The Golden Goose

A man had three sons; the youngest was called Dummling and was despised, mocked, and sneered at on every occasion. One day the eldest went into the forest to fell timber. His mother packed him a sweet cake and a bottle of wine for the midday meal. On the way he met a little grey old man who begged a morsel of cake and a sip of wine. The eldest snapped that if he shared he would have too little left for himself, and walked on. When he raised his axe at a tree, the first stroke went wrong; he gashed himself and had to limp home without a load.

The second son set out next, also with cake and wine from his mother. He met the same little grey man and gave the same selfish refusal; at the first stroke of his axe he wounded himself and turned back. Then Dummling asked leave to go and cut wood. His father said that even his supposedly clever brothers had failed and that he would fare no better, but at last allowed it. His mother handed him only a cake baked in the ashes—hard and grey—and a bottle of sour beer. In the forest the grey man asked again for food and drink. Dummling answered honestly that he had nothing better than cinder-cake and sour beer, yet if those would do, they would sit down and share. They ate and drank together; suddenly the cake was fine white bread and the beer good wine.

The little man said Dummling had a kind heart and should cut the tree; in its roots he would find something. Dummling felled it and found a goose with feathers of pure gold. He took it under his arm and went to an inn. The landlord had three daughters; they longed for a golden feather. The eldest waited until Dummling went out, then seized a feather—but her finger and hand stuck fast. The second meant only to pull one feather and stuck fast too. The third thought she might as well join them and stuck to her sister. So they spent the night glued to the goose.

Next morning Dummling tucked the goose under his arm and set off, not troubling about the three girls hanging on. They had to run after him left and right wherever he went. In the fields the parson met them and scolded the girls for chasing a young man—was that seemly?—and seized the youngest to pull her away; he stuck fast and had to run behind. The sexton, astonished to see his reverence racing after three girls, called that they had a christening and caught the parson’s sleeve—and stuck too. Two labourers with hoes came from the fields; the parson begged them to free him and the sexton; the moment they touched the sexton they stuck, so seven ran behind Dummling and the goose.

He came to a city where the king’s daughter was so serious no one could make her laugh; the king had decreed that whoever made her laugh should marry her. Dummling walked before her with goose and train; when she saw the seven trailing one after another she laughed as if she would never stop. Dummling asked for her hand, but the king disliked such a son-in-law and demanded first a man who could drink a cellarful of wine. Dummling went to the forest; at the old tree-site sat a man with a sorrowful face, dying of thirst—water he could not stand; a barrel of wine was to him like a drop on a hot stone. Dummling led him to the king’s cellar; he drank barrel after barrel until by day’s end all were empty.

Still the king stalled: Dummling must find a man who could eat a mountain of bread. In the forest a man was strapping his belly, saying an ovenful of rolls left him empty. Dummling brought him to the palace; all the kingdom’s flour was baked into a mountain of bread; by evening it was gone. A third time the king demanded a ship that could sail on land and water. Dummling found the little grey man, who gave him such a ship because Dummling had once shared food and drink. When the king saw it he could prevent the marriage no longer. The wedding was held; after the king’s death Dummling inherited the kingdom and lived contentedly with his wife for a long time.

Where this story comes from

This German tale appears in the Brothers Grimm’s collection. It is number 64 in Margaret Hunt’s 1884 translation (Die goldene Gans) and is not an Indian story; the text followed here is the Project Gutenberg version based on Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes.

The linked telling combines a growing procession with three later demands from the king. The bread and wine of the first shared meal reappear on an enormous scale in those demands.

The comedy includes axe wounds, involuntary captivity and impossible eating and drinking feats. These are fairy-tale exaggerations.

Read the original: Grimms’ Fairy Tales, tr. Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes (Project Gutenberg #2591, The Golden Goose)

Reading guidance: ages 6–8 with an adult. Includes axe injuries, people magically stuck together and extravagant drinking. Use drawings or paper figures for the procession rather than pulling people along.

Reading the story closely

The procession does not contain seven equally greedy people. The daughters want feathers, the parson misunderstands what he sees, the sexton wants to get back to work, and the laborers try to help. Their different motives produce the same magical result, complicating a simple ‘greed gets punished’ lesson.

Make seven paper figures and label why each joins the chain. Then compare the king’s changing rules with the little man’s returning generosity. One character makes help harder to obtain; the other remembers a small kindness.

Talk about it

• How were Dummling’s older brothers different from him when they met the little grey man?
• Why do you think the princess finally laughed?
• The king kept setting new tasks after Dummling won. Was that fair? What would you have said to him?

Related stories

• Hans in Luck — another simple-hearted Grimm hero who sees the world his own way
• The Queen Bee — a gentle youngest son whom his brothers mock, but who wins in the end
• The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was — a Grimm youngest son everyone thinks foolish, who wins a princess anyway