she hears the duel taking place in the parlor with "a clanging and crashing," and finally a "Squeak!"

The Nutcracker then knocks on her door, carrying a bloody sword and a candle, wearing the Mouse King's crowns on his arm.

And then they go to the Land of Sweets.

Anyway, Ray did a great job, especially trying to make a text accurate depiction of the Nutcracker. I let him have fun with the Mouse King, though.
RayGunna956