Writing in Margins
  • Home
  • The Thumbling Project
    • Type 700 Tales
    • Thumblings
    • Motifs
    • Timeline >
      • Tom Thumb Timeline
    • Film
    • Theater
    • Tom Thumb Weddings
    • Resources
  • The Snowwhite Project
    • As White As Snow
    • Type 709 Tales
  • Lists of Fairies
    • The Little Folk
    • Mermaids
    • The Denham Tracts
    • Individual Fairies
    • Faerie Feast
    • Faerie Fashion
  • Story CSI
    • Ruth Tongue
    • Andrew Lang
  • About and Contact

Tompoucen

4/16/2016

1 Comment

 
Picture
​The tompouce (or tompoes) seems to essentially be a sandwich of puff pastry and thick cream, with pink icing glaze on top. The icing is turned orange for King’s Day, and sometimes it is topped with whipped cream. Tompoucen are usually served with coffee or tea or eaten at parties. The brittle puff pastry is notoriously hard to eat.
It’s a Dutch and Belgian variant of the mille-feuille, a French dessert dating back to at least the 17th century, with worldwide variants. It’s more commonly called tompoes (or tomcat) in the Netherlands, and tompouce in Belgium. You may also hear of it under the name of custard slice or Napoleon.
So why’s it on this website?
The story goes that it was created by a baker from Amsterdam, who named it after a stage performer. This performer went by the name Tom Pouce (Tom Thumb).
The English Wikipedia says this was Jan Hannema, (1839-1878), a Frisian dwarf who was 28 inches tall. He began performing at fairs when he was only seven and went by the stage name Admiral Tom Pouce. When he was a child, his brothers called him Lyts Tomke, the Frisian name for Thumbling. He also had a cigar named after him.
However, other sources, including the Dutch and Polish Wikipedias, say that the performer in question was Charles Stratton, or General Tom Thumb (1838-1883). While performing in Europe, he used the French name General Tom Pouce, which would have then inspired the name of the pastry. Jan Hannema came along using the name after Stratton, and may have taken inspiration from him.
Picture
General Tom Thumb
Picture
Admiral Tom Pouce
Anyway, Tom Thumb or Tom Pouce had become a generic term for a little man or for anything miniature. The name was given to little carriages, a geranium, an American steam locomotive, and a type of women’s parasol in France. I think the parasol was named with Charles Stratton in mind, though.
I’m not sure whether size had anything to do with the tompouce’s name. It seems to be smaller than a mille-feuille—at least, it has only one layer as opposed to a mille-feuille’s two.
As mentiond earlier, the pastry’s also known as a Napoleon in some places, when made with almond-flavored paste. It does seem significant that Napoleon is famous for being short, and Charles Stratton even played him a few times.
However, the name may actually stem from napolitain, as in “from Naples.” The dessert definitely predates General Napoleon and there’s no obvious connection between the two.
The Russian Napoleon is triangular in shape, with slightly more layers. This variant apparently does have connections to celebrating Napoleon’s defeat in 1812. Perhaps this was part of the corruption of “napolitain” to “Napoleon.”
I'd need much more information to find out if any of these connections are real, and how the pastry was actually created. That information may be lost to time. However, this makes for another interesting bit of trivia on how the fairy tale leaves impressions on modern culture. And it puts the swallow cycle in a whole new light.
1 Comment

Greek Thumbelina?

4/3/2016

0 Comments

 
I was going through “Catalogue Raisonn des Contes Grecs Types et Versions AT 700,” when I noticed one that stood out. The summary of a story titled "Η γυναίκα και τα παιδιά της" or “The woman and her children” basically goes:

“A childless woman pours beans into the chimney and they become children. The mother burns them because she doesn’t know what to do. Yannis and Maria [“Jack and Mary”] survive.”

Sooooo . . . Maria. That’s a female character. I may have just found a Greek Thumbelina – from Halkidiki, to be precise. 

However, I can’t find the story myself to be sure. It was cited as being from a Greek folklore database, Κέντρο Ερευνησ της Ελληνικής Λαογραφίας της Ακαδημίας Αθηνών – the specific number being cited ΛΑ 1179, (ΣΜ 9), 13. I don’t know if this is digitized. Even if it is, I may not be able to find it.
​
Incidentally, this would be the second Thumbelina named Maria.
0 Comments

    About

    Researching folktales and fairies, with a focus on common tale types.

    ​The Thumbling Project is a collection of different versions of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina from around the world.
    The Snow White Project ​is a similar list.


    ​​
    Text © Writing in Margins

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015

    Categories

    All
    Africa
    America
    Analysis
    Arabian Nights
    Astronomy
    Beauty And The Beast
    Boy Man
    Boy-Man
    Changelings
    Christmas
    Cinderella
    Dwarves
    Fairies
    Fairy Debunking
    Flood Myth
    General Tom Thumb
    Hans Christian Andersen
    History
    Hop O' My Thumb
    Issunboshi
    King Arthur
    Kirikou
    Little Red Riding Hood
    Mermaids
    Miniature Wedding
    Nang Ut
    Nursery Rhymes
    Perrault
    Peter Pan
    Pinocchio
    Puss In Boots
    Queen Mab
    Rapunzel
    Research
    Review
    Rumpelstiltskin
    Sleeping Beauty
    Snow White
    Tam Lin
    Tatterhood
    The Schools Collection
    The Three Little Pigs
    The Thumbling Project
    Thumbelina
    Tom Thumb
    Werewolves

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • The Thumbling Project
    • Type 700 Tales
    • Thumblings
    • Motifs
    • Timeline >
      • Tom Thumb Timeline
    • Film
    • Theater
    • Tom Thumb Weddings
    • Resources
  • The Snowwhite Project
    • As White As Snow
    • Type 709 Tales
  • Lists of Fairies
    • The Little Folk
    • Mermaids
    • The Denham Tracts
    • Individual Fairies
    • Faerie Feast
    • Faerie Fashion
  • Story CSI
    • Ruth Tongue
    • Andrew Lang
  • About and Contact