# The Owl explained — Household Tales > Chapter companion for Household Tales by Jacob Grimm. ## What happens Two or three hundred years ago, a great horned owl accidentally enters a barn in a small town. The manservant, master, and eventually the entire town, including senators and the burgomaster, become terrified of the creature. After several armed men fail to confront it, the burgomaster decides to burn down the barn with the owl inside, and the townspeople agree to the plan. ## Themes in this chapter ### Magic and the Supernatural The owl is perceived as a monstrous, supernatural creature capable of devouring a man, leading to mass hysteria. ### Greed and Its Downfall The townspeople's fear and irrationality lead them to burn down a valuable barn and its contents, a costly and destructive solution. ## Character check-ins ### the servant The manservant who first discovers the owl in the barn and runs to tell his master. ### the master The owner of the barn who initially scoffs at the servant but becomes terrified himself upon seeing the owl. ### the servants The townsmen who arm themselves with various weapons and gather to confront the owl. ### the judge The burgomaster who proposes burning down the barn to destroy the owl. ## Key lines > By some mischance one of the great owls, called horned owls, had come from the neighboring woods into the barn of one of the townsfolk in the nighttime, and when day broke did not dare to venture forth again from her retreat, for fear of the other birds, which raised a terrible outcry whenever she appeared. A large horned owl accidentally flew into a townsperson's barn during the night and was too afraid to leave in the morning because other birds would attack it. _Sets up the initial situation that triggers the town's panic._ > When, however, he saw the strange grim creature with his own eyes, he was no less terrified than the servant had been. With two bounds he sprang out, ran to his neighbours, and begged them imploringly to lend him assistance against an unknown and dangerous beast, or else the whole town might be in danger if it were to break loose out of the barn, where it was shut up. The master became just as frightened as his servant upon seeing the owl, and he urgently asked his neighbors for help, warning that the beast could threaten the entire town. _Shows how fear spreads from one person to the community._ > My opinion, said he, is that we ought, out of the common purse, to pay for this barn, and whatsoever corn, straw, or hay it contains, and thus indemnify the owner, and then burn down the whole building, and the terrible beast with it. The burgomaster suggests using public funds to compensate the barn's owner and then burning the barn down to kill the owl. _The town's final, drastic solution to the perceived threat._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/household_tales_se/chapters/the-owl - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/household_tales_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/household_tales_se/chapters