The Three Languages

An aged count in Switzerland believed his only son could learn nothing of value. The father said he would send him to a celebrated master to see what could be done. The youth stayed a whole year in a strange town. When he came home his father asked what he had learnt. “Father, I have learnt what the dogs say when they bark.” “Lord have mercy!” cried the father. “Is that all?” He sent him to another town and another master for a year. “What have you learnt?” “Father, I have learnt what the birds say.” The father flew into a rage. “You lost man, you have spent precious time and learnt nothing!” He would try a third master, he said, but if that failed he would no longer be his father. After a year with the third master the youth came home again. “What have you learnt?” “Dear father, this year I have learnt what the frogs croak.” The father fell into a furious anger, called his people, and said, “This man is no longer my son. Take him into the forest and kill him.” They took him forth, but for pity they could not kill him; they let him go and cut the eyes and tongue from a deer to carry back as a token.

The youth wandered on and came to a fortress where he begged a night’s lodging. “Yes,” said the lord, “if you will pass the night down in the old tower. But be warned: it is full of wild dogs that bark and howl without stopping, and at certain hours a man must be given them to devour.” The whole district was in sorrow because of them, yet no one could stop it. The youth was without fear. “Let me go down to the barking dogs,” he said, “and give me something to throw to them; they will not harm me.” They gave him food for the animals and led him down. Inside, the dogs did not bark but wagged their tails amicably, ate what he set before them, and hurt not one hair of his head. Next morning he came out safe, to everyone’s astonishment, and told the lord the dogs had revealed in their own language why they dwelt there and brought evil on the land: they were bewitched and must watch a great treasure below in the tower, and they could have no rest until it was taken away—and he had learnt from their talk how that was to be done. All who heard rejoiced; the lord said he would adopt him as a son if he succeeded. He went down again, did thoroughly what he knew must be done, and brought out a chest full of gold. The howling was heard no more; the dogs had disappeared, and the country was freed.

After some time he took it in his head to travel to Rome. On the way he passed a marsh where frogs sat croaking. He listened, and when he understood them he grew very thoughtful and sad. In Rome the Pope had just died, and the cardinals doubted whom to choose. At last they agreed the next pope should be marked by some divine and miraculous token. Just as that was decided, the young count entered the church, and suddenly two snow-white doves flew onto his shoulders and stayed there. The ecclesiastics took it as a token from above and asked on the spot if he would be pope. He was undecided and unsure he was worthy, but the doves counselled him to accept, and at length he said yes. He was anointed and consecrated—and so was fulfilled what he had heard from the frogs on the way, which had so affected him: that he was to be his Holiness the Pope. Then he had to sing a mass and did not know one word of it, but the two doves sat on his shoulders and said it all in his ear.

Where this story comes from

“The Three Languages” is a Swiss-German tale from the Brothers Grimm, not an Indian story. In Margaret Hunt’s 1884 translation it is number 33, Die drei Sprachen; the English used here follows the Project Gutenberg edition, which rests on Taylor and Edwardes.

The election in Rome is a fairy-tale event marked by talking doves and a prophecy. The story does not identify its hero with a historical pope, and its miraculous selection should not be read as an account of actual papal election procedures.

The father’s order to kill his son is kept, as in the source.

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

Best for older readers with an adult — a father orders his son’s murder, a deer is mutilated as false proof, and enchanted dogs are said to devour people.

Reading the story closely

Each language has a different use: the dogs explain a present problem, the frogs foretell a future, and the birds advise and assist him when that future arrives. The father’s verdict of uselessness is overturned by these situations, not by the son becoming the kind of student his father expected.

Arrange the three languages on a timeline and match each with information only it supplies. Then compare the two fathers: one rejects him before understanding his skills; the other offers adoption after the dogs’ explanation leads to release. The youth’s later success does not make the first father’s violence acceptable.

Talk about it

• Why was the father so angry about what his son had learnt?
• How did knowing the dogs’ language help the young man and the whole country?
• Is there something you know that grown-ups think is useless, but that might matter one day? What is it?

Related stories

• The White Snake — a Grimm servant who suddenly understands the speech of animals
• The Queen Bee — a gentle Grimm youngest son helped by creatures his brothers would have hurt
• The Language of the Birds — a Russian tale about a boy who understands birds and is driven from home