Origins and setting
“The Town Musicians of Bremen” (Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten) is a German wonder tale best known from the Brothers Grimm (early nineteenth century). It is brisk and comic, yet edged with truth: four farm animals, each cast off in old age—a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a cock—refuse to be disposed of as useless and set out to make their living as musicians. On the road they find a robbers’ cottage, give an unforgettable concert, and win a warm house by wit and teamwork. Though they aim for Bremen, the heart of the tale lies on the woodland edge where the outcasts make a new home.
The tale
I. Four cast-offs and a plan
There was once a donkey who had carried sacks to the mill for many years. At last his strength ebbed, and his master began to mutter about “saving the oats.”
“No more kicks left in you, old long-ears,” he said one morning, weighing a stick in his hand.
The donkey did not wait for the weighing to end. He plodded out of the gate and took the road. “I am going to Bremen,” he said to himself. “A man with a drum needn’t plough, and perhaps a donkey with a good bray can earn bread as a musician.”
By the ditch lay a hound, panting, ribs like hoops. “I am too slow for the hunt,” he whined. “They spoke of a stone round my neck and the river.”
“Come with me to Bremen,” said the donkey kindly. “You can beat the kettledrum; I’ll bray the bass.”
Not far along they found a cat sitting in the road like a forgotten glove, eyes dull. “Once I caught mice by moonlight,” she sighed, “but my teeth are blunt, and the mistress threatens the pond.”
“Never mind ponds,” said the donkey. “We are making for Bremen. You can play the strings—purr, or caterwaul if need be.”
They came at last to a farmyard where a cock stood on the gate, crowing for dear life.
“What’s the matter up there, Sir Red-comb?” called the donkey.
“To-day is Sunday, and the housewife has told the cook to make me into soup,” said the cock, “so I am crowing my fill while I may.”
“Come to Bremen with us,” said the donkey. “You have the high notes; we shall be a band.”
“Bremen or bust!” crowed the cock, and down he flew. The four set off, cheerful for the first time in a long while, each saying the old saying: “One can always find something better than death.”
II. A light in the wood
Toward evening they entered a deep wood. “We won’t reach Bremen to-night,” said the donkey. “Let’s find lodging.”
Just then the cock, who liked a view, flew to the top of a tall tree. “I spy a light!” he cried. “A little house—there, in the trees.”
The donkey, being the tallest, went to the window and peered in. “I see a table set with meat and wine—fine fare! And round it sit robbers, counting their takings.”
“That’s the very place for us,” said the cat, licking her whiskers. “If only we can persuade them to move on.”
They whispered together and worked out a plan—a concert to blow the roof off.
The donkey put his forefeet on the sill; the dog scrambled up on the donkey’s back; the cat climbed on the dog; the cock perched on the cat’s head. At a sign, they struck up their music—
Hee-haw! (bass)
Bow-wow! (drum)
Miaow! (fiddle)
Cock-a-doodle-doo! (trumpet)
They hurled themselves through the window, the panes crashing like cymbals. The robbers leapt up, thinking the devil himself had flown in, and bolted into the forest.
The four friends sat down, helping themselves with good consciences. The donkey ate oats and cabbage, the dog gnawed a bone, the cat lapped cream, the cock found a perch on the beam and crowed once for triumph, then tucked his head beneath his wing.
“This is better than Bremen,” murmured the donkey, settling by the hearth.
“At least for to-night,” agreed the dog.
III. A scout in the night
When midnight had gone by and the robbers shivered in the thicket, their captain said, “We were fools, frightened by a shadow. One of you go back and see who’s in our house.”
A small robber crept back, seeing the house still and a light glimmering faintly. He went to the kitchen and, needing a fire, saw what he thought were live coals in the stove—the cat’s eyes. He thrust a match towards them. The cat spat and flew at his face, scratching like a bundle of needles. He fled to the back door; the dog sprang from under the table and bit him in the calf. Stumbling into the yard, he ran into the donkey, who gave him a hearty kick. Meanwhile, the cock woke on his beam and crowed with all his might: “Cock-a-doodle-doo! Bring the rogue to court!”
The robber tore into the trees, hair standing on end.
“How is it?” hissed the captain.
“How is it!” gasped the scout. “A witch sat by the fire and scratched me with iron claws; at the door a man with a knife stabbed my leg; in the yard lay a black monster who beat me with a club; and on the roof the judge cried, ‘Bring the thief up here!’ I’ll never go back!”
“Then neither shall we,” said the captain, and at that they broke camp and melted into the wood, never to trouble that cottage again.
IV. “They liked it too well to leave it”
Morning showed a house that needed only sweeping and a garden that begged for tending. The donkey looked at the doorstep and tried the view.
“Bremen is far,” he said. “This house is near.”
“The hearth suits my bones,” said the dog, curling up upon it.
“The windowsill catches the sun,” said the cat, already washing there.
“The beam is made for crowing,” said the cock from on high.
So they settled in: the donkey kept watch and hauled what was needed from nearby farms (honestly, and with nods exchanged), the dog guarded the door and startled foxes, the cat kept the larder clear of mice, and the cock told the hours with a will. And as for Bremen, they never reached it, for they liked it too well where they were.
Iconic lines remembered in the telling
- “I am going to Bremen and shall be a town musician.”
- “Come with me; you can beat the kettledrum.”
- “One can always find something better than death.”
- “I spy a light!”
- (The concert) “Hee-haw! Bow-wow! Miaow! Cock-a-doodle-doo!”
- “A witch scratched me; a man with a knife stabbed me; a black monster clubbed me; and the judge on the roof cried, ‘Bring the rogue here!’”
- “They liked it too well to leave it.”
Closing note
The charm of the Bremen Musicians lies in its straight, merry wisdom: refuse despair, join forces, make noise enough to be counted, and turn a dark house into a home. The donkey’s patience, the dog’s loyalty, the cat’s quickness, the cock’s pluck—none sufficient alone—together rout a band of bullies. And though Bremen never hears their band, the forest does, and the four find what they set out to find: a life better than the one they were leaving.
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