Fairy tale · 声匠改编 · 4:08
The Bremen Town Musicians
An old donkey, dog, cat and rooster set off to be musicians, and scare robbers out of their house instead. A funny bedtime retelling of the Grimm tale.
Narrator
The Donkey
The Dog
The Cat
The Rooster
The Robber Chief
The RobberOther languages · 2 languages
About this story
The Bremen Town Musicians is a German folk tale that the Brothers Grimm added to their Children's and Household Tales in the 1819 edition. Four old animals set off to become musicians in the city of Bremen, and on the way they frighten a band of robbers out of their house. In the Grimms' version the owners mean to do away with the old animals; here the donkey, dog and cat are simply no longer wanted, the rooster escapes the soup pot, and the robber is only scratched and bumped.
What it teaches
It's never too late to start again, and friends who pull together can do what none of them could manage alone. Being old doesn't mean being useless.
Suits
Ages 4–9
Tips for telling it
- Let your child make the four animal noises when the friends sing at the window.
- Stack four cushions or toys to show how the animals stood on each other.
- Ask your child what each animal was really doing when the robber thought he saw a witch, a man, a monster and a judge.
Questions people ask
- Do the Bremen Town Musicians ever get to Bremen?
- No. They find the robbers' house on the way, like it so much that they stay, and never reach Bremen at all. That is part of the joke of the story.
- Who wrote The Bremen Town Musicians?
- It is a German folk tale, published by the Brothers Grimm in 1819. The city of Bremen honours it with a bronze statue of the four animals standing on each other's backs, made by Gerhard Marcks in 1953, beside the town hall.
- What is the moral of The Bremen Town Musicians?
- Teamwork and courage beat size and strength, and it's never too late for a fresh start. Four animals nobody wanted end up with a home of their own.
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