Longnose the Dwarf

Wilhelm Hauff was a storyteller in the great European mythic tradition. His short stories, peopled with a vivid assortment of dwarves, evil witches, enchanted swans, and devious princes, owe a clear debt to the Brothers Grimm. But rather than rehashing old tales, Hauff created a realm far more exotic than the Grimm's Black Forest, a place where the morals are less than clear-cut and where characters must rely on wits as much as magic spells to solve their predicaments. In Hauff's 1827 fairy tale, Jakob, a young boy kidnapped by a witch, is forced to work in her household, and then turned into a dwarf with a long nose. After finally escaping, he is spurned by his parents, who do not recognize him, but uses the skills he learned at the witch's to work as a chef in the local Duke's kitchen, where he becomes a culinary star - until he has to prepare a special pastry that he has no recipe for - or it's off with his head. But he has a little help from his friend Mimi, a girl bewitched as a goose... "We used a lot of humor as a spice." Felicitas Darschin