There was once a poor peasant who sat by the hearth poking the fire, while his wife sat and spun. "How sad it is that we have no children!" he said. "Our home is so quiet, while others' are noisy and lively."
"Yes," sighed his wife. "Even if we had just one child, even if it were no bigger than a thumb, I would be satisfied, and we would love it with all our hearts."
Soon after, the woman gave birth to a child who was perfect in every way, but no larger than a thumb. They named him Thumbling. Though he never grew taller, he was wise, nimble, and everything he did turned out well.
One day, as the peasant prepared to cut wood in the forest, he wished aloud for someone to bring the cart to him. "Oh father," cried Thumbling, "I will bring the cart!" The father smiled, "But you are too small to lead the horse." "If mother harnesses the horse," Thumbling replied, "I will sit in its ear and tell it where to go."
They agreed to try. The mother harnessed the horse and placed Thumbling in its ear. "Gee up!" he cried, and the cart set off perfectly into the forest.
As they turned a corner, two strangers saw the cart moving but could see no driver. Astonished, they followed it to where the wood was being cut. There, they saw the tiny Thumbling and decided he could make their fortune. They offered to buy him from his father.
"No," said the father. "He is the apple of my eye, and no money can buy him."
But Thumbling whispered to his father, "Let me go, I will soon return." So the father agreed for a sum of money. The men placed Thumbling on the rim of a hat and set off.
At dusk, Thumbling asked to be set down. Once on the ground, he slipped into a mouse-hole, mocking the men who tried in vain to catch him. After they left, he found an empty snail-shell to sleep in for the night.
Soon, he overheard two thieves planning to steal a pastor's silver and gold. "I can help you!" Thumbling called out. The thieves found him and, intrigued by his size, took him along.
At the pastor's house, Thumbling crept inside through the bars but then shouted loudly, "Do you want everything here?" The thieves, terrified of being caught, told him to be quiet. But Thumbling shouted again, waking the maid. The thieves fled, and Thumbling hid in the granary.
Exhausted, he buried himself in the hay to sleep. At dawn, the maid gathered hay for the cows, unknowingly picking up Thumbling with it. He was swallowed by a cow.
Inside the cow's stomach, Thumbling cried, "Bring me no more fodder!" The maid, hearing the voice, was terrified and told the pastor the cow was speaking. The pastor, also alarmed, ordered the cow killed. Its stomach was thrown onto a dung heap.
As Thumbling tried to escape, a hungry wolf swallowed the whole stomach. Unfazed, Thumbling called from inside the wolf, "Dear wolf, I know where you can find a feast!" He directed the wolf to his parents' house, telling it to enter through the kitchen sink.
The wolf ate its fill in the larder but grew too fat to escape. Thumbling then began to shout and make noise inside it. The noise woke his parents, who saw the wolf and armed themselves.
"Dear father, I am here, in the wolf's body!" Thumbling cried. Overjoyed, his father killed the wolf and cut it open to rescue his son.
"Ah, father," said Thumbling, "I have been in a mouse-hole, a cow's stomach, and a wolf's belly. Now I am happy to be home."
"We will never part with you again," said his parents, embracing him. They gave him food, drink, and new clothes, for his own had been spoiled on his journey.