|| An Irish folktale ||
A long time ago there lived a poor farmer and his wife. They had a little boy who was strong and healthy but who was no bigger than your thumb. Because of his tiny size they called him “Tom Thumb.”
One day Tom’s mother was making a pudding. To see how she mixed it, Tom climbed up on the edge of the bowl. His foot slipped and he fell into the batter. His mother not noticing this stirred him into the pudding and put it into the oven.
Tom soon grew hotter and hotter until he could stand it no longer, and began to yell and jump up and down.
When Tom’s mother saw the pudding behave in such a strange manner, she thought it was bewitched and flung it out of the window.
The pudding broke into pieces by the fall. Tom was released and walked back to his mother. Another day a crow saw him and picked him up and flew with him to the top of a giant’s castle.
The giant saw him and picked him up and put him in his mouth to eat him. Tom thought quickly and tickled the giant’s tongue before he could be swallowed.
The giant got irriated and pulled him out of his mouth. Then he flung Tom into the river.
A large fish then swallowed him whole. The fish was soon caught by a fisherman. He thought the king would like such a big fish and so he took the fish with Tom inside to the palace. When the royal chef cut open the fish, there was Tom. The cook was amazed and Tom was sent to the king.
Everybody was fascinated and delighted with the little fellow. The king liked him so much that he made him his dwarf and Tom became the favourite of the whole court. He would dance, do antics and speak in his squeaky voice that made people laugh.
One day Tom was jumping off a wall when the cook was passing with a bowl of hot milk for the king.
Poor Tom jumped into the milk and it splashed into the cook’s eyes. Down went the bowl to the ground. The cook who was scared that he would be punished, swore to the king that Tom had done it out of mischief.
So Tom was tried and sentenced to be put in jail. A carpenter was called to make a special tiny jail for Tom. When the little fellow heard this he felt very bad.
With one leap he jumped down the throat of the carpenter. Tom stayed still and the carpenter felt nothing. Meanwhile the palace guards searched for Tom for a while, but the court moved on when they couldn’t find Tom. “He was a delightful little fellow after all, maybe it was harsh of us to punish him”, they thought.
The carpenter went to his home. Having safely escaped jail, Tom wanted to come out. He began to roll and tumble about so that the carpented called for a doctor.
When the doctor, came Tom began to sing in his squeaky voice and it seemed to come out of the carpenter. Both the doctor and the carpenter were much frightened. They thought the carpenter must be possessed by some ghost.
The doctor sent in great haste for a priest. While the doctor and priest were talking about what they should do, the carpenter yawned and Tom gave a jump and landed in the middle of the table. Then he turned around and made a low bow to each shocked man and went back to the king.
The king was delighted to have Tom back and readily forgave him.
Unfortunately, Tom did not live very long after to enjoy the king’s favour. He was always ready to help others in trouble. One day, after trying to rescue a fly from a spiders web, the spider attacked him fiercely and he was so badly wounded that he died soon afterwards.
The king and his court missed the cheerful little fellow. In his memory they erected a beautiful monument on which was recorded all the wonderful adventures of Tom Thumb. People often said that he did so many things and enjoyed himself so much, much more than a normal-sized person would have!
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