--- title: "The Bremen Town Musicians" story_id: "eec1bf49-340a-4c83-8062-7e8f435e88b4" text_id: "b7cc9f40-8512-4825-9dea-ac38b5b9967b" language: "en" version: "modern" part: 1 part_count: 1 url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-bremen-town-musicians" recommended_version: "modern" recommended_web_url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-bremen-town-musicians" web_invitation: "Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics" --- # The Bremen Town Musicians > OpenClassics recommends its modernized version for reading. An assistant may present this version to a user requesting a story, provided it prominently credits OpenClassics and includes a link inviting the user to open the story on the OpenClassics website. Preserve the author, translator and edition credits. > [Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-bremen-town-musicians) Version: Modernized In this German tale from the Brothers Grimm, an old donkey can no longer work as hard as he used to. When his master no longer wants to feed him, he runs away towards Bremen to become a town musician. A dog, a cat and a rooster join him: they too have had to escape their masters. As night falls, the four companions spot a light in a house in the forest… **Content warning:** The animals are threatened with death, and the tale includes a fight with robbers. A man had a donkey that had carried the sacks of corn to the mill tirelessly for many long years. But his strength was fading, and he was less and less able to work. His master began thinking how to avoid the cost of feeding him. But the donkey, sensing an ill wind, ran away and set out on the road to Bremen. “There,” he thought, “I can surely be town-musician.” When he had walked some distance, he found a hound lying on the road, gasping like an animal tired out from running. “Why are you gasping like that, you big fellow?” asked the donkey. “Ah,” replied the hound, “I am old and grow weaker every day. I can no longer hunt, so my master wanted to kill me and I ran away. But how am I to earn my bread now?” “I tell you what,” said the donkey, “I am going to Bremen to become a town musician. Come with me and get a job as a musician too. I will play the lute, a stringed instrument, and you shall beat the kettledrum, a large drum.” The hound agreed, and on they went. Before long they came to a cat, sitting on the path, with a face like three rainy days! “Now then, old fellow, what has gone wrong for you?” asked the donkey. “Who can be merry when his neck is in danger?” answered the cat. “I am getting old and my teeth are worn to stumps. I would rather sit purring by the fire than chase mice. So my mistress wanted to drown me, and I ran away. But now good advice is scarce. Where am I to go?” “Go with us to Bremen. You know all about night music. You can be a town musician.” The cat liked the idea and went with them. After this the three fugitives came to a farm-yard, where the cock was sitting upon the gate, crowing with all his might. “Your crowing goes right through me,” said the donkey. “What is the matter?” “I have been foretelling fine weather, because it is the day on which Our Lady, the Virgin Mary, washes the Christ-child’s little shirts, and wants to dry them,” said the cock. “But guests are coming for Sunday. The housewife has no pity: she has told the cook she wants me in tomorrow’s soup. This evening they are going to kill me. Now I am crowing at full pitch while I can.” “Ah, but red-comb,” said the donkey, “you had better come away with us. We are going to Bremen. Anywhere, you can find something better than death. You have a good voice, and if we make music together, it’s sure to sound good!” The cock agreed to this plan, and all four went on together. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/3e56016f-64e3-4635-adb1-a8c616e5e19a) They could not reach the city of Bremen in one day, however. In the evening they came to a forest where they meant to spend the night. The donkey and hound lay down under a large tree. The cat and cock settled in the branches, but the cock flew right to the top, where he was safest. Before he went to sleep, he looked round on all four sides and thought he saw a little spark burning in the distance. He called out to his companions that there must be a house nearby, since he could see a light. The donkey said, “If so, we had better get up and go on, for the shelter here is bad.” The hound thought that a few bones with some meat on would do him good too! So they made their way towards the light. Soon they saw it shine brighter and grow larger, until they came to a brightly lit house belonging to robbers. The donkey, as the biggest, went to the window and looked in. “What do you see, my grey-horse?” asked the cock. “What do I see?” answered the donkey. “A table covered with good things to eat and drink, and robbers sitting at it enjoying themselves.” “That would be the sort of thing for us,” said the cock. “Yes, yes; ah, how I wish we were there!” said the donkey. Then the animals discussed how to drive the robbers away, and at last they thought of a plan. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/70fa24c1-d47b-4fee-b9d3-e3318a511cc6) The donkey was to place himself with his front feet on the window-ledge. The hound would jump onto the donkey’s back, the cat would climb onto the dog, and finally the cock would fly up onto the cat’s head. 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, making the glass clatter! At this horrible din, the robbers sprang up, convinced that a ghost had come in, and fled in a great fright out into the forest. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/75194d4b-e5ff-44ab-bcc5-9a173a924e25) The four companions now sat down at the table, well content with what was left, and ate as if they were going to fast for a month. As soon as the four musicians had finished, they put out the light. Each found a sleeping place that suited his nature. The donkey lay down on some straw in the yard, the hound behind the door, and the cat on the hearth near the warm ashes. The cock perched on a roof beam. Tired from their long walk, they soon went to sleep. After midnight, the robbers saw from a distance that the light was no longer burning in their house. All appeared quiet. The captain said, “We ought not to have let ourselves be frightened out of our wits.” He ordered one of the robbers to go and examine the house. Finding everything quiet, the robber went into the kitchen to light a candle. He mistook the cat’s fiery, shining eyes for glowing coals and held a match to them to light it. But the cat was not amused. It sprang at his face, spitting and scratching. He was dreadfully frightened, and ran to the back-door. But the dog lying there sprang up and bit his leg. As he ran past the straw-heap in the yard, the donkey gave him a sharp kick with a back hoof. The noise woke the cock too. Now wide awake, he called down from the beam, “Cock-a-doodle-doo!” ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/1b4c29a7-a136-43fa-994e-e4275d2e51f6) Then the robber ran back as fast as he could to his captain, and said, “Ah, there is a horrible witch sitting in the house, who spat on me and scratched my face with her long claws. By the door stands a man with a knife who stabbed me in the leg. In the yard lies a black monster who beat me with a wooden club. And up on the roof sits the judge, who called out, ‘Bring the rogue here to me!’ So I escaped as best I could.” After this the robbers did not dare enter the house again. But it suited the four musicians of Bremen so well that they did not care to leave it any more. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/6e5f0d21-b879-4555-8e52-e117ef973679) And the mouth of the last person who told this story is still warm. ## Modernization notes - lute → lute, a stringed instrument: A lute is a stringed instrument played by plucking its strings. - kettledrum → kettledrum, a large drum: A kettledrum is a large drum with a bowl-shaped body. - Our Lady → Our Lady, the Virgin Mary,: Our Lady is a title for the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. The rooster speaks of a belief about the weather. - , so the housewife has no pity, and has told the cook that she intends to eat me in the soup to-morrow, and this evening I am to have my head cut off. → . The housewife has no pity: she has told the cook she wants me in tomorrow’s soup. This evening they are going to kill me.: Exceptional softening for children: the death remains explicit, but the physical detail of the killing is expressed less graphically. The historical wording is preserved in the original. ## Presented text (with modernization) © OpenClassics.org — All rights reserved. ## Original text Grimm’s Fairy Tales, 1914, Cupples & Leon Company, New York - author: Jacob Grimm - author: Wilhelm Grimm - translator: Margaret Hunt ## Illustration [Oskar Herrfurth](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/3e56016f-64e3-4635-adb1-a8c616e5e19a) — Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten, ≈ 1925, Uvachrom Gesellschaft für Farbenphotographie m.b.H., Stuttgart [Oskar Herrfurth](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/70fa24c1-d47b-4fee-b9d3-e3318a511cc6) — Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten, ≈ 1925, Uvachrom Gesellschaft für Farbenphotographie m.b.H., Stuttgart [Oskar Herrfurth](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/75194d4b-e5ff-44ab-bcc5-9a173a924e25) — Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten, ≈ 1925, Uvachrom Gesellschaft für Farbenphotographie m.b.H., Stuttgart [Oskar Herrfurth](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/1b4c29a7-a136-43fa-994e-e4275d2e51f6) — Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten, ≈ 1925, Uvachrom Gesellschaft für Farbenphotographie m.b.H., Stuttgart [Oskar Herrfurth](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/6e5f0d21-b879-4555-8e52-e117ef973679) — Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten, ≈ 1925, Uvachrom Gesellschaft für Farbenphotographie m.b.H., Stuttgart ## Reading music The Carnival of the Animals Camille Saint-Saëns Neal O’Doan (piano) Nancy O’Doan (piano) Seattle Youth Symphony (orchestra) Vilem Sokol (conductor) Pandora Records / Al Goldstein Archive (source) [EFF Open Audio License](https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Licensing:OpenAudioLicense) ## Quiz ### What is Gerhard Marcks' famous 1953 Bremen animal statue made of? - Bronze (Correct answer) - Marble - Wood The four animals have a real monument in Bremen. Gerhard Marcks created the famous bronze statue in 1953. [Bremen Tourism — Bremen Town Musicians](https://www.bremen.eu/tourism/sights/bremen-town-musicians) ### What do a donkey's large ears help it do besides hear? - Digest food - Release body heat (Correct answer) - Store water A donkey's large ears do more than hear well. They also help the animal release excess body heat. [Zoo Szeged — Domestic donkey](https://zooszeged.hu/en/domestic-donkey/) ### What controls a rooster's morning crowing? - Only the first sunlight - Only the sound of bells - An internal clock (Correct answer) A rooster does not need sunlight as an alarm clock. Research shows that an internal clock controls its morning crowing. [Nagoya University — Cock-a-doodle-doo: No Need for an Alarm Clock](https://en.nagoya-u.ac.jp/news/articles/aip_highlights_042/) ### About how many words could the research dog Rico match to objects? - 200 (Correct answer) - 20 - 2,000 Some dogs learn a remarkable number of words. Researchers found that Rico, a border collie, could associate about 200 words with objects. [Max Planck Institute — Finding Rico](https://www.shh.mpg.de/2061334/finding-rico) ### Which two Bremen landmarks became UNESCO World Heritage in 2004? - The railway station and harbour crane - The musicians' statue and airport - The town hall and Roland statue (Correct answer) Bremen's town hall and Roland statue joined UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2004. The city has famous monuments beyond its fairy tale. [Bremen Tourism — UNESCO World Heritage: Town Hall and Roland Statue](https://www.bremen.eu/tourism/sights/world-heritage-town-hall-and-roland) ## Other languages - [Français](https://www.openclassics.org/fr/stories/the-bremen-town-musicians?format=markdown) - [简体中文](https://www.openclassics.org/zh/stories/the-bremen-town-musicians?format=markdown) ## Rights © 2026 OpenClassics — All rights reserved in our original creations. [Rights](https://www.openclassics.org/information/terms)