Amongst his adventures may be mentioned the following:--He was lying one day asleep in a meadow, when a cow swallowed him as she cropped the grass. At another time he rode in the ear of a horse. He crept up the sleeve of a giant, and so tickled him that he shook his sleeve, and Tom, falling into the sea, was swallowed by a fish. The fish being caught and carried to the palace gave the little man his introduction to the king.
⁂ The oldest version extant of this nursery tale is in rhyme, and bears the following title:--Tom Thumb, His Life and Death; wherein is declared many marvailous acts of manhood, full of wonder and strange merriments. Which little knight lived in King Arthur’s time, and was famous in the court of Great Brittaine. London: printed for John Wright, 1630 (Bodleian Library). It begins thus:
In Arthur’s court Tom Thumbe did liue--
A man of mickle might,
The best of all the Table Round,
And eke a doughty knight.
His stature but an inch in height,
Or quarter of a span;
Then thinke you not this little knight
Was prov’d a valiant man?