"The Elves and The Shoemaker" (German: Die Wichtelmänner) is a set of fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm (KHM 39) about a poor shoemaker who receives much-needed help from three helpful young elves.
The original story is the first of three fairy tales contained as entry 39 in the German Grimm's Fairy Tales under the common title "Die Wichtelmänner". In her translation of 1884 Margaret Hunt chose The Elves as title for these three stories.
The first tale is of Aarne-Thompson (AT) type 503* ("Helpful Elves"), also classified as a migratory legend (AT-7015). The second is of AT 476* type ("A Widwife [or Godmother] for the Elves"), also categorized as a migratory legend (AT 5070). The third tale is of AT 504 type ("The Changeling"), also categorized as a migratory legend (AT 5085).
Cultural legacy
The first tale has been widely adapted.
Walter Lantz created an animated short musical adaptation of the story with his 1934 Jolly Little Elves, as did Friz Freleng with his 1946 Merrie Melodies short Holiday for Shoestrings, and Tex Avery with his 1950 MGM short The Peachy Cobbler. The 1956 Looney Tunes cartoon short Yankee Dood It is based on this fairy tale, with Elmer Fudd as the king of industrial elves. One hundred fifty years after this fairy tale took place, he visits the shoemaker to retrieve the elves he has employed, while also imparting the virtues of mass production capitalism to him.
The 1962 film The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm features a segment based on the story. In the 1994 Due South episode, "The Deal", Det. Ray Vecchio vaguely recollects this story when talking with Constable Benton Fraser about a poor cobbler. In Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love, a spinoff miniseries of the Vertigo comic-book series Fables, the shoemaker appears as an employee in Cinderella's shoe store, while the elves are the builders and suppliers of the store's inventory.
Muppet Classic Theater had a version where a shoemaker (played by Kermit the Frog) faces ruin until his livelihood is saved by a group of philanthropic entertainers, The Elvises, who, naturally, make only blue suede shoes. In a Barney & Friends episode called "If the Shoe Fits...", the kids are rehearsing for their play about this story. The second season of the animated series Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child features a South American twist of the tale. In the Harry Potter series of books, "house elves" are enslaved creatures who take care of the needs of human wizards, and are free of their obligation once given clothes. In the TV show Supernatural, the season 6 episode "Clap Your Hands If You Believe" has a variation of the tale, of a watchmaker and some fairies.
In Jane Shields and Rosemary Doyle's The Shoemaker and the Pantomimes, Cinderella goes looking for elves to help her father in his obligation to the evil designer Kenneth Coal, but all she ends up with are Mimes, a resourceful mother Twanky, and an even more resourceful cat. Premiered Red Sandcastle Theatre, Toronto, 2012. The fairytale is alluded to in two episodes of The Big Bang Theory: in "The Extract Obliteration", Leonard Hofstadter mentions it to Penny after he does her essay for her, and in "The Bus Pants Utilization", Sheldon greets Leonard in the morning with "Good morning, Shoemaker", in reference to the fact that he has been up all night working on Leonard's differential equations app project. In the 2003 Christmas movie Elf, shoemaking is one of the jobs for elves.
Jim La Marche retold and illustrated his version of the story in 2003, published by Chronicle Books.
The Grimm Variations, a 2024 Netflix anime series, features a retelling of the story. This version features a struggling novelist who wakes up to find someone has completed stories he was writing. One of the books written is entitled The Elves and the Shoemaker.
See also
- Grimms' Fairy Tales