Death by Candlelight

This is an entry for #Knitting-and-Crochet's 2012 Grimm-themed summer contest. I chose the story Godfather Death as my theme, as it's my favourite Grimm story.

Here's a link to the full story, but to summarize the story somewhat briefly:

A father gets Death to be the godfather of his thirteenth son. Death gives the child the ability to heal the sick but only if Death is standing by the patient's head. If Death is standing by the patient's feet, the patient will die.

The child grows up to become a famous physician. One day, the physician is summoned by the king who has fallen ill. The physician sees Death by the king's feet and knows the king is going to die. The physician decides move the king the other way so that Death stood by the king's head instead, allowing the king to recover.

Death, angry at his godson for his trickery, doesn't punish him, but warns him never to do that again. Cue beautiful daughter of the king falling ill and the king promising his crown and his beautiful daughter's hand in marriage to the one who can cure her. The physician uses the same trick to save her, despite Death's angry looks.

Death furious at his godson for this second grievance, grabs the physician and leads him to a cave below the earth. In this cave, are hundreds and thousands of candles, each of these candles representing a person's life. Death shows his godson the candle which represents his life, which is tiny and on the verge of going out. The physician pleads with Death to light a new candle for him, so that he may continue enjoying life as a king and husband to a beautiful wife. Death acts as if he were going to fulfil his godson's wishes, but then purposely snuffs out the physician's candle, ending his life.

My favourite part of this story is the imagery near the edge, of there being a cavern filled with millions of candles, each representing the life of a person. I wanted to base my photo on the ending scene of the story, just as Death goes to pick up his godson's candle.

Making Death himself was pretty tricky, since I wanted to give him eyes sockets so I could place beads in them for his 'eyes'. He was a fun and frustrating (funstrating?) challenge, but I really do like how he came out. Probably my favourite bit about him are his bony hands, since the natural curling of the wool compliments them perfectly.


Plushies made by <--- (my old account)

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