Hop O' My Thumb
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Hop-o'-My-Thumb (Hop-on-My-Thumb), or Hop o' My Thumb, also known as Little Thumbling, Little Thumb, or Little Poucet (french: Le petit Poucet), is one of the eight
fairytales A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cult ...
published by Charles Perrault in ''
Histoires ou Contes du temps passé ''Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités'' or ''Contes de ma mère l'Oye'' (''Stories or Tales from Past Times, with Morals'' or ''Mother Goose Tales'')Zipes (2000), 236 ff. is a collection of literary fairy tales written by C ...
'' (1697), now world-renowned. It is Aarne-Thompson type 327B. The small boy defeats the
ogre An ogre (feminine: ogress) is a legendary monster depicted as a large, hideous, man-like being that eats ordinary human beings, especially infants and children. Ogres frequently feature in mythology, folklore, and fiction throughout the world ...
. This type of fairytale, in the French oral tradition, is often combined with motifs from the type 327A, similar to ''
Hansel and Gretel "Hansel and Gretel" (; german: Hänsel und Gretel ) is a German fairy tale collected by the German Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 15). It is also known as Little Step Brother and Little Step Sister. Hansel ...
''; one such tale is '' The Lost Children''. The story was first published in English as ''Little Poucet'' in
Robert Samber Robert Samber (1682—c. 1745) was a British writer and translator. He is credited with the first English translation of the Mother Goose The figure of Mother Goose is the imaginary author of a collection of French fairy tales and later of Eng ...
's 1729 translation of Perrault's book, "''Histories, or Tales of Past Times''". In 1764, the name of the hero was changed to ''Little Thumb''. In 1804, William Godwin, in "''Tabart's Collection of Popular Stories for the Nursery''", retitled it ''Hop o' my Thumb'', a term that was common in the 16th century, referring to a tiny person.


Summary

Hop-o'-My-Thumb () is the youngest of seven children in a poor woodcutter's family. His greater wisdom compensates for his smallness of size. When the children are abandoned by their parents, he finds a variety of means to save his life and the lives of his brothers. After being threatened and pursued by an
ogre An ogre (feminine: ogress) is a legendary monster depicted as a large, hideous, man-like being that eats ordinary human beings, especially infants and children. Ogres frequently feature in mythology, folklore, and fiction throughout the world ...
, Poucet steals his magic
seven-league boots Seven-league boots are an element in European folklore. The boots allow the person wearing them to take strides of seven leagues per step, resulting in great speed. The boots are often presented by a magical character to the protagonist to aid ...
while the monster is sleeping.


Plot

A poor woodcutter and his wife are no longer able to support their children and intend to abandon them in a forest. Hop-o'-My-Thumb, overhearing his parents, plans ahead and collects small white pebbles from a river. He uses the stones to mark a trail that enables him to successfully lead his brothers back home. However, the second time round, he uses breadcrumbs instead, which the birds eat up. The brothers are lost in the woods. Hop-o'-My-Thumb climbs up a tree and spots a distant light. The boys walk towards it. They come at last to a house, and learn that it belongs to an ogre. Hop-o'-My-Thumb, fearing the wolves, decides to take the risk of staying in the monster's residence. The ogre allows the boys to sleep for the night, and provides a bed for them in his daughters' room. But the ogre wakes up not too long after, and prepares to kill them in their slumber. Hop-o'-My-Thumb, who anticipated the possibility, already planned ahead and replaced the daughters' gold crowns with the bonnets worn by him and his brothers. As a result, the ogre kills his daughters instead, and goes back to bed. Once he is snoring, Hop-o'-My-Thumb directs his siblings out of the house. The ogre wakes up in the morning to discover his grave mistake, puts on his seven-league boots, and races after the boys. They spot the ogre while walking. Hop-o'-My-Thumb once again thinks fast and hides in a small nearby cave. The ogre, who is tired, happens to rest close to their hiding spot. Hop-o'-My-Thumb instructs his brothers to make their way home, and meanwhile, removes the boots from the sleeping ogre. He puts them on, and the boots, being magical, resize to fit him. Hop-o'-My-Thumb uses the boots to make a fortune, and returns to his family's home, where they live happily ever after.


History and analysis

The French folktale was first published by Charles Perrault as ''Le petit Poucet'' in ''
Histoires ou contes du temps passé ''Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités'' or ''Contes de ma mère l'Oye'' (''Stories or Tales from Past Times, with Morals'' or ''Mother Goose Tales'')Zipes (2000), 236 ff. is a collection of literary fairy tales written by C ...
'' in 1697. The French name for the hero, "Poucet" /pusɛ/, derives from the French word "pouce" /pus/, which means "thumb", "big toe", or "inch". The suffix "-t" gives it an affectionate touch, given the morphemes of the language. The beginning mentions that "le petit Poucet" was no bigger than a man's thumb when he was born. However, it seems that for the remainder of the story, the protagonist is just a small child, and the tale bears no resemblance to ''
Tom Thumb Tom Thumb is a character of English folklore. ''The History of Tom Thumb'' was published in 1621 and was the first fairy tale printed in English. Tom is no bigger than his father's thumb, and his adventures include being swallowed by a cow, tan ...
''. As is the nature of traditional stories, passed on orally, the beginning passage might be a remnant from an older tale, ancestral to both ''Hop-o'-My-Thumb'' and ''Tom Thumb''. The first half of ''Hop-o'-My-Thumb'' is very similar to ''Hansel and Gretel''. The woodcutter parents are no longer able to support their children and abandon them. The hero lays a trail of breadcrumbs, which thanks to the birds, does not help him get back home. Such laying of trail is found in many stories, one of the oldest being ''
Theseus and the Minotaur Theseus and the Minotaur is a type of logic maze designed by Robert Abbott. In this maze, the player acts as Theseus, the king of Athens who is attempting to escape the Labyrinth. The main difference between this and the standard type of labyrin ...
''. The second half of the story involves an ogre, which the hero outsmarts. It bears resemblance to ''
Sweetheart Roland "Sweetheart Roland" (german: Der Liebste Roland) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm (KHM 56). It combines several Aarne-Thompson types: type 1119, the witch killing her own children; type 313A, the girl helps the hero flee; ...
'' and ''
Themisto In Greek mythology, Themisto (; Ancient Greek: Θεμιστώ) was a Ancient Thessaly, Thessalin princess as the daughter of King Hypseus of LapithsBibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus), Apollodorus, 1.9.2 and the naiad Chlidanope. Her name is derived ...
''.


Adaptations

* Hop-o'-My-Thumb, his brothers, and the ogre appear in the final act of Tchaikovsky's ballet '' The Sleeping Beauty''. * He is also portrayed in Ravel's '' Ma mère l'oye''. * Jean-Claude Mourlevat adapted the Hop-o'-My-Thumb character in the award-winning children's novel ''The Pull of the Ocean'', originally published in France under the title ''L'enfant Ocean''. * ''Hop o' My Thumb ... The Story Retold.''
Laura E. Richards Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards (February 27, 1850 – January 14, 1943) was an American writer. She wrote more than 90 books including biographies, poetry, and several for children. One well-known children's poem is her literary nonsense verse " ...
. London: Blickie & Son, 1886. Also, Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1886. * The short story "Little Poucet" by Steve Rasnic Tem appears in the adult fairy-tale collection ''Snow White, Blood Red'', 2000. * An animated adaptation, ''Hop-o'-My-Thumb'' ('' Мальчик-с-пальчик''), was made in 1938 in the Soviet Union. * ''Hop o' My Thumb'', 1913–1914 Broadway musical.


Illustrations


Illustrations by Gustave Doré

Gustave Doré Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré ( , , ; 6 January 1832 – 23 January 1883) was a French artist, as a printmaker, illustrator, painter, comics artist, caricaturist, and sculptor. He is best known for his prolific output of wood-engravin ...
contributed 11 illustrations to an 1862 edition of Perrault's book, ''Les Contes de Perrault''. Opie, Iona and Peter. ''The Classic Fairy Tales''.
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 1974, p. 134.


Other illustrators

Heinrich Leutemann Gottlob Heinrich (Henrik) Leutemann (8 October 1824 — 14 December 1905) was a German artist and book illustrator. He was born in Leipzig and studied there. He produced lithographs for instructional posters. In the 1850s, he worked on pict ...
and
Carl Offterdinger Carl Offterdinger (January 8, 1829 in Stuttgart – January 12, 1889 in Stuttgart) was a German figure painter, figure and genre painter and illustrator. Book illustrations Offterdinger was a student of Heinrich von Rustige. In the second half o ...
illustrated a German fairytale collection, ''Mein erstes Märchenbuch'' (My first Fairytale Book), published at the end of the 19th century. Another German illustrator was
Alexander Zick Alexander Zick (born 20 December 1845, Koblenz, Germany – 10 November 1907, Berlin, Germany) was a German painter and illustrator. Alexander was the greatgrandson of the painter and architect Januarius Zick, the son of fresco artist Joh ...
.


See also

*
Thumbling "Thumbling" and "Thumbling's Travels" (also known as "Thumbling as Journeyman") are two Germany, German fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm in ''Grimms' Fairy Tales, Grimm's fairy tales'' in 1819 (KHM 37 and 45). The two stories do not fea ...
*
Tom Thumb Tom Thumb is a character of English folklore. ''The History of Tom Thumb'' was published in 1621 and was the first fairy tale printed in English. Tom is no bigger than his father's thumb, and his adventures include being swallowed by a cow, tan ...
*
Molly Whuppie Molly Whuppie is an English fairy tale set in Scotland and collected by Joseph Jacobs in ''English Fairy Tales''.Joseph Jacobs, ''English Fairy Tales''"Molly Whuppie"/ref> A Highland version, Maol a Chliobain, was collected by John Francis Campb ...
*
Momotarō is a popular hero of Japanese folklore. His name is often translated as ''Peach Boy'', but is directly translated as ''Peach + Tarō'', a common Japanese given name. ''Momotarō'' is also the title of various books, films and other works that p ...
*
Hansel and Gretel "Hansel and Gretel" (; german: Hänsel und Gretel ) is a German fairy tale collected by the German Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 15). It is also known as Little Step Brother and Little Step Sister. Hansel ...
*
Buttercup ''Ranunculus'' is a large genus of about almost 1700 to more than 1800 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots. The genus is distributed in Europe, ...
* The Flea *
Patufet Patufet (, also known as ''Garbancito'' in Spanish) is the main character of one of the most famous folktales of Catalan tradition. It is related to the stories of Tom Thumb, Little Thumb or Thumbling (Catalan: Polzet; Spanish: ''Pulgarcito' ...


References


External links

* *
Sur la Lune: "Little Tom Thumb" by Charles Perrault
{{Authority control French fairy tales Works by Charles Perrault Fictional ogres Child characters in fairy tales Male characters in fairy tales Filicide in fiction ATU 300-399 ru:Мальчик-с-пальчик (сказка)