This tale shows a number of common motifs that appear in other tales:—
(1) The design of distressed parents to expose children to the forest.
(2) The discovery and prevention of the scheme by a child.
(3) The repetition of incident; the clew spoiled by the birds. The trail motif, similar to the one in Hansel and Grethel.
(4) The arrival of children at the home of the Ogre.
(5) The shifting of crowns to the heads of his brothers.
(6) The flight of the brothers pursued by the Ogre in seven-league boots.
(7) Little Thumb, stealing the boots and winning court favor, or the Ogre's treasure.
Some say that in this tale, symbolically, the forest represents night; the crumbs and pebbles, stars; and the Ogre, the sun. Little Thumb, because of his cunning and invention, has been called the Ulysses of the fairy tales. His adventure with the Ogre at the rock, while not a parallel one, reminds one of Ulysses and Polyphemus. Both succeeded in getting the better of the giant. An English edition of this tale was illustrated by William Blake.
Snow White and Rose Red
Snow White and Rose Red, besides blending the romantic and the realistic, illustrates rather completely how the old tale may stand the tests which have been emphasized here. As a romantic type, it contains adventure and the picturesque. It arouses emotion. It contains objects of beauty; and the strange Bear and the stranger Dwarf, about both of whom there is a sense of mystery. It exaggerates character and incidents beyond the normal,—the Mother and Daughters were more lovely than mortals usually are,—and the harmony between man and beast may belong to the millennium rather than to this common earth. This is one of the most romantic of fairy tales in that it is a highly idealized type.
The story was current in Germany before the time of the Grimms, and appeared in the collection of Caroline Stahl. The rhyme,—
