The Elves and the Shoemaker
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The Elves and the Shoemaker, or conversely The Shoemaker and the Elves is an often copied and remade story about a poor shoemaker who receives help from brownies.
The original story is the first of three fairy tales, contained as entry 39 in the German Grimm's Fairy Tales under the common title "Die Wichtelmänner". In her translation of 1884 Margaret Hunt chose The Elves as title for these three stories.[1]
The theme is a well-known one throughout European folklore. There are many warning stories about what should happen if the recipient of faerie help should offer clothes to his or her benefactor. According to the tales, pixies and faeries alike consider clothing to be a form of bondage, and see any kind offers or new clothes as a way to enslave the faerie.
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