- Genre
- Endless tale
- Source status
- variant tradition
- Motifs
- sheep, old couple, expected ending
The tale: an editorial retelling
There lived an old man and an old woman. They had a little white sheep. A sheep is a sheep—and we shall tell the tale again from the beginning.
There lived an old man and an old woman. They had a little white sheep. A sheep is a sheep—and we shall tell the tale again from the beginning.
About this version
The sheep never goes away or meets danger in this version. A familiar opening raises the expectation of an adventure, which the storyteller replaces with the same opening again.
J. Čiuta recorded this tale from sixty-year-old Juozas Čiuta in Plikiškiai, Joniškis district, in 1928. The archive reference is LTR 324(27); the anthology prints it as number 295.
Telling and discussing the tale
After one round, ask whether the listeners expected an adventure. Then let them identify the return to the beginning. If you change the animal when inventing your own game, describe the change as your version.