A man and his wife were sitting by the door of their house. They had a roasted chicken and were about to eat it together. Then the man saw that his old father coming, and he quick took the chicken and hid it, for he did not want to give his father any. The old man came, took a drink, and went away. Now the son wanted to put the roasted chicken on the table again, but when he picked it up, he found it had become a great toad, which jumped upon his face and sat there, and would not budge. If anyone tried to take it off, the toad looked ferociously at him as if it would jump in his face, too. So no one dared to touch it. And the ungrateful son was forced to feed the toad every day, or else it would have eaten part of his face; and thus the son wandered the world without rest.
from The Brothers Grimm
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9 comments:
Justice can be grim.
LOVE IT!
I was reading some of these stories this morning. Considering how many times I yelled "Alright!" at the end, it could not remain concealed from me that most of them are about justice.
Which version/edition/translation are you reading?
Jack Zipes - The Complete Stories of the Brothers Grimm.
I also used to have collection of selected Grimm stories called The Juniper Tree, which was good, but I really appreciate having them all.
Excellent! Thanks, Sarah.
Aptly named, those brothers. It seems like a timely little paradigm tale for us right now. Meanwhile several high profile toad heads in the world don't seem to be getting any rest.
Toadheads, coneheads.
Gasp. Who knew!? Thanks for posting this, Sarah
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