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Seven-league boots are an element in European folklore. The boot allows the person wearing them to take strides of seven leagues per step, resulting in great speed. The boots are often presented by a magical character to the protagonist to aid in the completion of a significant task. Mention of the legendary boots are found in: * Germany – Sweetheart Roland, Adelbert von Chamisso's ''Peter Schlemiel'', Goethe's Faust (Mephistopheles uses them at the start of Part Two, Act Four ), Wilhelm Hauff's "Der Kleine Muck" * France – Charles Perrault's - ''Hop o' My Thumb'', Madame d'Aulnoy's ''The Bee and the Orange Tree'' * Norway – Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe - ''Soria Moria Castle'' * England – Jack the Giant Killer, John Masefield's ''The Midnight Folk'', C.S. Lewis's ''The Pilgrim's Regress'', The Light Fantastic, The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Jenny Nimmo's ''Midnight for Charlie Bone'', Diana Wynne Jones' ''Howl's Moving Castle'' * United States – Zane Grey's ''The Last of the Plainsmen'', Ruth Chew's "What the Witch Left", Gail Carson Levine's "The Two Princesses of Bamarre", Mark Twain's "The Innocents Abroad", Roger Zelazny's "Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming" == Etymology == From the context of English language, 'Seven-league boots' originally arose as a translation from the French 'bottes de sept lieues',〔http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/seven-league+boots〕 popularised by Charles Perrault's fairy tales. A league (roughly 3 miles or 4.4 km) was considered to represent the distance walked in an hour by an average man. If a man were to walk 7 hours per day, he would then walk 7 leagues, or just under 30 km. In the 17th century, post-boys' boots were called 'seven-league boots'. While some suggest that the '7 leagues' references the distance between post houses (post-boys would only have their boots touch the ground at every coach inn, when changing the horses), this is inaccurate: the distance between coach inns was fixed at no more than 5 leagues. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Seven-league boots」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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