Tom Thumb is a character of English folklore. The History of Tom Thumb was
published in 1621, and was the first fairy tale printed in English. Tom is no
bigger than his father's thumb, and his adventures include being swallowed by a
cow, tangling with giants, and becoming a favourite of King Arthur. The earliest
allusions to Tom occur in various 16th-century works such as Reginald
Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft, where Tom is cited as one of the supernatural
folk employed by servant maids to frighten children.
Tattershall in Lincolnshire, UK, boasts to have the home and grave of Tom Thumb.
Aside from his own tales, Tom figures in Henry Fielding's play Tom Thumb, a
companion piece to his The Author's Farce. It was later expanded into a
single piece titled The Tragedy of Tragedies, or the History of Tom Thumb
the Great. In the middle 18th century, books began
to be published specifically for children and, by the middle 19th
century, Tom was a fixture of the nursery library. Charlotte Yonge
cleansed questionable passages and the tale took on moral overtones. Dinah
Mulock however refrained from scrubbing the tale of its vulgarities. Tom Thumb's
story has been adapted to several films including the 1958 George Pal musical
tom thumb starring Russ Tamblyn. Tiny folkloric characters like Tom are known
in cultures around the world. History
The tale of Tom Thumb is the first English fairy tale. The earliest
surviving text is a 40-page booklet printed in London for Thomas Langley in
1621 entitled The History of Tom Thumbe, the Little, for his small stature
surnamed, King Arthur's Dwarfe: whose Life and adventures containe many
strange and wonderfull accidents, published for the delight of merry
Time-spenders. The author is presumed to be Londoner Richard Johnson because his
initials appear on the last page. The only known copy is in the Pierpont
Morgan Library, New York. Tom was already a traditional folk
character when the booklet was printed, and it is likely printed materials
circulated prior to Johnson's. It is not known how much or exactly what Johnson
contributed to Tom's character or his adventures. William Fulke referred to
Tom in 1579 in Heskins Parleament Repealed and Thomas Nashe referred to
him in 1592 in his prose satire on the vices of the age, Pierce Penniless, His
Supplication to the Divell. In his Discoverie of Witchcraft, Reginald Scot
listed Tom among witches, dwarfs, elves, fairies, giants, and other supernatural
folk as those used by servant maids to frighten children.
Tom was mentioned by James Field in 1611 in Coryat's Crudities: "Tom Thumbe is
dumbe, untill the pudding creepe, in which he was intomb'd, then out doth
peepe." The incident of the pudding was the most popular in connection with the
character. It is alluded to in Ben Johnson's masque of the Fortunate Isles:
"Thomas Thumb in a pudding fat, with Doctor Rat."
Johnson's History may have been in circulation as early as this date
because the title page woodblock in the 1621 edition shows great wear. Johnson
himself makes it clear in the preface that Tom was long known by "old and
young...Bachelors and Maids...and Shepheard and the young Plow boy".
The tale belongs to the swallow cycle. Tom is swallowed by a cow, a giant, a
fish, and in some extensions to Johnson's tale, by a miller and a
salmon. In this respect, the tale shows little imaginative development. Tom is
delivered from such predicaments rather crudely, but editors of later dates
found ways to make his deliverance more seemly and he rarely passed beyond the
mouth. Tom's tale was reprinted countless times
in Britain, and was being sold in America as early as 1686. In 1630 a
metrical version entitled Tom Thumbe, His Life and Death: Wherein is declared
many Maruailous Acts of Manhood, full of wonder, and strange merriments: Which
little Knight liued in King Arthurs time, and famous in the Court of Great
Brittaine was published. The book was reprinted many times, and, about 1700,
two more parts were added to the first. The three parts were reprinted many
times. In 1711 William Wagstaffe published A
Comment upon The History of Tom Thumbe. In 1730 English dramatist Henry Fielding
used Tom Thumb as the central figure of a play by that name, which he rewrote in
1731 as The Tragedy of Tragedies, or the History of Tom Thumb the Great. A
farcical take on the legend, the play is filled with 18th-century political and
literary satire and is intended as a parody of heroic tragedies. The title of
"The Great" may be intended as a reference to the politician Sir Robert
Walpole, himself often called "The Great." Henry Fielding's tragedy Tom
Thumb was the basis for an opera constructed by Kane O'Hara.
Fielding's Tom is cast as a mighty, although tiny, warrior and conqueror of
giants, as well as the object of desire for many of the ladies at court. The
plot is largely concerned with the various love triangles between the
characters, who include the Princess Huncamunca, the giantess Glumdalca, and
Queen Dollalolla. Matters are complicated when Arthur awards Tom the
hand of Huncamunca in marriage which results in Dollalolla and the jealous
Grizzle seeking revenge. Eventually, Tom dies when swallowed by a cow, but his
ghost returns. At the conclusion, Tom's ghost is killed by Grizzle and most of
the cast kill each other in duels or take their own lives in grief.
Fielding's play was later adapted into a spoof on opera conventions called The
Opera of Operas; or Tom Thumb the Great by playwrights Eliza Haywood and William
Hatchett. This version includes a happy ending in which Tom is spat back out by
the cow and the others are resurrected by Merlin's magic. This is considered to
be a satirical comment on the unlikely and tacked-on nature of many happy
endings in literature and drama. In the middle 18th century books began
appearing specifically for children, and Tom was cited as the author of titles
such as Tommy Thumb's Song Book and Tommy Thumb's Little Story Book. In 1791
Ritson remarked that Tom's popularity was known far and wide: "Every city,
town, village, shop, stall, man, woman, and child, in the kingdom, can bear
witness to it." Tom's story was originally intended for
adults but by the middle-19th century it was relegated to the nursery. Vulgar
episodes were sanitized and moralizing coloured the tale. In Charlotte Mary
Yonge's 1856 adaptation, Tom resists his natural urges to play impish pranks,
renounces his ties to Fairyland, and pronounces himself a Christian. As
Mordred's rebellion wears on in the last days of Arthur's reign, Tom refuses to
return to Fairyland, preferring to die as an honourable Christian.
In 1863, Dinah Maria Craik Mulock refused to cleanse the tale's
questionable passages and let the story speak for itself. Mulock adds material
and in her adaptation, Tom has adventures that again involve
swallowing, being imprisoned in a mousetrap, angering King Thunston and
his queen, and finally dying from the poisonous breath of a spider. Tom's tale
has since been adapted to all sorts of children's books with new material added
and existing material reworked, but his mischievous nature and his bravery
remain undiminished. Plot
Richard Johnson's The History of Tom Thumbe of 1621 tells that in the days of
King Arthur, old Thomas of the Mountain, a plowman and a member of the King's
Council, wants nothing more than a son, even if he is no bigger than his thumb.
He sends his wife to consult with Merlin and in three months time she gives birth
to the diminutive Tom Thumb. The "Queene of Fayres" and her attendants act as
midwives. She provides Tom with an oak leaf hat, a shirt of cobweb, a doublet
of thistledown, stockings of apple rind, and shoes of mouse's skin.
Tom cheats at games with other boys, and, because of his many tricks, the
boys will not associate with him. Tom retaliates by using magic to hang his
mother's pots and glasses from a sunbeam, and, when his fellows try the
same, their pots and glasses fall and are broken. Thereafter, Tom stays home
under his mother's supervision. At Christmas, she makes puddings, but Tom
falls into the batter, and is boiled into one of them. When a tinker comes
begging, Tom's mother inadvertently gives him the pudding containing her
son. The tinker farts while crossing a stile but Tom calls out about the
farting and the frightened tinker drops the pudding. Tom eats himself free and
returns home to tell his mother and father of his adventure.
His mother thereafter keeps a closer watch upon him, but one day he
accompanies her to the field to milk the cows. He sits under a thistle but a red
cow swallows him. The cow is given a laxative and Tom passes from her in a
"cowturd". He is taken home and cleaned. Another day, he accompanies his father
for the seed sowing and rides in the horse's ear. Tom is set down in the
field to play the scarecrow but a raven carries him away. His parents search for
him but are unable to find him. The raven drops Tom at the castle of a
giant. The cruel giant swallows the tiny boy like a pill. Tom thrashes about so
much in the giant's stomach that he is vomited into the sea. There, he is eaten
once more, this time by a fish, which is caught for King Arthur's supper. The
cook is astonished to see the little man emerge from the fish. Tom then becomes
King Arthur's Dwarf. Tom becomes a favourite at court,
especially among the ladies. There is revelry; Tom joins the jousting and
dances in the palm of a Maid of Honour. He goes home briefly to see his parents,
taking some money from the treasury with the king's permission, then returns to
court. The Queene of Fayres finds him asleep on a rose and leaves him several
gifts: an enchanted hat of knowledge, a ring of invisibility, a shape-changing
girdle, and shoes to take him anywhere in a moment.
Tom falls seriously ill when a lady blows her nose, but is cured by the
physician to King Twaddell of the Pygmies. He takes a ride in his walnut
shell coach and meets Garagantua. Each boasts of his many powers, but when
Garagantua threatens to harm Tom, he is cast under an enchantment and Tom
hurries home to safety. King Arthur listens with amazement to Tom's many
adventures. Richard Johnson's 1621 narrative ends here but he promised his
readers a sequel that has never been found, if published at all. In 1630 a
metrical version in three parts was published that continues Tom's
adventures. Other versions paint a different picture
to Tom's end. Dinah Mulock continued the tale and noted that Tom exhausted
himself with jousting but recovered in Fairyland. When he returned to Arthur's
court, he accidentally landed in a bowl of the king's frumenty. Tom enrages the
cook and is threatened with beheading. He seeks refuge in the mouth of a
passing slack-jawed miller. Sensing tiny voices and movements within him, the man
believes he is possessed. He yawns and Tom emerges but the Miller is so angry
he tosses Tom into a river where he is swallowed by a salmon. The fish is
caught, taken to the King's kitchen, and Tom is found and kept in a mousetrap
until the king forgives him. The court goes hunting and Tom joins
them upon his steed, a mouse. A cat catches the mouse and Tom is injured. He
is carried to Fairyland where he recovers and dwells for several years.
When he returns to court, King Thunston now reigns. Charmed by the little man,
the king gives Tom a tiny coach pulled by six mice. This makes the queen
jealous, as she received no such gifts, and she frames Tom with being insolent
to her. Tom attempts to escape on a passing butterfly but is caught and
imprisoned in a mousetrap. He is freed by a curious cat and once more wins back
the favour of his king. Sadly, he does not live to enjoy it as he is killed by
a spider bite. Tom is laid to rest beneath rosebush and a marble monument
is raised to his memory with the epitaph:
Here lies Tom Thumb, King Arthur’s knight,
Who died by a spider’s cruel bite. He was well known in Arthur’s court,
Where he afforded gallant sport; He rode at tilt and tournament,
And on a mouse a-hunting went; Alive he fill’d the court with mirth,
His death to sorrow soon gave birth. Wipe, wipe your eyes, and shake your
head, And cry, ‘Alas! Tom Thumb is dead.
Adaptations Tom Thumb is the subject of several
films. In 1936, a short animated version directed by Ub Iwerks was released, and
in 1940 another animated version by Chuck Jones called Tom Thumb in Trouble.
In 1958, George Pal directed a live action musical, tom thumb starring Russ
Tamblyn. Also in 1958, although not released in the U.S. until 1967 in a
dubbed version, a Mexican version of Tom Thumb was made based loosely on Charles
Perrault's "Le petit Poucet". A darker, modernized film version using stop
motion animation called The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb was released in
1993, and Tom Thumb Meets Thumbelina and the 2002 direct-to-DVD animated movie,
The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina brought together the two most
famous tiny people of literature, with Tom voiced by Elijah Wood.
Text stories and later comic strips based on the Tom Thumb character
appeared in the anthology comic The Beano from the first issue in 1938 until
the late fifties. Similar tales and characters
There are many thumb-sized characters around the world: Le petit poucet, Der
kleine Däumling, Little One Inch/Issun-bōshi, Thumbikin, Pulgarcito,
Pollicino, Piñoncito, Липунюшка - Lipunyushka, Palčić, Patufet, The
Hazel-nut Child, Klein Duimpje and Pinkeltje, Hüvelyk Matyi, and others.
See also General Tom Thumb
Erkenek Notes
References Bauer, Susan. "The History of Tom
Thumb". The camelto pronect at the University of Rochester.
Halliwell, J.O.. The Metrical History of Tom Thumb the Little. Chiswick Press.
MacDonald, Margaret Read. The Oryx Multicultural Folktale Series: Tom
Thumb. Oryx Press. ISBN 0-89774-728-3. Opie, Iona; Opie, Peter [1974]. The
Classic Fairy Tales. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-211559-6.
External links "The History Of Tom Thumb"
"Tom Thumb" from The Fairy Book by Miss Mulock
Tom Thumb in the Arthurian Tradition Tom Thumbe, His Life and Death Complete
1630 metrical text