Patufet
Encyclopedia
Catalan people
The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...
origin.
It's usually presented as a very little kid the size of a rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
grain, wearing a big red barretina
Barretina
A barretina is a traditional hat that was frequently worn by men in parts of the Christian cultures of the Mediterranean sea such as Catalonia, the Valencian Community, the Balearic Islands, Provence, Corsica, Sicily, Sardinia, part of Naples, part of the Balkans and parts of Portugal.In Catalonia...
so that his parents can better spot him around the place. He is curious and mischievous, until one day he decides to show the world that he's useful and reliable (according to some versions Patufet was good-natured and hard-working from the beginning).
The first task he sets about to do is to go to the shop to buy some saffron
Saffron
Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus, commonly known as the saffron crocus. Crocus is a genus in the family Iridaceae. Each saffron crocus grows to and bears up to four flowers, each with three vivid crimson stigmas, which are each the distal end of a carpel...
. Since people can't see him because he's so small, he avoids being trodden on by singing,
- Patim patam patum,
- Homes i dones del cap dret,
- Patim patam patum,
- No trepitgeu en Patufet
(Patim patam patum/ Men and women who come towards me/ Patim patam patum/ Don't tread on Patufet). The people he meets only see a coin that walks and sings but he manages to accomplish his task. Afterwards he decides to go to the farm fields to take lunch to his father. But Patufet is not lucky this time and gets eaten by an ox
Ox
An ox , also known as a bullock in Australia, New Zealand and India, is a bovine trained as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration makes the animals more tractable...
.
Ox
An ox , also known as a bullock in Australia, New Zealand and India, is a bovine trained as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration makes the animals more tractable...
,
(I'm in the ox
Ox
An ox , also known as a bullock in Australia, New Zealand and India, is a bovine trained as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration makes the animals more tractable...
's tummy/ Where it doesn't snow or rain./ When the ox farts/ Patufet will get out). After a while they hear Patufet's little voice and his mother feeds the ox with herbs that make it fart faster.
This tale can be considered a coming of age
Coming of age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from childhood to adulthood. The age at which this transition takes place varies in society, as does the nature of the transition. It can be a simple legal convention or can be part of a ritual, as practiced by many societies...
symbol (see References).
En Patufet was also the title of an influential children's magazine in Catalan published from 1904 to 1938, and again from 1968 to 1973.
Today patufet is a familiar word in Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
for a very little kid or for a children's publication.
In The Triplets
The Triplets
The Triplets are three fictional characters created by Catalan illustrator Roser Capdevila.The Triplets were created in 1983, based on Capdevila's own daughters, three actual triplets born in 1969. The stories were immediately successful and began publishing in many countries...
series there was a chapter about the "Patufet".
Pitufos, the Spanish name for the Smurfs
The Smurfs
The Smurfs is a comic and television franchise centred on a group of small blue fictional creatures called Smurfs, created and first introduced as a series of comic strips by the Belgian cartoonist Peyo on October 23, 1958...
, comes from Patufet.