"The Golden Goose" (german: Die goldene Gans) is a

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...

collected by the

Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...

(KHM 64).

Story

In the Brothers Grimm version, the hero is the youngest of three brothers, given the

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

Simpleton as he is not handsome or strong like his brothers. His eldest brother is sent into the forest to chop wood, fortified with a rich

cake Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients, and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate, ...

and a bottle of

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

. He meets a little gray man who begs a morsel to eat and a swallow of wine but is rebuffed. The eldest brother later injures his arm falling into a tree and is taken home. The second brother meets a similar fate when he injures his foot. Simpleton, sent out with a burned

biscuit A biscuit is a flour-based baked and shaped food product. In most countries biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be ...

cooked in the ashes of the hearth and soured

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

, is generous with the little old man, who turns the biscuit and beer into a proper cake and fine wine. For his act of generosity, Simpleton is rewarded with a golden

goose A goose ( : geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera ''Anser'' (the grey geese and white geese) and '' Branta'' (the black geese). Some other birds, mostly related to the ...

he discovers within the roots of a tree he cut down chosen by the little gray man. Simpleton takes The Golden Goose to market. With the goose under his arm, he heads for an inn where as soon as his back is turned, the innkeeper's daughter attempts to pluck just one of the feathers of pure gold and is stuck fast. Her sister comes to help her and is stuck fast too. The youngest daughter is determined not to be left out of the riches, grabs the sisters aprons and she ends up stuck to the second. Simpleton makes his way to the castle and each person who attempts to interfere is joined to the unwilling parade ranging from the innkeeper, parson, his sexton, two laborers, some village children, village girls, etc. In the

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

lives the

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

with the

Princess Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subst ...

who has never smiled or laughed. The king offers the hand of the princess to anyone who succeeds in making her laugh. The despondent Princess, sitting by the window and glimpsing the parade staggering after Simpleton and his golden goose, bursts out laughing. Some versions include an additional three trials: finding someone who can eat a mountain of bread; find someone who can drink all the wine in the kingdom; and find a ship that can sail on both land and sea. Simpleton succeeds in all with the help of his little old friend and finally wins the princess's hand in

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

Variations

Folklorist

D. L. Ashliman Dee L. Ashliman (born January 1, 1938), who writes professionally as D. L. Ashliman, is an American folklorist and writer. He is Professor Emeritus of German at the University of Pittsburgh and is considered to be a leading expert on folklore an ...

has pointed out other versions of a Golden Fowl theme: The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs (

Aesop Aesop ( or ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE) was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales cre ...

); The Golden Mallard (from the ''

Jataka The Jātakas (meaning "Birth Story", "related to a birth") are a voluminous body of literature native to India which mainly concern the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. According to Peter Skilling, this genre is ...

'' stories of the Buddha's former births); the

Huma bird The Huma ( fa, هما, pronounced ''Homā'', ae, script=latn, Homāio), also Homa, is a mythical bird of Iranian legends and fables, and continuing as a common motif in Sufi and Diwan poetry. Although there are many legends of the creature, co ...

(Persia).

Modern interpretations

A musical version of ''The Golden Goose'', written by Dieter Stegmann and

Alexander S. Bermange Alexander S. Bermange is a composer and lyricist whose musicals and theatre productions have enjoyed successful runs in the West End and around the world, whose comic writing is regularly listened to by millions of listeners to BBC Radio, and wh ...

was presented at the Amphitheater Park Schloss Philippsruhe,

Hanau Hanau () is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and is part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ...

, Germany as part of the Brothers Grimm Festival in 2006. It was also featured as an episode of the PC game ''

American McGee's Grimm ''American McGee's Grimm'' is a 23-part episodic video game series based upon ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'', designed by American McGee, developed by Spicy Horse and distributed online initially by GameTap starting July 31, 2008. ''Grimm'' was origin ...

'' where the goose is 10 times its size and its victims have their bodies completely stuck to the goose rather than falling in a conga line as in the story.

The Jataka

The Buddha (Bodhisatta) was born, grew up, and got married. During his life, he was a member of the Hindu caste group of hereditary

priests A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in p ...

and

scholars A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher ...

. He also had three daughters named Nanda, Nandavati, and Sundarinanda. When he died, he was reincarnated as a golden

with golden feathers, and after discovering his wife and daughters were being taken care of by others, he decided to give them some of his feathers; he hoped the feathers would help them live comfortably. Over time, he brought them more feathers to sell, and they were living in a continuous state of comfort and peace; until one day, when his wife became greedy and decided to formulate a plan to steal all of his feathers for money. His daughters did not like the idea of stealing his feathers, so they did not agree to the idea. Alas, the next time the golden goose came back, his wife plucked all of his feathers. When she did this, the feathers immediately changed from golden feathers to white crane feathers. The wife waited for the golden feathers to grow back, but they never did; they grew back white, and the goose flew away, never to return again.

Classification

"The Golden Goose" falls in Aarne-Thompson type 571 (''All Stick Together''); the appended episode is of A-T Type 513B (''The Land-and-Water Ship'').

Literary examination

The hero is the youngest of three brothers, given the nickname "Dummling" (Simpleton). His eldest brother is sent into the forest to chop wood (the Task), fortified with a rich cake and a bottle of wine. He meets a little gray man (the Disguised Helper) who begs a morsel to eat and a drop to drink but is rebuffed. The eldest brother meets an accident and is taken home. The second brother meets a similar fate. Dummling, sent out with a biscuit cooked in the ashes of the hearth and soured beer, is generous with the little old man and is rewarded with a golden goose (the Fairy Gift). The goose has been discovered within the roots of the tree chosen by the little gray man and felled by Dummling. Tellers of this tale could not have been aware of the

imprisonment Imprisonment is the restraint of a person's liberty, for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is "false imprisonment". Imprisonment does not necessari ...

Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wsjr'', cop, ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ , ; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓, romanized: ʾsr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...

. For archaic

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

spirits within

oak trees An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

, see

dryad A dryad (; el, Δρυάδες, ''sing''.: ) is a tree nymph or tree spirit in Greek mythology. ''Drys'' (δρῦς) signifies " oak" in Greek, and dryads were originally considered the nymphs of oak trees specifically, but the term has evolved t ...

s. With the goose under his arm, Dummling heads for an inn, where, as soon as his back is turned, the innkeeper's daughter attempts to pluck just one of the feathers of pure

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

, and is stuck fast (Greed A-T Type 68A; Justice is Served). Her sister, coming to help her, is stuck fast too. And the youngest (Least of Three), determined not to be left out of the riches, is stuck to the second. Dummling makes his way to the castle, and each person who attempts to interfere is joined to the unwilling

parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, float (parade), floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually ce ...

: the

parson A parson is an ordained Christian person responsible for a small area, typically a parish. The term was formerly often used for some Anglican clergy and, more rarely, for ordained ministers in some other churches. It is no longer a formal term ...

, his sexton, and two

laborers A laborer (or labourer) is a person who works in manual labor types in the construction industry workforce. Laborers are in a working class of wage-earners in which their only possession of significant material value is their labor. Industries ...

. In the castle lives the

with the

(the Princess Prize) who has never laughed. But the despondent Princess, sitting by the window and glimpsing the parade staggering after Dummling and his golden goose, laughs so hard. Dummling, after three more impossible

trials In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, w ...

including finding a

ship A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...

that sails on land and sea, sometimes inserted in the tale, in each of which he is assisted by the little gray man, wins the Princess and everyone lives happily ever after.

References

Babbitt, E.C. (Ed.). (1922). ''More Jataka Tales''. New York, NY: D. Appleton-Century Company.

External links

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,_"The_Grimm_Brothers'_Children's_and_Household_Tales_(Grimms'_Fairy_Tales)"_gives_Antti_Aarne.html" ;"title="D. L. Ashliman
, "The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales (Grimms' Fairy Tales)"">D. L. Ashliman">D. L. Ashliman
, "The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales (Grimms' Fairy Tales)" gives Antti Aarne">Aarne-Thompson types {{DEFAULTSORT:Golden Goose Grimms' Fairy Tales Fictional geese Animal tales Laughter ATU 560-649 ATU 500-559