Seven-League Boots

[1]

In European folklore, the idea of a protagonist receiving aid from a magical character is very common. There are many examples from tales of ‘Seven-League Boots’ which are supposed to provide the wearer with the ability to travel seven leagues with just a single step [1]. At one point, a ‘league’ would roughly translate to just under 5 kilometres which was the distance the average man would cover on an hour-long walk. If you were to take one step in the boots, you would travel 34 kilometres but without the boots on your feet, you would have to walk for seven hours to reach that distance so you can imagine the powerful value these magical boots have in folk and fairy tales [2].

Der Liebste Roland (AKA: Sweetheart Roland) is a German fairy tale in which there is a wicked witch, a mother of her good stepdaughter and evil daughter. The stepdaughter overhears that her mother plans on killing her at night but later when the girls go off to sleep, the stepdaughter swaps beds with her stepsister which results in the witch killing her own daughter instead. The stepdaughter tells her partner, Roland, all about what happened to her stepsister. He suggests that they steal the witch’s magic wand so she goes back to pick it up, but she unfortunately leaves behind traces of blood which help her wicked mother to realise what happened to her own daughter after calling for her but not receiving any response. After falling into a pit of rage, she set out on a hunt with her pair of Seven-League Boots for her stepdaughter and Roland [3].

In ‘le petit Poucet’ (Hop-o’-My-Thumb), there is Little Poucet who is the youngest of seven children of a poor woodcutter. Little Poucet has great wisdom which helps compensate for his small body. In the story, the children are abandoned by both parents but Little Poucet tries hard to find ways of saving his life and his brothers’ lives. Making his life harder, the little boy is threatened and hunted down by an ogre but during the monster’s sleep, Poucet goes out of his way to steal his Seven-League Boots [4].

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In the Norwegian fairy tale, Soria Moria Castle, the magical boots are also mentioned when an old woman traded them to the main protagonist, a little boy named Halvor [5].

Jack the Giant Killer is a hugely popular tale which is set during King Arthur’s Reign and is about a young, clever and smart Cornish boy named Jack who comes across Cormoran, a giant who eats livestock. Jack is later given the ‘Giant Killer’ name when he lures Cormoran into a pit trap which kills the giant. Not only is he given the title, he is also gifted the wealth of the giant, his sword and belt. Later on in the tale, the son of King Arthur is introduced who Jack becomes the servant of. After the two and a three-headed giant spend the night together, Arthur’s son and Jack rob the giant in the morning but since they spared his castle, Jack receives gifts from the beast such as an invisibility cloak, a magic sword, a cap of knowledge and finally, shoes of swiftness [6].

Bibliography

[1] Wikipedia 2020, Seven-League Boots, Wikipedia, viewed 08 October 2020, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven-league_boots>.

[2] Wikipedia 2020, League (Unit), Wikipedia, viewed 08 October 2020, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_(unit)>.

[3] Wikipedia 2020, Sweetheart Roland, Wikipedia, viewed 08 October 2020, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweetheart_Roland>

[4] Wikipedia 2020, Hop-o’-My-Thumb, Wikipedia, viewed 08 October 2020, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hop-o%27-My-Thumb>

[5] Wikipedia 2018, Soria Moria Castle, Wikipedia, viewed 08 October 2020, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soria_Moria_Castle>

[6] Wikipedia 2020, Jack the Giant Killer, Wikipedia, viewed 08 October 2020, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_the_Giant_Killer>

Referencing

[1] Theodor Kittelsen. (1900). Soria moria slott. [image]. Available from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Theodor_Kittelsen,_Soria_Moria.jpg [Access date: 08/10/2020]

[2] Gustave Doré. (1897). Illustration for Charles Perrault's Le Petit Poucet from Histoires ou Contes du Temps passé: Les Contes de ma Mère l'Oye (1697). Gustave Doré's illustrations appear in an 1867 edition entitled Les Contes de Perrault. Fifth of eleven engravings. [image]. Available from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Poucet5.JPG [Access date: 08/10/2020]