2 stories
Elves, dwarves and little folk
Small helpers, secret workshops and tiny heroes
Two stories about little folk sit here: The Three Dwarfs, five gentle minutes for ages 3–7, and The Elfin Knight, eight adventurous minutes for ages 5–8. Both end with someone small solving something big.
The little folk of fairy tale are helpers, tricksters and occasionally heroes no taller than a thumb. These stories reward the kind and the tidy, and they make excellent Christmas-week reading. The elves and the shoemaker is the best-known, but the collection also has dwarves who guard mountains, brownies who tidy kitchens and a hero the size of a thumb. Short and cheerful, they suit the youngest listeners as well as anyone.
Where to start with elves, dwarves and little folk
5 min
Ages 3–7 · Magic
The Three Dwarfs
Three friendly dwarfs, Boldo, Grunty, and Snuffio, welcome a lost traveller into their forest home. After sharing food…
8 min
Ages 5–8 · Magic
The Elfin Knight
Young Timmy discovers a magical forest and meets Elfin, a knight who protects its wonders. When a wicked sorcerer…
Small helpers, and which of the two to open
Little folk in stories do one of two jobs. They help in secret, or they set a task. This collection has one of each, which makes the choice unusually clear.
The Three Dwarfs, for the younger end
The Three Dwarfs is five minutes, gentle, and written for ages 3–7. Kindness is offered, kindness is returned, and a friendship comes out of it. There is nothing to be frightened of and the sentences are short, so it works as a first story for a three-year-old and as a last story for a five-year-old who is nearly asleep.
The Elfin Knight, for the older end
The Elfin Knight takes eight minutes, is marked adventurous, and expects a child of five or more. The elf is a figure to be outwitted rather than thanked, and the child in the story has to be both brave and clever. It is the one to read if your child has started to find gentle stories a bit babyish.
The third one, hiding in another collection
The most famous little-folk story on the site is not filed here at all. The Elves and the Shoemaker is an eight-minute retelling of the Brothers Grimm tale for ages 3–7, and it is the definitive story of help arriving overnight. Read it alongside The Three Dwarfs and the pair make a neat point about kindness that is never asked for.
After that, The Farmer and the Pixie gives nine gentle minutes of the same idea with a pixie doing the work, and The Fairy at nine minutes moves the little folk into proper enchantment. Giants and trolls is the collection at the opposite end of the scale, and a good contrast to read next.
Reading small voices aloud
Dwarves and elves are the easiest characters in children's fiction to perform, because the only instruction is make them smaller than you: quicker, higher, a little clipped. Doing that for the elf and staying in your ordinary voice for the human narrator is enough to make an eight-minute story hold a five-year-old.
Our guide to reading a bedtime story aloud covers pace and pausing, which matter more than the voices. If you are reading to two children of different ages, start with The Three Dwarfs and let the older one have The Elfin Knight as a second helping.
Collections that share these stories
Ranked by how many stories they have in common with this one.
Questions about elves, dwarves and little folk
What is the difference between the two stories in this collection?
The Three Dwarfs is five gentle minutes for ages 3–7 about kindness returned. The Elfin Knight is eight adventurous minutes for ages 5–8 about outwitting someone.
Is The Elves and the Shoemaker in this collection?
No, it is filed under Brothers Grimm tales, but it is the classic little-folk story on the site and reads in about eight minutes for ages 3–7.
Are these stories frightening?
The Three Dwarfs is not frightening at all. The Elfin Knight has a figure who must be outwitted, which suits children of five and over.