She was in charge of one task as often Jotuns were,
Charged with the duty to paint the leaves,
Upon the trees of the world.
She graced the scene,
Twirling and spinning,
Splodging blobs of green paint as she danced.
All was good.
After several years of decorating,
Some of the other Jotuns noticed,
Malerblatt had stopped dancing.
Instead she just stood,
Solemnly splattering the leaves,
No longer joyful and happy,
Just… moping.
A little river fish spied her from the stream,
He swam over and poked his slippery head out.
“Malerblatt, dear giant,
Why are you so sad?
Normally you bolt around,
All cheery and glad!”
The Jotun spoke,
“I’m tired of green,
On every tree,
I want to paint something,
No one’s ever seen.”
The fish swam away for a moment,
Then returned with some weeds,
Pulled from the mouth of the river,
A clump of amber tinted algae.
He spat it out onto the ground by her feet.
“Grind this down in your hand,
You will make a colour just like sand.”
Malerblatt squashed,
And squished and smushed,
And made a new paint,
With a tinge of yellow.
The fish called out to a friendly bird,
Who picked several juicy berries from up high.
It dropped them down to the giant below.
“Crush these lovely berries,
You will make a colour just like cherries.”
Malerblatt pummelled,
And pushed into a pulp,
And made a new mix,
With a tinge of red.
Who gathered some shells from the beach.
It passed them to the giant stood.
“Break these up and you will sire,
A brand new colour just like a Sapphire.”
Malerblatt crushed,
And cracked and crumbled,
And made a new dye,
With a tinge of blue.
She loved her new colours,
And could mix various new ones,
By combining those she already had.
Soon she had a palette of all the colours,
And jumping forward,
She bounded around the land,
Until she found,
A lonely tree,
Untouched by her hand.
She spread the paints all over,
Decorating free,
Until all could be seen,
Was a multi-coloured tree.
She stood back,
With the fish and the bird and the deer.
Each animal complimented her work,
And then, suddenly,
Erupting from the tree,
Shot a magnificent rainbow,
And at the top,
Rested Iris, the great goddess.
She loved Malerblatt’s tree so much,
That she gave her a new job,
And put her in charge of painting rainbows as well.
Malerblatt was so happy that she danced around,
Her large giant like steps,
Caused the skies to open and rain to fall,
Caused the sun to smile and beam brightly,
So it became,
That every time it rained whilst the sun shone,
A new rainbow would appear in the world.