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Grimms' Fairy Tales
The
Bremen Town Musicians
A certain man had a donkey, which had carried
the corn-sacks to the mill indefatigably for many a long
year; but his strength was going, and he was growing more
and more unfit for work. Then his master began to consider
how he might best save his keep; but the donkey, seeing
that no good wind was blowing, ran away and set out on the
road to Bremen. "There," he thought, "I can
surely be town-musician." When he had walked some distance,
he found a hound lying on the road, gasping like one who
had run till he was tired. "What are you gasping so
for, you big fellow?" asked the donkey.
"Ah," replied the hound, "as I am old, and
daily grow weaker, and no longer can hunt, my master wanted
to kill me, so I took to flight; but now how am I to earn
my bread?"
"I tell you what," said the donkey, "I am
going to Bremen, and shall be town-musician there; go with
me and engage yourself also as a musician. I will play the
lute, and you shall beat the kettledrum."
The hound agreed, and on they went.
Before long they came to a cat, sitting on the path, with
a face like three rainy days! "Now then, old shaver,
what has gone askew with you?" asked the donkey.
"Who can be merry when his neck is in danger?"
answered the cat. "Because I am now getting old, and
my teeth are worn to stumps, and I prefer to sit by the
fire and spin, rather than hunt about after mice, my mistress
wanted to drown me, so I ran away. But now good advice is
scarce. Where am I to go?"
"Go with us to Bremen. You understand night-music,
you can be a town-musician."
The cat thought well of it, and went with them. After this
the three fugitives came to a farm-yard, where the cock
was sitting upon the gate, crowing with all his might. "Your
crow goes through and through one," said the donkey.
"What is the matter?"
"I have been foretelling fine weather, because it
is the day on which Our Lady washes the Christ-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 to-morrow, and this evening I am to have my head cut
off. Now I am crowing at full pitch while I can."
"Ah, but red-comb," said the donkey, "you
had better come away with us. We are going to Bremen; you
can find something better than death everywhere: 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.
They could not, however, reach the city of Bremen in one
day, and in the evening they came to a forest where they
meant to pass the night. The donkey and the hound laid themselves
down under a large tree, the cat and the cock settled themselves
in the branches; but the cock flew right to the top, where
he was most safe. Before he went to sleep he looked round
on all four sides, and thought he saw in the distance a
little spark burning; so 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 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 the
biggest, went to the window and looked in.
"What do you see, my grey-horse?" asked the cock.
"What do I see?" answered the donkey; "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 took counsel together how they should
manage to drive away the robbers, and at last they thought
of a plan. The donkey was to place himself with his fore-feet
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.
When this was done, at a given signal, they began to perform
their music together: the donkey brayed, the hound barked,
the cat mewed, and the cock crowed; then they burst through
the window into the room, so that the glass clattered! At
this horrible din, the robbers sprang up, thinking no otherwise
than that a ghost had come in, and fled in a great fright
out into the forest. The four companions now sat down at
the table, well content with what was left, and ate as if
they were going to fast for a month.
As soon as the four minstrels had done, they put out the
light, and each sought for himself a sleeping-place according
to his nature and to what suited him. The donkey laid himself
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
from 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
all appeared quiet, the captain said, "We ought not
to have let ourselves be frightened out of our wits;"
and ordered one of them to go and examine the house.
The messenger finding all still, went into the kitchen
to light a candle, and, taking the glistening fiery eyes
of the cat for live coals, he held a lucifer-match to them
to light it. But the cat did not understand the joke, and
flew in his face, spitting and scratching. He was dreadfully
frightened, and 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 straw-heap, the donkey gave him a smart kick
with its hind foot. The cock, too, who had been awakened
by the noise, and had become lively, cried down from the
beam, "Cock-a-doodle-doo!"
Then the robber ran back as fast as he could to his captain,
and said, "Ah, there is a horrible witch sitting in
the house, who spat on me and scratched my face with her
long claws; 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 the judge, who called out, 'Bring the rogue
here to me!' so I got away as well as I could."
After this the robbers did not trust themselves in the
house again; but it suited the four musicians of Bremen
so well that they did not care to leave it any more. And
the mouth of him who last told this story is still warm.
From Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household Tales, trans. Margaret
Hunt (London: George Bell, 1884), 1:114-117. |
