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.