"The Goat with three kids" is a kid's tale written in 1875 by one of the best romanian writers: Ion Creanga.
What is peculiar about this story is that it is so gory and bloody that, in the western world, people wouldn't ever read it to kids. But in Romania, kids everywhere read it and enjoy it, unphased by all the blood and violence. Easter European blood, maybe?
I know that nobody ever heard of it so that's why I'm writing this post. It's an amazing story that deserves to have a wider audience. I think that if it had, we would have seen movie adaptations and probably a Tim Burton animation based on it! As it is, it's virtually unknown. So here's a short version for Steemit!
The illustrations are 100% original, made by @mihaiart for this post, exclusively for Steemit.
Once upon a time, there was a widowed Goat. She had three kids: the older ones were nasty and always looking for trouble but the little one was hardworking and always listened to his mother. One day, the mother goat had to go out in the woods to get food. She instructs her children to never open the door unless they hear her sing this song:
Three kids, little kids
Open the door to your mommy
Mommy’ s bringing to you all:
Leaves on her lips,
Milk in her teats,
A ball of salt
On her back,
Cornmeal
On her heel,
A tuft of flowers
In her armpits."
"Do you kids understand?" she asked and the kids all agreed. She left to get the goodies and the kids were left alone, to play and do what kids do. Meanwhile, a wolf, having listened on the conversation, came to the door and sang the song, hoping to trick the kids.
Three kids, little kids / Open the door to your mommy....
The first two were ready to unlock the door but the little one said:
"NO! mommy's voice is not that harsh!"
They did not open the door. But the wolf didn't let go so easily, he went to the blacksmith and asked him to "sharpen his tongue" so he can sing better and then came back.
Three kids, little kids/ Open the door to your mommy/ Mommy’ s bringing to you all:
Leaves on her lips
Milk in her teats,
A ball of salt
On her back...
"Now this is surely mother!" the older ones said and ran to open the door. As soon a she opened it, the wolf was at this throat, eating him. When he was done he looked around and found the second kid hidden under blanket and gulped him down as well.
He looked for more but try as he might, could not find the third kid, hidden in the fireplace. Unsatisfied, he stains the walls with the kids' blood and places their heads at the windows, so from a distance they look like they're smiling.
Finally the mother comes home. She's happy to see her kids at the window, waiting, smiling for her. She sings the song and the little one, recognizing her, opens the door and start crying telling her everything. The mother is devastated but swears revenge.
Initially she goes into the wood and meets the wolf, telling him she knows what he did but he is now forgiven and invites him at the memorial service. She cooks a big meal and awaits for the wolf to arrive...
In secret, she fills a large pit with burning embers and places a wax stool over it.
When the wolf comes, he take the wax stools and he eats greedily portion after portion. The wax melts slowly, he gets heavier and eventually he falls into the pit underneath and burns to death.
As he yells for help the mother goat says that this her following the bible:
"a death for a death [and] a burn for a burn".
And then..they dance around the burning wolf!!
THE END.
So this is it! I hope you found this read...suitable for children. If you liked it, liked the illustrations, I'll bring you more romanian folklore in the upcoming posts.
Until then, follow me and don't forget to follow @mihaiart as well!
I really like that the a few of childrens books are so full of psychodelia, that they put Alice in Wonderland far behind. :-D
One such book is from Czechia called "Anechka Nevelichka and Solomenny Gubert". By Vítězslav Nezval. I don't think it has ever been translated to English, and it is a huge loss for English speaking audience.
i 100% agree.
The thing is that our eastern European folklore is quite weird, although , from my limited knowledge...there's no known use of psychedelics in this part of the world( back in the day, now...).
This goat-story is amazing to be read in Romanian language, no way to translate it and keep the regionalism, the colorful language, the double meanings...it's a loss, but one that we all understand ( I can't read Nezval's in original, you can't read Creanga in original) and relate to.
Another thing to notice is that these stories are written but writers, it's not pure folklore in the sense that there are hidden and deliberate choices in their writing that don't necessary register upon first reading. It's a layered work of art and that's the main reason I wanted to share here...I hope a few people will remember it :)
thank you for you comment
That one I read in Russian. Romanian is quite different from slavic languages, so yeah, I can't. :-D Even other slavic languages are quite hard to read, and they are related!
Every Russian knows the story from a childhood too .
It's just there are seven little goats in Russian version )
hehe. eastern European blood indeeeeed!
actually there is an old sowijet time cartoon too, but there no one is eating anyone, everybody is just dancing and singing )
Madness, but great madness. I am reading this to my daughter later!
Oh, man, I wish you had the whole version....try to look on wikipedia. But the truth is that in Romanian it's written in such colorful language...it's beautiful but lost in translation. Still :D Don't scare her too much :))
I will watch her when telling her, will check out Wikipedia too!! I like dark tales for kids it helps them learn!
how did this go??
I was vetoed by the mother!!!!
this is hilarious :))
This is the darkest children's tale I have ever heard!
Brilliantly told and great artwork. A victory of story telling!
thanks :D apparently some other e-European countries have them. we're a wild bunch here :D
Nice story. Like most fairy tales in the original version, before Disney got at 'em, it's pretty brutal.
Hey, finally some quality content on the front page! Thanks for telling us about this. Fairy tales like this weren't too uncommon back in the day, I think. In the west we've just been censoring them.
that's very true. Even the old Grimm tales were gory and horror but yeah, in time, we took out the horrifying parts and made the pg-audience. Dunno what good that did us...
Amazing!
Great tale! :) The illustrations are great as well!
wow, as @svamiva sayd we also have such tale called The Wolf and seven little goats (author unknown I think) not so bloody as I remember, but still. great post and great illustrations from @mihaiart
I guess it's just translated from Romanian original with some macabre details left out.
A lot of stories we believe to be Russian origin are in fact adopted translations.
It's like Hollywood making remakes of European movies )
Great writing @razvanelulmarin
Very good! Thanks for sharing it!
I'm glad you like it! It's such a cool thing to share a tale so close to my heritage to such a diverse audience!
This is one reason I love Steemit! What a gift to learn about something like this from another culture. I guarantee something like this wouldn't be found on Facebook.
dude, I cant believe you did this. it's amazing! kudos to you and Mihai ;)