Hansel and Gretel in the Fairy Garden in Ludwigsburg, Germany

Photo: Hansel and Gretel in the Fairy Garden in Ludwigsburg, Germany, photo by Immanuel Giel, taken on 22 June 2006.

Hansel and Gretel is a fairy tale of German origin, the story of a young brother and sister duo who discover a house of candy and cake in the forest and a child-devouring witch. The story is of immense popular interest and often found in books, films, theater, arts, theme parks, etc. The story of Hansel and Gretel is often found in school text books too. Almost similar stories on characters reminiscent of Hansel and Gretel can be found in local folklore throughout the world.

Tunnel Log on the Crescent Meadow Road, SNP, California

Photo: Tunnel Tree on the Crescent Meadow Road, a photo taken on July 17, 1940 by George A Grant, from National Park Service Historic Photograph Collection.

The Tunnel Log is a tunnel cut through a fallen giant sequoia tree in Sequoia National Park, in the southern Sierra Nevada, east of Visalia, California, in the United States of America. The tree, which measured 275 feet (84 m) tall and 21 feet (6.4 m) in diameter, fell across a park road in 1937 due to some natural causes. The next year, a crew cut out an 8-foot (2.4 m) tall, 17-foot (5.2 m) wide tunnel through the trunk of the sequoia to make the road passable.

Photo 2: Tunnel Log in American Grand Forest, photo by Martin Leupold, taken in July 2005 and released as Public Domain Photo.

Charon carries souls of the dead over Styx by Konstantin Makovsky

Image: Charon transfers souls of the dead over Styx River, 1861 painting by Russian painter Konstantin Makovsky (1839-1915)

According to Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon is the ferryman who carries the souls of dead persons across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divide the world of the living from the world of the dead. A coin to pay passage charges to Charon was sometimes placed in or on the mouth of a dead person. Those who could not pay passage charges to Charon, or those whose bodies were left unburied, had to wander the shores for one hundred years.

Tiger, painting by Franz Marc

Image: Tiger (1912), oil painting on canvas by German expressionist painter and printmaker Franz Marc (1880-1916), dimensions 109 cm x 99 cm, located at Sammlung Bernhard Koehler, Berlin, Germany.

Johanna und die beiden Alten by Lovis Corinth

Image: Johanna und die beiden Alten (Johanna and the two old men), 1923 oil on canvas painting by German painter and printmaker Lovis Corinth (1858-1925) dimensions 150.5 cm x 111 cm, located at Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Hanover, Germany.