The Goat and Her Three Kids

The story[1] opens with an introduction of its protagonists: the hardworking and widowed goat
and her three kids, of whom the two older ones are misbehaved, while the youngest obeys his
mother. On one day, the goat gathers all three around, telling them that she must leave on a
quest for food, instructing them not to open the door unless they hear her singing, in
characteristically soft voice, the refrain:
Trei iezi cucuiei
Ua mamei descuiei!
C mama v-aduce vou:
Frunze-n buze,
Lapte-n e,
Drob de sare
n spinare,
Mlie
n clcie,
Smoc de flori
Pe subsuori.

Three kids with growing horns,

Open the door for your mother!
Because mother is bringing you:
Leaves on her lips,
Milk in her teats,
A ball of salt
On her back,
Cornmeal
On her heel,
A tuft of flowers
In her armpits.

The conversation is overheard by the wolf, who spies on the goat's family. Although being a
godfather to the kids (and therefore an in-law, cumtru, to the goat herself), the villain has his
eye set on eating the goat's children. A while after the mother has left, the wolf sneaks in front
of the door and starts singing her song to the three kids. The ruse succeeds in convincing the
eldest two children, who rush in to open the door. They are stopped by the youngest, who
notices that the song is performed in an unusually coarse voice.
Having heard this too, the Big Bad Wolf hurries over to a smith's shop, where he gets his
tongue and teeth "sharpened". He then returns to the goat's house, and this time performs the
song in a soft voice. The eldest kid ignores his youngest brother's advice for more caution,
and rushes in to let the stranger in. Meanwhile, the other two hide around the house: the
youngest by tunneling his way up the soot-filled chimney, the second-oldest by hiding under
an overturned trough. As soon as he is in, the wolf decapitates the careless kid and eats him
whole. This prompts the polite but imprudent kid hiding under the trough to speak up and
wish him s-i fie de bine (roughly, "may it serve you"). As a result of this, the intruder is able
to drag him out of his hiding place and gulp him down. After spending some time looking for
the third kid, the wolf tires and, in what is intended as a humiliating gesture, stains the walls
with the kids' blood and places their heads on the window sills, modifying their facial
expression to seem like they are smiling.
The wolf eventually leaves, and the youngest kid emerges from the chimney unharmed.
Initially deceived by the heads smiling at her as she enters the courtyard, the goat learns what
happened from the youngest kid, and begins to plot her revenge. She soon afterward begins
cooking a rich meal, and filling a large pit near her house with embers and slow-burning
firewood. She covers the spot with thin layers of mats and earth, and places a stool made out

of wax on top of these. The goat then walks into the forest and meets her cumtru, informing
him that she has discovered his evil deed, but that she has moved on. She also asks the wolf to
attend a traditional memorial service for the kids, back at her house. The villain agrees, and
unwittingly takes his seat on the wax chair, which melts as he consumes meal after meal.
Eventually, he falls into the pit and is engulfed by the flames. As he slowly burns and pleads
for rescue, the goat informs him that she follows "the words of the scripture", or lex talionis,
which she paraphrases as "a death for a death [and] a burn for a burn". The story ends as the
mother and child finish off their enemy with stoning, and all goats in the area celebrate the
death with an actual feast.