The Bear King

However, the Hungarian crown is known not only to Iranians since their childhood, but also to the inhabitants of such far away, exotic and improbable countries like Austria.

I have seen this book cover in the shopwindow of my favorite bookshop in Vienna, the Morawa in the Wollzeile street, and although I would have entered anyway, now I was immediately looking for this book, an anthology of 101 folk tales by the Grimm brothers with 150 exquisite illustrations by Nikolaus Heidelbach.


Strangely, in the book itself I have not found this bear from the cover with the Hungarian crown in its mouth. And what is more, not even a folk tale to which it could have belonged.

After a serious consideration I came to the conclusion that this picture on the cover is a tale in itself, a charming and absurd extra tale, free from any moral lesson, for adults.