The story starts with the mother goat leaving home. She has seven kids and obviously no husband. She needs to run some errands and her children, seven little kids, need to wait for her all alone.
She is worried. A lot can go wrong, especially if you are dealing with seven children. Her main worry is the possibility of a wolf breaking into the house and eating her offspring. Yes, the walls are solid and she can lock the doors but what if the irresponsible youth open?
She warns them to wait for her and check that it is really her at the doors before they let anybody in. Somehow comforted she finally leaves.
Kids are alone. Yeah! Time for a party! Well, not for long. Somebody is knocking at the door and wants them to open.
They remember their mother's advice and ask who is it. The voice said it's their mum but they don't see her. They don't see anybody. And the voice just doesn't sound right. Eventually, they demand to see the hand, pardon, the leg of the mother.
Nope, this can't be a mom. Mom has nice white paws and they see an ugly grey paw with scary claws. Nope, this can't be the mummy. It's probably the wolf. So they don't open. It looks like the danger is over.
Not for long, though. The wolf is a persistent beast. He is smart enough to know why he couldn't enter the house full of delicious goat meat. His paws betray him, so he visits the baker and demands to cover them with flour.
When his paws look like the paws of a mother goat and his claws are covered, he can return. With a voice, as soft as he is capable of producing, he demands again to get in. This time kids are more willing to listen.
Only the youngest is not tricked. He tries to convince the older kids not to open the door but his requests are vain. Six is more than one. The moment the door is open, the wolf jumps in and starts slaughtering the naive kids.
Please note that Pauli Ebner didn't portray that inviting graphic scene like many of her contemporaries. We are spared of the gory details but we also don't see how the youngest kid escapes. He hides in a clockwork.
Again, allusions to the myth of Cronos where only his youngest child survives (and Cronos is a god of time) are clear.
When mother goat returns she only finds a lot of mess in her home. No kids. After a while, the youngest comes out of the clockwork and tells her what happened.
She is sad, obviously, but her spirit is still high enough to at least try to do something. She and the youngest kid go around the house and they really find the wolf. He was snoring with his bloated stomach obviously overwhelmed.
Mother goat takes scissors and cuts his belly where her six eaten kids lay crowded but still alive. She gets them out one by one and all her children help her to load the wolf's stomach (he was still sleeping!) with stones.
When he wakes up, he is so thirsty, he has to drink as fast and as much as he can. Unfortunately for him, he is too clumsy and falls into the well, where he dies.
Yes, another opportunity where the illustrator decided to spare us of the gory details.
The story about the wolf and seven kids is finished. The wolf is dead and the kids are dancing around the well together with their mom. We all hope they learned a lesson. Not everybody with a soft voice and white paws is your mother!
And now my promise about the myth, which is so closely connected with this fairy tale. It's a myth about Cronos who was eating his children because he was told one of them will kill him. While it's not hard to eat a baby, their mother was all but enthusiastic by his actions. So she hides one of them (Zeus) and gives a stone (!) to her husband to swallow it. After some time, Zeus rescues his brothers and sisters from Cronos' stomach and here we are. The beast is defeated and the kids are dancing!
You can actually read a full article about the symbolism and mythology behind The Wolf and Seven Kids.
Please share this post with your friends and colleagues.