VIKING KESTREL

Large Hardcover with a Dust Jacket

printed in 1988

An old tale by Wilhelm Grimm

translated by Ralph Manheim

illustrated by Maurice Sendak

 The story of dear Mili was preserved in a letter Wilhelm Grimm wrote to a little girl in 1816, a letter that remained in her family's possession for over a century and a half. 

A widow sends her child into the forest to protect her from an approaching war.

The girl is led by her guardian angel past menacing cliffs and chasms to the house of Saint Joseph who gives her shelter, and she repays his kindness by serving him faithfully for what she thinks are three days

 Before she goes back to the village, Saint Joseph gives her a rosebud as a symbol of her return to paradise; when the girl reaches her home, she finds that the three days have been in reality 30 years.

 ``God has granted the widow's last wish'' to see her daughter once again. 

In the morning, mother and child are found dead, with Saint Joseph's rose ``in full bloom.''