The Seven League Boots

The story of Tom Thumb shares some details with Little Red Ridinghood. Tom’s family is very poor. There are seven children and two parents in a little home trying to survive on next to no income. Tom’s parents decide they can no longer support their children and determine to take them to the woods and leave them, so they won’t have to watch their children die. Tom hears his parents plotting. He grabs white stones from the garden.

The next morning, when his parents feed them a piece of bread and take them to the forest, Tom leaves little white stones along the way. After their parents abandon them and his siblings start fussing, Tom assures them he can get them home. Tom and his six siblings make their way back home and once they arrive, they wait outside and listen.

Meanwhile, Tom’s parents receive a financial windfall — they are repaid a fair amount of money. The children overhear their parents lamenting that they ditched their children, as now they have money to take care of them again. Upon hearing this, the children enter their home and they all rejoice together. The money, of course, runs out eventually and they are back to being destitute and hungry.

Once again, the parents plot to ditch their children in the woods. Tom is unable to grab white stones this time, so he leaves a trail of breadcrumbs to follow back home. Regrettably, just like in Little Red Riding Hood, birds eat the breadcrumbs and the children are left in the forest.

The children find a small cottage wherein an ogre woman lives with her husband. The ogre woman feels sorry for the children and invites them in so she can feed them; however, the ogre does not like human children and would eat them if he found them at home. Knowing this, the ogre woman hides the children and greets her husband when he returns. The ogre has a strong sense of smell, though, and he asks his wife what that delicious smell is. She insists it’s the pig roasting on the spit. He says, “No, it’s not a pig.” His wife tells him that it must be the cow she has slaughtered for him and his friends to have the next day. He says, “No, it’s not a cow.”

He goes on a search and finds the children under a table and drags them out. The ogre woman, thinking quickly, tells her husband that she was saving them for a surprise for him and his friends for the next day and doesn’t he want to keep them fresh and wait to kill them till tomorrow? The ogre agrees and allows the children to eat and be put to bed.

The ogre woman takes the children upstairs and tucks them into a bed, all seven of them, and puts little caps on their heads. Directly across the room from these seven children are her own seven daughters, and upon each of the heads of her daughters is a crown. Tom’s siblings fall asleep, but Tom remains awake. In the middle of the night, the ogre wakes and realizes he just can’t handle the children being alive and determines to kill them. Tom, worrying something like this could happen, sneaks across the room and switches his and his brother‘s hat with the crowns on the ogre children’s heads.

When the ogre comes up the stairs and feels the heads of the seven human children with crowns on their heads, he believes them to be his daughters. The ogre crosses the room and feels the seven sleeping caps on top of his daughters’ heads and slices their throats quickly. The ogre, satisfied, heads back to bed.

Once the ogre has accomplished his grisly deed, Tom wakes his siblings and rushes them out of the ogres’ house, and as far away as they can get before morning. Upon waking, the ogre discovers what he has done as does his wife — they are devastated and angry.

The ogre demands his wife bring him his Seven League Boots, and then chases after the children. The ogre is very fast due to these magic boots. The children, meanwhile, are almost home when they hear the ogre coming. Tom hurries his siblings under a little rocky alcove where they hide. The ogre reaches that rocky area, but does not spot the children. He is tired so he lays down on top of the rocks and falls asleep. Once the ogre is snoring, Tom sends his siblings home and then sneaks out and steals the Seven League Boots.

Now, this being a tale that was passed down over time, there is a discrepancy in how it is told. Some people tell the story that Tom goes home and with those magic boots begins a courier business and helps save his family from poverty. Other stories recount that Tom uses these boots and heads back to the ogres’ house where he tells the ogre’s wife that the husband is being held for ransom and she must give him every precious thing they possess. In a fit of worry, she listens and gives all their worldly treasures to Tom, who takes them home and uses them to help his family avoid poverty, and he starts a courier business.

I personally prefer a tale where the ogre woman, who was kind to the children, is kept from further suffering. Have you heard this tale before? What ending did you hear?