Thumbelina

Thumbelina (Danish Tommelise ) is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, which was first published in 1835.

Action

A woman wants a child and asks for an old witch for help. She gets her a magic grain of barley, which they planting in a flower pot. From this grows a flower, in the flower there is a little girl who is no longer than a thumb, and is therefore called Thumbelina.

One night, Thumbelina sleeping in her walnut bed, jumps an old toad into the room and kidnaps Thumbelina on a lake, because the toad sees Thumbelina a suitable bride for her son stupid toads. Friendly Fish nibble rid of the lily pad, is caught on the Thumbelina.

So she drives on the sheet to freedom, pulled by a butterfly. A cockchafer falls for traveling in Thumbelina, but after the other cockchafer Thumbelina described as ugly, he drops it. Winter is coming and Thumbelina is hungry and cold. In desperation, she asks for shelter at an old field mouse who takes kindly. For room and board Thumbelina must the house of the field mouse kept clean and tell their stories, to pass the long winter evenings. Thumbelina is a half-frozen swallow, and maintains them healthy. The neighbor, a rich and naturally blind mole, comes often to visit, and finally stops at Däumelinchens hand. Thumbelina escapes on the back of the swallow in a warm country.

There she finds in a flowerbed in a flower a Prince Charming to their size, and they married. Her husband gives her a pair of wings and gives her a new name: Maja. Now both can fly from flower to flower.

Models

The story of Thumbelina is created no adaptation, but essentially by Andersen. Nevertheless, literary models can be identified: The most important influence is the traditional fairy tale of Tom Thumb, the miniature man is also a as a supernatural fulfillment of a wish for a child at the beginning of the story. As other inspirations Swift's Lilliputians are in Gulliver's Travels (1726), Voltaire's narrative Micromégas with their giant and dwarf people (1752 ) and the history Master Flea by ETA Hoffmann (1822 ). Likewise, by ETA Hoffmann, the story is Princess Brambilla (1821 ), in which a small creature living in a flower. In Andersen's own narrative journey on foot from Holmen's Canal to the eastern tip of Amage (1828 ), a tiny girl comes before.

Bibliography

• Hans Christian Andersen: Thumbelina, edited by Sonja Hartl with images of Lisbeth Zwerger. Neugebauer Verlag, Zurich 1987. ISBN 3-314-01616-6
• Hans Christian Andersen: Thumbelina, German Quentin Greban, edited by Katrin Hoffmann. Coppenrath, Münster 2007, ISBN 3-8157-7966-9.
• Hans Christian Andersen: Thumbelina. Classic for beginning readers, revised by Ilse Bintig with pictures of Uli Waas. Ed. Bücherbär, Würzburg 2007. ISBN 3-401-08928-5