Perrault, Charles. “Hop-o’-my-Thumb.” Old French Fairy Tales, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1899, pp. 342-358.

Tale Summary

Seven siblings are born no more than three years apart into a poor family in which the youngest boy, named Hop-O’-My-Thumb, is deemed a weakly little fellow, but in fact, is actually the smartest in the group. His woodcutting parents are too poor to keep all of the children, so they leave them lost in the woods. Hop-O’-My-Thumb leads the children out of the cold, dark woods to a child-eating Ogre’s house. The Ogre’s wife tries to hide the children inside, but the Ogre finds them and allows them to sleep one night before being eaten. Afraid of being slaughtered by the Ogre during the night, Hop-O’-My-Thumb switches the caps of the seven siblings with the crowns of the seven Ogresses. The Ogre mistakenly cuts the throats of the Ogresses and goes on a hunt in magical seven-league boots to kill the children. Hop-O’-My-Thumb steals the boots off of the Ogre when he is sleeping in the woods and tricks the Ogre’s wife into believing that the Ogre had been taken hostage and he needed all of her riches to save her husband. Hop-O’-My-Thumb brought home the wealth and lived happily ever after with a nobleman’s daughter.