Tooth fairy

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Tooth Fairy ( English Tooth Fairy ) is a mythical creature from the modern American and British folklore, from which it is said that at night it a gold coin in exchange for a failed young children milk teeth leave. To do this, the child puts the tooth under the pillow (or in a glass on the bedside table) before going to bed. In today's times, parents replace the gold coin with money or other little surprises. A comparable mythical creature in the Romance-speaking area is the tooth mouse ( French La Petite Souris , literally: 'The little mouse').

Tooth fairy

Origin of the custom

One of the first pieces of evidence for the tooth fairy figure comes from the Chicago Daily Tribune in 1908:

"Tooth Fairy. Many a refractory child will allow a loose tooth to be removed if he knows about the Tooth Fairy. If he takes his little tooth and puts it under the pillow when he goes to bed the Tooth Fairy will come in the night and take it away, and in its place will leave some little gift. It is a nice plan for mothers to visit the 5 cent counter and lay in a supply of articles to be used on such occasions. "

Then in 1927 The Tooth Fairy , a short play for children by Esther Watkins Arnold , was performed for the first time. The first story written about the tooth fairy appears to be The Tooth Fairy by Lee Rogow , published in 1949. After that, the tooth fairy experienced a veritable bloom, at least in the Anglo-American region, which was accompanied by books and comics.

Appearance in art and culture

  • The story was also used in the horror film The Curse of Darkness Falls , in which the tooth fairy has a negative role.
  • Even the fantasy -author Terry Pratchett used in his novel Hogfather (Engl. Hogfather ) the myth of the tooth fairy. There a group of villains penetrates the tooth fairy's tower in order to manipulate the belief in the Snow Father (a kind of Santa Claus from Discworld) with the collected teeth of all children . At Pratchett, the tasks of collecting (for money) and transporting the teeth are carried out by people.
  • In Thomas Harris ' novel Red Dragon (and the two film adaptations Blood Moon and Red Dragon ) the serial killer Dolarhyde is given the pseudonym Tooth Fairy due to bite wounds on his victims .
  • In the 2nd episode of the 4th season of South Park The Tooth Fairy's Tats 2000 (Tooth Fairy Mafia & Co) , the topic is dealt with humorously.
  • Tooth fairies also appear in the thousands in the film Hellboy: The Golden Army . Here it is little demons that can fly and attack and devour everyone. Their name is explained by the fact that they eat the teeth of their victims first.
  • In the series Family Guy , baby Stewie puts a tooth under his pillow. Upon noticing the tooth's disappearance, a decrepit man with fairy wings is cut, who throws the tooth onto a pile of teeth in the room and then rolls around in his teeth, moaning loudly.
  • In the horror film Don't be afraid of the Dark by Guillermo del Toro , it is grotesque-looking little mythical creatures who live in a cave under the mansion and pull children down to make them their own.
  • In the animated film The Guardians of Light by Dreamworks, the tooth fairy is one of the eponymous guardians alongside the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, the Sandman and Jack Frost.

Further occurrences:

Tooth mouse

The tooth mouse is another mythical creature that represents the tooth fairy, who in the imagination of children comes to children with a failed milk tooth at night and leaves them with a little surprise or money.

The Spanish tooth mouse Figo is the main character in the children's film Mr. Figo and the secret of the pearl factory (2006). There pearls are produced from the teeth.

literature

  • Lorelies Singerhoff: Rituals: Meaning, support & strength for the soul . mvg Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-636-06274-1 , p. 173 f .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lillian Brown: Tooth Fairy. Chicago Daily Tribune , September 27, 1908.
  2. ↑ de Vries, Lizzette / de Vries, Cecile, Zahnmaus und Zahnfee ( Memento of April 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Quintessenz Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86867-033-2
  3. ↑ Mr. Figo and the secret of the pearl factory , Moviepilot