The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales

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‘Thumbelina’

‘Thumbelina’ (or ‘Inchelina’).
The diminutive person, only the size of a thumb or of an inch, is a character who commonly appears in fairy tales, for example ‘Little Tom Thumb’ (1621) or ‘Le petit Poucet’ (1697), but its best‐known representation is Hans Christian Andersen's ‘Tommelise’ (1836), which relates a tiny young woman's trials and tribulations until she is united with a prince of her own size. The Andersen tale is a coming‐of‐age story that not only chides society for narrow‐mindedness, but also suggests that one may be better off with one's own kind.

Niels Ingwersen

[The entire page is 109 words long]

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