Christopher Wormell: Pictures for Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli's Brothers

Christopher Wormell, born 1955 in Gainsborough, is a British artist who has used his expertise in linoleum block print to create animal illustrations for several concept books geared for young children. Interestingly, Wormell had no formal training as an artist, and before his first book was published, his work experience included jobs as a road-sweeper, garbage man, postman, and a factory worker. He began pursuing art by painting landscapes between jobs, and in 1982, he picked up wood engraving by buying a set of tools and teaching himself. Eventually creating a portfolio of works that captured the interest of publishers, Wormell was hired to create wood engravings for books of poetry and guides to wine. More recently, he also began creating artwork for children; according to a writer for the Art Works Web site, "it was in reading to his own children that Wormell became acutely aware of the needs of a good story book—illustrations every three or four pages, well integrated with the plot."

He has published some 14 illustrated books and acted as illustrator of other's work on at least 18 more. These include Mowgli's Brothers, Blue Rabbit and Friends, Blue Rabbit and the Runaway Wheel, Animal Train, Off to the Fair, and George and the Dragon. In 1993 Two Frogs won a Smarties bronze medal.
Rudyard Kipling, Mowgli's Brothers appeared by Creative Editions (Mankato, MN) in 1992.

Die deutsche Ausgabe erschien 1994 im Verlag Sauerländer, Aarau, Frankfurt a.M., Salzburg.

Frontispiz, Frontispiece

Es war sieben Uhr an einem warmen Abend in den Seeonee-Hügeln, als Vater Wolf von seiner Tagesrast erwachte, sich kratzte, gähnte und seine Pfoten eine nach der anderen ausstreckte, um das schläfrige Gefühl in den Spitzen loszuwerden.
It was seven o'clock of a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills when Father Wolf woke up from his day's rest, scratched himself, yawned, and spread out his paws one after the other to get rid of the sleepy feeling in the tips. 

Es war der Schakal - Tabaqui-, und indiens Wölfe verachteten Tabaqui, weil er geschwäzig herumläuft, Unfug und Unheil anrichtet und Lumpen und Lederstücke von den Abfallhaufen der Dörfer frisst.

It was the jackal—Tabaqui, the Dish-licker—and the wolves of India despise Tabaqui because he runs about making mischief, and telling tales, and eating rags and pieces of leather from the village rubbish-heaps.

"Shere Khan der Grosse hat seine Jagdgründe verlegt. Den nächsten Mond über wird er in diesen Hügeln hier jagen, das hat er mir jedenfalls gesagt." Shere Khan war der Tiger, der nahe dem Waingunga-Fluss lebte, zwanzig Meilen entfernt.

"Shere Khan, the Big One, has shifted his hunting-grounds. He will hunt among these hills during the next moon, so he has told me."

Shere Khan was the tiger who lived near the Waingunga River, twenty miles away.

"Wie klein! Wie nackt, und - wie mutig!" sagte Mutter Wolf leise. Der Kleine wühlte sich zwischen den Wölflingen hindurch, um nahe ans warme Fell zu kommen. "Ahai! Er nimmt mit den anderen sein Mahl ein. Das ist also ein Menschenjunges. Sag, hat sich je eine Wölfin rühmen können, ein Menschenjunges unter ihren Kindern zu haben?"
"How little! How naked, and—how bold!" said Mother Wolf, softly. The baby was pushing his way between the cubs to get close to the warm hide. "Ahai! He is taking his meal with the others. And so this is a man's cub. Now, was there ever a wolf that could boast of a man's cub among her children?"

Shere Khan war ins Lagerfeuer eines Holzfällers gesprungen, wie Vater Wolf gesagt hatte, und er war wütend wegen der Schmerzen in seinen verbrannten Füssen.

Shere Khan had jumped at a wood-cutter's camp-fire, as Father Wolf had said, and was furious from the pain of his burned feet.

Vater Wolf wartete, bis seine Jungen ein wenig laufen konnten, und in der Nacht des Rudeltreffens brachte er dann sie und Mowgli und Mutter Wolf zum Ratsfelsen - einer mit Steinen und Blöcken bedeckten Hügelkuppe -, wo sich hundert Wölfe verbergen konnten.

Father Wolf waited till his cubs could run a little, and then on the night of the Pack Meeting took them and Mowgli and Mother Wolf to the Council Rock—a hilltop covered with stones and boulders where a hundred wolves could hide.

Da erhob sich das einzige andere Geschöpf, das im Rudelrat zugelassen ist - Baloo, der schläfrige braune Bär, der die Wolfsjungen das Gesetz des Dschungels lehrt.der alte Baloo, der kommen und gehen darf, wie es ihm gefällt, denn er isst nur Nüsse und Wurzeln und Honig, setzte sich auf die Hinterbeine und knurrte.

Then the only other creature who is allowed at the Pack Council—Baloo, the sleepy brown bear who teaches the wolf cubs the Law of the Jungle; old Baloo, who can come and go where he pleases because he eats only nuts and roots and honey—rose up on his hind quarters and grunted.

Ein schwarzer Schatten tropfte in den Kreis hinab. Es war Bagheera, der schwarze Panther, tintenschwarz über und über, aber mit der Leopardenzeichnung, die bei bestimmtem Licht  wie das Muster gewässerter Seide aufleuchtete.

A black shadow dropped down into the circle. It was Bagheera, the Black Panther, inky black all over, but with the panther markings showing up in certain lights like the pattern of watered silk.

Mowgli war noch immer zutiefst interessiert an den Kieseln und bemerkte nichts, als die Wölfe nacheinander kamen und ihn musterten

Mowgli was still playing with the pebbles, and he did not notice when the wolves came and looked at him one by one.

Bei anderen Gelegenheiten zog er die langen Dornen aus den Ballen seiner Freunde, denn an Dornen und Kletten im Fell leiden Wölfe schrecklich.

At other times he would pick the long thorns out of the pads of his friends, for wolves suffer terribly from thorns and burs in their coats.

It was one very warm day that a new notion came to Bagheera—born of something that he had heard. Perhaps Ikki, the Porcupine, had told him; but he said to Mowgli when they were deep in the jungle, as the boy lay with his head on Bagheera's beautiful black skin: "Little Brother, how often have I told thee that Shere Khan is thy enemy?"

"As many times as there are nuts on that palm," said Mowgli, who, naturally, could not count. "What of it? I am sleepy, Bagheera, and Shere Khan is all long tail and loud talk, like Mao, the Peacock."

"Keiner im Dschungel weiss, dass ich Bagheera, dieses Mal trage - das Mal des Halsrings, aber es stimmt, kleiner Bruder: ich bin unter Menschen geboren, und unter Menschen ist meine Mutter gestorben - in den Käfigen des Königspalasts in Udaipur.

"There is no one in the jungle that knows that I, Bagheera, carry that mark—the mark of the collar; and yet, Little Brother, I was born among men, and it was among men that my mother died—in the cages of the King's Palace at Oodeypore...

"Sie sind mir sehr ähnlich", sagte Mowgli, er blies in den Korb, wie er es von der Frau gesehen hatte. "Dieses Ding wird sterben, wenn ich ihm nichts zu essen gebe", er warf Zweige und trockene Borke auf den roten Stoff. Auf halber Höhe des Hügelhangs traf er Bagheera, in seinem Fell glitzerte Morgentau wie Mondsteine.

"They are very like me," said Mowgli, blowing into the pot, as he had seen the woman do. "This thing will die if I do not give it things to eat"; and he dropped twigs and dried bark on the red stuff. Half-way up the hill he met Bagheera with the morning dew shining like moonstones on his coat.

Diesen ganzen Tag sass Mowgli in der Höhle, kümmerte sich um seinen Feuertopf und tauchte trockene Zweige hinein, um zu sehen, was mit ihnen geschah.

All that day Mowgli sat in the cave tending his fire-pot and dipping dry branches into it to see how they looked.

Akela, der einsame Wolf, lag neben seinem Felsen, als Zeichen dafür, dass die Führung des Rudels offen war,... 

Akela the Lone Wolf lay by the side of his rock as a sign that the leadership of the Pack was open,...

...und Shere Khan mit seiner Gefolgschaft von abfallfressenden Wölfen wanderte ganz offen hin und her und wurde umschmeichelt.

...and Shere Khan with his following of scrap-fed wolves walked to and fro openly, being flattered.

"Du bist der Herr", sagte Bagheera leise. "Rette Akela vor dem Tod. Er ist immer dein Freund gewesen. Akela, der grimme alte Wolf, der in seinem Leben nie um Gnade gebeten hatte, warf Mowgli einen kläglichen Blick zu, als der Junge ganz nackt da stand, das lange Haar über die Schultern, im Licht des lodernden Asts, das die Schatten zanzen und zittern liess.

"Thou art the master," said Bagheera, in an undertone. "Save Akela from the death. He was ever thy friend."

Akela, the grim old wolf who had never asked for mercy in his life, gave one piteous look at Mowgli as the boy stood all naked, his long black hair tossing over his shoulders in the light of the blazing branch that made the shadows jump and quiver.

Shere Kahns Ohren legten sich flach an den Kopf, und er schloss die Augen, denn der flammende Ast war sehr nahe.
Shere Khan's ears lay flat back on his head, and he shut his eyes, for the blazing branch was very near.

Der Morge brach bereits an, als Mowgli allein den Hügel hinabging, um jenen rätselhaften Wesen zu begegnen, die Menschen genannt werden.
The dawn was beginning to break when Mowgli went down the hillside alone to the crops to meet those mysterious things that are called men.

Mowglis Brüder ist das erste Kapitel des Dschungelbuches.