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My Top 5 Favorite Thumbling Stories

1/23/2017

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I have nearly enough responses on the poll to publish the results. I want to just try to get one more to hit my minimum sample size. Thank you, everyone who's already responded!
​TOP 5 FAVORITE THUMBLINGS
  1. Three-Inch. I've been over this story before; I just like the main character.
  2. Niraidak. I love how ridiculously delusional this character is.
  3. Doll i' the Grass. I didn't find this one interesting at first, but it grew on me as time went on.
  4. Terra-Camina. She's pretty similar to Doll i' the Grass but with added wackiness.
  5. Maria como un Ajo. One of the only published female versions of the basic thumbling tale.
TOP 5 WORST THUMBLINGS
  1. Mundig. Around a thousand counts of infanticide, topped off with cannibalism, makes this Armenian story probably the most disgusting thumbling tale I've encountered.
  2. Cecina. This literary fairytale by Luigi Capuana is absolutely the top weirdest fairytale I have ever read. It is weirder than Tatterhood, and less enjoyable.
  3. One version of Tom Thumb. The R-rated version.
  4. Pois Chiche/Hummussah. In this winding and bewildering tale from Tunisia, the parents eventually have to flee their horrifying chickpea-sized offspring. They later get a second child only to lose it out of greed.
  5. Finger-Joint. I have mixed feelings on this Egyptian tale, but the heroine is still incredibly unlikeable from my perspective and the story comes with another nice helping of infanticide.
TOP ONES I WISH I COULD FIND
I've found so many that seemed impossible at first! Little Finger was Ditu Migniulellu. Three-Inch was Der Angule. Master Thumb was Nga-Let-Ma, or something like that, anyway. But I still have a list of resources I'm looking for.
  1. Aure Tat – mentioned, once, in footnotes to Digit the Midget/Sinzero.
  2. Svend Tommling – I have only found summaries and fragments of this one. It was first published in Iris og Hebe.
  3. “The Woman and her Children.” A childless woman pours beans into the chimney and they become myriad children, whom she kills to get rid of them. The survivors are named Yannis and Maria. There may be a physical copy available in Greek through the Hellenic Folklore Research Centre, Academy of Athens. Not online, though. I think I really confused a Greek professor during my search for this document.
  4. Essouiba – I couldn't get the book that contained it, Contes de Ghzala.
  5. “Thumb Boy” – I want to find out his name in the original Oroqen dialect.
    1. -Batubaoying. Oroqen Folktale Collection. 1984.
      -Oroqen Folktales. Hohhot: Inner Mongolia People's Press.
      -MA Yen, editor. China's Minority Nationalities.  1989.
      -Zhang Fentao and Cai Bowen. Oroqen Literature Selections. 1980.
      Zheng Weiwen and Zeng Qingnan.  In Search of China's Minorities. 1993.
  6. The “hedgehog-sized boy.” This is in the folklore collection of Jakob Hurt III, 27, 339/44. Estonian Literary Museum. I might be able to order it but everything is in Estonian so it's hard to figure out.
  7. More Female Thumblings! Especially from Africa south of Egypt. Such a tale probably doesn’t exist, because most African thumbling stories are from North Africa (closer to European countries like Spain that have lots of similar stories) and statistically there are way more males than females, but I still want to find some more.
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    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.


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  • Home
  • The Thumbling Project
    • Type 700 Tales
    • Thumblings
    • Motifs
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      • Tom Thumb Timeline
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    • Tom Thumb Weddings
    • Resources
  • The Snowwhite Project
    • As White As Snow
    • Type 709 Tales
  • Lists of Fairies
    • The Little Folk
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    • The Denham Tracts
    • Individual Fairies
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    • Ruth Tongue
    • Andrew Lang
  • About and Contact