Little pimples and little pimples
Himpelchen und Pimpelchen is a simple German-language finger game for small children. In the popular, orally transmitted form, it is about two little men who climb a mountain, sit there and wiggle their pointed hats, then crawl into the mountain and sleep well, only to wake up again so that the game can start over . In this way, it presents a day-night rhythm that has been reduced to the essentials and regulates activity and rest phases.
text
The text occurs in many text variants. One of them is:
Himpelchen and Pimpelchen
climbed a high mountain.
Himpelchen was a Heinzelmann
and Pimpelchen was a dwarf.
They
sat there for a long time, wiggling their pointed caps.
But after many, many weeks
they crawled into the mountain.
There they sleep in good peace.
Be quiet and listen carefully!
Pütsche pü, pütsche pü…
Hot, hot, hopsassa,
Himpelchen and Pimpelchen are back!
Implementation as a game
To play, the adult and child sit opposite each other or the adult has the child on his knees so that they can look at each other. The adult speaks the verses and makes appropriate movements: Little pimples and pimples are embodied by the thumbs or index fingers of both hands, which move when speaking, so that the impression arises as if the two figures / fingers are talking. This can be seen in the fact that the child usually looks spontaneously at the two moving thumbs. When little pimples and pimples climb the mountain, their hands go up or over their heads, when they crawl into the mountain, their thumbs are hidden. Sleeping can be savored extensively by snoring noises and the lively waking up can be played out as a contrast from the brief silence that may occur. The child can watch, join in the movements, first speak individual words and then speak the entire text.
The game does not require any tools, but the thumbs or fingers can also be painted with a simple face, with paper hats or designed as simple finger puppets . The underlying form of the game follows the children's desire for repetition, and the game can be played and embellished in many variations. The adult can respond to what comes from the child himself.
distribution
The game can be found in numerous collections of nursery rhymes , finger games and children's songs and on websites for daycare centers and parents. In addition to text variants, there are also simple song forms . Because of the game's popularity, it is more often chosen as the title for collections of first nursery rhymes.
There are different text variants, such as the indication of bedtime "after 75 weeks" or "after 33 weeks" and small continuations such as:
And when they woke up again
, they laughed out loud.
or
Little Sky said: I'll build a house for myself.
Pimpelchen said: And I look out.
Little Himpelchen said: My little house is crooked!
But that's stupid!
Pimpelchen said: Your house is not straight!
That's a pity!
Then came a great wind and blew the house away quickly.
Then the lovely sunshine came and made the house nice again.
The general characteristics of the game as well as the further processing and pictorial representation include the fact that there are two small, similar, but not exactly the same small figures. In many illustrations , little pimples and pimples differ in the colors of their clothes and in that the dwarf often wears a beard and the brownie does not.
Illustrated monographs
In addition to the occurrence in collections, there are some monographic forms of publication, which are always associated with illustrations and in some cases contain independent continuations as little stories.
Rudolf Rinkefeil, Franziska Schenkel
Probably the earliest version of the book is from 1930 under the title Himpelchen und Pimpelchen. Funny magic and teasing in verse by Rudolf Rinkefeil with illustrations by Franziska Schenkel. The small format (24 × 22.5 cm), linen-bound book with 43 pages and printed colored pictures was published by the Richart Keutel publishing house for folk art and education in Lahr .
Lilo Fromm
The game picture book by Lilo Fromm, first published in 1967, appeared in multiple editions until 1993 by Ellermann-Verlag . The book in landscape format (17.5 × 14 cm) with cardboard pages reproduces the folk text on ten pages and illustrates it with clearly designed pictures that are limited to the essentials. They show two happy figures with a red and a blue pointed hat and their conical mountain with a path. Day and night, the change of weather and the seasons as well as the exterior and interior of the mountain are indicated with artistically simple means. To the cave with two beds and thick duvets, the two of them enter it through a slide from the top of the mountain. The design and imagery are suitable for smaller children.
Hedi Hauser and Coca Creţoiu-Şeinescu
Himpelchen, Pimpelchen und die Giesen is a children's book with adventure stories by Hedi Hauser and illustrations by Coca Creţoiu-Şeinescu. The 23 illustrations are partly full-page, partly smaller drawings fill the remaining space before and after the texts. They are screen-printed in black and white, supplemented by a color, light blue. Only the cover image, which extends over the front and back of the book, appears in multi-color printing. The book was published in 1983 by the Ion Creangă publishing house in Bucharest in German and was produced in Sibiu in Transylvania , Romania .
In the eight episode stories , Himpelchen is referred to as a Wichtelmann , Pimpelchen, as in the popular verse itself, as a dwarf. Both belong to the kind of "Heinzelmännchen", described here as superior. Pimpelchen is the braver one in the stories, who progresses and triggers the adventure, while Pimpelchen is the wiser one, who uses his knowledge acquired through listening to the radio, e.g. B. about the human children and their life, idioms or physical knowledge that brings adventure.
In the picture, the dwarf Pimpelchen is characterized by curly hair, a hat with a feather and a checkered piece of clothing, the dwarf pimple by straight hair, a pointed cap, plain blue clothes and a white scarf with black dots. The clothes appear childish and resemble rompers , in some scenes they are just as childishly complemented, for example with bibs while eating or an apron while cooking. Facial features and body proportions correspond to the child's scheme .
The first story, which determines the title of the book, tells how little pimples and pimples go down from their mountain into the valley to look for the seemingly dangerous " giants ". These turn out to be “human children” who spend their school holidays in a “summer camp for pioneers” and are more likely to be helpful. Characteristic, also of the other stories, is an unobtrusive and instructive description of nature in which plants and animals are named very precisely and small everyday lessons for children are given, such as the need to eat carrots because of the vitamins , even if you have them dislike, or - as in the seventh story - a detailed description of how one can prevent a forest fire from starting with united forces and suitable tools . The reality-related level mixes with fairy-tale features, for example when Little Sky, after falling down the slope, glides down into the valley on a dandelion . The motif of rewarding people for good deeds and the good contact between the brownies and “the other forest dwellers” are typical fairytale features of the stories.
Through the contact with the human children, which occurs in almost all stories, their living environment is included from the perspective of a holiday tent camp. Pedagogical intentions are also clearly evident , for example in the thematization of the “ remorse ” and their resolution in the third and fourth stories. The different levels mix to create scenes in an intermediate world. As is described how Himpelchen and Pimpelchen the children and their teacher at the evening Singkreis through the performance of an impressive round dance of the fireflies reward or the entire brownie troop , as the house ghost in Cologne, is the secret cleaned the tents of the children because two small Girls are unhappy that the visit of a writer announced for the next day could lead to a shameful report because the boys have not tidied up their tents and the teacher is criticized for the style of parenting he can afford.
On the one hand, the stories are self-contained as an adventure, on the other hand, they are related to one another in episodes. Occasionally, the position of the narrative author as first-person narrator is interspersed, through whose comments the world of the two brownies is gradually described in more detail: In these stories, Himpelchen and Pimpelchen are two people living together in one house, with 111 and 110 years in comparison still young brownies who are supposed to prove their worth by living alone close to people. Their small size is evidenced by the need to cut mushrooms with an ax or the effort they both have to walk through thick moss. Like their entire species, they sleep on their stomachs, which is how their snub noses came about, and they have a corn on their little toe. In their house with glazed windows and curtains, they live like humans. You take care of yourself, clean, cook, create winter supplies, e.g. B. Mushrooms they dry up. They have furniture, a radio and a walkie-talkie , the postman brings the newspaper every day, brush their teeth in the morning and like to smoke a pipe to relax. Like siblings, they often quarrel and yet they are inseparably related to one another.
In the stories they move in an intermediate area between a “real” everyday life, which children know from their own experience, and a fairytale world with the possibility of asking bees or other brownies for help. Himpelchen and Pimpelchen understand the language of humans as well as that of animals. On the one hand, you read about a newly published book in the newspaper and make plans to publish one yourself in a better publishing house; on the other hand, the same newspaper reports about a new war that has broken out again among the ants and in the little pimples and pimples in the sixth story intervene satisfactorily.
In terms of language, the level of tension and the topics addressed, the stories in Hauser's book, in contrast to the original children's version, are suitable for children of preschool and elementary school age.
Further book publications
In 1995 the ten-page picture book Himpelchen und Pimpelchen went to a mountain ... by Angela Heigrodt was published.
In 2005 there is a series of picture books about Himpelchen and Pimpelchen published by Holger Schmidt, which, according to the information on the back of the volumes, was planned with nine volumes, of which only three have appeared. The issue of Himpelchen and Pimpelchen at McDonald’s is an advertising pamphlet for a visit to McDonald’s , which informs in a label that one euro of the sales proceeds will go to McDonald’s Children's Aid . All three published ten-page volumes are landscape-format (28.5 × 21.5 cm) picture books with colorful, detailed illustrations and non-rhythmic Knittel verses , such as B.
Outside people laugh out loud at a birthday party;
a child brought many friends.
Himpelchen and Pimpelchen run out quickly
and try out McDonald's new seesaws .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Video example of the game . Retrieved January 10, 2018.
- ↑ Example of setting to music as a song on YouTube
- ↑ Petra Probst: Himpelchen and Pimpelchen. arsEdition , Munich 2003, ISBN 3-7607-7163-7 .
- ↑ Stefanie Klaßen: Himpelchen and Pimpelchen: First finger games. Coppenrath , Münster 2011, ISBN 978-3-8157-5589-1 .
- ↑ Karina Birkenstock: Himpelchen and Pimpelchen: First nursery rhymes. arsEdition, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-473-31751-6 .
- ↑ Kirsten Höcker: Himpelchen and Pimpelchen: First finger games. arsEdition, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-7607-8095-5 .
- ↑ Kerstin M. Schuld: Himpelchen and Pimpelchen: The most beautiful finger games and knee riders. Coppenrath, Münster 2013, ISBN 978-3-649-61338-1 .
- ↑ Monika Neubacher-Fesser (illustrator): Himpelchen and Pimpelchen: My first finger play book. Ravensburger Buchverlag , Ravensburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-473-31751-6 .
- ↑ Herder: Finger games for children. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
- ↑ Rudolf Rinke File: Himpelchen and Pimpelchen. A funny witchcraft and teasing in verse Richart Keutel Verlag für Volkskunst und Volksbildung, Lahr 1930.
- ↑ Lilo Fromm: Himpelchen and Pimpelchen . Ellermann game picture book, 1979.
- ↑ Hedi Hauser: Himpelchen, Pimpelchen and the giants . Ion Creangă Publishing House, Bucharest 1983.
- ↑ Angela Heigrodt: Himpelchen and Pimpelchen went up a mountain ... by Kloeden-Verlag, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-920564-10-3 .
- ↑ Holger Schmidt: Himpelchen and Pimpelchen at McDonald's. Schmidt Verlag o. Location. ISBN 978-3-938734-01-8 ; Little pimples and pimples by the sea. Schmidt Verlag o. Location. ISBN 978-3-938734-01-8 ; Little pimples and pimples in the forest. Schmidt Verlag o. Location. ISBN 978-3-938734-00-1 .