Boots of seven miles

See also: Boot, Boots of Seven Miles (homonymy)

In the fairy tales, the boots of seven miles are boot S magic which adapt to the size of each one and make it possible to traverse seven miles in only one stride. One pronounces “/sɛ/miles sometimes”.

Which distance?

The mile is a measuring unit used under the Ancien Mode, before the adoption in France of the Metric system. It has as origin the distance which a man or a horse can walk during one hour. The measurement of the mile evolved/moved during time, but is of approximately 4 kilometers. The boots of seven miles thus make it possible to traverse in a stride 28 km, that is to say the distance which an average walker spends seven hours to traverse.

Origin

At the 17th century, the boots of seven miles are used by the postilions between two relay of station (distant of approximately seven miles). Fixed at mounting and rigid, they allow a better maintenance and a protection of the legs in the event of shocks or bites. One can see a pair of it by visiting the Château of Worn, close to Tours or the Musée of the Post office in Paris.

Fairy tales

It is thanks to the Contes of my mother Oye (appeared in 1697), where Charles Perrault in fact of the magic boots, that the boots of seven miles acquire their noble letters.

It allots them first fast once as means of transport to the dwarf messenger of the Godmother-fairy which permutes the original curse of Sleeping Beauty in a one hundred years sleep:

“the good fairy which had saved the life to him, by condemning it to sleep hundred years, was in the Kingdom of Mataquin, with twelve thousand miles from there, when the accident arrived at the Princess; but she was informed by it in one moment by a small Dwarf, who had boots of seven miles (they was boots with which one made seven miles in only one stride)”.

In Tom Thumb , they are initially the prerogative of the Ogre the Almighty, devourer of children and able to constantly find them in their escape. When Tom Thumb succeeds in seizing some and threads them, they are adjusted by enchantment with its feet and allow him to gain the court of the king in one nothing time.

The ambiguity of the boots of seven miles comes from the use, sometimes beneficial, sometimes pernicious, which its holders can make. They are distinguished thus from the rod, another magic object of the collection, that the godmother-fairies use for the exclusive benefit their goddaughters Peau of Ass, Sleeping Beauty and Cendrillon, or Clef fairy, incriminating evidence of the blue Beard, only harmful object of the collection.

The Botte S are at the time of Perrault the shoes of the riders and the hunters, as well as certain servants. The adult peasants carry simple shoes as well as possible, and one can imagine that Tom Thumb, the last wire of logger, goes flip-flop. The boots thus become a symbol of the adult world and power in the tales. Even if its boots are not magic or of seven miles, the Cat boot, thus fitted, can pass for the envoy of an important character auprès the Ogre or of the king. As for Tom Thumb, simple child with the bottom of the social scale, it “will grow”, i.e. to leave his condition thanks to the magic boots. Thanks to them, it enters to the service of the king, accumulates the richnesses and puts its family at the shelter of the need.

Perrault falls under the tradition of tales Merveilleux where, according to the times and the latitude, appear Sandale S, Babouche S or shoes speed which metamorphose, at the end of the account, the small hero which fits them in a messenger of the kings or gods, or an initiate. This tradition is already present in the Greek Mythologie, with the talonnières of Hermes, the sandals of Persée and the gold shoes of Athéna.

Extracts

Passages drawn from the Tom Thumb of Charles Perrault:

“ Ogre, which was strong mow of the long way that it had made unnecessarily (because the boots of seven miles tire their man extremely), wanted to rest; and, by chance, it went to sit down on the rock where the little boys had hidden. As it could not of it any more tiredness, it fell asleep after being rested some time, and had suddenly whirred so terribly, that the poor children did not have less for fear when it held its large knife to cut the throat to them. ”

(...)

“ Tom Thumb, being approached from the Ogre, drew his boots gently to him, and put them at once. The boots were extremely large and extremely broad; but, as they were fairies, they had the gift to increase and to be reduced according to the leg of that which fitted them; so that they were as right with its feet and its legs as if they had been made for him. ”

Expression

In the language running, to fit its boots of seven miles wants to say to hasten or know a rise (social, professional) fulgurating.

Symbolic system of figure 7

The figure 7 appears four times in the tale of Tom Thumb:

the phratry is made up of seven boys
the ogre has seven girls
the boots are of seven miles
Tom Thumb is seven years old

The 7 has a value symbolic system: many days that it was necessary God for to create the world and to rest, number of capital sins, the seven wonders of the world, etc It are thus recurring in the tales: seven dwarves in White Snow etc

See too

List of imaginary objects

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