| One day when the father went off to cut wood, the child followed along but decided to help out by bringing the log carriage to him. Tom was whispering in the horse’s ear when two enterprising opportunists spotted the driverless carriage and followed it to the place where Tom met his father. Upon seeing this miraculous site which could net lots of cash for them in the public circus, they offered the father a bunch of money for the child. At first refusing, then the father went along with the request due to Tom Thumb’s insistence he would escape and return. It took a little time, but he finally escaped and snuck down a mouse hole and the two could not get him and went off without anything. Tom found a place to sleep in a snail’s shell till morning. Next, Tom convinced a couple thieves he would help them after hearing them conversing in the woods: “How can we manage to get hold of the rich parson's gold and silver?” – ‘I can tell you how,’ cried Tom Thumb. ‘How is this?’ said one of the thieves, quite frightened, ‘I hear someone speak!’ So, they stood still and listened, and Tom Thumb spoke again. ‘Take me with you, I will show you how to do it!’ – ‘Where are you, then?’ asked they. ‘Look about on the ground and notice where the voice comes from,’ answered he. At last they found him and lifted him up. ‘You little elf,’ said they, ‘how can you help us?’ – ‘Look here,’ answered he, ‘I can easily creep between the iron bars of the parson's room and hand out to you whatever you would like to have’.” So, he traveled with them and then ended up in a cow’s mouth being swallowed because he spend the night in a hay bale. After being swallowed by the cow, he screams from the cow’s stomach and the maid who was milking the cow heard this, thought the cow was possessed by a bad spirit and called out to the master of the house: “No sooner had he put his foot inside the door, then Tom Thumb cried out again, ‘No more hay for me! no more hay for me!’ Then the master himself was frightened, supposing that a bad spirit had entered into the cow, and he ordered her to be put to death. So, she was killed, but the stomach, where Tom Thumb was lying, was thrown upon a dunghill. Tom Thumb had great trouble to work his way out of it, and he had just made a space big enough for his head to go through, when a new misfortune happened. A hungry wolf ran up and swallowed the whole stomach at one gulp.” But Tom, not to be outdone, convinced the wolf that he knew where he could get a better meal, the wolf, thinking himself the wiser, agreed to this and led the wolf to Tom’s father’s house. The father knocked the wolf out and rejoined with his son and said to him, “Oh, what anxiety we have felt about you!” “Yes, father, I have seen a good deal of the world,” said Tom, “and I am very glad to breathe fresh air again.” – “And where have you been all this time?” asked his father. “Oh, I have been in a mouse-hole and a snail's shell, in a cow's stomach and a wolf’s inside; now, I think, I will stay at home.” |
In this story of Tom Thumb, the telling aspects of the story of course are the facts that Tom is a dwarf or an “elf” as the thieves call him, and when the cow eats him, the cow is sacrificed and Tom has to poke his head out of a dunghill. Both qualities are very appropriate for a mushroom character. I’ve found one example of a modern book on Tom Thumb illustrated by Eric Carle, which has an A. muscaria prominently displayed on the cover front and center, under which Tom is resting (90e). Little Brier-Rose & Sleeping Beauty In the story of Little Brier-Rose, the original template for Sleeping Beauty, a childless king and queen are granted their wish to have a child by a frog who appears in the lady’s bathtub. When the child is born, thirteen wise women are invited to bring gifts, but since there are only twelve platters one of them is not invited. She does arrive however, just prior to the twelfth wise woman giving her blessing and gift and announces that upon the young girl’s fifteenth birthday she will prick herself with a spindle and die. The twelfth wise woman, however, gave her gift and blessing which was that briar Rose would not die but fall into a hundred-year sleep. The king was so concerned he had all the spindles in the kingdom destroyed. One day though while the king and queen were away, and the child had turned fifteen already, she wandered into a place in her home down a staircase where she found a locked door with a rusty key in it. She opened the door and there was a woman sitting on a chair working a spindle. She had never seen a spindle before and naturally wanted to learn how to use it and no sooner did she touch it when her finger was pricked, and she fell onto the bed into a deep sleep. A thorny patch grew all around the castle and Princes came from all over hearing there was a fair maiden sleeping in the castle and each attempt to reach her was wrought with thorny spikes and proven fruitless. Coincidentally, after a hundred years had passed, a daring Prince tried to have a go at it, and found no trouble getting through and since the curse was now lifted, he successfully kissed Briar Rose and she awoke and they fell in love, end of story. |