Valery Carrick’s cock lies choking on the bean
Carrick shows the cock stretched on the ground after swallowing the bean. This is the opening mishap in the selected cumulative tale; his mistress’s chain of requests and his recovery are not pictured.
Overview
The cock finds a bean while scratching beneath a cottage wall and chokes on it. He tells his mistress what has happened and asks for butter from the cow. Her request unfolds into a cumulative chain: the cow wants hay, the haymakers want loaves, the oven wants wood, the woodcutters need an axe and the smith requires charcoal. Speech belongs to the animals and even the oven within the tale; none is assigned an otherwise hidden human origin.
Once the woman supplies charcoal, the chain reverses and eventually provides butter to the cock. In the story he swallows it and the bean, then jumps up singing about shoemaking, a lost awl, a coin and a scarf for a girl. Those details belong to his closing song, not separately narrated journeys or marriages. The recovery is this fictional episode’s outcome; the account supplies neither a medical assessment nor additional anatomy for the cock.
Origins & earliest records
More Russian Picture Tales: The Cock and the Bean, printed pp. 1–10. Valery Carrick, translated by Nevill Forbes; the selected undated title carries copyright dates 1914 and 1920, without identifying an individual oral narrator or locality.
Records & interpretation
Complete selected animal-tale dialogue supports speech, threats, deceptive appearances and the stated ending. The figures are literary anthropomorphic animals, with no added supernatural anatomy or biological species record.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
More Russian Picture Tales: The Cock and the Bean, pp. 1–10
Complete selected tale through its stated ending; no unnamed continuation or hidden magical identity imported.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textCarrick/Forbes: The Cock and the Bean, complete selected taleResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
Historical illustrationValery Carrick’s cock lies choking on the bean
Carrick shows the cock stretched on the ground after swallowing the bean. This is the opening mishap in the selected cumulative tale; his mistress’s chain of requests and his recovery are not pictured.
