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Overview

The wolf pursues three goslings who have built houses against it. It asks each to open her door and denies that it intends to eat her; when refused, it blows down the straw and hay houses and swallows the first two sisters. The third home has stone walls strengthened with iron. Neither blowing nor climbing onto the roof and trampling breaks this shelter, so the predator changes from force to an offer of friendship.

It proposes a shared macaroni meal and supplies butter and cheese, repeatedly demanding admission while the youngest gosling maintains control of the door. Greed finally leads it to place its mouth at an opening, expecting a taste of the pasta. The gosling pours boiling water instead, and the narrator states that the wolf is killed. Its opened stomach releases the two earlier victims still alive because it swallowed them whole. This precise Venetian ending is distinct from other wolf-and-house plots: there is no brick house, chimney entry or wolf surviving to try another trick in the selected account.

Speech and deceptive reassuranceBlows down two housesIron reinforcement defeats attackBoiling-water death
01

Origins & earliest records

Crane, Italian Popular Tales (1885), LXXXVI, The Three Goslings, pp. 267–270; source: Bernoni, Tradizioni popolari veneziane, Puntata III, p. 65, Le Tre Ochete.

02

Records & interpretation

The complete selected English tale describes these actions and their ending. Its published source attribution distinguishes the local witness from parallel tales.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Italian Popular Tales: LXXXVI, The Three Goslings, pp. 267–270

    Thomas Frederick Crane · 1885

    Source listed as Bernoni, Tradizioni popolari veneziane, Puntata III, p. 65, Le Tre Ochete; original-language text not independently collated.

Family & connections

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References

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  1. Primary historical collectionCrane (1885): LXXXVI, The Three Goslings, pp. 267–270Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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