“thumbelina” is completely andersen’s invention. he knew other tales of little people such as the old english fairy tale of "tom thumb" and jonathan swift’s "gulliver's travels" with its tiny, six-inch lilliputians. he may have found inspiration in these tales for "thumbelina". he knew voltaire‘s short story, “micromégas“ (with its cast of huge and tiny peoples), and e. t. a. hoffmann’s hallucinatory, erotic tale "meister floh". in hoffmann's tale, a tiny lady torments the hero. a tiny girl also appears in andersen‘s prose fantasy, "a journey on foot from holmen's canal to the east point of amager" (1828). another image from literature similar to andersen’s tiny being inside a flower is found in e. t. a. hoffmann’s "princess brambilla” (1821).