DLTK's Fairy Tale Activities
The Bremen Town Musicians
© Written by and illustrated by Leanne Guenther - based on the German fairy tale first collected by
the Brothers Grimm
Donkey loved to sing. He also loved to play guitar.
One might ponder the plausibility of a singing, guitar playing donkey but Donkey made it possible.
As a guitar playing, singing donkey, Donkey did not have much success in his hometown – for the other donkeys were not very much into music but, rather, enjoyed pulling around carts and eating straw.
Due to this, Donkey packed up his bag and guitar as he decided to make the journey down to Bremen.
Along his way, Donkey ran into Dog, who had grown quite popular amongst the river trout and bears since he was a fantastic drum player.
Also, Dog had a very unique singing voice.
Donkey informed Dog about his plans to become a successful musician in Bremen. With news of this, Dog immediately offered to accompany Donkey on his journey to Bremen.
The two set off instantly.
As the two musicians, Dog the drum playing, singing dog and Donkey the guitar playing, singing donkey, wandered through a musty-forested pathway, they came across Cat.
Now, Cat was cat who loved to sing; and he was good at it too. He would harmonize with the forest’s birds in the day and crickets during the night. Squirrels, possums, badgers, and the like would travel far and wide to listen to Cat’s splendid voice.
Much like Donkey’s and Dog’s, Cat’s voice was unique.
Curious as to why Donkey and Dog were so far away from their homes, Cat asked where they were going.
“We are headed to the great town of Bremen,” Donkey began to explain.
“Lookin’ to test our luck in the music business – yup, yup!” Dog finished heartily.
Cat immediately hopped on board the plan, and the three travelling musicians set on their way to Bremen.
After travelling for a few hours, the three musicians, Cat the singing cat, Dog the drum playing, singing dog, and Donkey the guitar playing, singing donkey, decided to stop for a short break beside a large barn surrounded by reeds.
The three decided to play a song.
The sound of the beautiful noise attracted Rooster.
“What lovely music. May I join?” Rooster asked.
“Why of course,” Donkey and Cat said together.
“Yup! Yup!” Dog added.
The four started to play: Donkey on guitar, Dog on drums, Cat on lead vocals, and Rooster on the saxophone.
They sounded beautiful together, especially with Rooster’s skill on the saxophone. Rooster also had a very unique singing voice
Later that day, Donkey invited Rooster to join him and the others on a journey to Bremen.
Ecstatic with the idea of playing music in Bremen, Rooster agreed right away.
The four musicians, Rooster the saxophone playing, singing rooster, Cat the lead singing cat, Dog the drum playing, singing dog, and Donkey the guitar playing, singing donkey, set off on their journey to Bremen.
They travelled for the rest of the day, but eventually grew extremely tired and hungry. When they came to a grassy clearing filled with daisies, the four travellers were relieved to see a quaint cottage nearby, billowing with smoke.
As they approached the small hut, they could hear loud laughter coming from inside.
“Should we knock on the door…?” Cat asked cautiously.
“We should probably see who’s inside first – just to make sure it’s safe,” Donkey replied.
“Good idea – yup, yup!” Dog added.
They quietly made their way around to the east side of the hut where they could see the gleam coming out of a small window. Peering inside they could make out the sight of a pack of four wolves eating what looked to be food stolen from the cottage.
“They are robbers, those rascals!” Rooster whispered.
“Yup! Yup!” Dog added, shaking his head angrily.
The four travelling musicians decided to use their talents in their favor. Playing completely off key, the musicians played the most awful commotion ever heard!
BANG! BANG! SLAM! SLAM! TOOT! TOOT!
Rooster’s saxophone squealed, Cat wailed, Dog slammed his drums, and Donkey played his guitar disastrously out of tune.
THONK! THONK! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! CLAP! SLAM!
Then they all began to sing with their very unique voices:
COCKA-DOODLE-DOO!! MEOOOW! REEER!! WOOF! WOOF!! HEE-HAW! HEE-HAW!!
This racket caused the pack of wolves to scurry as quickly as they could out of the house.
The travelling musicians entered the cottage, cleaned up the mess from the robbers, and finished the meal – for they did not want to waste any food.
Then, they fell asleep on the couches and beds that the cottage had to offer. Rooster put his saxophone on the desk beside the kitchen; Cat licked up a big bowl of water; Dog cleaned off his drums and placed them beside his bed; but Donkey was so tired that he left his guitar lying right by the front door.
Little did the travelling musicians know that the four wolves were hatching a plan of their own: they were going to send one of the wolves in to make sure it was safe to return.
The wolf approached the cottage and opened the door with a:
CREAAAAK!!
The wolf waited a few moments before proceeding further. It was pitch black and the robber could see nothing but darkness. As he went to take a step, the wolf’s foot came right down on Donkey’s, still out-of-tune, guitar.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
The wolf was startled by such an awful noise. He tripped over the guitar, which sent him flying into Dog’s drums.
SLAM! BAM! CLANG! BANG!
Scared sightless, the wolf then fumbled to keep his balance as he hit his head on the counter, which sent Cat’s water bowl tipping over onto the wolf’s head.
WHOOSH! SPLASH! SPLOOSH! SPLASH!
Soaked and scared, the wolf then tried to get up but banged his head on the desk as Rooster’s saxophone came crashing down upon him.
CLANG! CRASH! BANG! BASH!
The wolf finally ran out of the cottage in a panic. He ran right past his pack-mates, who followed shortly after. They were never seen again.
The travelling musicians decided that perhaps Bremen and travelling was not for them – especially since they found all the happiness in music they could in… each other.
For the rest of their days, Rooster the saxophone playing, singing rooster, Cat the lead singing cat, Dog the drum playing, singing dog, and Donkey the guitar playing, singing donkey, lived in the cottage and played for the animals that lived around the daisy filled clearing.
The End.