Clever Gretel, The Dog and the Sparrow & Cat-Skin by The Brothers Grimm

Number of pages: 32
Audiobook length: 0:24:34
EBook series:
Collection: Sinkronigo learner
Age Group: Youth literature
Read aloud type: Word-by-word
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eBook description:

”Clever Gretel”, by the Brothers Grimm, tells the story of Gretel who is a cook very clever and very pleased with herself. Her master asks her to roast two chickens, one for him and one for his guest. While he's out fetching the guest, Gretel takes one nibble and then another, and winds up eating both chickens. She runs out to meet the guest under the pretense of warning him that her master actually wants to cut off his ears. Then she tells the master that the guest ran off with both chickens to save face. The master chases the guest, crying, "Just one, just one!" by which he means he wants just one chicken back, but the guest thinks he wants one ear, so he keeps running. "The Dog and the Sparrow" is another tale by the Brothers Grimm. A mistreated dog leaves home and talks to a sparrow, who convinces him to come to the city. Things are peachy until a wagoner runs over the dog, killing him. The sparrow promises to exact revenge, and ruins the wagoner's life by trashing his goods and eventually killing him. The third tale is called “Cat-Skin”, inspire of the differences between the english tale known by this name and the original Grimm’s name: "Allerleirauh" (All-Kinds-of-Fur, sometimes translated as "Thousandfurs”). It is a fairy tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm. It is about unnatural love. Indeed, some English translators of "Allerleirauh" titled that story "Catskin" despite the differences between the German and English tales. A king promised his dying wife that he would not marry unless it was to a woman who was as beautiful as she was, and when he looked for a new wife, he realized that the only woman that could match her beauty was his own daughter. The daughter tried to make the wedding impossible by asking for three dresses, one as golden as the sun, one as silver as moon, and one as dazzling as the stars, and a mantle made from the fur of every kind of bird and animal in the kingdom. When her father provided them, she took them, with a gold ring, a gold spindle, and a gold reel, and ran from the castle the night before the wedding. She slept in a forest of a neighboring land where the local prince hunted and his dogs found her. She asked them to have pity on her and received a place in the kitchen, where she worked, and because she gave no name she was called "All-Kinds-of-Fur." When the prince held a ball, she sneaked out and went to it in her silver dress, and the prince fell in love with her. The next morning, the cook set her to make soup for the prince, and she put her golden ring in it. The prince found it and questioned the cook and then All-Kinds-of-Fur, but she revealed nothing… The Brothers Grimm, Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859), were born in the German state of Hesse. They were universally known for the collection of over two hundred folk tales they made from oral sources and published in two volumes of 'Nursery and Household Tales' in 1812 and 1814. Although their intention was to preserve such material as part of German cultural and literary history, and their collection was first published with scholarly notes and no illustration, the tales soon came into the possession of young readers. This was in part due to Edgar Taylor, who made the first English translation of part of the tales in 1823. (Summary from Wikipedia, Shmoop and Sinkronigo)