In a magical realm where everything comes to life and every living creature has a voice, a little girl was born from a petal. She was about the size of a finger on my hand. In the day she took care of the flowers and sang to them. At night, she slept in a walnut shell covered with a rose petal. Everybody called her Thumbelina.
One day a frog hopped around the flower where Thumbelina lived. When she saw Thumbelina, she thought she could make a perfect bride for her son the frog. So she grabbed Thumbelina and carried her to the pond where she and her son lived. But the frog did not like Thumbelina, and even called her ugly. He hopped away in disgust into the thick reeds, and the mother frog hurried after her son, no longer caring about Thumbelina.
Thumbelina remained sitting on a water lily in the middle of the pond, wondering how she was going to get to the shore. She was so small that she would never be able to swim there. Tears started to fall from her eyes when a gentle breeze blew them away. It created a beautiful butterfly with its wings that flew over Thumbelina. “Why are you crying, little girl?” the butterfly asked her. “The frog carried me here and left me. Now I don’t know how to get to the shore,” Thumbelina told him.
The butterfly smiled and urged Thumbelina to jump on his back. Then he carried her to the shore and set her down on a burdock leaf. The girl was relieved that she was not left abandoned somewhere in the middle of the pond. But she was not happy for long. No sooner had she quenched her thirst with dew than something chirped above her. The chirping sound came from the cockchafer as it brushed its shards against the tips of its wings. The cockchafer was intrigued by the tiny little one, so he grabbed her and carried her away. As he flew, the insect buzzed at him, “That’s no bride for you, cockchafer. She has few legs and no wings.” And so the cockchafer dropped her to the ground.
The little girl staggered a little as she fell, and she was really very sad. She hadn’t had a moment of peace since early morning when she could hardly open her eyes. She was always being carried away. But it seemed that fortune had finally smiled on her. An old grey mouse noticed her, and after hearing her story, invited her to live in his mouse hole. She became Thumbelina’s caregiver and cared for her as her own daughter. So they lived there happily together until winter began to set in.
Thumbelina went for a walk outside before the snow fell and found a swallow lying on the ground. She was very frightened because she thought that the bird was dead, but then she noticed that it was breathing. The swallow was just frostbitten, it hadn’t had time to fly away to warmer place. Thumbelina piled the remaining leaves still fluttering on the trees and rubbed her wings. The swallow soon came back to life and thanked Thumbelina for saving her. She offered to fly with her to the sea, where it was still warm, but Thumbelina did not want to leave her caregiver.
She and the old mouse then spent the whole winter in the mouse’s house. In the spring, Thumbelina finally ran out again. She sang and rejoiced. The mole watched her and thought he would marry the little singer. But Thumbelina didn’t want to live with him underground in the eternal darkness. The mole was insistent, however, and wanted to drag Thumbelina into his underground house, by force if necessary. Fortunately, a swallow, which Thumbelina had saved the other day, was just returning for spring. When she saw what was happening, she called to Thumbelina: “Come on, Thumbelina, jump on my back.” Thumbelina quickly climbed up between the swallow’s wings and the swallow carried her to a large meadow full of flowers of all colours and shapes. There she was safe from the mole.
Soon she recognized the flower elf who tended the flowers there, which Thumbelina loved so much. The elf was just a tiny bit bigger than Thumbelina, and as they took care of the flowers in the meadow together, they became inseparable friends and after a while they both felt something more for each other. And so a great wedding took place in the meadow. Everything was full of colour and the butterfly that had once helped Thumbelina and her best friend the swallow cameto the wedding. The nanny mouse could not miss it either. The nectar from the flowers flowed and everyone was merry. And it was always merry in the meadow from then on.
