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Seven-league boots are magical items in fairy tales that allow the wearer to take strides seven leagues long. They are often stolen or given to the hero in exchange for a favor. Other magical items include cloaks, shoes, caps, and shirts. Footwear can also have negative consequences, as seen in Hans Christian Andersen’s The Red Shoes. Modern fantasy books and computer games have also made use of seven-league boots or an equivalent.
In fairy tales and European folklore, seven-league boots allow the wearer to take strides seven leagues long. These magic items may belong to the villain or may be given to the hero in exchange for a favor. The Brothers Grimm collected short stories that included Seven League Boots and have occasionally resurfaced in the modern imagination as the authors mined older works for inspiration.
One league is three miles (4.83 km), so seven league boots would allow anyone wearing them to walk 21 miles (about 33 km) in one go. This would be a great advantage in a chase or escape from danger. In Sweetheart Roland, a tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, a witch bent on revenge for a botched trick uses them to chase after a fleeing couple. Boots were a highly desirable item and were often stolen from their owners. Charles Perrault’s Hop O’ My Thumb has little Tom Thumb lift a pair off the feet of a sleeping ogre, at great risk to himself.
Ordinary objects in fairy tales are often endowed with great power. Clothing in particular is a common plot device, giving the wearer the ability to hide through disguise or total invisibility, or to avoid certain fates that seem inevitable. A protagonist can obtain the seven-league boots by helping a person who turns out to be a magical character and passes on some power in thanks. Another way is theft or subterfuge, or just a lucky find. The most common magical items are cloaks, shoes, caps, and shirts like those of the Grimm’s six swans, which transform the royal brothers from a cursed form.
While Seven League Boots are certainly useful, other items of footwear have the power to punish their owners. Little Karen in Hans Christian Andersen’s The Red Shoes earns a painful penance for the sin of vanity when her pretty new red shoes are cursed so that she must dance continuously until her death. Only her humility and mercy can save her. Moral tales like this were commonly used in the Victorian era to educate children. Many of them may have scared the children into behaving.
Computer games and modern fantasy books have made use of seven-league boots or an equivalent. They serve the same purpose, allowing characters to travel farther than they would otherwise be able to. RPGs, such as Dungeons and Dragons and Dragon Warriors, as well as Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels and Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle all contain similar footwear.
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