Tomi Ungerer: The Three Robbers
Three robbers terrorize the countryside, plundering unfortunate travellers, until one night they discover an orphan being taken to live with her wicked aunt. They abduct the girl, make her a soft bed in a corner of their cave, among their caskets of gold and jewels.
The next morning the girl asks them what their treasure is for and finding they have no answer the robbers decide to dedicate their wealth to the care of orphans and unwanted children. They purchase a castle and bring children from far and wide to make a home there.
Once they are old enough, the children marry and build houses, a village grows up around the castle. After the robbers pass away, they erect three towers in memory of their foster fathers.
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Tomi Ungerer’s ‘The Three Robbers’ is a sweet story of redemption told in words and pictures, scarcely more words than I have used here. It was one of my favourite books in childhood, along with ‘The Big Book of Jokes’ and RJ Unsworth’s ‘Castles’ (and others I cannot immediately recall).
As a boy, the crime elements appealed to me. Dark figures stalking a nocturnal landscape of blue and black armed with weapons in fiery orange and vermillion. Bold, vivid images. Striking. An axe splitting the wheel of a carriage. Horses enraged by a blast of pepper-spray. A huge yellow moon lighting the arduous climb to their hideout.
As an adult, reading it again, I was moved by the ‘change-of-heart’ narrative. Men of violence, misers, who one day discover a new mission in life and devote themselves it, totally. Outlaws who decide to look after the outcast and are rewarded with love and the legacy of a thriving community. Lovely.
But what strikes me as I pick it up again today is how shy the robbers seem. They hide from the world while lashing out at it. The move in the night, concealed, eyes peeping between hat and cape. Their weapons and their treasure portrayed as burdens on hunched backs and knobbly legs. They are not glorified. Though I may have enjoyed the mischief they caused, Ungerer did not invite me to admire them. They are sad, unfulfilled brutes. And curiously, after their change of heart, we see even less of them, their presence diminishes, as if cross-fading with the images of the rescued children and the village.
Tomi Ungerer died earlier this year.
Here is his official website: https://www.tomiungerer.com/