The Golden Goose

7-9 min read
16 pages
5+

The golden goose, the Brothers Grimm tale to read aloud. Everyone who grabs at it sticks fast, and the line behind it gets longer.

A man had three sons, and the youngest was called Dummling, which means simpleton, because that is what everybody in that house had decided about him early on.

The eldest went into the forest to cut wood, and his mother gave him a good cake and a bottle of wine. An old grey man met him there and asked for a bite and a swallow.

«If I give you mine I shall have none,» said the eldest, and went on. A little later his axe slipped and went into his arm, and he had to be taken home.

The second son went, with the same cake and the same bottle, and met the same old man, and gave the same answer. His axe went into his leg.

Then Dummling asked to go. His mother laughed at him and gave him a loaf of ash-baked dough and a bottle of sour beer, which was what was left.

The old grey man asked him for a bite and a swallow. «I have only ash cake and sour beer,» said Dummling. «But sit down and we will share it.»

They sat down, and when he took the cake out of the cloth it was a fine cake, and the beer in the bottle was good wine, and the two of them ate and drank.

«Cut down that old tree,» said the old man, «and you will find something in the roots.» And in the roots there sat a goose with feathers of pure gold.

Dummling took the goose under his arm and went to an inn for the night. The innkeeper had three daughters, and the eldest waited until he was asleep and went to pull out one gold feather — and her hand stuck to the goose and would not come away.

The second came to help her and stuck to her sister. The third came to help them both and stuck to the second, and the three of them spent the night standing up.

In the morning Dummling picked up his goose and walked out, and the three daughters had to run behind.

In the field the parson saw them and shouted that it was shameful, and took the youngest by the arm to pull her away — and stuck. The sexton came to help the parson and stuck to him. Two labourers came out of the field and stuck to the sexton, and the line behind the goose was now seven people long.

They came to a city where a king had a daughter who had never in her life laughed, and he had promised her to whoever could make her do it.

Dummling walked into the courtyard with a goose under his arm and seven people stuck behind him, falling over each other and shouting.

The princess looked out of the window and laughed, and she went on laughing until she had to sit down on the floor.

The king looked for reasons not to keep his word — a man who could drink a cellar dry, a man who could eat a mountain of bread, a ship that would go on land and water — and Dummling found the old grey man in the forest each time, and each time the old man did it for him. So there was no reason left, and Dummling married the princess, and in time he had the kingdom too.

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Text source: Plot by the Brothers Grimm (1812), public domain. The text was written anew for Marytale — it is not a reprint of anyone else's version.

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