Aunt Myrle and the Billy Goats Gruff
When I was little, my great aunt Myrle used to tell me the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. She was a gifted storyteller, and this story in particular always thrilled and mesmerized my brother and me - "trip, trap, trip, trap WENT THE BRIDGE!" she'd exclaim in her deep, booming voice. We just couldn't wait until the biggest Billy Goat Gruff butted that mean ol' troll right to the moon! Later, John Caleb and I would practice telling each other the tale while relaxing on our trampoline - the perfect spot for spontaneous billy goat reenactments.
This afternoon, in an effort to distract Luke long enough to settle him for a nap, I decided I'd pass along this gem of a tale - only I realized (about halfway through) that the only part I really remembered, besides the title, was the "trip, trap, trip, trap WENT THE BRIDGE!" part (actually, I didn't even remember the "traps" - just the "trips"), and the rest of the story was pretty awful. Bad enough that even my two-year-old looked at me in confusion.
So this evening I decided I'd better brush up on the story, and I found this link to three different versions of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. As is the case with all "original" tales, these have a few choice bits that I certainly don't remember from Aunt Myrle's version - and which definitely won't make it into mine - but they are entertaining nonetheless.
Maybe tomorrow we'll try this again... or maybe I'll stick to telling The Three Bears (which I'm pretty darn good at, if I do say so myself!).
As they say in old Norwegian tales,
"Snip, snap, snout.
This tale's told out."
This afternoon, in an effort to distract Luke long enough to settle him for a nap, I decided I'd pass along this gem of a tale - only I realized (about halfway through) that the only part I really remembered, besides the title, was the "trip, trap, trip, trap WENT THE BRIDGE!" part (actually, I didn't even remember the "traps" - just the "trips"), and the rest of the story was pretty awful. Bad enough that even my two-year-old looked at me in confusion.
So this evening I decided I'd better brush up on the story, and I found this link to three different versions of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. As is the case with all "original" tales, these have a few choice bits that I certainly don't remember from Aunt Myrle's version - and which definitely won't make it into mine - but they are entertaining nonetheless.
Maybe tomorrow we'll try this again... or maybe I'll stick to telling The Three Bears (which I'm pretty darn good at, if I do say so myself!).
As they say in old Norwegian tales,
"Snip, snap, snout.
This tale's told out."
Well, I loved the version where the eldest billy goat Gruff poked out the troll's eyes! What a lovely memory I, too, have of Myrle's deep voice saying trip, trap, trip, trap, WENT THE BRIDGE.
ReplyDeleteI loved that story as a child too but don't remember it being that graphic at all! One of my favorites growing up was Little Black Sambo. We have an old Golden Books copy but William doesn't want me to say the word "black" and put racial stereotypes in Stella's head. You have to really concentrate not to let it slip!
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