Most of you might know the film version where one day this little Thumbelina meets the Fairy Prince and falls in love and then after many adventures and near-death experiences, she gets married to the Fairy Prince Cornelius and kisses him for the first time and then gets her fairy wings.
I believe that Thumbelina was born a fairy and not just some random tiny person. If the magical seed was planted in the right place and Thumbelina was born in the right family, she would've had her wings earlier on.
And the main ingredient for this is a kiss out of love.
In the Original Andersen Version
The italics are to be read in a (non-serious) storytelling voice.
An old woman desperately wants a child but can't have one.
The classical tale...why won't you get married or something...or adopt a child...anyway.
She goes to a fairy and tells her of her wish to which the fairy tells her to plant this barleycorn which the old woman pays for.
The moment she plants the barleycorn, the flower grows into something like a tulip and the old woman kisses the tulip which blossoms to reveal a tiny maiden inside.
Who apparently was already full grown.
The old woman names her Thumbelina, or Tiny.
For most of the story she is known as Tiny. The spirit of the flowers renames her as Maia because
Tiny is such an ugly name
...duh!
The Warner Bros Film Version
An old woman who is lonely is given a tiny barleycorn by a good witch.
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| "One day she paid a visit to a good witch" who looks suspiciously like a fairy. |
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| Thumbelina be all like "*YAWNS* I'm wearing a dress! I'm in a flower in a house! Oh! Hello, Mother! *hugs thumb and giggles*" True story. Watch the movie. Link in the Notes below. |
Second, how does she get her wings?
The Original Andersen Version
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| Getting wedding gifts from other fairies. |
The wings, in fact were from a fly...which seems much worse than being called Tiny.
"but the best gift was a pair of beautiful wings, which had belonged to a large white fly and they fastened them to Tiny’s shoulders, so that she might fly from flower to flower" (this link cited).
Which means that Thumbelina is NOT a fairy. She is just a teeny tiny girl and the last and only one of her kind probably.
In the Warner Bros Film Version
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| "My very own wings!" |
It's crystal clear that there is too much connection with the kiss and getting the wings. We have to say that the kiss brought out her wings that she was originally supposed to have.
Also, the fact that in the whole movie, there are no other little people like her EXCEPT the fairies. No dwarfs or little elves or trolls or anything.
Third, the Importance of the Kiss
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| Tulip bud. |
In the Warner Bros Film Version
The Prince of the Fairies and Thumbelina kiss which gives her her wings.
Fourth, Thumbelina's birth was disrupted
From the original version and the film version, the magical fairy seed was carried by someone who gave it to the old woman whether it be a fairy or a good witch. This means that whoever had the seed had contact with fairies. Either an actual fairy or a good witch.
It might be interesting to wonder if this good witch had anything to do with the good witch in "Wizard of Oz"
...hmm...
Okay, anyway, so the way a fairy is born is from a flower grown from a seed. The seeds come from a flower of a dying or elderly fairy. Or it could be that when fairies have babies they are seeds and not baby fairies. Fairies do seem to be born full grown as was the case with Thumbelina and the fact that there didn't seem to be any children fairies.
That means a normal fairy plants her baby seed from which grows a flower. The parent fairy will kiss the flower from which emerges a full grown fairy. The parent fairy will kiss the child fairy to give it wings. These kisses are out of love and only out of love can the flower blossom.
BUT, anyone can kiss a fairy flower out of love to make it bloom.
Yet, only when kissed by another fairy out of love can the newborn fairy get its wings. I say this because the old woman probably kissed Thumbelina (or Tiny) after she was born but obviously nothing happened. But then when Cornelius and Thumbelina kiss at the end, she gets her wings. Up until that point she had not been kissed (on the lips) by another fairy out of love.
Side note: I had forgotten, the beetle kisses her up her arms when they first meet (creepy much) but she does not turn into a fairy. If she did, she might have been able to get home faster...hmm...
Conclusion
So, if Thumbelina was planted in the right way, she would've been a fairy from the beginning. The kiss is important because it brings her into the world and gives her her wings.
In other words...
first it gives her her existence, second it gives her her identity.
Can't get more important than that!
Thumbelina was born as an incomplete fairy. If there was a fairy present at the time, she would have received her wings earlier on (yes I'm repeating myself). Yet, because she was born into a house with no fairies, she didn't even know she was one. Kind of like if an itty bitty kitten was put in the care of a Dog Mommy and acted like a dog because that's all they know.
A newborn fairy, although full grown, is still a newborn fairy who doesn't know anything and is very innocent and pure. She can soak up things like a sponge. When she is born from the flower, all she sees is her mother. Kind of like a baby bird who calls the first creature he sees as his Mommy.
So now we can say that Thumbelina was born a fairy who thought she was an extremely tiny human and that the "kiss out of love" is important for fairy existence.
See ya later, alligators! :D
NOTES:
Thumbelina full 1994 film on YouTube
Wikipedia: Thumbelina (1994 film)
Wikipedia: Thumbelina
Thumbelina 1872 Hans Christian Andersen PDF
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