The Travelling Musicians

A farmer had a donkey that had been a faithful servant many years but was now too old to work. The master meant to stop feeding him. The donkey, seeing trouble coming, slipped away toward Bremen, where he thought he might earn his bread as a town musician.

On the road he met a dog panting as if tired from running. “Why are you so out of breath?” asked the donkey. “Ah,” said the dog, “I am old and weak and can no longer hunt. My master meant to kill me, so I ran away; but how shall I earn my living?” “I am going to Bremen to be a musician,” said the donkey. “Come with me and take a turn at the music too.” The dog agreed.

Soon they found a cat sitting in the path with a face as dismal as three days of wet weather. “What is wrong with you, old whiskers?” asked the donkey. “Who can be merry when his neck is in danger?” said the cat. “Because I am getting old and my teeth are blunt, and I prefer sitting by the fire to hunting mice, my mistress meant to drown me. I ran away, but now what am I to do?” “Come with us to Bremen,” said the donkey. “You know all about night-music; you can be a town musician.” The cat thought it a good idea and went along.

After a time the three came to a farmyard where a cock was crowing with all his might. “Your crow goes through bone and marrow,” said the donkey. “What is the matter?” “I am prophesying fair weather,” said the cock, “because it is washing-day tomorrow and my mistress wants to hang out the clothes. But she has no pity, and the cook has told me I am to be cooked for the Sunday guests, so I am crowing while I still can.” “Come with us,” said the donkey. “We are going to Bremen as musicians. You have a fine voice; with the four of us together there will be something worth hearing.” The cock agreed.

They could not reach Bremen in one day, and as evening came they entered a wood to sleep. The donkey and dog lay under a great tree; the cat and cock went into the branches. The cock flew to the top, where he could see farthest, and spotted a light. “There must be a house not far off,” he said. “Let us go there,” said the donkey; “the lodging may be better.” “Soft ground is not for me either,” said the dog. So they made for the light and soon reached a robbers’ house. The donkey, being tallest, looked in the window. “What do you see?” asked the cock. “A table set with fine food and drink, and robbers sitting at it enjoying themselves,” said the donkey. “That would do for us,” said the cock. “Yes, yes,” said the donkey; “how I wish we were there!” Then they talked over how to drive the robbers out. At last they settled a plan. The donkey put his forefeet on the window-ledge; the dog climbed on the donkey’s back; the cat on the dog; and the cock flew up onto the cat’s head. At a signal they began their music together: the donkey brayed, the dog barked, the cat mewed, the cock crowed. Then they crashed through the window into the room amid a shower of glass. The robbers jumped up at the dreadful noise, sure a ghost had broken in, and fled in terror into the wood.

The four companions sat down at the table and took what the robbers had left, eating as if they would not eat again for a month. When they were done they put out the light and each found a sleeping-place that suited him: the donkey on a dung-heap, the dog behind the door, the cat on the hearth by the warm ashes, the cock on a roosting-beam. Tired from the long road, they soon slept.

After midnight the robbers saw from afar that the house was dark and the noise had stopped. The captain said they should not have been so frightened, and sent one to examine the house. The messenger found all quiet, went into the kitchen to light a candle, and, taking the glowing cat eyes for live coals, held a match to them to kindle it. The cat flew at his face, spitting and scratching. Badly frightened, he ran for the back door, but the dog lying there sprang up and bit his leg. As he fled across the yard the donkey kicked him with a hind foot, and the cock, woken from sleep, cried from the roof with all his might. The robber ran back to his captain. “There is a horrid witch in the house,” he said, “who spat at me and scratched my face with her long fingers. By the door stands a man with a knife who stabbed my leg. In the yard lies a black monster that struck me with a wooden club. And up on the roof sits the judge, who called out, ‘Bring the rogue here!’” So they dared not go back into the house. The four Bremen musicians liked it so well that they would not leave, and there, if the story is true, they are living still.

Where this story comes from

“The Travelling Musicians” is the Gutenberg English title for the German tale better known as “The Bremen Town Musicians”, number 27 in Margaret Hunt’s 1884 translation (Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten). It comes from the Brothers Grimm, not from India; the wording here follows the edition based on Taylor and Edwardes.

This version makes the animals’ ordinary voices sound supernatural to the frightened robbers. In the second encounter, the returned robber misidentifies each animal again, turning a household of creatures into an imagined group of attackers.

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

Reading guidance: ages 6–8 with an adult. Includes owners threatening to kill or abandon animals, broken glass, scratches, a bite and a kick. The animal tower can be drawn or made with paper figures.

Reading the story closely

The animals leave because their owners value them only for work they can still perform. On the road they recognize needs they share and make room for one another. Their plan changes when a safe home becomes possible: they never need to reach Bremen or prove themselves as professional musicians to deserve care.

Retell the midnight visit twice, first naming the cat, dog, donkey and cock, then using the robber’s mistaken identities. Keep the events in the same order. How much of the terror comes from what happens, and how much from his explanation?

Talk about it

• Why did each of the four animals have to leave home?
• How did the animals’ music scare away the robbers?
• The animals never actually reach Bremen. Do you think they made the right choice to stay? Why?

Related stories

• The Bremen Town Musicians — another retelling of the same Grimm tale of four old animals on the road
• Old Sultan — a faithful old Grimm dog whose master wants to get rid of him
• The Fox and the Horse — an old horse sent away by his master finds help from a clever fox