The Elves and the Shoemaker is an 1806 fairy tale by The Brothers Grimm. The story is about a poor shoemaker who gets much-needed help from elves.
References
- The story was spoofed in The Sesame Street ABC Storybook as "The Sock-maker and the Snuffle-upagus." In the story, the sock maker promised to sew socks for the entire town, but he goes to bed before finishing. The Snuffleupagus Fairy then appears (witnessed only by Big Bird) and finishes sewing the rest of the socks while also making a mess in the sock maker's workshop. The story was later reprinted in The Sesame Street Library Volume 9 and The Sesame Street Treasury Volume 12.
- The story was featured in a Sesame Street News Flash sketch, in which Kermit attempts to report on three elves bringing shoes to the shoemaker, but is frustrated when they bring several unrelated objects that rhyme with shoe.
- The Muppet Classic Theater adaption of the story featured Kermit the Frog as the Shoemaker, who makes shoes so ugly that nobody will buy them. The banker demands that he and his nephew Robin pay half of what they owe him the next day. Robin wishes for a miracle, and three elves come and make blue suede shoes that people will buy.