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Comment
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Bananna
Registered User
(7/3/01 5:35:28 pm)
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Need Help with a Reference to 7-leagued boots
Does anyone know what fairy tale involves "7-leagued boots" (or something similar)? If so, do you know what character wore them or who the hero of the story was? Please help. This is related to a Polish advertisement that refers to "7-leagued boots". I am writing about it in my UCLA dissertation.
Thanks!
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Janeyolen
Unregistered User
(7/3/01 9:04:15 pm)
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Boots
Since I am not in Mass. where my extensive folklore collectionis but rather in Scotland where my heart is, I cannot answer this. But want to say I have USED seven league boots in my children's novel:
Boots and the Seven Leaguers: A Rock-and-Troll novel. (Harcourt)
Jane
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karen
Unregistered User
(7/3/01 11:03:02 pm)
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seven leaguers
Bananna,
I believe the fateful boots appear in Charles Perrault's Sleeping Beauty, but I could be wrong...
K.
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(7/4/01 10:14:54 am)
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Re: Need Help with a Reference to 7-leagued boots
I am actually in the middle of some 4th of July activities, but I will chime in to say that seven league boots, in my experience, appear in many tales. They are similar to a cloak of invisibility in their popularity and frequent use as a magical object. My little dictionary of world folklore doesn't even reference a particular tale, but offers the information that the boots usually belong to a giant who loses them and they will shrink to fit the feet of each new owner. For trivia's sake, seven leagues is 34km/21ml.
I believe I have seen the boots in one version of Sleeping Beauty as well as other tales with giants, none of which I can think of at the moment. Sorry!
Most recently, Gail Carson Levine used them in her "The Two Princesses of Bamarre." One princess acquires a pair and has some negative and positive experiences with them. Most important lesson: Don't wear them indoors. : )
Heidi
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Bananna
Registered User
(7/5/01 7:34:56 am)
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Re: Need Help with a Reference to 7-leagued boots
You mention a dictionary of folklore -- is there one that is particularly recommended?
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Lotti
Unregistered User
(7/5/01 10:51:38 am)
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These boots are made for walking
Hi Bananna,
I have come across these boots in a story where the "thumbling" (spelling??! - in German: Däumling) with 6 brothers is at the home of a giant who has 7 daughters. The giant wants to kill the boys at midnight, but he is blind then. His daughters wear crowns, but the thumbling changes those to his and his brother's heads, and so the giant kills his own children. The boys flee with help of the 7-league-boots. There is also a beginning to the story, that I can't remeber right now.
I also think that I came across it in a Russian tale (which should be collected by Afanasjiew, then) but I have these books at my parents place. I'll check when I'm there next time!
Regards,
Lotti
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Lotti
Unregistered User
(7/5/01 12:54:12 pm)
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Guess I found something
ok, I did a little research, the story I was referring to is by Ludwig Bechtstein. I found it in German at
gutenberg.aol.de/bechstei...umling.htm
and maybe you can take the text and run it through a Translation-program (I found the link via Alta Vista searching for "Siebenmeilenstiefel" - they also translate stuff) It is not ideal, but a start, I guess.
There was also some page saying it was used in the novel "Peter Schlemihl" by Adalbert von Chamisso (just how many German Romantics were there???!!).
As for the Russians, I think it was the Baba Yaga owning the boots, but I can't remember in which story. I might add: who else but her could it have been?!
Does this help you any???
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Bananna
Registered User
(7/5/01 4:22:01 pm)
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Re: Guess I found something
Yes it helps a lot! Thanks for all the details. It is interesting that this may also be related to Baba Yaga, although I suspect the Poles are probably more familiar with the W. European fairy tales than the East. So the 'thumbling' story is a hit!
Thanks again.
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NancyMe
Registered User
(7/5/01 4:31:00 pm)
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Hop 'O My Thumb
I know that same story as "Hop 'O My Thumb" and always thought the boots had to belong to a giant or ogre.
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(7/5/01 11:34:55 pm)
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Thumbling
The Thumbling story is quite popularmworld wide. The English version is known as "Mollie Whuppie" and I have a version in my NOT PNE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS. I have a long citation there, too. If I were home, or had a copy of the book here, I would post it.
Jane
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Kate
Unregistered User
(7/6/01 11:33:31 am)
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Thumbelina
There's also Hans Christian Andersen's Thumbelina. I seem to believe I have a collection of Thumbelina tales that includes Whuppie, Thumbling, Thumbelina, etc. I might be wrong. It's a book for children. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
In any case, I love Frank Loesser's song, written in the 1950s--all his Hans Christian Andersen songs are super.
(Off the boot path, sorry.)
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Marlowe
Registered User
(7/6/01 11:29:12 pm)
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Re: Thumbelina
Seven league boots also appear in Murat's "Bearskin".
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(7/7/01 7:46:20 am)
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Watch out
Watch out, Kate et al.:
Andesen's Thumbelina is NOT at all like the giant-children killing stories we are talking about. It is about a tiny girl child no bigger than a thumb. She flies off seeking her fortune on a butterfly back (or bumble bee or some such insect.)
The Hop O'er My Thumb/Mollie Whuppie stories are tough-minded trickster Jack-the-Giant-Killer type stories.
Jane
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Kate
Unregistered User
(7/7/01 9:28:16 am)
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Whuppie, etc
Jane,
I can't find my Mollie Whuppie story right now, but am I at least correct in remembering that she, too, is a miniature girl? (Am I losing my head now?) A tiny one? That was the only connection I was making, to be honest.
Thanks for the other delineations--didn't mean to mislead. The Mollie Whuppie tale, from what I recall, is full of bloodshed. Thumbelina drinks nectar and such!
Kate
p.s. Would you be averse to being invited to a new anthology I've been given a go-ahead for? Via mail. No obligation (obviously!).
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(7/8/01 3:23:06 am)
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Small Size
I am not actually ignoring Kate's PS--we have had a bit of a correspondence on this.
As to Mollie Whuppie--sheis a youngest sister but not miniature. At least not in the English version.
Jane
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Kate
Unregistered User
(7/9/01 10:43:03 am)
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Whuppie
It's so incredibly disconcerting to have a misconception about a tale, that's all I can say. I could have sworn I recently read a Mollie Whuppie story with miniatures in it.
Thanks for setting me straight, Jane!
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