The Thumbelina reads as follows:

Once upon a time, there was an old woman who wanted a child, but that wish had not yet come true. She went to the witch for help and she gave her a seed. This old woman put it in a flowerpot, and soon a flower grew in the pot, and a girl the size of a thumb sat in the petals. So the old woman named her Thumbelina. Thumbelina was lovely and sang beautifully.

One night a toad jumped in through the window and took Thumbelina. It was going to marry her to its own son The toad put Thumbelina on a water lily leaf and went to get ready for the wedding. A school of small fish saved Thumbelina by biting off the lotus stem. Thumbelina floats away down the stream.

The beetle sees Thumbelina and takes her to his tree. All the beetles except this one found Thumbelina ugly without her tentacles. Slowly, the beetle didn't like it anymore. It left her alone. Thumbelina lived alone in the woods, but thanks to a field mouse who lived in a wheat field, she was taken in. Thumbelina was so grateful that she helped clean up her room every day and sang songs to the field mouse.

The vole's friend, Mole, also loved to hear Thumbelina sing. He dug a tunnel to the field mouse's house so that he could come to the field mouse and Thumbelina every day. Finally, Mole asked Thumbelina to marry him. But Thumbelina was not happy at all. One day, Thumbelina found a frozen swallow in a tunnel, and she tended it carefully all winter.

In the summer, the field mouse was happily preparing for the wedding of Thumbelina and Mole. Just in time, the swallow flies in; it is leaving to spend the winter in the south. Inviting Thumbelina to leave with him, Thumbelina climbed onto the swallow without hesitation. They came to a place where beautiful flowers bloomed everywhere. The swallow puts Thumbelina in a flower with a man who is as tall as she is. He was the owner of the flower.

Then he and Thumbelina fell in love, and they got married, and Thumbelina became the mistress of the flowers.

Expanded:

Background:

Andersen was born into a poor shoemaker's family and had a poor childhood. Influenced by his father and folk oral literature, he grew up loving literature. While discovering the aesthetic value of the tragic characters themselves, Andersen put the noble connotation of life and personality character of the tragic characters on the high level of the human spiritual realm.

After eight years of struggle, he finally revealed his talent in the poetic drama "Alfresco". As a result, he was sent to the Helsing?e School for free. After graduation, he lived on manuscript fees.

He wrote "Thumbelina" in 1835, and "Thumbelina" was published in "Tales for Children" in Copenhagen. It is both a fairy tale and a poem, for its plot is beautiful and moving, and at the same time it is intensely poetic. In spite of her small and impassive stature, and the very difficult circumstances of her life, Thumbelina has a great and superb ideal: she longs for light and freedom. A girl the size of a thumb, her heart always yearns for the sun and does not give in to darkness. This book is like Andersen writing about her own experiences.

This fairy tale has been adapted into animated films and movies many times, and has been highly appreciated in China. There is also an orchestra named after the "Thumbelina", who see themselves as a group of children who have never grown up and live happily and freely in a fairy tale.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Thumbelina