Household Tales · Chapter
The Bremen Town-Musicians explained
Four aging domestic animals—a donkey, a hound, a cat, and a cock—flee their masters who plan to kill them because they are no longer useful.
What happens
Four aging domestic animals—a donkey, a hound, a cat, and a cock—flee their masters who plan to kill them because they are no longer useful. They decide to travel to Bremen to become town musicians. On the way, they discover a robbers' house in the forest and devise a plan to scare the robbers away by stacking themselves and making a loud, chaotic noise. The robbers flee, and the animals take over the house. When a robber returns to investigate, the animals attack him, and he reports a terrifying scene to his captain. The robbers never return, and the four animals live happily in the house.
Themes in this chapter
Transformation and Redemption
The animals transform from discarded, doomed creatures into free, resourceful musicians, finding a new purpose and home.
Virtue Rewarded and Vice Punished
The animals' cleverness and cooperation are rewarded with a safe home, while the robbers' greed and cruelty are punished by being driven away.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The donkey, hound, cat, and cock are unnamed animals; they are the central characters of the story.
Key passages
“A certain man had a donkey, which had carried the corn-sacks to the mill indefatigably for many a long year; but his strength was going, and he was growing more and more unfit for work. Then his master began to consider how he might best save his keep; but the donkey, seeing that no good wind was blowing, ran away and set out on the road to Bremen.”
A donkey, after years of hard work, grew too old to be useful. His master planned to get rid of him, so the donkey ran away and headed for Bremen.
Introduces the donkey's motivation and the theme of escaping death.
“The donkey was to place himself with his forefeet upon the window-ledge, the hound was to jump on the donkey's back, the cat was to climb upon the dog, and lastly the cock was to fly up and perch upon the head of the cat. When this was done, at a given signal, they began to perform their music together: the donkey brayed, the hound barked, the cat mewed, and the cock crowed; then they burst through the window into the room, so that the glass clattered!”
The animals stacked themselves—donkey at the bottom, then hound, cat, and cock on top—and at a signal made a tremendous noise, crashing through the window to scare the robbers.
Describes the clever plan that drives the robbers away.