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The Three Little Men in the Wood

158 statements
30 feature instances
26 referencing feature instances

The Three Little Men in the Wood	type	TVTItem
The Three Little Men in the Wood	label	The Three Little Men in the Wood
The Three Little Men in the Wood	page	TheThreeLittleMenInTheWood
The Three Little Men in the Wood	comment	"The Three Little Men in the Wood" (German: Die drei Männlein im Walde) is a German Fairy Tale collected by The Brothers Grimm and published in their Children and Household's Tales (Kinder- und Hausmärchen) collection. It is the number 13 tale.A widow with a daughter persuaded the daughter of a widower to persuade her father to marry the widow. Then she oppressed her stepdaughter. Finally, she sent her into the winter woods with orders to gather strawberries. There, she met three little men, who asked what had happened to her, asked her to share her food, and then asked her to sweep off their back step. When she went, they decided she would grow more beautiful every day, have gold fall from her mouth when she spoke, and marry a king. Also, while she swept, she found strawberries.Her arrogant stepsister insisted on going after the strawberries. She was rude to the little men and refused to share her food. So they cursed her to grow uglier, have toads drop from her mouth, and die a miserable death. She never found strawberries.The furious stepmother sent her stepdaughter to rinse yarn in the frozen river. A king saw her and took her off to marry her. They had a baby. The stepmother and her daughter came to the castle, threw the queen out of the window and into a stream, and put the daughter in her place. The stepmother refused to let the king see her, and blamed the toads on her illness.A scullion, however, saw a duck swim up and ask what happened in the castle. Then she became a woman again and nursed the baby. On her third visit, she told the scullion to tell the king to swing his sword three times over her while on the threshold. This brought her back to life.At the baby's christening, the king asked the stepmother what punishment should be inflicted on someone who threw someone in the water. She said, "The wretch deserves nothing better than to be taken and put in a barrel stuck full of nails, and rolled down hill into the water." So the king had it done to her and her daughter.Full text here, here, here and here.Compare with "Brother and Sister", "Mother Holle", "St. Joseph in the Forest", and Russian tale "The White Duck".In the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index, it is a Type 403B, "The Black and the White Bride" and 480, "The Kind and the Unkind Girls".
The Three Little Men in the Wood	fetched	2023-09-09T13:59:27Z
The Three Little Men in the Wood	parsed	2023-09-09T13:59:27Z
The Three Little Men in the Wood	isPartOf	DBTropes
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_1d18887f	type	Pay Evil unto Evil
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_1d18887f	comment	Pay Evil unto Evil: The King asks the stepmother what should be done with someone who murders another person by throwing them into the water. The woman suggests a particularly painful execution, unaware that she is choosing her own sentence.
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_1d18887f	featureApplicability	1.0
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_1d18887f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_1d18887f
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_27ab0123	type	Offing the Offspring
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_27ab0123	comment	Offing the Offspring: The stepmother attempts to murder the main character several times.
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_27ab0123	featureApplicability	1.0
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_27ab0123	featureConfidence	1.0
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_27ab0123
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_2a015a74	type	Beauty Equals Goodness
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_2a015a74	comment	Beauty Equals Goodness: One of the heroine's rewards for her kindness is to grow more beautiful with each passing day; whereas her mean-spirited, selfish and lazy stepsister is punished to become progressively uglier.
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_2a015a74	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_325a15f1	type	Rags to Royalty
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_325a15f1	comment	Rags to Royalty: The main character is an abused peasant who gets married to a king.
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_325a15f1	featureApplicability	1.0
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_325a15f1	featureConfidence	1.0
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_325a15f1
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_34c6ed8	type	Don't Go in the Woods
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_34c6ed8	comment	Don't Go in the Woods: The protagonist does not want to go to the woods near her house because she would freeze to death. They are also inhabited by dangerous magical beings.
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_34c6ed8	featureApplicability	1.0
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_34c6ed8	featureConfidence	1.0
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_34c6ed8
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_3f7a958b	type	Secret Test of Character
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_3f7a958b	comment	Secret Test of Character: The stepdaughter is polite, sharing her food with the little men and acceding to their requests, and the daughter is not. The former is rewarded with beauty, gold, a wealthy groom, and strawberries. The latter is punished with ugliness, unpleasantness, and loneliness. And she has no strawberries.
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_3f7a958b	featureApplicability	1.0
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_3f7a958b	featureConfidence	1.0
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_3f7a958b
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_4ce37dd1	type	Snipe Hunt
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_4ce37dd1	comment	Snipe Hunt: The stepmother orders the main character to go out in the woods—in the dead of winter—and to not return without a basket of strawberries. Although her stepdaughter protests that there are no strawberries to be found in winter, the woman, who hopes the poor girl will freeze to death, ignores her cries and shoves her out of the door.
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_51a3ba7	type	We Used to Be Friends
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_51a3ba7	comment	We Used to Be Friends: The main character and her eventual stepsister were friends and used to play together in the woman's house before their parents' marriage. It is unknown why the stepsister came to hate the former so much, although her mother might have simply poisoned her daughter’s mind against the main character after the marriage.
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_66479d0	type	Our Ghosts Are Different
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_66479d0	comment	Our Ghosts Are Different: The murdered queen's spirit haunts the castle, taking the shape of a duck while she swims up the gutters where she was thrown in, and reverting to her human shape when she visits her baby.
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_66479d0	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_7503483d	type	Original Position Fallacy
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_7503483d	comment	Original Position Fallacy: After his son's baptism, the king asks his mother-in-law what should be done to someone who drags another person out of their bed and throws them in the water. When the old woman answers "to be taken and put in a barrel stuck full of nails, and rolled down hill into the water", the king reveals he knows how and by whom his wife was murdered, and she has just pronounced her own sentence.
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_859ec5d8	type	The Fair Folk
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_859ec5d8	comment	The Fair Folk: The titular characters seem to be some kind of leprechauns or dwarves: they are magical, tiny humanoid creatures who live in the woods and are willing to reward or punish humans who stumble upon their home.
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_863fa679	type	What Happened to the Mouse?
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_863fa679	comment	What Happened to the Mouse?: The main character's father vanishes completely from the story after marrying his second wife. The titular characters are not mentioned again after cursing the stepdaughter.
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_863fa679	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_88933ad4	type	Parental Favoritism
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_88933ad4	comment	Parental Favoritism: The stepmother has her birth daughter completely pampered and spoiled whereas she hates her stepsister to death.
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_88933ad4	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_8967e17f	type	Back from the Dead
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_8967e17f	comment	Back from the Dead: The Queen is revived when the King swings his sword over her ghost three times.
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_8967e17f	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_9afa05c7	type	Family-Unfriendly Death
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_9afa05c7	comment	Family-Unfriendly Death: The evil stepmother and her daughter are "put into a barrel stuck full of nails, and then rolled downhill into the water."
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_a2e887be	type	Secondary Character Title
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_a2e887be	comment	Secondary Character Title: The three little men's only role is to reward and punish the main character and her stepsister, respectively.
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_a6cda066	type	Rule of Three
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_a6cda066	comment	Rule of Three: The main character stumbles upon three little men. Both girls get three rewards or curses placed upon them. The queen's ghost is seen three times. The king must swing his sword three times to bring his wife back.
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_b070362d	type	Wicked Stepmother
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_b070362d	comment	Wicked Stepmother: The stepmother sends her stepdaughter into the woods on an impossible task to kill her. When she returns, having won magical rewards with her good manners, she sends her daughter after and is furious when her ill-tempered daughter is justly punished. When the stepdaughter marries the king, she tries to murder her and replace her with her own daughter.
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_b58b4e3c	type	Too Dumb to Live
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_b58b4e3c	comment	Too Dumb to Live: Rather than ingratiating herself with her stepdaughter and enjoying the perks of becoming the king's mother-in-law, the stepmother murders and tries to replace the queen with her own daughter. Even if the queen's ghost had not haunted the castle, the king would have discovered their hoax before long.
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_bd6b86df	type	Impossible Task
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_bd6b86df	comment	Impossible Task: The stepmother orders the main character to go out into the woods in the dead of winter and not return without a basketful of strawberries, expecting her to freeze to death.
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_bd6b86df	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_c2e295cd	type	Curse
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_c2e295cd	comment	Curse: The stepsister becomes thrice-accursed for her selfishness and laziness.
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_c39846a3	type	Pride
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_c39846a3	comment	Pride: The stepsister's pride and jealosy causes her to try to duplicate the results of seeking strawberries in the winter woods.
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_ca87e3ec	type	No Name Given
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_ca87e3ec	comment	No Name Given: None of the characters are referred to by name.
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_ca87e3ec	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_cfc52d52	type	Spoiled Brat
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_cfc52d52	comment	Spoiled Brat: When the stepsister goes to meet the little men, she barges into their house without knocking on the door and without giving them a greeting and sits herself down by their oven. When she starts eating her lunch, the little men ask her to share her food, but she refuses to give them any. When they ask her to sweep their back door, she tells them she is not their housemaid. Finally, when she sees that they were not going to giving her anything, she leaves without saying goodbye and without realizing that her entitled, rude behaviour has gotten them mad.
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_d397657d	type	Hoist by His Own Petard
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_d397657d	comment	Hoist by His Own Petard: When the king asks the stepmother how she would punish someone who drags another person out of their bed and throws them in the water, the stepmother describes an awful punishment. Then the king replies she has spoken her own sentence.
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_e24d2d5c	type	Reptiles Are Abhorrent
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_e24d2d5c	comment	Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The stepsister is punished by having a toad hop from her mouth every times she speaks.
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_eba6a077	type	Cain and Abel
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_eba6a077	comment	Cain and Abel: The stepsister becomes tremendously jealous of her sister and participates in her murder.
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_ece27800	type	Kill and Replace
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_ece27800	comment	Kill and Replace: The stepmother murders the main character and attempts to replace her with her own daughter.
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The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_ff251a68	type	Doting Parent
The Three Little Men in the Wood / int_ff251a68	comment	Doting Parent: The woman's "dear little daughter" is given milk to wash in and wine to drink every day when she awakens. Likewise, the woman will not let her go out in the woods without wearing a "splendid fur coat", and without giving her bread, butter, and cakes to eat on the way.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Back from the Dead / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Beauty Equals Goodness / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Cain and Abel / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Don't Go in the Woods / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Doting Parent / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Enchanted Forest / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Hoist by His Own Petard / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Impossible Task / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Kill and Replace / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	No Name Given / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Offing the Offspring / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Original Position Fallacy / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Our Ghosts Are Different / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Parental Favoritism / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Pay Evil unto Evil / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Pride / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Reptiles Are Abhorrent / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Secondary Character Title / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Secret Test of Character / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Snipe Hunt / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Spoiled Brat / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Step Servant / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	The Fair Folk / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Too Dumb to Live / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	We Used to Be Friends / int_a52d5113
The Three Little Men in the Wood	hasFeature	Wicked Stepmother / int_a52d5113

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