Episode 184 Christmas Reading - The Elves And The Shoemaker

This week we are reading the most Christmassy Brother's Grimm story (only because it actually mentions Christmas and involves presents!). Note: Please forgive my side notes...there are quite a lot of them! This story is written in Old English. I think you should understand most of it, some of the words and certainly the grammar and use is quite out of date. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2591/pg2591-images.html#link2H_4_0041 This is a story of a shoemaker who was running out of money when suddenly all of his shoes started being made overnight by magic. Finally he found out that elves were coming in the night and helping him make the shoes. The elves made him rich and finally he and his wife decided to thank them with a full suit of clothes and shoes. The elves received the clothes happily and then danced away into the night, never to be seen again. The shoemaker and his wife lived happily ever after. Vocabulary From The Story save just leather enough to make one pair of shoes - this is an old fashioned use of 'save' and means 'except'. he went peaceably to bed - these day's we'd be more likely to use 'peacefully' left all his cares to Heaven - a phrase meaning he didn't worry at all. We have another phrase like this 'he didn't have a care in the world', which means he had no worries. The good man knew not what to say or think at such an odd thing happening. - 😣 My mistake, I was reading too fast! I missed out the 'thing'. there was not one false stitch in the whole job - there were no mistakes. Similar to the phrase we often hear in movies 'not one false move', which means don't make a mistake by moving. that he might get up and begin betimes next day - I think this means 'on time' but it's not a word we use anymore so I'm not totally sure. and began to ply with their little fingers - 'ply' means 'to work' here, a common phrase is 'to ply their trade' other than this phrase we rarely use the word 'ply' anymore. In this phrase with 'trade' it means to do their job or sell their goods. ‘These little wights have made us rich' - It really depends on where you look for the meaning for this. However, I think Wikipedia is closer to the meaning intended 'in its original use the word 'wight' described a living human being...A similar change of meaning can be seen in the German cognate Wicht, meaning a living human being, generally rather small, poor or miserable man (not woman)....The diminutive 'Wichtel' refers to beings in folklore and fantasy, generally small, and often helpful, dwelling in or near human settlements, secretly doing work and helping the humans. Wichtel in this sense is recorded since the Middle Ages.' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wight So we can see that the meaning of this word has changed over time, and in addition it's possible there is some confusion (since these stories would have originally been translated) between the German and the English. She could be using it to mean 'a small, poor or miserable man' because they don't have any clothes, but it's more likely she means 'wichtel', a fantasy creature that was small and secretly doing work to help humans. and do them a good turn if we can - you can hear this phrase in many English stories and it means 'to do something nice for someone because they did something nice for us.' a pair of pantaloons - old usage meaning 'trousers' or 'pants' in American English. cobbler - the correct term for someone who makes shoes in the twinkling of an eye - this is a common phrase and means something happened very quickly. This is different to 'he had a twinkle in his eye' which usually means someone has told a joke or suggests smiling or laughing at something capered - a kind of silly walk or dance and away over the green - 'the green' still exists in some British villages and is traditionally an area of grass in the centre of the village where fetes and celebrations can take place.