Tom Tit Tot
There was once a woman who baked five pies. She overbaked
them. She told her daughter to put them on the window ledge because “They’ll
come again,” meaning the crust will soften. The daughter was confused and
thought she needed to eat them so that they can actually come again. She ate
them all. Later, the mother asked the daughter to fetch a pie because they must’ve
come again. The daughter checked and the dishes were still empty. The mother
began to sing about how her daughter ate five pies. The king overheard this
song but could not hear the words so he stopped to listen. The mother, ashamed,
changed the words of the song to make the song about her daughter spinning five
skeins. The king wanted a wife that could do that, so the king asked to wed her
daughter. The mother agreed, and the king said if the daughter could not spin
five skeins every December day that he would kill her. The last day of December
came and the daughter had to spin five skeins or else shed die. She began to
weep out of fear when a little black thing with a long tail came in and asked
what was wrong. The thing decided to help the girl spin the skeins, but if the daughter
could not guess its name by the end of the month, then the girl would become
hers. Every day, the daughter received the flax and food. Everyday the thing
came and took the flax, and returned in the evening with spun skeins. The
daughter was unable to guess the name of the creature, and on the second to last
night, the king decided to eat with the girl. He told a story of how he ran
across this little black thing that was spinning a wheel super fast. The thing
was singing, “Nimmy nimmy not My name’s Tom Tit Tot.” The next day, the thing
came back one last time ready to take the girl; however, this time the girl got
his name correctly. The thing shrieked and vanished.
Tom Tit Tot
By John D. Batten found on Sacred Texts
Bibliography:
English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1890). Link
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