The Adventures of Sir Paladin: He goes a-giant-killing

Half Calf. Very Good. A gory original monster epic with exceptional, and graphic, artwork deemed to shocking for children at the time! Oblong, 24 by 33.5 cm. Unpaginated, 48 pp. With mounted artwork on 23 of those pages, 22 of which are pen and ink work, and one, a watercolor. The story can be viewed as a broad, but adulatory, parody of Malory, Tennyson and all the epic literature of chivalrous knights going out to slay the foe. Here the story is told in a matter-of-fact, pared down prose style, until the end when the point of the tale is imparted in a poem. The entertainment value of the manuscript resides decidedly in the tightly drawn, deliciously gruesome illustrations. We see limbs lopped off, squirting blood, human carcasses hung on meat hooks, and all kinds of repugnant imagery that was as sure to produce a belly laugh as shock the children to whom the tale was dedicated. We know the identity of the author artist of this manuscript children's tale from notes written in the front, which we accept as true. There it is also stated that Thayer Smith was the godfather to the Hills Family of High Head Castle, Cumberland, in England -- the castle was destroyed by fire in the 1950s. One of the children for whom this story was prepared, John Waller Hills (1867-1938) was a British Liberal MP from 1906 until his death and was due to be conferred a baronetcy but died prior. Rebacked. Scuffs and rubbing to binding corners, and light soiling to the pebbled cloth. A few leaves with soiled margins, and moderate general wear, including a few minor closed tears, crease lines, etc.