4 ELEMENTS

Project logo
Improve the foreign language learning and intercultural competences of adults through e-learning

The project

FOUR ELEMENTS is an initiative called to raise awareness and appreciation of the importance of culture and heritage as well as to train educators working with adult learners who want to improve their skills and competences necessary in today’s EU labour market.

The project will take advantage of the potential of the common European cultural values associated to the 4 elements earth, water, air and fire) to empower adults to improve their digital, foreign language and intercultural competences.

The partnership expects to develop and deliver innovative teaching materials presented in a culturally accessible E-book consisting of European legends and stories – giving visibility to the underlying common EU values and principles, especially adapted to learners with special needs.

To achieved such objectives, partners will develop:

An interactive map: a collection of legends and stories related to earth, water, air and fire, in different EU countries.

Digital Books with national legends and stories related to the four elements.

Methodological recommendations for adult educators.

To find more information, access the Four Elements platform here.

Digital books

The nations of Europe all have rich cultures of myth and folklore which give the different regions their particular individual flavour. Here we have grouped traditional stories from Belgium, Estonia, France, Greece, Italy, Slovenia and Spain according to the four elements: earth, air, wind and fire.

They are specially adapted to adult learners and can be used to develop language or ICT skills among your students while enhancing intercultural understanding.

Alongside the stories, this digital book contains interactive exercises and is in Easy Read format. All the material in it can be downloaded and printed. Teachers and trainers will find tips and suggestions for how to use it on the Recommendations section of this site.

European partnership

Four Elements is an Erasmus+ KA204 project designed to highlight the importance of culture and heritage at European Union level. It aims to train educators working with adult learners to enable them to acquire the skills and competences, including linguistic and digital skills and competences, required in the European labour market.

The project is coordinated by : CVO EduKempen (Belgium). The partnership also includes DomSpain Consulting (Spain), The Central Library of Võru County (Estonia), Les Apprimeurs (France), Istituto dei Sordi di Torino (Italy), Slovenian Third Age University (Slovenia), MyArtist (Greece).

Erasmus+ project

Erasmus logo The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Hop-o'-My-Thumb

TALE

Main element: Earth

Language of the original: French

Date of origin: 1867

Author: Charles Perrault

To find more information about the legend, access the Four Elements platform here.

Hop-o'-My-Thumb is a tale by Charles Perrault, one of the most important author of French literature in the 17th century. He is well-known for his "Contes de ma mère l’Oye": transcriptions of tales from the French oral tradition. He is one of the author behind the fairy tales literary genre.

Hop-o’-My-Thumb tells the story of a lumberjack, his wife and their seven children. The youngest one is so little that they all call him Hop-o'-My-Thumb. But the family is so poor that the parents are no longer able to support their children. One evening, the parents plan to abandon them in the wood the following day, so they won’t see them starving to death.

However, Hop-o'-My-Thumb overhears his parents and the next day he collects small white pebbles from a river. During the evening, when the lumberjack and his wife lead their children into the wood, the small boy uses the stones to mark a trail that enables him to successfully lead his brothers back home.

However, days later, the parents decide to lead their children into the wood one more time, making sure that Hop-o’-My-Thumb hasn’t collected pebbles. The little boy uses breadcrumbs instead, which the birds eat up without him noticing it. The brothers are lost in the wood. They come at last to a house where they ask for shelter and learn that it belongs to an ogre.

Hop-o'-My-Thumb, fearing the wolves, decides to take the risk of staying in the monster's place.

The ogre allows the boys to sleep for the night, and provides a bed for them in his daughters' room. But the ogre wakes up not too long after, and prepares to kill them in their slumber. Hop-o'-My-Thumb, who is very clever, has anticipated that possibility. The young boy has already planned ahead and replaced the daughters' gold crowns with the bonnets worn by him and his brothers. As a result, the ogre kills his daughters instead, and goes back to bed. Once he is sleeping, Hop-o'-My-Thumb leads his siblings out of the house.

The ogre wakes up in the morning to discover his mistake. Absolutely furious, he puts on his seven-league boots, and races after the boys. Thanks to his boots, which allow him to hop over mountains and valleys in only a few steps, the ogre catches up with the boys quickly.

After hours of pursuit, the ogre, who is tired, happens to sit on the rock under which the children are hiding. Hop-o'-My-Thumb instructs his brothers to make their way home and, meanwhile, removes the boots from the sleeping ogre. He puts them on and runs to the ogre’s house. The small boy tells the ogre’s wife that her husband was attacked by thieves who are demanding for all their fortune. He then explains that the ogre has charged him to collect the fortune and bring it back to them. The wife agrees and Hop-o’-My-Thumb takes the fortune to his parents.

Some other stories tell that Hop-o’-My-Thumb met the king’s army on its way to the ogre’s house and was charged to deliver a message to the king. The young boy became then the messenger of the king and came home to his parents and lived happily ever after.

Le petit poucet

CONTE

Élément : Terre

Langue d'origine : Français

Date d'origine : 1867

Auteur : Charles Perrault

Vous pouvez retrouver plus d'informations sur cette légende sur le site du projet ici.

Le petit poucet est un conte de Charles Perrault, l'un des plus importants auteurs de la littérature française du XVIIe siècle. Il est connu pour ses « Contes de ma mère l'Oye » : des transcriptions de contes de la tradition orale française. Il est l'un des auteurs à l'origine du genre littéraire des contes de fées.

C’est l’histoire d’un bûcheron, de sa femme et de leurs sept enfants, dont le dernier est si petit qu’ils l’appellent Petit Poucet. La famille est si pauvre que les parents n’ont plus de quoi nourrir leurs sept enfants. Une nuit, ils décident alors de les perdre dans la forêt pour ne pas les voir mourir de faim. Mais Petit Poucet surprend la conversation et le lendemain il se munit de petits cailloux blancs qu’il récupère près de la rivière. Le soir alors que les parents les emmènent dans la forêt, il sème les cailloux sur le chemin afin de pouvoir retourner chez eux.

Quelque temps plus tard, les parents décident d’emmener leurs enfants dans la forêt une nouvelle fois, tout en s’assurant que Petit Poucet ne ramasse pas de cailloux avant de partir. Le petit garçon essaie alors, pendant le trajet, de laisser derrière lui des petits bouts de pain que leur mère leur avait donné. Mais le pain est mangé par les oiseaux et les sept frères se retrouvent perdus dans la forêt.

Les enfants finissent par frapper à la porte d’une chaumière où ils demandent à être logés, mais découvrent que la maison appartient à un ogre. Le Petit Poucet, qui préfère encore l’ogre que les loups de la forêt, insiste pour rentrer dans la maison avec ses frères.

L’ogre accepte que les enfants passent la nuit chez lui et leur propose un lit dans la chambre de ses sept filles. Étant très malin, le Petit Poucet décide d’échanger son bonnet et celui de ses frères contre les couronnes d'or des sept filles, dans l'éventualité où l'ogre changerait d’avis et déciderait de les manger pendant leur sommeil. En effet, l’ogre rentre dans la chambre des enfants pendant la nuit et tue ses sept filles croyant qu’il s’agissait des sept garçons. Il retourne ensuite se coucher et les enfants en profitent pour s’enfuir.

Quand l’ogre se rend compte de ce qu’il a fait, il devient fou de rage et part à la recherche des frères en enfilant ses bottes de sept-lieues. Grâce à ses bottes qui lui permettaient de franchir montagnes et vallées en simplement quelques pas, l’ogre rattrapa bientôt les enfants.

Après des heures de course, l’ogre s’assied sur une pierre sous laquelle étaient cachés les enfants et s’endort. Petit Poucet convainc ses frères de retourner chez eux pendant qu’il vole les bottes et court alors jusqu'à la chaumière de l'ogre. Poucet raconte à la mère effondrée, que son mari l’ogre s’est fait attaquer par des voleurs et que ces derniers veulent tout ce qu'ils possèdent. Il explique ensuite que l'ogre l'a chargé de venir chercher ses biens pour les ramener aux voleurs. La femme s'exécute et Petit Poucet ramène tout chez ses parents.

D’autres racontent aussi que le Petit Poucet, vêtu des bottes de sept-lieues, aurait croisé l’armée du roi sur son chemin. Il devint alors messager du roi et revint chez ses parents où il fut accueilli avec joie.

Perrault, Charles (1628-1703). Les Contes de Perrault, précédés d'une préface par J.-T. de Saint-Germain. T. Lefèvre (Paris), 1884.