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Grimms' Fairy Tales
Thumbling
There was once a poor peasant who sat in the
evening by the hearth and poked the fire, and his wife sat
and span. Then said he, "How sad it is that we have
no children! With us all is so quiet, and in other houses
it is noisy and lively."
"Yes," replied the wife, and sighed, "even
if we had only one, and it were quite small, and only as
big as a thumb, I should be quite satisfied, and we would
still love it with all our hearts." Now it so happened
that the woman fell ill, and after seven months gave birth
to a child, that was perfect in all its limbs, but no longer
than a thumb. Then said they, "It is as we wished it
to be, and it shall be our dear child;" and because
of its size, they called it Thumbling. They did not let
it want for food, but the child did not grow taller, but
remained as it had been at the first, nevertheless it looked
sensibly out of its eyes, and soon showed itself to be a
wise and nimble creature, for everything it did turned out
well.
One day the peasant was getting ready to go into the forest
to cut wood, when he said as if to himself, "How I
wish that there was any one who would bring the cart to
me!" "Oh father," cried Thumbling, "I
will soon bring the cart, rely on that; it shall be in the
forest at the appointed time." The man smiled and said,
"How can that be done, thou art far too small to lead
the horse by the reins?" "That's of no consequence,
father, if my mother will only harness it, I shall sit in
the horse's ear and call out to him how he is to go."
"Well," answered the man, "for once we will
try it."
When the time came, the mother harnessed the horse, and
placed Thumbling in its ear, and then the little creature
cried, "Gee up, gee up!"
Then it went quite properly as if with its master, and
the cart went the right way into the forest. It so happened
that just as he was turning a corner, and the little one
was crying, "Gee up," two strange men came towards
him. "My word!" said one of them, "What is
this? There is a cart coming, and a driver is calling to
the horse and still he is not to be seen!" "That
can't be right," said the other, "we will follow
the cart and see where it stops." The cart, however,
drove right into the forest, and exactly to the place where
the wood had been cut. When Thumbling saw his father, he
cried to him, "Seest thou, father, here I am with the
cart; now take me down." The father got hold of the
horse with his left hand and with the right took his little
son out of the ear. Thumbling sat down quite merrily on
a straw, but when the two strange men saw him, they did
not know what to say for astonishment. Then one of them
took the other aside and said, "Hark, the little fellow
would make our fortune if we exhibited him in a large town,
for money. We will buy him." They went to the peasant
and said, "Sell us the little man. He shall be well
treated with us." "No," replied the father,
"he is the apple of my eye, and all the money in the
world cannot buy him from me." Thumbling, however,
when he heard of the bargain, had crept up the folds of
his father's coat, placed himself on his shoulder, and whispered
in his ear, "Father do give me away, I will soon come
back again." Then the father parted with him to the
two men for a handsome bit of money. "Where wilt thou
sit?" they said to him. "Oh just set me on the
rim of your hat, and then I can walk backwards and forwards
and look at the country, and still not fall down."
They did as he wished, and when Thumbling had taken leave
of his father, they went away with him. They walked until
it was dusk, and then the little fellow said, "Do take
me down, I want to come down." The man took his hat
off, and put the little fellow on the ground by the wayside,
and he leapt and crept about a little between the sods,
and then he suddenly slipped into a mouse-hole which he
had sought out. "Good evening, gentlemen, just go home
without me," he cried to them, and mocked them. They
ran thither and stuck their sticks into the mouse-hole,
but it was all lost labour. Thumbling crept still farther
in, and as it soon became quite dark, they were forced to
go home with their vexation and their empty purses.
When Thumbling saw that they were gone, he crept back out
of the subterranean passage. "It is so dangerous to
walk on the ground in the dark," said he; "how
easily a neck or a leg is broken!" Fortunately he knocked
against an empty snail-shell. "Thank God!" said
he. "In that I can pass the night in safety,"
and got into it. Not long afterwards, when he was just going
to sleep, he heard two men go by, and one of them was saying,
"How shall we contrive to get hold of the rich pastor's
silver and gold?" "I could tell thee that,"
cried Thumbling, interrupting them. "What was that?"
said one of the thieves in fright, "I heard some one
speaking." They stood still listening, and Thumbling
spoke again, and said, "Take me with you, and I'll
help you."
"But where art thou?" "Just look on the
ground, and observe from whence my voice comes," he
replied. There the thieves at length found him, and lifted
him up. "Thou little imp, how wilt thou help us?"
they said. "A great deal," said he, "I will
creep into the pastor's room through the iron bars, and
will reach out to you whatever you want to have." "Come
then," they said, "and we will see what thou canst
do." When they got to the pastor's house, Thumbling
crept into the room, but instantly cried out with all his
might, "Do you want to have everything that is here?"
The thieves were alarmed, and said, "But do speak softly,
so as not to waken any one!" Thumbling however, behaved
as if he had not understood this, and cried again, "What
do you want? Do you want to have everything that is here?"
The cook, who slept in the next room, heard this and sat
up in bed, and listened. The thieves, however, had in their
fright run some distance away, but at last they took courage,
and thought, "The little rascal wants to mock us."
They came back and whispered to him, "Come, be serious,
and reach something out to us." Then Thumbling again
cried as loudly as he could, "I really will give you
everything, just put your hands in." The maid who was
listening, heard this quite distinctly, and jumped out of
bed and rushed to the door. The thieves took flight, and
ran as if the Wild Huntsman were behind them, but as the
maid could not see anything, she went to strike a light.
When she came to the place with it, Thumbling, unperceived,
betook himself to the granary, and the maid, after she had
examined every corner and found nothing, lay down in her
bed again, and believed that, after all, she had only been
dreaming with open eyes and ears.
Thumbling had climbed up among the hay and found a beautiful
place to sleep in; there he intended to rest until day,
and then go home again to his parents. But he had other
things to go through. Truly, there is much affliction and
misery in this world! When day dawned, the maid arose from
her bed to feed the cows. Her first walk was into the barn,
where she laid hold of an armful of hay, and precisely that
very one in which poor Thumbling was lying asleep. He, however,
was sleeping so soundly that he was aware of nothing, and
did not awake until he was in the mouth of the cow, who
had picked him up with the hay. "Ah, heavens!"
cried he, "how have I got into the fulling mill?"
but he soon discovered where he was. Then it was necessary
to be careful not to let himself go between the teeth and
be dismembered, but he was nevertheless forced to slip down
into the stomach with the hay. "In this little room
the windows are forgotten," said he, "and no sun
shines in, neither will a candle be brought." His quarters
were especially unpleasing to him, and the worst was, more
and more hay was always coming in by the door, and the space
grew less and less. Then at length in his anguish, he cried
as loud as he could, "Bring me no more fodder, bring
me no more fodder." The maid was just milking the cow,
and when she heard some one speaking, and saw no one, and
perceived that it was the same voice that she had heard
in the night, she was so terrified that she slipped off
her stool, and spilt the milk. She ran in great haste to
her master, and said, "Oh heavens, pastor, the cow
has been speaking!" "Thou art mad," replied
the pastor; but he went himself to the byre to see what
was there. Hardly, however had he set his foot inside when
Thumbling again cried, "Bring me no more fodder, bring
me no more fodder." Then the pastor himself was alarmed,
and thought that an evil spirit had gone into the cow, and
ordered her to be killed. She was killed, but the stomach,
in which Thumbling was, was thrown on the midden. Thumbling
had great difficulty in working his way; however, he succeeded
so far as to get some room, but just as he was going to
thrust his head out, a new misfortune occurred. A hungry
wolf ran thither, and swallowed the whole stomach at one
gulp. Thumbling did not lose courage. "Perhaps,"
thought he, "the wolf will listen to what I have got
to say," and he called to him from out of his stomach,
"Dear wolf, I know of a magnificent feast for you."
"Where is it to be had?" said the wolf.
"In such and such a house; thou must creep into it
through the kitchen-sink, and wilt find cakes, and bacon,
and sausages, and as much of them as thou canst eat,"
and he described to him exactly his father's house. The
wolf did not require to be told this twice, squeezed himself
in at night through the sink, and ate to his heart's content
in the larder. When he had eaten his fill, he wanted to
go out again, but he had become so big that he could not
go out by the same way. Thumbling had reckoned on this,
and now began to make a violent noise in the wolf's body,
and raged and screamed as loudly as he could. "Wilt
thou be quiet," said the wolf, "thou wilt waken
up the people!" "Eh, what," replied the little
fellow, "thou hast eaten thy fill, and I will make
merry likewise," and began once more to scream with
all his strength. At last his father and mother were aroused
by it, and ran to the room and looked in through the opening
in the door. When they saw that a wolf was inside, they
ran away, and the husband fetched his axe, and the wife
the scythe. "Stay behind," said the man, when
they entered the room. "When I have given him a blow,
if he is not killed by it, thou must cut him down and hew
his body to pieces." Then Thumbling heard his parents,
voices and cried, "Dear father, I am here; I am in
the wolf's body." Said the father, full of joy, "Thank
God, our dear child has found us again," and bade the
woman take away her scythe, that Thumbling might not be
hurt with it. After that he raised his arm, and struck the
wolf such a blow on his head that he fell down dead, and
then they got knives and scissors and cut his body open
and drew the little fellow forth. "Ah," said the
father, "what sorrow we have gone through for thy sake."
"Yes father, I have gone about the world a great deal.
Thank heaven, I breathe fresh air again!" "Where
hast thou been, then?" "Ah, father, I have been
in a mouse's hole, in a cow's stomach, and then in a wolf's;
now I will stay with you." "And we will not sell
thee again, no, not for all the riches in the world,"
said his parents, and they embraced and kissed their dear
Thumbling. They gave him to eat and to drink, and had some
new clothes made for him, for his own had been spoiled on
his journey.
From Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household Tales, trans. Margaret
Hunt (London: George Bell, 1884), 1:153-158. |
