The Town Musicians of Bremen is a story about four animals that have worked hard all their lives. They are now too old to work and face either being badly treated or killed by their owners. One by one they leave their homes and set out together to become musicians in the town of Bremen. However, they never reach Bremen. During the journey, the animals come upon a house owned by a band of robbers. By working together, they are able to frighten the robbers away and live happily in the house for the rest of their days.
Our source for the story was Household Tales by the Brothers Grimm, translated by British writer Margaret Hunt. The book, which was first published in 1884, contains all 200 Grimm folktales plus 10 legends. This is tale No. 27. Grimm’s source was the German storyteller Dorothea Viehmann, who claimed to have picked up much of her material from guests at her father’s tavern. The fact that there don’t appear to be any close variants of the folktale from earlier sources indicates that it may have originated from a children’s story of the day. The major themes are particularly relevant to children: 1) respect for the aged, where weakness of the body is compensated for by wisdom; and 2) the importance of teamwork whereby, through working together, the four animals achieve a result that none could have accomplished individually.
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