Stories
The BremenTown Musicians
adapted from Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm
Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm were born in Germany just about two hundred
years ago. Their collection of fairy tales, or “Household Tales” as they
called them, have been favorites for generations. You’ll see why when
you read this one.
A certain man had a donkey that had carried the corn sacks to the mill
untiringly for many years. But his strength was going, and he was
growing more and more unfit for work. Then his master began to think
that the donkey wasn’t worth his hay. But the donkey, seeing the harm
that might come to him, ran away and started out on the road to Bremen.
“There,” he thought, “I can surely be a town musician.”
When he had walked some distance, he found a hound lying in the road,
panting like one who had run till he was tired. “What are you panting so
for, you big fellow?” asked the donkey.
“Ah,” replied the hound, “as I am old and grow weaker every day and can
hunt no more, my master wanted to kill me. So I ran away. But now how am
I to earn my food?”
“I’ll tell you what,” said the donkey, “I am going to Bremen and shall
be a town musician there. Come with me and become a musician also.”
The hound agreed, and on they went.
Before long they came to a cat sitting in the road, with a face as sad
as three rainy days! “Now then, old one, what has gone wrong with you?”
asked the donkey.
“Who can be merry when his life is in danger?” answered the cat. “I am
now getting old. My teeth are worn to stumps. I prefer to sit by the
fire and sleep rather than hunt about after mice. So my mistress wanted
to drown me. That’s why I ran away. But now what am I to do? Where am I
to go?”
“Come with us to Bremen. You understand night music, so you can be a
town musician.”
The cat thought it was a good idea and went with them. After this the
three of them came to a farmyard where a cock was sitting upon the gate,
crowing with all his might. “Your crowing chills my bones,” said the
donkey. “What is the matter?”
“I have been predicting fine weather because it is the day on which the
housewife washes her child’s little shirts and wants to dry them,” said
the cock. “But guests are coming for Sunday, so the housewife has no
pity and has told the cook that she intends to eat me in the soup
tomorrow. And this evening I am to have my head cut off. Now I am
crowing loudly while I can.”
“Ah, cock,” said the donkey, “you had better come away with us. We are
going to Bremen. You can find something better than death there. You
have a good
voice, and if we make music together it must have some quality!”
The cock agreed to this plan, and all four went on together. But they
could not reach the city of Bremen in one day. In the evening they came
to a forest where they decided to spend the night. The donkey and the
hound lay down under a large tree, while the cat and the cock settled
themselves in the branches. But the cock flew right to the top where he
would be the safest of all. Before he went to sleep, he looked all
around and thought he saw in the distance a little spark of light
burning. He called out to his companions that there must be a house not
far off, for he saw a light. The donkey said, “If so, we had better get
up and go on, for the shelter here is bad.” The hound thought that a few
bones with some meat on them would do him good, too!
So they made their way to the place where the light was and soon saw it
shine brighter and grow larger until they came to a well-lighted
robber’s house. The donkey, as he was the biggest, went to the window
and looked in.
“What do you see, my donkey?” asked the cock.
“What do I see?” answered the donkey. “I see a table covered with good
things to eat and drink, and robbers sitting at it enjoying themselves.”
“That would be the sort of thing for us,” said the cock.
“Yes, yes. Ah, how I wish we were there!” said the donkey.
Then the animals talked together of how they might drive away the
robbers. At last they thought of a plan. The donkey was to place himself
with his forefeet upon the window ledge, the hound was to jump on the
donkey’s back, the cat was to climb upon the dog, and lastly the cock
was to fly up and perch upon the head of the cat.
out the lights, and each looked for a suitable sleeping
When this was done, at a given signal they began to perform their music
together. The donkey brayed, the hound barked, the cat meowed, and the
cock crowed. Then they burst through the window into the room,
shattering the glass. At this horrible noise the robbers sprang up.
Thinking that a ghost had come in, they fled in fear out into the
forest. The four companions now sat down at the table. Well pleased with
what was left, they ate as if they would not eat for a month.
As soon as the four musicians had finished they put place. The donkey
lay down upon some straw in the yard, the hound behind the door, the cat
upon the hearth near the warm ashes, and the cock perched himself upon a
beam of the roof. And, being tired with their long walk, they soon went
to sleep.
When it was past midnight, and the robbers saw from afar that the light
was no longer burning in their
house and that all appeared quiet, the leader said, “We shouldn’t have
let ourselves be frightened so.” And he ordered one of them to go and
inspect the house.
So one of them went and, finding all still, went into the kitchen to
light a candle. Taking the shining, fiery eyes of the cat for live
coals, he held a match to them to light it. But the cat did not
understand the action and flew in his face, spitting and scratching. The
robber was so frightened that he ran to the back door. But the dog, who
lay there, sprang up and bit his leg. And as he ran across the yard by
the pile of straw, the donkey gave him a hard kick with its hind foot.
And the cock, who had been awakened by the noise and was very excited,
cried down from the beam, “Cock-a-doodle-doo!”
Then the robber ran back as fast as he could to his leader and said,
“Ah, there is a horrible witch sitting in the house. She spat on me and
scratched my face with her long nails. And by the door stands a man with
a knife who stabbed me in the leg. And in the yard there lies a black
monster who beat me with a wooden club. And above, upon the roof, sits a
judge who called out, ‘Bring the villain here to me!’ So I got away as
fast as I could.”
After this the robbers did not dare to go into the house again. But it
suited the four Bremen town musicians so well that they did not care to
leave it any more.
Altogether, the Brothers Grimm collected 210 tales. Among these are such
favorites as “The Shoemaker and the Elves” (which is in Volume 1 of
Childcraft), “Rumpelstiltskin,” “Rapunzel,” and “Hansel and Gretel.”
Many of the tales are published in attractive individual editions.
