Tom Thumb

Tom Thumb Click here for more free books!

1. A hero of English folklore, who was no bigger than his father's thumb.
2. A person of very small physical stature.

This is the English version of an international humorous fairytale in which a woman's wish to have a son ‘even if he is no bigger than my husband's thumb’ is literally granted—in this case, by Merlin. Tom receives magic gifts from his godmother the Fairy Queen, but his tiny size leads to many mishaps, as when he falls into a pudding, is carried off by a raven, is swallowed by a grazing cow, a fish, a giant, and so on. The earliest surviving version appeared in 1621 and is probably by a popular pamphleteer, Richard Johnson (1573-?1659); however, earlier references to the hero by name show that he was already known in the 1570s. Johnson's humour is mildly coarse; Tom makes his exit from the cow via a cowpat, and causes such ‘rumbling and tumbling’ in the giant's guts that the latter vomits him ‘at least three miles into the sea’. Later versions were made more ‘suitable’ for children; some end with Tom dying heroically in battle with a spider.

His name was used by early publishers of children's verses, for instance Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (1744) and The Famous Tommy Thumb's Little Story-Book (c.1760); at this period ‘Tommy Thumb songs’ was the usual English term for nursery rhymes.

Bibliography
The full bibliography list is available here.

• The full text of the 1621 pamphlet, with a commentary, is in Opie and Opie, 1974: 30-3
• it is also edited by C. F. Buhler, The History of Tom Thumbe (1965)

‘Little Tom Thumb’ (‘Le Petit poucet’), a tale by Charles Perrault published in the Histoires ou contes du temps passé (Stories or Tales of Past Times, 1697), is an amalgam of folk‐tale motifs. An early literary version by Basile (‘Nennillo et Nennilla’ from the Pentamerone, 1634) concerns two children abandoned in the woods. Perrault enlarges the family and shrinks his hero. Tom, the youngest of seven sons, overhears his impoverished parents planning to lose their children in the forest because they cannot feed them. The self‐reliant boy first leads his brothers home thanks to a trail of stones, but the second time, his trail of crumbs is eaten by birds. Spying a light in the distance, he leads his siblings to the castle of an ogre, and begins a David‐and‐Goliath confrontation of wits. He tricks the ogre into murdering his seven daughters and steals his treasure and seven‐league boots. With these, he secures a post as a courier doing reconnaissance for armies and lovers, and buys positions at court for family members. The concluding moral of this rags‐to‐riches tale reassures even the smallest boy that looks can be deceiving: quick wits can help the underdog triumph, advance in society, and bring honour to one's family. It also stresses that large families don't have to be a burden.

Perrault's insistence on hardship anchors this tale in the socio‐economic climate of 17th‐century France. The plague had reappeared, droughts had caused disastrous harvests, famine was widespread, and an extra mouth to feed could literally mean the difference between life and death. Children were sometimes abandoned; widows with children needed to remarry, and became stepmothers. Reversal of fortune affected the upper classes as well: such is the background of a version by Mme d' Aulnoy, who includes a Cinderella variant. ‘Finette‐Cendron’ (1697) features a king and queen in economic straits who abandon their three daughters: the youngest saves her sisters, tricks the ogre into an oven, and decapitates his wife. The Grimms' version of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ also repeats elements of these tale types, while Michel Tournier's 20th‐century parody, ‘La Fugue du petit Poucet’ (‘Tom Thumb Runs Away’, 1978) subverts Perrault's tale with politically correct commentary on materialism and ecology.

Next to ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, ‘Little Tom Thumb’ has enjoyed the greatest popularity beyond the salon public thanks to the widespread distribution of 19th‐century chapbooks and images d'Épinal, and Gustave Doré's illustrations. Most of the more than 80 regional French versions, however, have little in common with Perrault's tale save the name of his hero. This is also the case with the Grimms' ‘Tom Thumb’ and ‘Tom Thumb's Travels’ or Tragedy of Tragedies, or, The Life and Death of Tom Thumb. Indeed, from P. T. Barnum's diminutive entertainer to celebrated locomotives to foodstore chains, the name ‘Tom Thumb’ remains popular.

Bibliography

• Darnton, Robert, “‘Peasants Tell Tales: The Meaning of Mother Goose’”, in The Great Cat Massacre (1984).
• Delarue, Paul, and Marie‐Louise Tenèze (eds.), Le Conte populaire français (1997; orig. 4 vols., 1957–85).
• Soriano, Marc, Les Contes de Perrault (1968).

— Mary Louise Ennis

The noun has 2 meanings:

Meaning #1: English folklore: an imaginary hero who was no taller than his father's thumb

Meaning #2: a very small person