"The Hazelnut Child" (
German
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**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
: ''Das Haselnusskind'') is a
Bukovinian fairy tale
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 ...
collected by the Polish-German scholar
Heinrich von Wlislocki (1856–1907) in ''Märchen Und Sagen Der Bukowinaer Und Siebenbûrger Armenier'' (1891,
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...
:
Verlagsanstalt und Druckerei Actien-Gesellschaft).
Andrew Lang included it in ''
The Yellow Fairy Book'' (1894) and
Ruth Manning-Sanders included it in ''
A Book of Dwarfs'' (1964).
Synopsis
A childless couple
prayed for a child, though he were no bigger than a
hazelnut
The hazelnut is the fruit of the hazel tree and therefore includes any of the nuts deriving from species of the genus '' Corylus'', especially the nuts of the species ''Corylus avellana''. They are also known as cobnuts or filberts according ...
, and then they had such a son. He never grew, but he was very clever. When he was 15, he said he wanted to be a messenger. His mother sent him to get a comb from his aunt. He climbed on a horse that a man was riding by, and poked and pinched it until it galloped to the village. There he got the comb, and took another horse the same way. This convinced his mother.
One day, his father left him in the fields with a horse while he went back home. A robber tried to steal the horse. The hazelnut child jumped on the horse and pricked it until it ignored the robber and galloped home. The robber was jailed.
When he was 20, the hazelnut child left home, promising to return when he was rich. He climbed on a stork as the storks were flying south. In Africa, he amused the king until the king gave him a large diamond. The hazelnut child took it with him when the storks flew north again, and so he and his parents were rich thereafter.
Analysis
Tale type
In his own notes to the tale, Wlislocki related it to the cycle of ''Daumesdick'' ("Thumbling"). In addition, in the late 19th century, editors of ''Jahresbericht über die Erscheinungen auf dem Gebiete der germanischen Philologie'', in a review of Wlislocki's book, equated the tale to German tale ''Däumling'' ("Thumbling").
In his 1987 study of folktales, folklorist
D. L. Ashliman
Dee L. Ashliman (born January 1, 1938), who writes professionally as D. L. Ashliman, is an American folklorist and writer. He is Professor Emeritus of German at the University of Pittsburgh and is considered to be a leading expert on folklore and ...
classified the tale as type AaTh 700, "Tom Thumb".
[Ashliman, D. L. ''A Guide to Folktales in the English Language: Based on the Aarne-Thompson Classification System''. Bibliographies and Indexes in World Literature, vol. 11. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1987. pp. 140-141. .]
See also
*
Hans My Hedgehog
*
The Myrtle
"The Myrtle" is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the ''Pentamerone''.
It is Aarne-Thompson type 652A.Thumbling
"Thumbling" and "Thumbling's Travels" (also known as "Thumbling as Journeyman") are two German fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm in ''Grimm's fairy tales'' in 1819 (KHM 37 and 45).
The two stories do not feature the same character. The o ...
*
Tom Thumb
References
External links
''The Hazel-nut Child''
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