Tom Tit Tot: The Girl Who Outwitted a Terrifying Imp by Guessing His Name

Once upon a time, there lived a woman who had a daughter with a very healthy appetite and a habit of acting before thinking.

One day, the mother baked five pies. Unfortunately, she left them in the oven too long, and their crusts became so hard that nobody could comfortably eat them. She placed the pies on a shelf and told her daughter to leave them alone for a while. If they rested long enough, she explained, their crusts would soften again.

The girl listened carefully. Then she considered her mother’s words and arrived at a conclusion of her own.

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If the pies will come again, why wait for them? she thought. I might as well eat them now.

So she ate all five.

When supper time arrived, her mother asked her to fetch one of the pies. The girl returned with an empty-handed explanation: the pies had not come back.

Her mother stared at her in disbelief.

“Not even one?”

“Not one,” the girl replied.

“Then bring me the best of them!”

“Best or worst, I’ve eaten them all,” the girl confessed.

Her mother was furious, but the damage had been done. Unable to undo what had happened, she took her spinning to the doorway and began to sing a lament about her daughter’s five stolen pies.

Unfortunately, a king happened to be passing by. He heard the woman singing but could not make out the words, so he stopped to ask what she was saying.

Ashamed to admit that her daughter had devoured an entire batch of pies, the woman quickly changed her song. Instead of singing about the pies, she claimed that her daughter had spun five skeins of flax in a single day.

The king was astonished. He had never heard of anyone capable of such a feat.

“I am looking for a wife,” he declared, “and I shall marry your daughter. For eleven months of every year, she shall have all the food she desires, all the gowns she wishes to wear, and all the company she wants. But during the final month, she must spin five skeins of flax every day. If she fails, she will lose her head.”

The mother readily agreed. She imagined that such a grand marriage would solve every problem, and she assumed the king would eventually forget about the spinning.

Soon, the girl became a queen. For eleven months, she enjoyed fine food, beautiful dresses, and the pleasures of royal life. The terrible condition attached to her marriage seemed almost too distant to worry about.

But as the final month approached, she began to wonder whether the king remembered his promise. He said nothing, and she gradually convinced herself that he must have forgotten.

Then, on the last day before the punishment was to begin, the king led her to a room she had never entered before. Inside stood a spinning wheel and a stool. There was nothing else.

“Tomorrow,” he told her, “you will be shut in here with your food and your flax. By nightfall, you must have spun five skeins. If you fail, your head will be taken.”

With that, he left her to face her fate.

The girl was terrified. She had never learned to spin, and now she was expected to perform an impossible task under a death sentence. She sat down and wept bitterly, wondering how she could possibly escape.

Suddenly, she heard a faint knocking near the bottom of a door.

She opened it and discovered a peculiar little black creature with a long tail. It gazed up at her with curious eyes and asked why she was crying.

At first, she refused to explain. What good could telling a strange creature about her troubles possibly do?

But the little visitor persisted until she finally told it everything: the five pies, the king’s mistaken belief in her spinning ability, and the threat hanging over her.

The creature listened and offered a solution.

It would come to her window every morning, take the day’s flax, and return that evening with five finished skeins.

The girl was relieved, but the creature had a price.

“Every night, you may have three guesses to discover my name,” it told her. “If you cannot discover it before the month ends, you will belong to me.”

The girl considered the bargain. Surely, she thought, she could guess a little creature’s name within a month.

She agreed.

The following morning, the king brought her food and flax, reminding her that failure would cost her life. Once he had locked the door and departed, a knock sounded at the window.

The little black creature was waiting.

It collected the flax and disappeared. That evening, it returned with five beautifully spun skeins.

“Now, what is my name?” it demanded.

The girl tried three names: Bill, Ned, and Mark.

Every guess was wrong. With a delighted flick of its long tail, the creature vanished into the darkness.

When the king came to inspect her work, he found all five skeins completed. Pleased, he promised that she would receive another day’s supply of food and flax the following morning.

And so the strange arrangement continued.

Each morning, the imp collected the flax. Each evening, it returned with five finished skeins and demanded that the girl guess its name. She tried one name after another, but none was correct.

As the month wore on, the creature grew increasingly menacing. Its eyes seemed more sinister, and its tail spun faster whenever she failed. The deadline was approaching, and the girl had discovered nothing that could save her.

Then came the evening before the final night.

The imp arrived with the five skeins and asked whether she had finally discovered its name.

She tried Nicodemus, Sammle, and Methusalem. Once again, every answer was wrong.

The creature’s eyes glowed like burning coals.

“Only tomorrow night remains,” it warned her. “Then you will be mine!”

It disappeared, leaving the girl overwhelmed by fear.

A little later, the king came to her room for supper. When he saw that she had completed her work, he expressed satisfaction that she would apparently survive the final day. He settled down beside her to eat.

After a few mouthfuls, he suddenly began to laugh.

“What is it?” the girl asked.

The king explained that he had gone hunting that day and wandered into an unfamiliar part of the woods. There, he had discovered an old chalk pit. From below came a strange humming sound.

Curious, he had dismounted and crept towards the edge to look down.

At the bottom sat the strangest little black creature he had ever seen. It was working at a spinning wheel, producing thread at astonishing speed while twirling its long tail.

As it worked, it sang a peculiar little rhyme:

Nimmy nimmy not,

My name’s Tom Tit Tot.

The girl could scarcely contain her excitement. At last, she had the answer she needed. But she said nothing to the king, carefully keeping the discovery to herself.

The final day arrived.

That morning, the imp came for the flax, looking more wicked and impatient than ever. It collected the material and departed, confident that the girl’s time was nearly over.

When night fell, a knock sounded against the windowpane.

The girl opened it, and the creature climbed inside carrying the five finished skeins. It was grinning broadly, its tail whirling so quickly that it seemed almost a blur.

“What’s my name?” it demanded.

The girl pretended to be frightened.

“Is it Solomon?” she asked.

“No, it isn’t!” the imp replied, moving closer.

“Perhaps Zebedee?”

“No, it isn’t!” it cried, laughing and spinning its tail even faster.

“Take care, woman,” the creature warned. “Your next guess will decide everything. Then you’ll be mine!”

It stretched its black hands towards her, certain that victory was within reach.

But the girl no longer trembled. She stepped back, looked straight at the creature, and burst into laughter.

Pointing at it, she shouted:

“Nimmy nimmy not, your name’s Tom Tit Tot!”

The moment it heard its true name, the imp let out a dreadful shriek. It fled into the darkness and was never seen again.

The girl had escaped the bargain. The creature that had held her future in its grasp was gone, defeated by the very secret it had believed impossible for her to discover.

And that is how Tom Tit Tot lost his prize: not through strength or violence, but because the girl learned his name before time ran out.
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Moral

A secret can be more powerful than physical strength, and knowledge can become the means of escaping a seemingly impossible situation. The story also warns against careless deception: a lie told to hide a small mistake can create consequences far greater than the original wrongdoing.

Knowledge Check

1. Why did the king decide to marry the girl?

Her mother falsely claimed that the girl had spun five skeins of flax in one day, impressing the king with her supposed skill.

2. What was the imp’s bargain with the girl?

It would spin five skeins of flax for her each day, but she had to guess its name before the end of the month or become its possession.

3. How did the girl discover the imp’s name?

The king overheard the imp singing its name while spinning in an old chalk pit and later told the girl what he had heard.

4. What happened when the girl correctly guessed the name?

The imp shrieked, fled into the darkness, and never returned.

5. What is distinctive about the tale’s ending?

The girl defeats a supernatural creature by discovering its identity rather than fighting it, bringing the story’s central mystery to a decisive conclusion.