Tom Thumb, p. 35.—The "Daumesdick" of Grimm, from Mühlheim, on the Rhine. In this tale the hero appears in his humblest domestic capacity; but there are others in which he plays a most important and heroic character, as the outwitter and vanquisher of Giants and other powerful enemies, the favourite of fortune, and the winner of the hands of the King's daughters. We should have been glad, if it had been consistent with the immediate design of this publication, to have given two or three other stories from different parts of Germany, illustrative of the worth and ancient descent of the personage who appears with the same general characteristics, under the various names in England of Tom Thumb, Tom-a-lyn, Tamlane, Tommel-finger, &c.; in Germany of Daumesdick, Däumling, Daumerling, and Dummling (for though the latter word bear a different and indepondent meaning, we incline to think it originally the same); in Austria of Daumenlang; in Denmark of Svend Tomling, or Swain Tomling; and further north, as the Thaumlin, or dwarfish hero of Scandinavia.
We must refer to the Quarterly Review, No. XLI., for a speculation as to the connection of Tom's adventures, particularly that with the cow, with some of the mysteries of Indian mythology. It must suffice here briefly to notice the affinities which some of the present stories bear to the earliest northern traditions, leaving the reader to determine whether, as Hearne concludes, our hero was King Edgar's page, or, as tradition says, ended his course and found his last home at Lincoln.
In one of the German stories, "Des Schneiders Daumerling Wanderschaft" (the Travels of the Tailor's Thumbling), his first wandering is through the recesses of a glove, to escape his mother's anger. So Thor, in the 23rd fable of the Edda, reposes in the giant's glove. In another story, "Der junge Riese" (The Young Giant), the hero is in his youth a thumb long; but, being nurtured by a giant, acquires wonderful power, and passes through a variety of adventures, resembling at various times those of Siegfried or Sigurd (the doughty champion who, according to the Heldenbuch, "caught the lions in the wood and hung them over the walls by their tails"), of Thor, and of Grettir (the hero who kept geese on the common), and corresponding with the achievements ascribed in England to his namesake, Jack the Giant-killer, and Tom Hycophric (whose sphere of action Hearne would limit to the contracted boundaries of Tylney, in Norfolk), and in the Servian tale, quoted by MM. Grimm from Schottky, given to "the son of the bear," Medvedovitsh.
He serves the smith, whose history as the Velint (or Weyland) of Northern fable is well known; outwits, like Eulen spiegel (Owl-glass), those who are by nature his betters; wields a weapon as powerful as Thor's hammer; and, like his companion, is somewhat impregnable to tolerably rude attacks. He is equally voracious, too, with Loke, whose "art consisted in eating more than any other man in the world," and with the son of Odin, "when busk'd as a bride so fair," in the Song of Thrym.
Betimes at evening he approached.
And the mantling ale the giants broached;
The spouse of Slfia ate alone
Eight salmons and an ox full grown,
And all the cates on which women feed,
And drank three firkins of sparkling mead."
Herbert's Icelandic Poetry, i. p. 6.
In one of the tales before us, a mill-stone is treacherously thrown upon him while employed in digging at the bottom of a well. "Drive away the hens," said he; "they scratch the sand about till it flies into my eyes." "So in the Edda, the Giant Skrymmer only notices the dreadful blows of Thor's hammer as the falling of a leaf, or some other trifling matter. In the English story of Jack the Giant-killer, Jack under similar circumstances says that a rat had given him three or four slaps with his tail.
In the story of "The King of the Golden Mountain," it will be seen how the giants are outwittted and deprived of the great Northern treasures, the tarnkap, the shoes, and the sword, which are equally renowned in the records of the Niebelungen-lied and Niflunga Saga, and in our own Jack the Giant-killer. The other Thumb tales are full of such adventures. They are all exceedingly curious, and deserve to be brought together in one view as forming a singular group. At present we can only refer to the pages of MM. Grimm, and particularly to the observations in their notes.
The Grateful Beasts, p. 42.—"Die treuen Thiere;" from the Schwalmgegend, in Hesse. It is singular that nearly the same story is to be found in the Relations of Ssidi Kur, a collection of tales current among the Calmuck Tartars. A benevolent Brahmin there receives the grateful assistance of a mouse, a boar, and a monkey, whom he had severally rescued from the bands of their tormentors; Quarterly Review. No. XLI., p. 99. There is a very similar story, "Lo Scarafono, la Sorece, e lo Grillo," in the Pentamerone, iii. 5. Another in the same work, iv. 1, "La Prota de lo Gallo," embraces the incidents of the latter part of our tale. The Gesta Romanorum also contains a fable somewhat similar in plot, though widely different in details. The cunning device of the mouse reminds MM. Grimm of Loke, in the form of a fly, stinging the sleeping Freya, till she throws off her necklace.
Jorinda and Jorindel, p. 47.—"Jorinde und Joringel." This is taken from Heinrich Stillings Leben, i. 104–103; but a story of precisely the same nature is popular in the Schwalmgegend.
The Waggish Musician, p. 51.—"Der Wunderliche Spielmann (the wayward musician);" from Lorsch, by Worms. The story seems imperfect, as no reason appears for the spite of the musician towards the animals who follow his Orphean strains.
The Queen Bee, p. 54.—"Die Bienen-königin;" from Hesse, where another story of similar plot is current. The resemblance to that of "The Grateful Beasts" will of course be obvious. We have here the favourite incident of the despised and neglected member of the family, who bears the name of "Dummling," setting out on his adventures, and overcoming all disadvantages by talent and virtue. (See note on "The Golden Goose," in which story we have left the hero his name, as perhaps we ought to have done here.) MM. Grimm mention a Jewish tale of Rabbi Chanina, who befriends a raven, a hound, and a fish, and receives similar tokens of gratitude. In the Hungarian stories, collected from popular narration by Georg von Gaal (Vienna, 1822),
