Three Billy Goats Gruff

The Three Billy Goats Gruff
The White House 2003 Christmas decoration using "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" as the theme
Folk tale
NameThe Three Billy Goats Gruff
Aarne–Thompson grouping122E
CountryNorway
Published inNorwegian Folktales

"The Three Billy Goats Gruff" (Norwegian: De tre bukkene Bruse) is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in their Norske Folkeeventyr, first published between 1841 and 1844. It has an Aarne-Thompson type of 122E. The first version of the story in English appeared in the translation by George Webbe Dasent of some of the Norske Folkeeventyr, published as Popular Tales from the Norse in 1859. The heroes of the tale are three male goats who need to outsmart a ravenous troll to cross the bridge to their feeding ground.

Characters

The story introduces three billy goats (male goats), sometimes identified as a youngster, father and grandfather, but more often described as brothers. In other adaptations, there is a baby or child goat, mama goat and papa goat.

"Bruse", the name of the goats in the original Norwegian tale, was rendered as "Gruff" in the earliest English translation, and this has been perpetuated. However, the Norwegian word in fact means "tuft of hair".

Plot

Three billy goats, all named "Gruff", live in a valley with very little grass. They must walk across a bridge to reach a mountain pasture where they can graze. However, a fearsome troll lives under the bridge and eats everyone who tries to cross.

The smallest billy goat goes first. The troll stops him and threatens to "gobble him up!" The little goat tells the troll he should wait for his big brother to cross, because he is larger and would make for a more gratifying feast. The greedy troll agrees and lets the smallest goat pass.

The medium-sized billy goat approaches the bridge. He is more cautious than his brother, but the troll stops him too. The second goat convinces the troll to wait for their eldest brother, the largest of the three, and the troll lets him pass as well.

The largest billy goat steps on to the bridge and meets the troll waiting to devour him. The goat challenges the troll to fight and then throws the troll into the water using his horns. The troll drowns in the stream, and from then on the bridge is safe. The three billy goats live happily ever after.

Retellings

Writer Bjørn F. Rørvik [no] and illustrator Gry Moursund [no] have created three books in Norwegian based on this story. The first, Bukkene Bruse på badeland (The Three Billy Goats Gruff at the Waterpark), came in 2009 and had by 2014 sold over 110,000 copies in Norway, making it one of the biggest selling picture books in the country. By March 2019, the three books had sold over 450,000 copies in Norway.

The following is a list of children's book adaptations of the story into the English language, suitable for the elementary school classroom:

Part of the story in the children's book The Troll by Julia Donaldson is based on the tale, with a troll that lives under varying bridges and waits for goats but in this story only other animals walk over the bridges.

Neil Gaiman's "Troll Bridge" (1993) in the anthology Snow White, Blood Red is also an adaption of the fairy tale, for adults.

Golden Books did a version of the story that was similar to the book. The only difference is that when the troll is washed away by the stream, he is later mentioned to have moved into a cave.

Media adaptations

Audiobooks

Films

Television

Music and musicals

Frank Luther wrote a version of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" geared towards music education for elementary school grade children, published in "Singing on Our Way", Our Singing World Series by the Ginn and Company (c. 1949). It was often played on the BBC Radio programme Children's Favourites, in the 1950s and early 1960s. Some years earlier Yvonne Ravell had recorded a version she wrote in sung (1940), cited as suitable education material for the theatre in one journal.

A musical adaptation by British composing team George Stiles and Anthony Drewe was commissioned by the Singapore Repertory Theatre. It premiered there in 2015 and made its North American debut in 2017 at the Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville, Georgia.

Play productions

Games

Explanatory notes

  1. ↑ "Scholastic-Australia"
  2. ↑ The troll approaches a young boy who has crossed his bridge and demands to "eat his life." The boy eventually persuades the troll to wait until he has lived a little more, after which he will return to the bridge. The goats in this adaptation are represented by the protagonist as a child, a teenager and finally a middle-aged man. The story was nominated for a 1994 World Fantasy Award.
  3. ↑ "Scholastic-Australia"

References

  1. ↑ Encyclopedia of American folklore: Facts on File library of American literature. Linda S. Watts. Infobase Publishing, 2007. ISBN 0-8160-5699-4, 978-0-8160-5699-6. p. 383.
  2. ↑ "Answers.com: Asbjørnsen and Moe". Answers.com.
  3. ↑ Asbjørnsen, Peter Christen; Moe, Jørgen Engebretsen. Popular tales from the Norse. Translated by Dasent, George Webbe. Forgotten Books. p. 313. ISBN 978-1-60506-787-2.
  4. ↑ Hawes, Barbara (19 October 2015). "The Goats that Got Away". European Studies Blog. British Library. The story's original Norwegian title in full (a bit less snappy than the English one we know) was De tre Bukkene Bruse, som skulde gaa til Sæters og gjøre seg fede which roughly translates as 'The three Billy-Goats Gruff who were going to mountain pastures to fatten themselves up'. 'Bruse', which is the name of the goats, was translated as 'Gruff' in the first English version, and this translation has stuck ever since but in fact the word refers to the hairy tuft on a goat's forehead[.]
  5. ↑ "bruse". Store Norske Leksikon. Retrieved 19 July 2026. Bruse er en tett og lav busk, særlig av einer. Ordet brukes også om en hårdusk i pannen på en hest eller bukk (bukkene Bruse).
  6. ↑ "The Three Billy Goats Gruff at the Water Park". norla.no. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Tussey, Jill T.; Haas, Leslie (2024), "Chapter 2. First Grade―Fairy Tales", Exploring Genre through Gamified Adventures in Elementary Classrooms, Springer Nature, p. 20, ISBN 9783031417177
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 McElmeel, Sharron L. (1996), "Chapter 2. Folklore", Educator's Companion to Children's Literature: Folklore, Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Fantasy, Biographies, and Tales from Here and There, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, pp. 29–30, ISBN 9780313079399
  9. ↑ "Cover Reveal: 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff' by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen". publishersweekly.com. Feb 3, 2022. Retrieved June 25, 2024.
  10. ↑ Neil Gaiman, "Smoke and Mirrors"
  11. ↑ Gaiman, Neil (2019) [1993]. "The Toll Bridge". In HDatlow les, Ellen; Windling, Terri (eds.). Snow White, Blood Red. New York: Open Road Media. ISBN 9781504055765.
  12. ↑ Three Billy Goats Gruff on YouTube
  13. ↑ Scholastic Records CC 0612, Long Play 33-1/3 RPM
  14. ↑ Hi-5 Series 1, Episode 22 (Animals), segment of "Grumpy Bunyip" @ Hi 5 Official Channel
  15. ↑ Horne, Mathew; Deacon, Michael (May 1, 2008). "Once upon a time..." Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on March 7, 2008. The troll character is dirty and smelly and everybody is frightened of him, and I think that heightens the pathos of the ending, because it's a witch hunt, without any evidence
  16. ↑ Frederick, Marilyn D. (1955). Some Music Activities to Correlate with Children's Literature in the Primary Grades (Ph.D.). University of Michigan. p. 25. Singing on Our Way " from Our Singing World . New York : Ginn and Company, ( c . 1949 )
  17. ↑ "Front Matter". Music Educators Journal. 43 (5): 32. April–May 1957. JSTOR 3388261.
  18. ↑ "Children's Favourites". Whirligig-tv.co.uk. 2005-11-28. Retrieved 2010-06-09.
  19. ↑ Barton, Phyllis Settecase (1998). The Pictus Orbis® Sambo: Being a Publishing History, Checklist and Price Guide for The Story of Little Black Sambo. Pictus Orbis Press. p. 250. ISBN 9780966011791.
  20. ↑ Ravell, Yvonne [pseud. of Yvonne Rapeer Shanley] (soprano); Leaman, Harold (piano) (1940) "Little Black Sambo"; "The Gingerbread Boy"; "The Wee Wee Woman"; "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" (3 album set, J-20, Nos. 35-651, 35-652, and 35-653).
  21. ↑ Voorhees, Lillian W.; Foster, Jacob F. (October 1949). "Recordings for Use in Teaching Theatre". Educational Theatre Journal. 1 (1): 67. JSTOR 3204109. Music Fairy Stories, written and performed by Yvonne Ravell, the 'Singing Story Lady'
  22. ↑ "Billy Goat Gruff". Lazy Bee Scripts. 2009.