"The Elves and the Cobbler" (or "The Elves and the Shoemaker", "The Shoemaker and the Elves") is an often copied and re-made fairy tale about a poor shoemaker who receives much-needed help from elves. It is best known from the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, where it was included as entry no. 39 as "Die Wichtelmänner" ("The Gnomes").
The fairy tale follows a poor cobbler with ailing sales. One night he wakes up to find the shoes he had planned to create in the morning already made, and much to his fortune a customer comes in and pays more than usual for the shoes. This gives him enough money to buy materials for two pairs of shoes, which he again finds already finished on the counter the next morning.
The pattern repeats for several days, and the poor cobbler's fortunes turn as his shop becomes famous. But one night the cobbler and his wife hide in the shop so they can see who has been creating the shoes for him. To their astonishment, they see a group of little elves, who are naked (or in most modern retellings, wearing ragged, dirty clothing and barefoot). In gratitude, they leave gifts of shoes and little clothes, watching again to see the elves happily accept their new finery. Thereafter they do not come again, but the cobbler no longer needs their help and considers their joy his reward.
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The tale has inspired many adaptations and popular culture references. Animated short adaptations include Jolly Little Elves by Walter Lantz in 1934, and Tex Avery's 1950 MGM cartoon short The Peachy Cobbler, while a live-action version is one of the segments in The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm. The house-elf Dobby in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, who can only be freed from his drudgery with a gift of clothing, is another reference to this fairy tale.
Tropes in "The Elves and the Cobbler":
- Adaptational Modesty: Most older versions of the tale stated that the elves were naked, which oddly enough was a plot point, as the Shoemaker and his wife give them clothing out of gratitude for helping them. Most adaptations give the elves clothes, though to keep the Aesop intact, they make the clothes ragged and dusty.
- An Aesop: Help those in need.
- Bittersweet Ending: The cobbler's business is saved, but the story usually ends with the elves leaving, never to return. At least one version states that giving them clothes released them from a curse, a version that likely inspired Dobby's story.
- The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Some variations of the story depict the elves wearing raggedy clothing and no shoes at all, which is what prompts the cobbler to make shoes for them.
- Character Witness: Some versions begin with the couple sharing their last scrap of food with someone, often one of the elves, and they are rewarded with their help. Others have them repay the elves by making them clothes.
- Christmas Miracle: The Elves are discovered by the Shoemaker first on Christmas.
- House Fey: The elves, who steal into the shop at night while the humans are asleep to make shoes out of pure goodwill.
- Deus ex Machina: Very convenient of the elves to turn up just when sales are ailing...
- Law of Inverse Fertility: In some versions, the shoemaker and his wife are trying to have a baby, but have been unsuccessful. They do conceive, and it's implied to be due to some of the elves' magic being left with them at the end.
