Cows appear in fairytale as a vital source of dairy products. “Jack and the Beanstalk” is a well-known English example. “The Three Cows” is a famous Celtic example. In Celtic cultures, the feast of Samhain is held when the mortal world and the fairy realm are at their closest.
THE THREE COWS
If you’d like to hear a famous ancient tale read aloud, I recommend the retellings by Parcast’s Tales podcast series. (They have now moved over to Spotify.) These are ancient tales retold using contemporary English, complete with music and Foley effects. Some of these old tales are pretty hard to read, but the Tales podcast presents them in an easily digestible way. “The Three Cows” was published April 2020.
Illustration by Achille Wildi, circa 1955. Cattle aren’t that easy to draw. These look kind of like donkeys to me. Sidney Richard PercyJohn Linnell – Hanson Toot, View in Dovedale 1815Cows in a Meadow near a Farm, Paulus Potter, 1653Country Gentleman Magazine Spring 1976 Edward HicksCountry Gentleman Magazine October 1945C.F.Tunnicliffe for What To Look For In Autumn (Ladybird) cowsOUR ANIMAL FRIENDS CHILDRENS BOOK 1956 PLATT & MUNK CO.Yellow Cow 1911 Franz Marc (German, 1880-1916)1932 THE GEM Boys Magazine Bull in a Tent1934 Mother Goose Stand-Ups NURSERY RHYMES where are you going my pretty maidWIGGLES Little Golden Book #166 Eloise WilkinTHE FARMER’S WIFE MAGAZINE, JUNE 1925, NICE C. M. BURD COVERおいしいよ It’s Delicious 1974Roger Duvoisin (1900 – 1980) – Swiss-born American writer and illustrator from Jasmine first published in 1973Swift’s Brookfield Butter advertisement published in the October 1943 issue of The American Home magazineCOUNTRY GENTLEMAN Dec 1945 assembly line feeding for beef, illustration by Otto BaumanHunt’s Tomato Sauce recipe for Chuckwagon Beans, from the July 26, 1948 issue of Life magazineJohn de Martelly1939 April ARGOSY #5 Pulp Fiction MagazineChristmas Issue Vintage 1936 Country Gentleman Magazine December, cowboys in snowCountry Gentleman Magazine November 1946 William C Griffith1951 Tommy Of A Bar A Ranch Childrens Book Frances Wood Eleanor Dart1951 Tommy Of A Bar A Ranch Childrens Book Frances Wood Eleanor Dart frontispiece illustrationMarie-Madeleine FRANC-NOHAIN [1878-1942] Alphabet In Pictures 1933Uncle Mac’s Children’s Hour Story Book Ed. Derek McCulloch, Various authors and artists London 1947The Summer Noisy Book, Margaret Wise Brown, Illustrations by Leonard Weisgard. Harper, 1951 cowsGourmet The Magazine of Good Living May 1946 – Gourmet ToursStevan Dohanos for Saturday Evening Post April 11, 1953 Saturday Evening Post cover by Ben Kimberly PrinsCub Scouts in Phone Booth, August 26, 1961, by Richard SargentConstantin AlajalovThe Puffin Book Of Nursery Rhymes, Iona and Peter Opie, Ill. Pauline Baynes (Penguin Books Ltd, 1963)Bird Biographies: A Guide-Book for Beginners by Alice Eliza Ball (1867-1948) Illustrated by Robert Bruce Horsfall (1869-1948) New York Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc., 1923 cowbirdI get half you get half, a poster by Armando Testa 1959Sidney Richard PercyCows in a Meadow near a Farm, Paulus Potter, 1653Marie-Madeleine FRANC-NOHAIN [1878-1942] Alphabet In Pictures 1933Uncle Mac’s Children’s Hour Story Book Ed. Derek McCulloch, Various authors and artists London 1947The Summer Noisy Book, Margaret Wise Brown, Illustrations by Leonard Weisgard. Harper, 1951 cowsConstantin AlajalovThe Puffin Book Of Nursery Rhymes, Iona and Peter Opie, Ill. Pauline Baynes (Penguin Books Ltd, 1963)William SteigWilliam SteigWilliam Steig New Yorker CoverIvan Gantschev
The Curious Cow 1960 by Esther K. Meeks illustrated by Mel Pekarsky
For ‘Lucky Pete’ in The Wide World Magazine May 1920 illustration by Warwick Reynolds cowboy gunTHE COWBOY BOOK Golden Shape Book 1968. The entire book is in the shape of a cowboys’ head, for some reason.The Romper Room Do Bee Book of Manners by Nancy Claster, Wonder Books, Inc. 1960, illustrations by Art Seiden cowboys and indiansby Richard Lillis The Wild West a playbook written and illustrated by Leo Manso 1950 (paper dolls but aimed at boys)1942 Saturday Evening Post Cover, Woman Rider at Dude Ranch by Fred Ludekens
FOR FURTHER INVESTIGATION
Midwest Cowboy, a film by Brian Kaiser: “The ways cowboys have been depicted in popular culture, and who has been excluded from those depictions is directly linked to the inaccurate stories America tells itself about race, gender, exceptionalism, expansion, and destiny. A growing body of literature and images have sought to expand and challenge these incomplete depictions, to correct the record and broaden the definition. This body of work looks to do the same.”
CONTEMPORARY FICTION SET IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND (2023)
On paper, things look fine. Sam Dennon recently inherited significant wealth from his uncle. As a respected architect, Sam spends his days thinking about the family needs and rich lives of his clients. But privately? Even his enduring love of amateur astronomy is on the wane. Sam has built a sustainable-architecture display home for himself but hasn’t yet moved into it, preferring to sleep in his cocoon of a campervan. Although they never announced it publicly, Sam’s wife and business partner ended their marriage years ago due to lack of intimacy, leaving Sam with the sense he is irreparably broken.
Now his beloved uncle has died. An intensifying fear manifests as health anxiety, with night terrors from a half-remembered early childhood event. To assuage the loneliness, Sam embarks on a Personal Happiness Project:
![Marie-Madeleine FRANC-NOHAIN [1878-1942] Alphabet In Pictures 1933](https://www.slaphappylarry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Marie-Madeleine-FRANC-NOHAIN-1878-1942-Alphabet-In-Pictures-1933-cow.jpg)
