Wahl. Drakestail

Drakestail is a children's book by Jan Wahl, with art by Byron Barton, published in 1978. It is available at the Internet Archive.

I wrote about Jan Wahl's book Rosa's Parrot earlier, which did not have the best story, but with this book, Wahl is working with a classic folktale, very popular in France and elsewhere in Europe, that features the accumulation of companions on a quest; you can read about the folktale at Wikipedia: Drakestail. This is a lovely version of that story!

Wahl has told the story in very simple language: Drakestail the Duck has loaned money to the King and, when the King does not pay him back, he goes to confront the King in persons. As Drakestail gathers companions along the way, they magically shrink in size so that Drakestail can swallow and carry them so that they won't get tired: Fox, Ladder, River, and Wasps (the story is not told cumulatively, but the companions do accumulate inside Drakestail). When the King refuses Drakestail's request, the companions come to the Duck's rescue: shut up with the chickens and turkeys, Fox jumps out and kills the birds; when the King throws him into a well, Ladder rescues  him; when the King throws him into a furnace, River comes to the rescue; finally, when the King himself attacks Drakestail with a sword, it is the Wasps who save him... and Drakestail becomes the king.

The story itself is told in prose, but Drakestail himself speaks in rhymes:

I'll see if I can find some other versions of Drakestail to include as part of this project! (I know Aaron Shepard has done a readers theater version, for example: Quackling.)