“Now, my dear, here you’ll be shut in to-morrow with some victuals and some flax, and if you haven’t spun five skeins by the night, your head’ll go off.”
The story of Tom Tit Tot is an interesting one partly because it has such a close cognate in Grimm – the now better-known Rumplestitskin – but also because (as I’ve noted before) the motif of the pagan wood. Tom Tit Tot is ‘the black thing,’ ‘the old thing,’ a tail-twirling ‘impet,’ a night-visitor and the girl’s defeat of him allows her security, safe from the murderous intent of the court and the wood.
Is his occupation – and her dilemma – part of the conundrum as to what Tom Tit Tot is? Or is this demonic night-creature always going to be her way out – why else does he do her so many good turns, give her so many chances to redeem her pledge? Defeat of the stressful worry of a task too big for you is possible with patience, cunning and a bit of luck.
And maybe now I’ve finished my marking, I can see Tom Tit Tot in this light. I certainly have some sympathy for the girl.
nicktomjoe 