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Maggie Ping

Ms. Barazesh

NBE3U1-03

14 July 2023

Thumbelina Retold

Once upon a time, there was a little girl. “She was scarcely half as long as a thumb, and

they called her ‘Thumbelina,’ or Tiny” (Anderson). During the day, she played on a window sill,

where her mother had placed a pin and a similarly-sized wooden board. The board was a target to

practice self-defence; at least she tried to. After all, her mother did say: “You should learn to

protect yourself, my daughter. I would find it terrible if someone snatched you up and you

couldn’t do anything about it. How terrifying.”

One night, while Tiny laid in her bed, a large, green, wet toad crept through a broken

pane of glass in the window and leapt right upon the table where she slept under her rose-leaf

quilt. “She looks toad-y enough to date,” hesitatingly said the toad, shrugging her shoulders.

Picking up the bed in which little Tiny slept, the toad jumped through the window with it into the

garden. By the garden was a deep pond that had a swampy margin where the toad and her son

lived. The middle of the pond grew some water-lilies, with broad green leaves that hovered on

the water. The largest of these leaves appeared farther off than the rest, and the old toad swam

out to put Tiny on it, afraid the girl would escape once she woke up.

In the morning the tiny little creature opened her eyes, realising she was in the middle of

nowhere. Thumbelina floated in the middle of a lilypad, in the middle of a pond, far away from

any land! Oh, and her mother was nowhere to be seen! Fear began to grapple her.
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Suddenly, a voice below her sighed and said: “The toad’s been dragging frogs, toads, beetles,

mice from all across the country to date her son. I’m guessing you’re another one?”

Thumbelina looked down and saw the speaker; a fish wiggling its tail in the water to stay

upright. Frowning, the girl replied, “it appears so.. Wait, how many frogs, toads, beetles, and

mice did she kidnap exactly?”

The fish glanced at the nearby flowers thoughtfully. “Probably a dozen now. The toad

puts them on a lilypad, then takes them home for her son’s date at the swamp edge… Right…

Over there”

Thumbelina looked at the faraway place that the fish pointed to. It made her very sorry to think

she was kidnapped while she slept and then forced to go on a date all without her consent. “No, it

must never be.” The girl turned to the fish: “I would hate to stay here and see what happens.”

“Then I can help. I’ve done this “escaping thing” with the other girls before.

Whatcha-need? Do you want me to help you swim to the shore?”

Thumbelina smiled. “Oh, I don’t swim very well.”

The fish nodded. “Me neither.”

“Oh, but you know what you could help me do? Could you fetch me a branch instead? And gnaw

the stem of my lilypad too?”

So the fish swam down to the bottom of the pond, found a branch and spat it onto the

lilypad. Then it sawed the green stalk which held the leaf on which the little maiden stood. The

lily pad shook and shook, and then with a snap, it began to float freely.

Thanking the fish, Thumbelina waved goodbye as it swam back to the aquatic depths.

Not much later, she took her stick, rowing and rowing on the still waters for what seemed an

eternity, slowly getting closer to land.

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Once she reached the pond shores, Tiny, with her stick, made her way down to the swamp

edge where the toad family lived. It’s hard to say what exactly happened afterwards, but passing

that night, the fishes in the pond have never seen another little girl floating on another lilypad. In

fact, the birds say they saw the toads hopping down the morning dawn, never to return.

This story emphasizes that Thumbelina has the right to remove herself from an

uncomfortable situation, regardless of how it is perceived by others or those involved. Her

assertion to leave the circumstance challenges the notion and stereotype that women should stay

silent, docile and submissive. As well, it encourages the idea that societal expectations, a

person’s positionality, the media, and others can influence actions or behaviours. For instance, in

the original text, published in 1835 (Anderson), Thumbelina would wait passively to be married,

although she didn’t want to. That depiction existed because of how women were expected to act

and behave during the 1830s; they had to be feminine, quiet, modest (Weeks). They could not be

masculine, assertive, or outspoken (Weeks). In modern times, however, women are urged and

encouraged to do as they see fit, filling the premise of this re-told classic.
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Works Cited

Anderson, Hans C. Fairy Tales and Other Stories by Hans Christian Andersen. Oxford

University Press, London, 1914. http://hca.gilead.org.il/li_tiny.html. Accessed 11 July

2023.

Weeks, Linton. “18 Rules of Behaviour for Young Ladies in 1831.” NPR, 20 November 2015.

https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/11/20/456224571/18-rules-of-behavi

or-for-young-ladies-in-1831. Accessed 13 July 2023.