A thumbling tale is a story featuring a character of extremely tiny size (motif F535). “As big as a thumb,” his loving parents say—or a chickpea, or a sparrow, or a nut. The character may be referred to as thumbling, inchling, fingerling, dwarf, homunculus, manikin, or other nicknames for a person of small size. The character's size is their defining characteristic and an important part of the tale.

The most widespread and basic tale type is Type 700.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Hop o' My Thumb (Type 327B)

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The main character is mocked for his miniature size and physical weakness. However, he is intelligent and self-sufficient, and succeeds where all of his brethren fail, overcoming a monster who would destroy him. These characters are usually not  thumblings per se, being stunted but not thumb-sized.

The Diminutive Flute Player. Burmese. A gluttonous boy whose father tries to abandon him, but he returns each time, conquering a crocodile and a tiger. Ledgard's retelling names him Ah Sein and describes him as no larger than a toc-toc, or small lizard.
Htin Aung, Maung. Burmese Folk Tales. London: Oxford University Press, 1948.
Ledgard, Edna. The snake prince and other stories : Burmese folk tales. "The Tiny Flute Player"

Fereyel. A Fulani tale from Gambia. A son the size of his mother’s little finger is born already able to walk and talk, and runs off to join his ten brothers to fight a witch called Debbo Engal. She tricks the brothers by offering them her daughters as brides, and later putting on various magical disguises, but Fereyel sees through everything and eventually defeats her with magical powers of his own.
  • Arnott, Kathleen. African Myths & Legends. New York: Henry Z. Walck, 1962. “Fereyel and Debbo Engal the Witch.”
  • Macdonald, Margaret Read. Tom Thumb. 1993.

Half-a-halfling/Nus’s’ ns’es. A Bedouin tale from Israel where the hero faces off against a Ghoulah to save his seven brothers. The idea of “half” as a part of the character’s name is common in North Africa and Bedouin thumbling tales; it has this and an opening similar to Nciç. One version of the story is titled "The Pomegranate Slice."
Kelingking/Si Kelingking: A folktale from Bangka Belitung, Indonesia.

M’kidech, Mekidech: Berber. He goes through the typical narrative of many brothers who set out to find wives but run into an ogress instead. Only M'kidech, a crafty young man, is able to rescue his brothers and slay the ogress. He’s half the size of a normal boy and appears to be eight when he’s really fifteen; other variants have him as half of a boy.
  • Goldberg, Christine. "The Dwarf and the Giant" (AT 327B) in Africa and the Middle East. The Journal of American Folklore Vol. 116, No. 461 (Summer, 2003), pp. 339-350.

Nciç: Morocco. Known as Onderdeurtje (Under Door) in Dutch. A sultan has seven wives but is childless. Each wife eats an apple and gives birth to a son, but the youngest wife eats only half and gives birth to a dwarf half the size of a normal man. The Sultan and his seven sons make a pilgrimage to Mecca, with Nciç riding on a small, weak horse. One by one the boys get tired and stop, building houses of honey or dough to live in, but Nciç builds his house of iron, which turns out to be good because a bunch of ghouls try to eat him. Nciç wins one of them over with his beautiful singing voice and then tricks them all into leaping into an oven, and finally returns home with all of their treasure. This tale is also close to The Three Little Pigs, ATU 124.
An Indian story, very similar, is Prince Half-a-son (Adhiâ), where the apples are replaced by mangos, and the half-mango child is born as half a man with only one arm and leg and so on. He escapes his brothers’ pranks until they throw him into a well, where he hears a demon, pigeon and serpent conversing. With the knowledge he learns, he becomes rich and marries a princess. When his envious brothers try to copy him, they get eaten by the demon.
  • Scellés-Millie, Paraboles et contes d’Afrique du Nord, Paris, 1982, p. 117-122. ​

Nennillo and Nennella: a related tale from Italy, with Hansel- and Gretel-like sibling protagonists. Their names mean something like Little Dwarf Boy and Little Dwarf Girl; interestingly, in French they become Poucet and Poucette. Similar to Tom Thumb and other characters, Nennella is swallowed by a fish, although her fish is enchanted and contains a whole palace.
Le Petit Poucet/Hop O’ My Thumb. French. He is the size of someone’s thumb at his birth, but but his actual size during the story seems to be open to interpretation. I've seen interpretations that keep him thumb-sized and interpretations that make him simply small for his age. One poem says that he's two foot three. He and his six older brothers are the children of a poor woodcutter, and like Hansel and Gretel, are abandoned in the woods. They take shelter at a house only to find that it belongs to an ogre who wants to eat them. Hop O' My Thumb tricks the ogre and steals seven-league boots from him.
Though the French name translates literally as Little Thumb, it has become more widely known as Hop o' My Thumb, possibly as an accidental conflation with Tom Thumb. The term Hop o' My Thumb is a nickname for a short person, coming from the command "Hop on my thumb." This term apparently dates back to 1530; the story itself wasn't published until 1697. In Italian, the character is called Pollicino or Bucchetino/Puccettino (Carlo Collodi 1875). A Serbian version is called Palechko, Spanish Pulgarcito, and Russian Мизинчнкъ (Mizinchik, a dimunitive of Mizinets, or little finger).
  • Charles Perrault, Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités: Contes de ma mère l'Oye. 1697.
  • Andrew Lang, The Blue Fairy Book. 1889. pp. 231-241. "Little Thumb."

si Kecil (Tiny Boy): a tale from South Sulawesi, retold in The Tiny Boy and Other Tales from Indonesia by Murti Bunanta. The tiny boy, the oldest of four children abandoned in the woods,  defeats an evil giant and steals his treasure.

Zamoryshek. Russian. An old man and old woman collect forty-two eggs, which hatch into boys. Most are strong and robust, but the youngest, Zamoryshek, is small and weak. However, he’s the one who catches a herd of magic horses, sees through Baba Yaga’s deceptions, and saves everyone. His name apparently means Benjamin; perhaps this is a reference to the Biblical Benjamin, also the youngest son of an old man?
The Precocious Hero
In an African family of tales with similarities to Hop o' my Thumb, a precocious child is born under unusual circumstances. He can speak and walk at the moment of (or before!) his birth. Often, his task is to save people who have been swallowed alive by a monster. In Bantu tales, there are many tales of an all-devouring monster, usually killed by being cut open, and the rescuer is often a small boy.
Bâgoumâwel: Hero of a Fula tale from West Africa which was retold by Amadou Hampâté Bâ and later adapted as the cartoon Kirikou and the Sorceress. Bagoumawel is a child of prophecy, the only person who can defeat the witch Njeddo Dwal. He crawls out of his mother's womb when he's ready to be born, quickly grows to the size of a seven-year-old child, and displays magic powers of transformation. Incidentally, his nickname is Ga'el-waalo, either Bull-calf or Federalist of the Flooded Areas. (Use Google Translate at your own risk.)
Banji Koto: A Wolof tale from Senegal, similar to Bagoumawel and Fereyel.
Ryang'ombe: Rwanda. Tale is probably Bantu in origin. Name means "Eater of an ox"; full name in Baziba is “Kashaija Karyang'ombe,” "the little man who eats a whole ox."  He spoke before he was born, and immediately after being born, ate a whole ox. He then set out to fight ogres, but eventually died when he swallowed an ogre only for it to cut its way out and kill him.
Galinkalanganye (Hehe). A woman unthinkingly promises her next child to a hyena. Her newborn son changes places with her, so that she’s carried off by the hyena, similar to Hop o’ my Thumb. His name means “the one who was held over the fire,” from kalanga, scorch. The name is related to Kalikalanje and Kachirambe.
Kachirambe: Anyanja (Bantu). A woman unthinkingly promises her next child to a hyena. Her son is born from a boil on her shin. He is already clothed, armed, and accompanied by his dogs. The mother tries to hand him over to the hyena, but Kachirambe constantly outwits her.
Kalikalanje (Yaos)
Kantanga (Lambas).
Mutipi or Mutikatika (Baronga)Ditaolane (“the little divining bones”) or Moshanyana oa Senkatana (“little boy”): Basuto (Bantu). Born and instantly grows to adulthood. A monster called Khodumodumo or Kammapa is swallowing people, and Ditaolane kills it and cuts it open to free everyone. They make him their chief but later betray him.Mlilua: Kiniramba (Bantu). Born, instantly goes off to defeat a monster that’s been swallowing people, kills it and frees them, is later betrayed.
Bokenyane: Delagoa Bay (Bantu). Born from an abscess on his mother’s leg, followed by two brothers. He and his brothers kill the ogre and his mother cuts it open. Bokenyane becomes chief, but his brothers overthrow him.

Doll i' the Grass (AT 402)

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This tale type usually features a prince searching for a bride, only to encounter an animal - sometimes a cat, sometimes a frog, a mouse, or even an insect. Despite her unusual appearance, she is able to complete tasks that all other bride candidates fail. In a few versions, the unlikely princess is a miniature woman.

Doll i' the Grass/Dukken i Gresset: Norwegian. While on a quest to find a wife, a prince encounters a tiny woman named Doll in the Grass. Doll makes a tiny white shirt to deliver to the king and is taken to the palace, riding on a silver spoon for a chariot drawn by two white mice. An accident causes her to fall into the water, where a merman rescues her and she grows to full size. Boots and Doll make a better impression than his brothers and their brides, and are happily married.
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Little Finger/Nàng Út/Ka Điêng. Pronounced "nahng oop." A Cham or Vietnamese tale where a girl the size of a finger lives alone in a hut by a watermelon patch. She encounters a prince. After they eat from the same watermelon, she becomes pregnant and gives birth to a baby boy. After the prince learns what has happened, he marries her and stays in her hut, after which the Doll in the Grass plot proceeds. Nang Ut grows to full size and is declared the most beautiful of the brides.
Terra-Camina: Menton, France. She is so small that she looks like a tiny bit of dirt walking around, which is where she gets her name. She rides on a rooster.

The Suncatcher

In North America, there is a widespread family of tales of a tiny, reckless boy who snares the sun and lives with a wiser older sister. Although not as small as Tom Thumb, this character is usually either small (infant-sized) or born very tiny. Like Tom Thumb characters, he may fight giants and be swallowed by a fish or fall into a cooking pot. He sometimes reaches normal adult height but either way, typically has great strength.
For more on this family of tales, see this blog post.

Betsune-Yenecan, Be Tsune Yenelchian (“His grandmother raised him”). Chipewyan. A woman finds a baby eight inches long, raises him as her grandson.
  • Emile Thelma Petitot. Indian Legends of Northwest Canada. Western Canadian Journal of Anthropology, 2 (1970), 94-129
  • Lowie, Robert Harry. Chipewyan Tales. 1912. "Betsune-Yenecan."

Boy-Man (a.k.a. the Little Spirit). Ojibwe. The eponymous character is only the size of a baby, and lives with his sister near a lake. He hunts, and she takes care of the house. One day he comes across four brothers, whom he tricks and defeats. He and his sister live happily ever after. This narrative is also seen in The Mouse and the Sun and other suncatcher myths, as well as He of the Little Shell; the small character is the size of a baby. He is not a suncatcher but is clearly of the same tale family, and a few of his adventures seem very similar to those of Tshakapesh. It was perhaps written around the time of AR (Algic Resources), labeled LC74.
Chakabech: Wyandot.

Chapewee: Dogrib.

He of the Little Shell: Probably Ojibwe or Seneca. The main character, Dais Imid or Wa-Dais-Ais-Imid, and his sister are orphans. He remains the size of a baby but nevertheless goes hunting, provides for his sister, is the rival of the giant Manabozhno, and eventually becomes the first Puck Wudj Ininee (or Pukwudgie, see the page on Little Folk) while his sister becomes the Morning Star. While this is not a Suncatcher myth per se, I believe it is of the same family.
  • Schoolcraft, Henry R. The Indian Fairy Book. 1855. no. XVII.
  • Macfarlan, Allan A. North American Indian Legends. 2001. P. 71, "Puck Wudj Ininees, or the Vanishing Little Men."

The Little First Man and the Little First Woman: A Dakota variant of the Mouse and the Sun, where both the tiny boy and girl are "no bigger than a man's finger." They are able to sate their appetites with a single berry or take shelter under a leaf, and the boy carries a bow made from a grassblade and wears a coat made from a hummingbird's skin. Here the little boy is aided by the little girl and the fieldmouse when capturing the sun, and the same fieldmouse eventually frees the sun. The boy's triumph serves to assert the dominance of man over the animals, and he and the girl are the progenitors of the human race. Based on the fanciful descriptions reminiscent of European thumbling tales, and the discrepancy with other suncatcher tales, I suspect this may not be an authentic tale, but I need to find more information to be sure.
Magical Child/Power Child: Yellowknife. A version of Betsune-Yenechan. An old woman finds a beautiful baby the size of a thumb and raises it.​
The Mouse and the Sun: This Canadian story begins with a brother and sister, the brother being the size of a baby. He makes himself a winter coat of feathers, but the Sun shrinks it, so the boy snares the Sun out of revenge. When the animals that live nearby realize what's wrong, the elephant-sized mouse or dormouse frees the Sun, but is melted down to a small size. The story has also appeared under the titles The Dormouse, The Sun-Catcher; or the Boy Who Set a Snare for the Sun, The Boy Who Snared the Sun, or When the Orphan Trapped the Sun. ​
The Small Baby and the Big Bird: a Micmac tale. An old woman finds a very small infant in the forest, so small that she can keep him inside her mitten. When he’s older, she makes him a little bow and arrow, and he upgrades from shooting mice and squirrels to bringing down caribou and defeating monsters. At one point he strings his bow with a strand of her hair. The author mentions stories of “tiny children attacking huge giants… and overcoming them with... bows made of a fir-stalk, with a single hair for a string, or a spear made of a sharpened splinter.” ​
Tshakapesh: This legend seems to have generated the fragmentary tales of Dais-Imid, Boy-Man, and many variants of the Sun-Catcher. You have the girl raising her brother, who grows in strength. He gets swallowed by a fish and goes on many other adventures until eventually he and his family become celestial bodies.

Issun Boshi

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There are numerous Thumblings from Japan; however, most of them do not fit easily into the Type 700 narrative. They lack the focus on the tiny boy doing farm work and getting entangled with robbers. Instead, they tend to focus on his romance with a princess far above his stature. The list here is based mainly on The Yanagita Guide to the Japanese Folk-Tale.
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This story is closer to tales like "The Frog Prince;" sometimes, instead of a tiny man, the character can be a mudsnail or a shell. ​

Among the otogi-zoshi like Issun-Boshi are some more realistic tales of a dwarf who marries a woman of elevated social potion. Two of these are "The Little Man" (Ko otoko no shoji) and "The Lord Dwarf" (Hikyudono). 
Issun-bōshi (Little One Inch). Japanese. Although the date it was published was unknown, it is generally supposed to be from the fifteenth or sixteenth century, putting it on a par with Tom Thumb.
Born to a childless couple as the result of their prayers, Issun-Boshi goes sailing in a soup bowl with a sewing needle as a weapon. He goes to serve a daimyo and falls in love with the daimyo’s daughter. After defeating an oni, he gains the oni’s magic golden hammer, and the girl uses it to wish him to full size. They later marry. (An issun is a length of about 3 centimeters.) Timimoto.
  • Manning-Sanders, Ruth. A Book of Dwarfs.
Issunbo. Okierabu​.
Issun Kotaro. Kagoshima.
Gobujiro
"The son-in-law called Issunbo" (Issunbo no muko). Shimabara. A man no bigger than “a one-sho bottle of sake” marries the daughter of a choja, conqueres Onigashima, and uses a magic mallet to become a handsome man. Apparently also includes the motifs of burning your own house down.
Mamesuke,  “bean boy” or "callus boy". Niigata, Sado. Born from a swelling on his mother’s thumb and arms himself with a bag of flour. He marries the middle daughter of a merchant. His wife tries to drown him in the bath, but his body pops open and he becomes a full-sized man.
Mamechokotaro. Fukushima, Aizu.
Mamego no Hanashi. Ikinoshima.
Mametaro: Nagasaki, Kitatakaku-gun.
Mameichi - in "The magic mallet" (Uchide no kozuchi). Saeki-gun, Ogaki-mura.
Shineko Tanpo, ​Suneko Tanpo. I believe this name means something like Shin Child. Kamikita-gun, Iwati, Hienuki-gun, Shiwa-Gun. Said to have been a legendary monster.
Akutotaro: Aomori, Hachinohe. Born from his mother's heel, he eventually avenges her by attacking the yamauba who ate her. May have also been known as Chiisako [Tiny One].
Chibitaro. Ishikawa.
Donguritaro (Acorn Boy) – Iwaki-gun
​Daizu and the demon (Daizu to oni, "bean boy"). Hiroshima, Hiroshima City. Daizu goes on an adventure, fights a demon and wins riches. A carpenter next door tries to do the same thing but fails.
Chinkoman-no-kohiyoro. Saga, Saga-gun. Born from a log floating downstream. He set off with a needle, a measuring stick, and a bowl, and defeated a demon by tying it to the ceiling upside down so its treasures fell down. A neighbor tried to imitate him and failed. Originally, says Niigata Sado, the story was about a puppy, and the part about destroying the demon was added later.
"The ill-natured mother" (Shone waruki haha). Fukuoka, Kurate-gun. In a truncated story, the ill-natured mother has a baby the size of a bean who goes into the mountains with a sack of rice. His parents follow, and see him walk into the lake and rest on the sack of rice.
​The mud snail son, "Tsubu musuko". Minamikanbara-gun. The Snail Choja. Collected in Tono-Mura, Kamihei-gun, Iwate-ken from Kinzo Ogasawara. The Snail Son-in-law (Tanishi musuko). The snail carrying rice and going to ask to marry a choja's daughter resembles "Mudsnail Choja." The girl gives him a needle, with which he fights demons and earns a magic mallet that turns him into a man six feet tall.
  • Mayer, Fanny Hagin. Ancient Tales in Modern Japan: An Anthology of Japanese Folk Tales. no. 13, pg. 18.
Little Shell. Philippines; a Visayan tale. The seashell-sized hero goes on errands to get food for his mother. He then sends her to arrange his marriage to the chief's daughter. The chief throws his daughter out when she agrees to marry Little Shell, but repents after her love causes Little Shell to slowly grow to full size.
  • MacDonald, Margaret Read.  Tom Thumb: The Oryx Multicultural Folktale Series. Phoenix: Oryx, 1993.
  • Sechrist, Elizabeth Hough. Once in the First Times: Folk Tales from the Philippines. 1949. pp. 93-97 
  • Bayliss, Carla Kern. Philippine Folk-Tales. “The Enchanted Shell.”
The Woman and the Squirrel: Philippines; a Bagobo tale which begins when a woman gives birth to a squirrel out of her hair.
  • Eugenio, Damiana L. Philippine Folk Literature: The Folktales. 1989. pp. 145-146.
  • Benedict, Laura Watson. Bagobo Myths. 1913.
  • Bayliss, Carla Kern. Philippine Folk-Tales.
The Living Head: Philippines. A childless couple gives birth to a head. When the chief’s daughter refuses to marry it, the head sinks into the ground. From there grows the first orange tree.

Thumbling the Giant (Type 650A)

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This tale generally follows a young man of prodigious strength, who goes out into the world to seek adventure. This character often has an unusual origin, such as being half bear or the son of a mermaid, or being suckled for an unusually long period of time. There are occasional versions, especially in the Philippines, where he is born at an incredibly tiny size. Sometimes he grows into a giant; sometimes he remains tiny. This story sometimes leads into Type 301A, The Quest for the Vanished Princesses.

Carancal: Philippines. His name comes from the word "dangkal," a palm. Only a span tall when born, he has a voracious appetite and eventually grows to at least four feet tall. His parents try to kill him to get rid of him; he goes out, gains companions, tricks and kills a giant, and wins brides for his friends. 
In Filipino Popular Tales, Fansler mentioned eight variants: Pusong (Visayan), Cabagboc (Bicol), Sandapal (Tagalog), Sandangcal (Pampangan), Greedy Juan (Pampangan), Juan Tapon ("Short John," Ilocano), Dangandangan (Ilocano), and Tangarangan (Ibanag).
Hangdangaw ("a span high"). A Tausug folk character from the Philippines, a strong and greedy child. With his friends Mamuk Bunga, Batu Tumibik, Sumagpih Ipil, and Rumatag Bud, he goes on an adventure and eventually marries a princess. 
  • Tuban, Rita. Tausug folk literature (M. A. Thesis), 1977. pp. 63-68
  • Damsani, Maduh, Efren Alawi and Gerard Rixhon. "Four folk narratives from Mullung, a Tausug storyteller." Sulu Studies vol. 1. 1972. pp. 195-99.

Janko Hraško (Johnny the Pea): A Slovak tale. His story starts out as the typical thumbling tale, but he ends up going on many adventures similar to Thumbling as Journeyman or The Young Giant, eventually rescuing a princess, and growing to full size.
A similar character is the hero Lomidrevo (Woodbreaker), who is typically a giant but may start out pea-sized depending on the rendition of the story.
  • Cooper, David, ed. Traditional Slovak Folktales collected by Pavol Dobsinsky. 
  • Dobšinský, Pavol.  Prostonárodné slovenské povesti (Druhý zväzok)

The Young Giant: Leine District, Germany. A thumb-sized child (Däumling, or Thumbling) is captured by a giant who nurses him, causing him to grow into a giant as well. As a laborer, the boy uses his immense strength to get the last laugh on employers who try to cheat him.
  • Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, "Der junge Riese," Kinder- und Hausmärchen (1857), no. 90, pp. 20-28.
  • English translation by D. L. Ashliman: Read online​​.
  • Analysis of the tale

Leben, Abenteuer und Schwanke des Kleinen Kerza (Life, Adventure and Story of Little Sparrow). Slavonia. Begins with the generic Thumbling tale, but then leads into Kerza helping to rescue a group of maidens.  This is a fairly long literary tale.

Other Tiny Folk

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These tales are about a hero remarkable for his or her small size. This characteristic defines them throughout their adventures, but they often end the story by growing to full size, or if not that, at least finding acceptance. Their stories tend to be more unique, though they all have at least a few motifs in common with Type 700.

Bargaglina of the three singing apples: a variant of The Love for Three Oranges. For being cruel, the hero is cursed  to be unusually small until he finds the singing apples, but on his journeys, he meets some truly tiny fairies who bathe in eggshells. He then acquires the singing apples and cuts one in half; the half-apple becomes lovely Bargaglina, who's small enough to fit in his pocket. Someone throws her into a well; from there she becomes a fish, then a tree, and then is restored and begins doing the hero's housework. Once they're reunited, they both grow to a normal size and eventually get married.
  • Calvino, Italo. Italian Folktales. George Martin, translator. New York: Pantheon Books, 1980. "The Little Shepherd, or the Three Singing Apples." Transcribed in Genoa in 1892.

Boconono: A Zulu character whose name means weasel. Apparently resembles an infant, but is running around and talking immediately after birth. Named for his curiosity. At the end, he is finally allowed to participate in activities with the adults. May be the same as Hlakanyana.
  • Aardema, Verna. Misoso : once upon a time tales from Africa. 1994.

Cecina, or the Little Chickpea, also translated as Chickpeatina. An original fairytale by Luigi Capuana, published in 1882. A king obsessed with hunting is finally convinced to take a bride, but snubs the first princess he visits because she has a hunchback. Soon afterwards, he loses all luck in hunting and begins to grow obese. Diets don’t help, but an old woman promises that if he marries her inches-high daughter Cecina, he’ll lose weight. It works, but now he’s saddled with a wife. He attempts to get rid of her several times; finally a crow eats her, but also pecks out his eyes. It is revealed that Cecina is alive, and is actually the princess originally snubbed by the king; this whole thing was orchestrated by her fairy godmother. After the king apologizes and his eyes are restored, they get married and live happily ever after.
  • Capuana, Luigi. C’Era Una Volta. “Cecina.”
  • Italian Fairy Tales by Capuana. E. P. Dutton, Incorporated, 1929. "Chickpeatina."

The Daughter of the Laurel Tree: A tale recorded in Barcelona in 1925. A variant of the Love for Three Oranges. A woman wishes for a daughter, and one day discovers a laurel berry which becomes a tiny berry-sized girl. Her mother keeps her wrapped in the laundry for warmth, but one day loses her in the river when trying to do her washing. Years pass, and a new laurel tree grows there. A king passes by and wants to eat in its shade. A pretty girl emerges from the tree and eats his food before he can. He finally catches her in the act, and once he has embraced and kissed her, she can no longer go back into the tree. He goes to his castle to prepare for their wedding, and she waits in the tree branches. An ugly woman comes for water, sees the girl, and stabs her with a needle to turn her into a white dove. She then pretends to be the Daughter of the Laurel. On their wedding day, however, the dove returns, the King catches it and pulls out the needle, and the daughter of the Laurel reappears to reveal the truth.
  • Hullen, Georg. Marchen der Europaischer Volker. Vol. 6. 1965. Pp. 100-102. "Die Tochter des Loorbeer."
The variant with the tiny girl seems like a newer permutation. Earlier versions typically just have the woman give birth to a berry or sprig of laurel, which then grows into a tree. See also Bargaglina.

Der Angule, দেড় আঙ্গুলে, Pakistani or Bengali. A hideous thumbling and a woodcutter’s son. Rejected by his family for his ugly appearance, he tricks a miniature blacksmith who’s even smaller than he is, frees a frog’s wife and is rewarded with magic green liquid, beheads eight robbers, cures a princess’s blindness, and marries her. Also known as Three-Inch, Mr. One-finger-and-a-half, or Little Finger. In one alternate version, the Cucumber Stem, he becomes a normal man at the end. Much like Bitaram, he rides a cat and commands bees.
  • Majumder, Dakshinaranjan Mitra. Thakurmar Jhuli. “Der Angule.”
  • Bradley-Birt, F.B. Bengal Fairytales. “A Man who was only a finger and a half in stature.”
  • Bang, Betsy. The Cucumber Stem, picture book retelling
  • MacDonald, Margaret Read.  Tom Thumb: The Oryx Multicultural Folktale Series.  "Three-Inch."
  • Siddiqui, Ashraf & Lerch, Marilyn. Toontoony Pie, and Other Tales from Pakistan. “The Man who was only Three Inches Tall.”​

Ditu Migniulellu (Little Finger). Corsica; a version of Donkeyskin. After wishing for a child, a woman gives birth to a daughter the size of her finger. The child receives gifts from four fairy godmothers: beauty, a lovely singing voice, early speech, and finally, one fairy’s promise to come when in need. D.M. reaches age 17 without growing; her ashamed mother hides her one day beneath a flowerpot. A prince becomes enamored of her voice but regrets his vow to marry her when he sees her size. He and his mother plot a ball for him to meet a more eligible lady. With the help of her final godmother, Little Finger attends the three-night ball as a normal-sized woman in increasingly fancy dress. The prince is so obsessed with the mystery woman that he finally collapses, bed-ridden by a broken heart. The queen’s search for the mystery woman is fruitless until Little Finger reveals herself with the help of a diamond ring and her fairy godmother. She forgives the prince for his mistreatment and they live happily ever after.
(This is similar to “Zucchettina,” another Italian version, where a woman gives birth to a gourd and abandons it, it is found by a prince, and the talking gourd eventually becomes a Cinderella maiden. D.M. trapped beneath the pot but still talking corresponds to the talking gourd.)
A Dwarf (난쟁이는, nanjaeng): Korea. A little dwarf goes out hunting despite his parents’ protests, and comes across a meeting of tigers. The chief tiger swallows the dwarf, who pinches his internal organs until the pain-maddened beast kills himself as well as the rest of the tigers. The dwarf sells the skins and becomes rich.
  •  In-Hak Choi. A Type Index of Korean Folktales, number 214.
  • “난쟁이 범 사냥” (a dwarf goes hunting), picture book adaptation
  • Pak Yeong-Man, Choseon Jeonrae Donghwa-jib, Hagyesa, pp. 534, 1940
  • Zong In-sob, Ondol Yawa, Nihonshoin, pp. 380, 1927.

The Dwarf of Uxmal: A Yucatec Mayan myth. Uxmal is pronounced "ush-mal." There are many different versions that I’ve found. The common thread is that an old woman with no children receives an egg, from which hatches a very tiny baby. He eventually plays a drum, fulfilling a prophecy that means he must participate in a contest against the king. With his mother's help, he cleverly solves the puzzles given and wins the throne. In some versions, his rule ends badly after he grows too proud, explaining how Uxmal fell. Although he’s always a dwarf, in one version he only grows to be “as tiny as a one-year-old” and in another he “did not grow more than a handspan.” Some renditions give him green skin and red hair, and some equate him with the god Itzamna.
The Ear-Like Boy/The Boy as big as an ear: Kalkha tale from Mongolia. The main character is swallowed by a wolf, as in many thumbling tales, but turns it to his advantage. He then steals a sheep and a king’s wish-granting jewel to win the throne. The story is known as “the waggish son-in-law as thief” and classified as folktale type 1525V by Ting.
  • Luvsanjav, C., and Travers, R. (eds.). 1988. How Did the Great Bear Originate? Folktales from Mongolia. Ulaan-Baatar.
  • Read online

Finger-Joint (Uglit es-Subaa): A Bedouin tale collected in Egypt. Born a tulbah, or a wished-for child with special powers, she becomes the second wife to a local man. She tricks her co-wife into doing progressively worse things until the co-wife is sent home and Finger-Joint becomes the sole wife and has many sons and daughters with her husband. This is one of those characters who seems horribly cruel to modern readers. It may be classified under Type 1387, "Woman Must do Everything Like Her Neighbors. Absurd Results" or types 1380-1404, "The Foolish Wife and Her Husband."
A similar character, born as a bird, is named Zraizrah (She-Starling) or Aasfoorah (She-Sparrow). See also Nammūlah (Little anty) on the Type 700 page.
  • El-Shamy, Hasan. “Belief and Non-belief in Arab, Middle Eastern and Sub-Saharan Tales: The Religious-non-religious continuum.” (Link to PDF)

Grass-Leg, Bladder, and Little-Finger: a Chuvantzi tale from Markova, other versions found in Russia or northeast Asia. The three brothers, presumably named for their physical attributes, die one by one; Little-Finger drowns in a bowl of soup, an idea that appears often in thumbling tales.
Greek thumblings: In collecting their Thumbling tales, the Grimms took note of several Greek mentions of incredibly tiny men. From Athenaeus, there is a reference to a poet named Philytas and another man, Archestratus, who "weighed as much as an obolus." A man named Markos was lighter than chaff and got caught in a spider's web. They mention various other Greek tales of men incredibly thin, light or tiny. 
The Hedgehog-sized boy (Folklore Collection of Jakob Hurt III 27, 339/44 (1): An Estonian tale from Vändra parish that I'm currently trying to track down.  Recorded by E. Tetsmann in 1896. It includes Type 700 (Thumbling), 403 (substituted bride) and 409 (girl as wolf, a popular type in Estonia). A boy the size of a hedgehog uses a magic horn to help a lost king. As a reward, the boy rides a black rooster to the king's castle to ask for his daughter's hand in marriage.

Joanet Pelitxilico (Catalonia, "Johnny the size of a chickpea") ignores his mother’s warnings, falls into a cooking pot while trying to get a taste, and suffers scalding and burning. The doctor tells his mother that he will get better with goats’ milk. The mother gets a goat’s milk with leaves from a grapevine, which she buys with water from the river, which she buys with the king’s daughter bathing in the river. When all of this is accomplished, Joan Pelitxilico gets better.
Jug Boy. Hopi. The title character is born the size of his mother's thumb, trapped inside a clay jar. (Alternately he is a jar.) He moves around by spinning the jar. He asks his grandfather to take him hunting. When the jar breaks open, the boy grows to full size.
Katanya: In a Jewish oral tale from Turkey, a lonely old beggar woman is given a single date by a poor merchant (actually the prophet Elijah in disguise). The date hatches into the finger-sized Katanya, “the little one,” who sets to work cleaning the woman’s old house. They become a happy family; Katanya sleeps in a teacup, wears a hat made of a rabbit tail, nutshells for shoes, and rose petal dresses. A prince is drawn to her beautiful voice and invites the pair to the palace, where he marries Katanya.
  • Schwartz, Howard, Barbara Rush, and Uri Shulevitz. The Diamond Tree. 
  • Schwartz, Howard. Leaves from the Garden of Eden. 
  • Israel Folklore Archive, no. 8900. Collected by Moses Gad from Sarah Gad of Turkey.

The Knee-High Man: African-American cante fable. A man as tall as a normal person’s knee wants to be taller and asks advice of all the animals. Finally he realizes that it’s better to grow in wisdom than in stature.
  • Lester, Julius. The Knee-High Man and Other Tales. 1972.
  • Abraham, Roger. Afro-American Folktales: Stories from Black Traditions in the New World. 1995.

The Lantern Baby: Taiwanese. An unusual duck becomes a four-inch-tall half-dragon girl, called “Little Thing” by her adopted parents. When they take her to the Lantern Festival, she becomes a normal baby. There are many descriptions of her tiny belongings – a clamshell for a bathtub, a mirror from a fish scale, broken toothpicks for chopsticks.
  • Cheney, Cora. ​Tales from a Taiwan Kitchen.

The Story of Lentil (حكاية حبة العدس): A tale from Kuwait. A woman is shocked when Allah answers her prayer and gives her a lentil for a daughter; she hides the child in a basket. However, the girl’s cousin, the Sultan’s son, is getting married. The neighbors learn that his paternal cousin is still unmarried and waiting him, and tradition demands that he marry her. The Sultan’s son sets things right and marries her, and she becomes a beautiful woman. 
I am unclear on whether the character is an anthropomorphic lentil or a lentil-sized person.
  • Ali, Afrah Mulla. ¿Qué es el folklore? (doctoral thesis, 2011). "Lenteja."

Little Cricket. French. This story is Type 1641, or Doctor Know-All, where a character sets himself up as a scholar or wizard of some kind and then manages to solve crimes and answer riddles by luck. Little Cricket gets his name because he is the size of a small child and speaks in a high voice like a cricket's chirps.
  • Chamoud, Simone. Picture Tales from the French. “Little Cricket.”

Ma Chit Su – in a Burmese fairytale similar to that of the Vietnamese Tam and Cam, a Cinderella figure who’s murdered by her stepfamily and goes through a series of resurrections. Her final one before returning to her old self is that of a tiny fruit maiden who emerges from a quince to clean her adopted family’s house.
  • Ledgard, Edna. The snake prince and other stories : Burmese folk tales. "Ma Chit Su."
This segment of the story closely resembles another Burmese tale called "The Bamboo Maiden" translated by Ma Thanegi.
Elsewhere I have found references to Thai “fruit maidens,” also makkaliphon or nariphon, who are only about eight inches tall, but they don’t fill the same folklore niche at all and are dangerous to men.

Master Thumb. Burmese. A woman is cursed by the Sun so that her child is born only thumb-sized. At sixteen, he sets out to fight the sun, reminiscent of the Suncatcher mythos. He is aided by Boat, Bamboo Thorn, Clump of Moss, and Rotten Egg, who hide in his stomach. Having succeeded, he gains full size. This story is type 210, the Helpful Objects. His name in Burmese is probably something along the lines of Nga-Let-Ma or ငလက္မ.
  • Htin Aung, Maung. Burmese Folk Tales. London: Oxford University Press, 1948.​
  • Kasevich, Vadim Borisovich, and Yuri Mikhailovich Osipov. Сказки народов Бирмы (Tales of the peoples of Burma). 1976. No. 60, pp.183-191. The character's name is rendered as "Нгалемá" (Ngalema).
  • MacDonald, Margaret Read.  Tom Thumb: The Oryx Multicultural Folktale Series.  1993.
  • Sierra, Judy. Can You Guess My Name?: Traditional Tales Around the World. 2002. pg. 37.
  • Zapadova, Elena. Волшебная арфа (The Magical Harp). 1977, pp. 206-208.
  • "How Master Thumb Defeated the Sun." Read online.
  • Online in Russian: part 1, part 2

Meñique. Cuba. Translated and published by José Martí, and printed in 1889 in 'La edad de oro.' It is derived from a Finnish tale, published in French as Poucinet in 1864 and in English as Thumbling. In a story resembling that of "Boots and his Brothers" and "Boots Who Made the Princess Say 'That’s a Story,'" a man small enough to fit inside a boot finds magical tools, defeats a troll, and marries a princess. It was adapted as Cuba’s first CGI film in 2014. In Finnish, this would probably be known as Peukaloinen.

The One Span Tall Old Man: A Kalkha tale from Mongolia, of type 210, or the Helpful Objects. He picks up various objects and uses them to destroy a mangus, or man-eating monster. The description of a tiny man with a beard longer than he is tall (in this case, a one-span-tall man with a two-span-long beard) is surprisingly common.
Read online
  • Luvsanjav, C., and Travers, R. (eds.). 1988. How Did the Great Bear Originate? Folktales from Mongolia. Ulaan-Baatar.
  • A longer Kalkha/Mongolia variant is One-Inch Two-Inch Man, available to read here.

Princess Camion: A 1743 tale by Marguerite de Lubert. This is an extremely long story, beginning with a prince finding himself betrothed to a tiny, living doll. She is small enough to fit into a pocket or a toothpick-box. She goes missing and is also turned into a half-whale creature during the course of the story, and he sets out to find her.

Pulguerín, que mata  a siete de un soplido. A variant of the Brave Little Tailor; in this case, the hero is Pulguerín, six inches tall.
Rabbi Gadiel Hatinok, or Rabbi Gadiel the Infant. A thumbling character surrounded by kabbalistic symbolism. It originally appeared in 1920 or 1921. A version by S.Y. Agnon has him as a miniature rabbi who sacrifices himself to save his people from blood libel. When a group of wicked men tries to frame the Jewish people for murdering a child, one of them accidentally swallows Rabbi Gadiel. The thumbling then testifies from inside his stomach at the trial to reveal the truth.
  • The tale of Rabbi Gadiel the infant. Translated by Evelyn Abel. Gates to the new city : a treasury of modern Jewish tales. 1983. pp.363-366
  • Also printed in In the land of the patriarchs’ desire : the 20th century Hebrew short story, 1985, pp.84-86.

Sinzero. Amhara, Ethiopia. In a story that is an example of ATU Type 1535, The Rich Peasant and the Poor Peasant, Sinzero's seven older brothers are all lazy, stupid giants, and repeatedly try to get rid of him and regain their mother’s affection. He tricks them back every time. He also wins money and horses through stealing.
His name means a span, the distance from tip of the thumb to tip of the longest finger. You may find him referred to as Digit the Midget, or Six Inch Boy, or Thumboy. Spelling variations include Sinziro, Senzero, Sinzirro, and probably others. I have found references to other stories about him, such as one where he becomes a burglar and rides on a cat, but haven't been able to find these.
  • Ethiopian Folktales. Narrated by Magabi Enyew Gessesse
  • Ashabranner, Brent and Davis, Russell. The Lion’s Whiskers: Tales of High Africa. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1959. “Digit the Midget.” Reprinted in MacDonald, Margaret Read's  Tom Thumb: The Oryx Multicultural Folktale Series.  
  • Molvaer, Reidulf Knut. Socialization and Social Control in Ethiopia. "Six Inch Boy."
There may be a similar Ethiopian thumbling known as Aure Tat or Oretat, but I've been unable to find information on this.
Sidrom and His Sisters, from Tigray, Ethiopia, is essentially the same tale, though the main character is only described as a dwarf.
​Spriditis: folk hero in Latvia, created by Anna Brigadere

​Shbyra (hand-length, or diminutive of shibr/trickster), Tom-Thumb-like trickster of South Arabia. Appears in a variant of the tale The New or the Old?
S’homonet com un gri, the little man as small as a cricket: from Catalonia. A husband and wife’s eight daughters and son have all died. They encounter a boy the size of a cricket, who tells them he’s their son and helps them work and defeat some robbers, before finally revealing that he’s the spirit of their dead son temporarily returned to help them. Introduced with T553, the tiny hero arriving to a childless couple, but the plot is more like Aarne-Thompson 769, the dead child’s friendly return to parents.
Thumbelina (Tommelise): a Danish tale by Hans Christian Andersen. A childless woman buys a seed from a witch. The seed grows into a flower containing Thumbelina, who is then kidnapped by various animals until she finds her way to a meadow where the fairies rule. She marries a fairy prince, is renamed Maia, and receives wings of her own.
Tommeliden var sig en Mand saa spæd: Danish poem by Adam Oehlenschläger. Tommeliden is an adventurer, who turns out to be the only one who can extract the princess’s bad tooth. They marry amidst much celebration. 
Tough Little Niraidak. Evenki, Siberia. He rides a magic deer than can change into a fire-breathing boar, lives on his own and has delusions of grandeur. He challenges a giant, but quickly runs away, still undaunted. He marries a beautiful maiden, but she leaves him. Unfazed by all this, he lives happily ever after.
  • Riordan, James. The Sun Maiden and the Crescent Moon : Siberian Folk Tales. 
  • MacDonald, Margaret Read.  Tom Thumb: The Oryx Multicultural Folktale Series. "Tough Little Niraidak."
  • Fairytale Analysis: Niraidak
 
Tulifäntchen der Zwergheld: A German epic parody poem published in 1829. A knight only a few inches tall, of the order of the Slipper, clad in hazelnut-shell armor and carrying a penknife for asword, sets out with his dragonfly sidekick Fee Libelle to rescue his beloved princess Rosalinde.

The Wonder Child

Some stories begin much like thumbling stories, with parents longing for a child and receiving a baby of Lilliputian scale. However, these tales lack the Thumbling emphasis on  small size, as the tiny child immediately grows.

Bâpkhâdi. A female Cinderella/Hop o’ My Thumb from Salsette. Woman gives a beggar some boiling hot rice in his hands, causing his thumb to blister. His wife breaks the blister and releases a little girl. When food grows scarce, they abandon the girls in the wilderness. However, they end up finding wealth and living with the king. Although her sisters try to betray her, her three children return to clear her name.
  • Cox, Marian Roalfe. Cinderella. #307.
  • D'Penha, G. F. "Folk-lore in Salsette." Indian Antiquary. Bombay, 1891. Vol. xx, pp. 142-47. 

Dotterine/Rebuliina: An Estonian tale retold by Andrew Lang. Her name means “Yolk-Carrie.” She’s born from an egg as a finger-sized doll but soon grows into a normal-sized baby. In a Cinderella narrative, she is mistreated by her stepmother, works as a servant, is aided by her godmother in going to a ball, and is reunited with her foster-brother, the prince Willem, whom she marries.
Kaguya-hime (Princess Moonlight): Japanese. She is found as a three-inch-tall baby in a bamboo patch, but grows to human size in a few months and is courted by many emperors. She is really a being of light from the moon and returns once her people deliver her a feather coat. There is a Taiwanese variant, Yue-Ngo (in The Story of Bobo Bakau).

Kanag, The son of Aponitolau and Aponibolinayen, from a folktale of the Phillipines. He was born from his mother’s thumb.
Kungawrhi or Kúngóri: a Mizo tale, placed in the Assam Hills of India. A man is out cutting bamboo and gets a splinter in his thumb. From the swelling is born a tiny girl named Kungawrhi, who quickly grows over the next few years from a baby the size of a grain of rice, to a young woman renowned as the most beautiful in the village. Many men vie for her hand in marriage, but a Keimi (weretiger) uses tricks and magic to win her. As soon as they're married, he sweeps her away to his own village. Once the truth is known, two men set out to bring Kungawrhi back. Meanwhile, she's stolen from the Keimi and dragged down a cave by spirits. There is a real cave called Kungawrhi Puk, or Kungawhri's Cave, between the villages of Farkawn and Vaphai.
Little Felon (Kwêqk!u): Tlingit and Hokan Tonkawa. A man an inch tall is born from a finger, and soon grows larger and wins a wife.
Momotaro the peach boy, a Japanese tale, might be an example, as he is born from a peach. Usually the peach is depicted as very large, but in a few versions, Momotaro is born small. W. Eberhardt's Studies in Taiwanese Folktales mentions one retelling where he is the size of a thumb when taken from the peach. 
Similar Japanese tales are Urikohime, a girl born from a melon, and Rikitaro, a boy born from a chestnut or created from a doll.

Nezha: A Chinese deity.

The Sun Tests His Son-in-Law: Bella Coola, British Columbia, Canada. When cutting open a fish, a woman finds a baby half as long as her forearm, and raises him alongside her own son. He grows swiftly and can walk and talk within a few days. In adulthood, the two men go on various adventures. A taboo is broken and the salmon boy dies, but when his body is placed in the river, the salmon revive him and he stays in their country for a while. He returns in salmon form and is eaten, but returns to life a second time. Then he travels to the sky, where he woos the sun's daughters and the sun subjects him to tests; he accidentally kills the daughters when they're in the form of mountain goats but restores them to life. The sun's tests continue, with the young man continually escaping death. Finally he cures the sun from blindness, marries one of the daughters, and returns to the lower world.
Tambolo: A Betsimisaraka tale from Madagascar. A childless couple consults an ombiasy and is told to cut bamboos until they find what they want. In the last bamboo the husband finds a little boy. The child is troublesome and, after he grows up, can't find a wife. Finally, he wins a wife by killing her previous husband.
  • Renel, Charles. Contes de Madagascar. 1910.

Timun Mas: Central Java, Indonesia. Here, a girl is initially born from a cucumber. When older, she must escape from an ogre named Buto Ijo.

Magical Helpers and Villains

Picture
These are stories where the tiny character is not the hero of the story, but a supporting character - either a helpful friend, or a villain.

Unusually small characters with supernatural abilities recur fairytales from Rumpelstiltskin to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I am tracking the stories in which these characters are extraordinarily small, i.e. one inch tall.

Ainsel: Many fairies and pixies are very diminutive in size. In the English tale "My Own Self," the hero encounters a tiny girl who falls down the chimney and is less than a span tall.

“Armless.” Siberian Yupik. A fisherman’s nets bring up a tiny fish-woman no longer than a finger. She gives birth to their child, who has no limbs but goes on adventures.
Bigbeard Bacaras: a tiny antagonist in the Hungarian tale of Köcsögkirály or "The Wee King." He appears from a gopher hole and challenges the hero, Köcsög Jankó or Wee Johnny, trying to push him into a barrel. Johnny outwits him and Bacaras falls into the hole instead, allowing Johnny to continue on his journey. Bacaras' name comes from the Hungarian word bakarasz, meaning the distance between your thumb and forefinger - a clue to his size. The "bigbeard" moniker indicates that like many characters in this section, he has a very long beard. Wee Johnny also has a name indicating short stature (köcsög, an extremely derogatory word) , and a couple of times he turns into a tiny insect, but I don't think he's of supernaturally small size.

Sir Buzz: a story similar to Andersen’s “The Tinder Box.” The original name is Mîyân Bhûngâ, Pânjabî for Sir Beetle or Sir Bee. The box contains a tiny man named Sir Buzz, “only one span high, but his beard was a span and a quarter long, and trailed upon the ground.” Seems to have anger issues, but is an okay guy and flies around to complete tasks for the owner of the box.
  • Steel, Flora Annie. Tales Of The Punjab.

The blacksmith in the tale of Der Angule (Three-Inch) is also a tiny man with a beard longer than he is tall, and helps the protagonist on his journey.

The copper dwarf in the Finnish epic Kalevala. who emerges from the sea to help Vainamoinen cut down a giant oak tree that's blocking the sunlight. He's no bigger than a thumb, dressed entirely in copper and carrying an axe; when Vainamoinen mocks his size, the dwarf grows into a giant so tall his head touches the clouds, and chops down the tree.
Similar is the dimunitive Sampsa Pellerwoinen, who sows the forests. I’m not sure whether he’s that small, though.

The dwarf in “The Daughter of the Dwarf,” an Italian tale. Essentially the same as “Prince Ahmad and the Fairy Peri-Banu.”
  • Manning-Sanders, Ruth. Gianni and the Ogre. 1971.

The King of the Ants and The Little Hunting Dog are both Chinese fairy tales featuring groups of Lilliputian creatures.
Kodra-Kan/Khodra Khan: a tale from Islamic India. His name means Hole in the Ear. He is one hand high, and has a beard a span long; he goes around righting wrongs. When he hears that a merchant has cheated the poor, he goes to the merchant and asks to buy with one rupee as many things as will fit into his ear. The greedy merchant agrees to the bargain, not realizing that Khodra Khan's ear is bottomless and can contain all the contents of his shop.
Little Fist, or Mujichok-s-Kulachok (Мужичок с Кулачок): Russian. A character similar to the Thumb-Sized Man, appearing in “The Milk of Wild Beasts." The hero and his sister are aided by a bullock who asks them to kill him; the tiny man appears from its bones and helps Prince Ivan beat his treacherous sister and tame his evil wife. He may also be called Mujichok-s-Nogotok, Boroda-s-Lokotok, "the little Mujik as big as a finger-nail, with a beard as long as a fore-arm."
The Little Man No Bigger than a Finger: Turkey. A tiny man who lives beneath the hearth continually tricks a cook into giving him food, but eventually rewards him for his generosity. 
  • Tezel, Naki. Trans. Margery Kent. Fairy Tales from Turkey. 1946. pp. 98-101.

The messenger in the Russian tale "Prince Ivan, the Princess Martha and the Little Man with the Iron Hands." This character, described as no bigger than a thumb or a nail with a very long beard, is a messenger sent by the villain to demand the princess.

Pedya Chovek: a Bulgarian stock character.

Statu-Palmă-Barbă-Cot: in Romanian tales, an old dwarf the size of a hand, with a beard a cubit long. Usually appears as a supernatural guide, optionally getting caught in a tree.  He lives in a poplar tree, and roams around riding on a rabbit.

Takenoko Doji, or Bamboo-sprout Boy: Japanese. A five-inch man, aged 1234 years, who emerges from a cut bamboo plant and grants the boy who freed him 5 or 7 wishes.
  • Sado, Niigata (1948). The Yanagita Guide to the Japanese Folk Tale. Tokyo. 

The thumb-sized child: In one Ananse tale from an Akan oral narrative, the trickster brings home a strange child the size of a thumb which he finds in a yam patch. However, the child soon begins to devour everything around it and kills the soldiers who try to stop it. At the end, the child is explained to be the human tongue, always wanting more food.
  • 50 Akan Folktales from Ghana: English and Akan Versions, Tale 37
  • Reprinted in Performance and the Techniques of the Akan Folktale, by Patricia Beatrice Mireku-Gyimah. Online.
  • Another version in "Origin of the Tongue" - without "thumb-sized" description. "Tales in Pidgin English from Ashanti." Melville J. Herskovits and Frances S. Herskovits. The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 50, No. 195, (Jan. - Mar., 1937), pp. 52-101.

The Thumb-Sized Man: appears in "Prince Ivan and the Little Man Himself One-Finger Tall, His Mustache Seven Versts In Length." He beats Prince Ivan up and in the past attacked another hero and chewed his hands and feet off. Plays the role of antagonist.
Vasilissa's Doll: In the popular Russian tale of Vasilissa and Baba Yaga, the heroine is aided by a tiny doll which comes to life when fed.

Winishuyat: a tiny man in the Wintu mythology of California, possibly the personification of foresight. He accompanies the hero by hiding in his hair and warns him of danger. In Yana mythology, there are similar characters, such as Juwaiyu's shrinking maternal uncle Jupka.

Tiny Gods

Balakhilyas/Valakhilyas: thumbjoint-sized saints and sages who accompany the sun god Surya in Hindu mythology. There are 60,000 of them.

Sukuna-Hikona: the tiny god of healing in Shinto mythology whose name means “small man of renown.” Helped Onamuchi (alternately, Okuninushi) form the world and create medicine and sake. Associated with hot springs. He originally arrived in Izumo wearing goose skins, riding in a boat made of bark or a leaf. Ōkuninushi picked him up and Sukunahikona responded by immediately biting him on the cheek, but they eventually became friends. When the time came, he left the world by using a millet stalk to catapult himself into the Land of Eternity. Many later tales about tiny fairies are based on him.

There are also dwarf gods, like the Egyptian Bes, but they're not necessarily thumb-sized. Other dwarflike gods from Noth America include the Ioway Maianwatahe (World Man or Everywhere Being), the Crow Ivakidhush (Greasy-Breast), Innu Tshakapesh, or Seminole corn spirit Fastachee (Little Giver).
​The Hindu god Vamana or Vamuna (Vishnu in disguise) has been compared to Tom Thumb. His size is unclear when he appears as a dwarf, but at one point he is said to call a cow's hoofprint filled with water a lake. (Vamana means dwarf.) 

Malay lore holds that the human soul (semangat) is a thumb-sized, transparent copy of the human body which emerges during sleep. The polong is a dangerous spirit resembling a thumb-sized woman.

Songs

I Had a Little Lairdie: A folk song in which the narrator has a little husband as tall as her thumb. Variations include "I had a little manikin" and "I had a little husband."
I had a little moppet: sort of a female version of I Had a Little Lairdie.
  • Green, Percy B. A History of Nursery Rhymes. 1899,

Le Petit Mari (Mon Pere M'a Donne Un Mari) is a widespread French folksong with many variants. The narrator is given in marriage to a tiny man, who weathers misfortunes like being lost in straw bedding, mistaken for a mouse by the cat, and set on fire. It ends with a piece of advice to other girls, not to marry husbands so tiny.
Il Maritino: an Italian similar song where the narrator dresses up her little man to go to a party. I think he's eaten by ants at the end. Alternately, "L'ultimo giorno di carnevale" (The last day of carnival).
  • Canti popolari del Piemonte pubblicati da Costantino Nigra, no. 89.

Spannenlanger Hansel or Daumenlanger Hans, a German song

The Wee, Wee Man: A Scottish ballad. The narrator meets a tiny man with great strength who takes her to dance with the fairies before suddenly disappearing. ("His length was scarce a finger's length . . . Between his eyes a flea could go, Between his shoulders inches three.") 
In Bolte and Polívka's notes on Thumbling, they mention a folk song collected by Erk and Bohme (pages 1634-1635) about a tiny tailor eating and drinking out of a thimble (Das Schneiderlein sah am Wege stehn? A similar song is translated as "Nine Tailors Held a Council" by William Davis Snodgrass), and another by Blümml and Krauss (Ausseer Schnaderhüpfel) about a tailor falling into a soup bowl and being swallowed. These seem to be based off jokes about tailors being weak and eating very little.