Fairy tales have a lot in common
all over the world there is a commonality
where kind, selfless, helpful , friendly,
are positive traits usually rewarding,
while selfishness, greed, jealousy
come to a no good ending.

Let us take a look at a tale from Japan, Shitakiri Suzume
or, the Tongue-Cut Sparrow, who fell
from a tree and injured herself, only to be
rescued by a kind old old man who nursed her lovingly -
the two grew to be best of friends, the bird knew how to speak,
remember everything is possible in fairy tales,
they were together so much that his wife got overly jealous
and one day when alone, cut the birds tongue,
the bird flew away, the old man came home,
was told what happened that day, and off he went to find his friend,
up the mountain deep in a bamboo grove, he found her with her family,
he was invited to their home, treated like royalty, and when it came time to go,
asked to chose which box to take along, he chose the smaller of the two,
on opening it at home, found it was full of coins, treasure, jewelry -
his jealous wife did not fare as well the following day,
though she was well entertained, she picked the heavy larger box to take away,
only to find no treasure inside, but little hideous snakes and animals to give her fright,
so once more you see, how good is rewarded, while evil, reward is denied.
 
 

Once again we tread a similar path
as we turn to a Korean tale such as that,
of two brothers, one good, one bad,
the bad one took the family's fortune
leaving his brother with many children short of torture,
then as would happen, a sparrow fell into their yard,
a snake was about to attack its nest, the brother could not allow that,
so he saved the nest and took the injured sparrow back,
where it was treated for a broken leg, soon mended it flew off
but returned in the Spring dropping two seeds of gourd,
which were carefully planted and bore two large gourds,
at harvest time the man and his wife opened the two gourds up,
only to find an outpouring of riches, gold, silver, precious stones,
sounds familiar doesn't it, but wait, they outdid their selfish brother,
who upon learning what happened tried a repeat performance,
and sure enough came Spring, another gourd seed was dropped,
but when it was ripe and opened, a shaman appeared, waving a sword,
directing the rich brother to give up all his worldly possessions,
to avoid Heaven's judgment, leaving him totally broke,
his good brother took pity, invited him in,
the wicked brother learned of his sin,
was forgiven, another happy ending we have seen.
 
 

Now in this our last, Norwegian story,
we have three billy goats quite gruff and hoary
who merely wanted to cross a small bridge,
in order to gorge themselves their heart's fill,
but an under the bridge ogre said you're going to pay the bill,
 I'll eat you instead, for I'm hungry,
the littlest goat first on the bridge said no,
don't eat me, wait for my middle brother,
who when he crossed said, no don't eat me either,
wait for my big brother, who then challenged the ogre,
butted him into the river, the goats proceeded to greener pasture,
where they grew fat and happy, showing us that animals too,
can think through a tough situation, using their wit and skill
to overcome their mortal danger without being killed.