From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

The Louse and the Flea

German fairy tale

Field	Value
Folk_Tale_Name	The Louse and the Flea
Aarne-Thompson Grouping	ATU 2022 (An Animal Mourns the Death of a Spouse)
AKA	Little Louse and Little Flea
Country	Germany
Published_In	Grimms' Fairy Tales

|Aarne-Thompson Grouping = ATU 2022 (An Animal Mourns the Death of a Spouse)

"The Louse and the Flea" or "Little Louse and Little Flea" () is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, number 30.

It is Aarne-Thompson type 2022, An Animal Mourns the Death of a Spouse, and takes the form of a chain tale, sometimes known as a cumulative tale. Wilhelm Grimm probably heard the story from Dorothea Catharina Wild in 1808.

Synopsis

A louse and a flea are married until the louse drowns while brewing. The flea mourns, inspiring a door to ask why and start creaking, which inspires a broom to ask why and start sweeping—through a sequence of objects until a spring overflows at the news and drowns them all.

Variants

In some versions, the louse and the flea are replaced by a ladybird and a fly.

References

Jacob and Wilheim Grimm, ''Household Tales'', [http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/30louseandflea.html "The Louse and the Flea"]
D.L. Ashliman, "[http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimmtales.html The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales (Grimms' Fairy Tales)"]
Lily Owens, ed. (1981). ''The Complete Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales''. pp. 129–131. Avenel Books. {{ISBN. 0-517-336316

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

grimms'-fairy-tales fictional-insects anthropomorphic-insects fairy-tales-about-talking-animals fairy-tales-about-talking-objects atu-2000-2199

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about The Louse and the Flea — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report