Thumbs-thick
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Thumbs down is a fairy tale ( ATU 700). From the second edition of 1819 onwards, it is at position 37 (KHM 37) in the children's and house tales of the Brothers Grimm .
content
A married couple dearly wants a child, even if it is only as small as a thumb. The woman becomes ill and after seven months she has a thumb-sized but clever son. Once he drove after his father to chop wood by sitting in the horse's ear and giving orders. Two men see this and offer the father gold for the boy. He reassures his father that he will come back and travels with one of them on his guard. Under the pretext of having to step out, he lets himself be dropped in the field in the evening and disappears into a mouse hole. He offers the next two thieves the opportunity to hand them money out between the bars of a house. There he chases them away with his loud voice. In the morning he ends up with the straw in which he sleeps in the cow's stomach. Out of claustrophobia, he exclaims that he doesn't want anything to eat. The pastor thinks the devil is, has them slaughtered and their stomach thrown on the dung, where a wolf devours them. Thumbs-thick directs him to his father's chicken coop, who slays the wolf and frees him.
origin
Thumbs up is in Grimms Märchen from the second edition as No. 37, according to the Brothers Grimm from Mülheim am Rhein . Otherwise, they refer to the comment on KHM 45 Daumerling's wandering and also name variants in foreign languages: Vogl No. 6; Wolf's magazine for German mythology 1, 48; Hahn 2, 168-169.
For the Däumling see also KHM 90 The young giant , for the deformed desired child KHM 108 Hans mein Igel and KHM 144 Das Eselein . See also Little Tom Thumb .
The father's sale of the trickster is reminiscent of heroes of magicians' contests (KHM 68 ), the defeat of the wolf from within is reminiscent of the night sea voyage motif (KHM 29 ). Even Vishnu outwitted as Knirps demons. In Homer's hymn, on the day he was born , Hermes steals Apollon's cattle and enters through the keyhole. Tom Thumb has phallic features. Sometimes it arises through special efforts on the part of the parents (cf. KHM 108 ), like a homunculus .
reception
Hans Christian Andersen published his female version of Thumbelina in 1835 . In his novel The Tin Drum, Günter Grass lets the diminutive Oscar attend a performance of Thumbling (chapter The Tribune ).
literature
- Brothers Grimm: Children's and Household Tales. Complete edition. With 184 illustrations by contemporary artists and an afterword by Heinz Rölleke. 19th edition. Artemis & Winkler / Patmos, Düsseldorf and Zurich 1999, ISBN 3-538-06943-3 , pp. 228-233.
- Brothers Grimm: Children's and Household Tales. Last hand edition with the original notes by the Brothers Grimm. With an appendix of all fairy tales and certificates of origin, not published in all editions, published by Heinz Rölleke. Volume 3: Original Notes, Guarantees of Origin, Afterword. Revised and bibliographically supplemented edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-15-003193-1 , p. 78, pp. 457-458.
- Hedwig von Beit: Contrast and Renewal in Fairy Tales. Second volume of «Symbolism of Fairy Tales». 2nd Edition. A. Francke, Bern 1956, pp. 501-507.
- Norbert Nail: Däumlings Deutsch (for the "Grimm Year 2012") ( https://norbert-nail.de/daeumlings-deutsch.html ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hedwig von Beit: Contrast and Renewal in Fairy Tales. Second volume of «Symbolism of Fairy Tales». 2nd Edition. A. Francke, Bern 1956. pp. 501-507.