| Mother Water Green | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real name |
Vert‐d’Eau, Water Green, Water‐Green |
|
First appearance |
Le magasin pittoresque, vol. 19, no. 52 (Dec. 1851) |
|
Original publisher |
Magasin Pittoresque |
|
Created by |
Émile Souvestre |
Origin[]
Charlotte, a young woman who is overwhelmed by all her tasks, summons the fairy Water Green who then appears before her. Mother Water Green is described as “ugly, old, and wrinkled” and “clad entirely in a frog skin, the head of which served as a hood” and she was “supporting herself on her staff of holly.” Ten dwarfs emerge from her cloak and diligently finish all of Charlotte’s chores. Water Green then decides to give the ten dwarfs to Charlotte as a gift: “[A]s you cannot carry them about with you without being accused of witchcraft, I will order each of them to make himself very little and to hide in your ten fingers ….” With the ten dwarfs hidden in her fingers, Charlotte was thereafter able to complete her chores and attain goals in life.
Public domain literary appearances[]
- “Les dix travailleurs de la mère Vert‐d’Eau,” by Émile Souvestre, Le magasin pittoresque (Dec. 1851)
- “The Ten Little Dwarfs,” trans. Sophie Dorsey, St. Nicholas (Dec. 1873)
- “Mother Water‐Green’s Workmen,” trans. Alice Wood, The Christian Union (9 Dec. 1874)
- Os dez anõezinhos da Tia Verde‐Água, trans. (into Portuguese) Ana de Castro Osório, illustrated by Tomás Leal da Câmara (1897)
- “The Ten Little Workmen,” trans. E. D., Chatterbox (1901)