The Golden Goats

IN THE LONG-AGO DAYS, IN THE LAND WE NOW CALL SWEDEN, once a Fairy was riding a coach drawn by three golden goats.  Each goat had a coat of lustrous golden fleece.  Suddenly, the three goats broke away and dashing, darted into the fields.

Three farmhands - Jens, Mats and Ruben - were working in the fields when these three golden goats galloped toward them.  Much accustomed to runaway animals, the farmhands caught the goats.

"Look at that fur!" said Jens, stroking the thick, lustrous golden fleece of the goats.

"Whoever owns them will surely want them back," said Ruben.

Soon the Fairy arrived. She was glad indeed the farmhands had safely caught her goats. She said, "To thank you for catching my golden goats, you may keep them. That is, for as long as they stay with you.  For as you saw, they are frisky.  If they get away, they'll come home to be with my other goats.  Then you will have a hard time telling which one is yours."

She said, "To thank you for catching my golden goats, you may keep them."

Jens, Mats, and Ruben could hardly believe their luck.  Stroking the luxurious golden coat of these goats, each of them was thinking the same thing - sheering and selling this fleece would make them rich!

As soon as the Fairy disappeared into the woods, they quit their farmhand jobs and returned to their parent's homes. Mindful of the fairy's warning, Jens seared his goat with a brand behind the left ear. Mats seared his goat with a brand behind the right horn.  Reluctant to hurt his goat, Ruben branded his animal with tar under its chin whiskers.

Once their animals were branded, each of them considered how to keep the prize animals from running away. Jens and Mats tied ropes around the necks of their goats and hired workmen to hold each end all night while the goats slept, as well as during the day while the goats grazed in the pasture. Ruben, however, preferred to watch his goat himself.

As they had hoped, the golden fleece caught the eye of many a customer, and the bundles sold for a very high price. The young men became rich beyond their wildest dreams. They dressed in fine clothes and built palaces for themselves. They called themselves Lord Jens and Lord Mats.  Their many servants saw to it their goats were carefully watched carefully so the animals wouldn't run away.

The young men became rich beyond their wildest dreams.

Ruben built himself a palace just as the others did, and he lived and dressed well. However he clipped and cared for the goat himself, leading the animal with him wherever he went, petting and talking to him. The goat became so tame that he didn't need a leash anymore and followed Ruben like a dog, coming when he whistled. Ruben was even allowed to ride on the goat's back and they took long trips together.

One day, when Ruben was shearing a large chunk of golden fleece, he wondered how much more value the fleece would have if it were wound into yarn. So he placed the fleece on the goat's horn, pulled it across his own head and began to twist it. The goat watched the thread grow longer and longer. The goat seemed to understand, and jerked his neck to tighten and stretch it the yarn. Ruben might as well have had another person helping him, so well did it go.

When the length of yarn was ready, Ruben wound the yarn around the goat's horn. The goat moved its head from side to side, just as a person helping someone wind yarn would do. Soon Ruben had large balls of golden yarn.  Just as he thought, the yarn brought a far better price than the wooly tufts of fleece.

Ruben became rich from his golden yarn.  And he became just as well known for his generosity in sharing his riches with the needy. Lord Jens and Lord Mats laughingly called him The Goatherd, since he still stooped to the common task of caring for his goat himself.

Ruben became rich from his golden yarn.

One morning, a terrible cry shattered the early morning hours. The stable boys hired by Jens had fallen asleep, and Jens' goat had escaped! Tearing his hair and running frantically around, Jens moaned in despair. Finally, he slung a knapsack behind his back, set off to find the fairy, and after a long search found her castle deep in the woods on a hilltop.

"Ah, welcome," said the Fairy with a smile. "I thought you'd be here, since your goat rejoined us early this morning. Now as I said before, you're welcome to your goat if you can identify him. But if you cannot, things will not go well for you. Do you care to look at the stalls?"

"Of course!" said Jens with confidence, remembering the tar he had carefully branded behind the left ear. Each goat was in a stall with walls and floors of marble, and he went from stall to stall, examining each golden goat in turn. Yet none had the mark behind the left ear.

"Oh, I wouldn't look for any marks or brands," said the Fairy, laughing. "All the goats bathe in my crystal clear stream, and all marks are instantly washed away."

"Oh, I wouldn't look for any marks or brands," said the Fairy, laughing.

Jens groaned. Golden goats look exactly alike! Yet one of them must be his. He grabbed one animal that could have been his goat. Though it resisted, he pulled and pulled until it was bound to leave its stall. Then with a quick motion the goat broke away from Jens' grasp, and with its horns butted him so hard that he was thrown out the door, where he rolled and rolled down the hill.

When Jens returned to the village, he found Mats in the same sorry state he had been in before. The workmen hired by Mats had been frightened by a bear rushing out of the woods.  They, too, had dropped the ropes and this allowed the goat to escape.

"You'll never find your goat," grumbled Jens. He tried to tell Mats it was hopeless to find his goat from all the rest, but Mats would have none of that, remembering the brand he had put between the goat's horns. And so Mats, too, slung a knapsack on his back and set out to find the fairy's castle.

"You'll never find your goat," grumbled Jens.

When Mats arrived, all the goats looked exactly the same to him. He, too, was butted out the door and rolled down the hill.  He returned to the village with his head hung low.

Before you think that Ruben kept his goat without any problems, you should know that not long after that, a lightning storm struck.  A flash of lightening frightened Ruben's goat and it also ran away. Ruben set out to find his goat and came to the fairy's castle. When the Fairy told him that all brands and marks disappeared when the goats bathed in the crystal clear stream, Ruben wasn't worried. "Surely my goat will recognize me," he thought.

But when he slowly passed each stall the Fairy laughed and said, "Goats do not have long memories, I'm afraid." Ruben felt sad. None of the goats seemed to know him. Could it be that his goat had forgotten all the fine times they shared together?

The Fairy laughed and said, "Goats do not have long memories, I'm afraid."

"Well, at least may I clip a lock from each goat?" he asked the Fairy. "One of the locks will have to be from my goat, and I'll have that as a remembrance."

"Why not?" said the Fairy, and Ruben clipped a small lock from each goat. To make the pile smaller and easier to carry, Ruben tied the fleece to a pump handle and began to twist the yarn into thread as he had done so many times before. He pulled and twisted, pulled and twisted. One of the goats leaned forward, watching. Suddenly the animal stepped out of his stall, stuck both horns into the wood on the pump handle and began to jerk and pull, stretching the thread. Ruben looked up.

"My goat! My golden goat!" he cried in delight. And so Ruben and his goat were reunited. They returned to the village and lived happily ever after.