- Genre
- Animal tale
- Source status
- variant tradition
- Motifs
- Meciūtė, wolf, decreasing sequence, song, escape
The tale: an editorial retelling
An old man and an old woman had five sheep, a little dog and a girl called Meciūtė. Each morning the woman told Meciūtė to eat, feed the dog and take the sheep out. The girl sat on a stump while the sheep grazed nearby.
One day a wolf came, threatened the sheep and carried one away. That evening the woman asked whether all the sheep were home and shut in. Meciūtė said they were. The woman told her to eat beet greens seasoned with little stones, feed the dog and go to bed.
The wolf returned the next day. “Meciūtė, I shall sing you a song!” He sang: “As the story went, an old man and his wife; / five little sheep, the dog made six; / Meciūtė made seven.” Then he seized a sheep. Three remained.
On the third day the girl wept and begged him not to sing, but the wolf repeated his song and took another sheep. On the fourth day only one remained. On the fifth he carried away the last. Every evening Meciūtė still said that the sheep were home.
On the sixth morning she went out with only the dog. The wolf sang again about the five sheep, the dog and Meciūtė, then carried the dog away. On the seventh day the girl came alone. “What can you sing about now, when there are no sheep and no dog?” she asked. The wolf sang the same song and swallowed her.
Inside the wolf, Meciūtė said, “Carry me to my father’s barn.” He did. Then she asked to be taken into the yard, into the house, and finally onto the stove. The wolf obeyed each time. On the stove she slipped out and cried, “There is a wolf in the house!” The old man and woman killed the wolf, and the girl survived.
About this version
J. Aidulis recorded this version in Antanai in 1939 from eighty-year-old Marijona Stasiūnienė, archive reference LTR 2442(116). The short traditional refrain is quoted in the Lithuanian version; here it has been translated into English. Slashes mark its three lines. The surrounding narrative is retold. This source text supplies no melody, so none is reconstructed by guesswork.
The losses of the sheep and dog, the strange food, the girl’s repeated untruth and the final danger belong to this version. The source does not explain why she conceals the losses; no invented psychological explanation has been added.
Telling and discussing the tale
Whenever the wolf returns, repeat the same three-line refrain. It can be spoken rhythmically; identify any tune you compose as new. Choose this tale with the listeners’ sensitivities in mind. The animals disappear while the song stays unchanged: discuss the tension this creates. Meciūtė escapes by directing the wolf home, so preserve every stop in the final journey.