Little ThumbAltersversion

Once upon a time, there was a woodcutter and his wife. They had seven children, all boys. The oldest was ten years old, and the youngest was only seven. They were very poor, and the seven children made life hard for them, because none of them could earn any money yet. What worried them most was that the youngest was very small and weak, and hardly ever spoke a word. They thought he was stupid, but really he was very clever. He was so tiny that when he was born he was no bigger than a thumb, so everyone called him Little Thumb.

The poor boy got blamed for everything that went wrong in the house, even if he didn't do it. But he was actually much smarter than all his brothers put together. He didn't talk much, but he listened and thought a lot.

Then came a very bad year, and the famine was so terrible that the poor parents decided to get rid of their children. One evening, when the children were in bed, the woodcutter sat with his wife by the fire. His heart was ready to break as he said, "You see plainly that we can't feed our children. I can't watch them starve to death. I've decided to leave them in the woods tomorrow. While they're busy tying up the branches, we can slip away without them noticing."

"Ah!" cried his wife. "How can you have the heart to take your own children into the woods just to abandon them?"

Her husband tried to explain how poor they were, but she wouldn't agree. She was poor, but she was their mother. Still, when she thought about how awful it would be to see them die of hunger, she finally gave in, and went to bed crying.

Little Thumb heard everything they said. He had crept out of bed and hidden under his father's stool so he could listen without being seen. Then he went back to bed, but he didn't sleep a wink the rest of the night, thinking about what to do. He got up early in the morning and went to the river, where he filled his pockets with little white pebbles. Then he came back home.

They all set off into the woods, but Little Thumb didn't tell his brothers anything. They went into a thick forest where they could barely see each other ten steps away. The woodcutter began to cut wood, and the children gathered sticks to tie into bundles. Their parents let them work, then slowly moved away and suddenly ran off down a hidden path through the bushes.

When the children realized they were alone, they began to cry as loud as they could. Little Thumb let them cry, because he knew how to get home. As they had walked, he had dropped the little white pebbles from his pockets along the way. He said to his brothers, "Don't be afraid. Father and mother have left us here, but I can lead you home. Just follow me."

They followed him, and he brought them back home along the very same path they had taken into the forest. They didn't dare go inside, so they sat down by the door and listened to what their parents were saying.

Just as the woodcutter and his wife got home, the lord of the manor sent them ten gold coins he had owed them for a long time. They never expected to get that money, and it gave them new hope. The woodcutter sent his wife straight to the butcher.

Since they hadn't eaten properly in a long time, she bought three times as much meat as two people could eat. After they had filled their bellies, the woman said, "Alas! Where are our poor children now? They would enjoy the leftovers. But it was you, William, who wanted to lose them.

I told you we'd regret it. What are they doing in the forest? Oh dear God, maybe the wolves have already eaten them! You're so cruel to have abandoned your children."

The woodcutter grew angry, because she repeated this more than twenty times. He threatened to hit her if she didn't stop. It wasn't that the woodcutter wasn't just as upset as his wife, but she kept nagging him. She was crying and shouting, "Alas! Where are my children, my poor children?"

She spoke so loudly that the children outside heard and started shouting together, "Here we are! Here we are!"

She ran to open the door and hugged them, saying, "I'm so glad to see you, my dear children! You must be hungry and tired. And my poor Peter, you're covered in mud! Come in and let me clean you."

Now, you should know that Peter was her oldest son, and she loved him most because he had reddish hair, like her own. They all sat down to supper and ate with such good appetites that their parents were pleased.

The children told them how scared they had been in the forest, all talking at once. The parents were overjoyed to have them home again, and that happiness lasted as long as the ten gold coins. But when the money ran out, they fell back into their old worry.

They decided to abandon the children again, this time at a much greater distance, to make sure they couldn't find their way back.

They couldn't talk about it secretly enough, though, because Little Thumb overheard them again. He planned to get out of this trouble just like the last time. But when he got up early to collect pebbles, the front door was double-locked, and he didn't know what to do. When their father gave each child a piece of bread for breakfast, Little Thumb thought he could use the bread instead of pebbles by dropping crumbs along the way. So he put the bread in his pocket.

Their father and mother led them into the thickest, darkest part of the forest, then slipped away down a side path and left them. Little Thumb wasn't too worried, because he thought he could find the way back by the bread crumbs he had dropped. But he got a big surprise when he couldn't find a single crumb. The birds had come and eaten every bit.

Now they were truly frightened. The deeper they went into the forest, the more lost they became. Night fell, and a terrible wind started blowing, which scared them badly. They thought they heard wolves howling all around, ready to eat them. They barely dared to speak or move. Then it began to rain hard, soaking them to the skin. They slipped and fell into the mud, getting covered in dirt.

Little Thumb climbed to the top of a tall tree to see if he could spot anything. He looked all around and finally saw a tiny light, like a candle, far away. He climbed down, but once on the ground he couldn't see the light anymore, which made him sad. However, after walking for a while with his brothers toward where he had seen the light, he spotted it again as they came out of the woods.

At last they reached the house where the candle was, but they were very scared because they kept losing sight of it whenever they went into a hollow. They knocked on the door, and a kind woman opened it. She asked what they wanted.

Little Thumb told her they were poor children lost in the forest and asked to stay there for the night. When the woman saw how sweet they looked, she began to cry and said, "Oh, poor little ones! Do you know that this house belongs to a cruel ogre who eats little children?"

"Ah, dear lady," answered Little Thumb, trembling all over like his brothers, "what shall we do? The wolves will surely eat us tonight if you don't let us stay. We would rather the gentleman eat us. Maybe he will take pity on us, especially if you ask him."

The ogre's wife thought she could hide them from her husband until morning, so she let them in and brought them to warm themselves by a nice fire. A whole sheep was roasting on the spit for the ogre's supper.

As they started to get warm, they heard three or four loud knocks at the door. It was the ogre coming home. The woman quickly hid them under the bed and went to open the door. The ogre immediately asked if supper was ready and if the wine was poured. Then he sat down to eat. The sheep was still raw and bloody, but he liked it that way. He sniffed around and said, "I smell fresh meat."

"What you smell," said his wife, "must be the calf I just killed and skinned."

"I tell you, I smell fresh meat!" replied the ogre, glaring at his wife. "There's something going on that I don't understand."

He got up from the table and went straight to the bed. "Ah!" he said, "I see you tried to trick me, you wicked woman! I don't know why I don't eat you too, but you're too tough. Here's some good game that will be perfect for entertaining three of my ogre friends who are coming to visit in a day or two."

He dragged the children out from under the bed one by one. The poor boys fell on their knees and begged for mercy, but they were dealing with one of the cruellest ogres in the world. He had no pity at all and already seemed to devour them with his eyes. He told his wife they would taste delicious when cooked with a good sauce. Then he took a big knife and sharpened it on a whetstone. He grabbed one of the boys, but his wife said, "Why do it now? There's plenty of time tomorrow."

"Be quiet," said the ogre. "They'll be more tender if I do it now."

"But you already have so much meat," replied his wife. "There's a calf, two sheep, and half a pig."

"True," said the ogre, "give them a good meal so they don't get thin, and then put them to bed."

The woman was overjoyed and fed them well, but the boys were too scared to eat a bite. The ogre sat back down to drink, very pleased to have food for his friends. He drank a dozen more glasses than usual, which went to his head and made him go to bed.

The ogre had seven daughters, all little girls. These young ogresses had nice complexions because they ate fresh meat like their father, but they had little round grey eyes, hooked noses, wide mouths, and long, sharp teeth set far apart. They weren't very naughty yet, but they showed promise because they already bit little children to suck their blood. The girls had been put to bed early, each wearing a little gold crown on her head. In the same room was another bed just as big, and that's where the ogre's wife put the seven boys. Then she went to bed with her husband.

Little Thumb had noticed the gold crowns on the ogresses' heads and feared the ogre might change his mind about not killing them. So around midnight, he got up, took his brothers' caps and his own, and very quietly put them on the heads of the seven little ogresses. Then he took off their gold crowns and put them on his own head and his brothers' heads. That way, the ogre would mistake the boys for his daughters and the ogresses for the boys he wanted to kill. Everything happened just as he planned.

Around midnight, the ogre woke up, upset that he had put off killing the boys until morning. He jumped out of bed and grabbed his big knife. "Let's see how those little rascals are doing," he said. "I don't want to make two trips."

He groped his way to his daughters' room and went to the bed where the boys were sleeping. They were all fast asleep, except Little Thumb, who was terrified when he felt the ogre fumbling around his head, just as he had done with his brothers. When the ogre touched the gold crowns, he said, "I would have made a fine mess of things! I must have drunk too much last night."

Then he went to the bed where the girls lay. When he felt the boys' little caps, he said, "Aha, my little rascals! Are you there? Let's get to work!"

And without another word, he cut the throats of all seven of his daughters.

Very pleased with what he had done, he went back to bed with his wife. As soon as Little Thumb heard the ogre snoring, he woke his brothers and told them to get dressed and follow him. They crept down into the garden, climbed over the wall, and ran almost all night, shaking with fear, not knowing where they were going.

When the ogre woke up, he said to his wife, "Go upstairs and dress those young rascals who came last night."

The ogress was surprised by her husband's kindness, not realizing what he meant. She thought he wanted her to put their clothes on. But when she went upstairs, she was horrified to find her seven daughters lying dead in a pool of blood. She fainted, as most women do in such situations. The ogre, worried that his wife was taking too long, went up to help her. He was just as shocked as his wife at the terrible sight.

"Ah! What have I done?" he cried. "Those cursed little wretches will pay for this, and right now!"

He threw a pitcher of water on his wife's face to revive her and said, "Quickly, give me my seven-league boots so I can catch them!"

He went outside and ran across vast distances, searching everywhere. At last, he came to the very road where the children were, no more than a hundred steps from their father's house. They saw the ogre taking one step from mountain to mountain and crossing rivers as if they were tiny streams. Little Thumb spotted a hollow rock nearby and told his brothers to hide inside it. He squeezed in too, and watched to see what would happen.

The ogre was very tired from his long, useless journey (these seven-league boots really wear out the wearer) and decided to rest. By chance, he sat down on the very rock where the boys were hiding. He was so exhausted that he fell asleep, and soon began to snore so loudly that the children were just as scared as when he had held his knife. But Little Thumb was braver than his brothers. He told them to run home right away while the ogre was fast asleep, and not to worry about him. They followed his advice and hurried home.

Little Thumb crept up to the ogre, gently pulled off his boots, and put them on himself. The boots were huge and long, but since they were magic, they could grow or shrink to fit whoever wore them. So they fit Little Thumb's feet and legs perfectly, as if they had been made for him.

He went straight to the ogre's house, where he found the ogress crying bitterly over her dead daughters. "Your husband," said Little Thumb, "is in great danger. He's been captured by a gang of thieves who have sworn to kill him unless he gives them all his gold and silver.

Just as they held daggers to his throat, he saw me and asked me to come tell you. He said you must give me everything he owns, without keeping anything, or they'll kill him without mercy.

Because time is short, he let me borrow his boots (as you can see) so I could hurry, and to prove I'm telling the truth."

The poor woman was so frightened that she gave him all the ogre's treasure. Even though the ogre ate little children, he was a good husband. Little Thumb took all the money and went home to his father's house, where he was welcomed with great joy.

Now, some people don't agree with this part. They say that Little Thumb never robbed the ogre at all, and that he only took the boots because he thought it was fair, since the ogre only used them to chase children.

These folks claim to know for sure, because they often ate and drank at the woodcutter's house. They say that after taking the boots, Little Thumb went to court. There he learned that the king was worried about an army two hundred leagues away and the outcome of a battle.

So Little Thumb went to the king and said that if the king wished, he could bring news from the army before nightfall. The king promised him a large sum of money. Little Thumb kept his word and returned that same night with the news.

This first mission made him known, and he could get whatever he wanted. The king paid him well to carry orders to the army, and many ladies paid him to bring news from their sweethearts. That was his biggest profit.

Some married women also sent letters by him to their husbands, but they paid so poorly that he didn't bother counting that money. After working as a messenger for a while and gaining great wealth, he went back to his father, where everyone was overjoyed to see him.

He made the whole family well-off, bought positions for his father and brothers, and they all lived comfortably. And he himself became a high favorite of the king.