The Goose that Bit
A fairy tale of gold and a goose, and of the penis of a prince
Video not yet publicly available
This tale has been recorded and will be uploaded to the video gallery towards the end of 2026. where it will be available to watch for free - together with many, many other tales.
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If you have a particular reason for wanting to watch the recording before it is publicly available, send a mail and we can discuss this.
The tale (motif no. 571C in the ATU/Thompson Index) is known in two version from the Renaissance.
One, The Biting Doll, is the second tale of the fifth night in Straparola's Facetious Nights (1551). It is also in Juan Valera y Alcalá-Galiano's 19th century La muñequita and in Bechstein's Die Schönsten Märchen (1845).
My preferred variant, with a goose attacking the prince's private parts, is told by Basile as the first story of the fifth day in The Tale of Tales, also published as The Pentamerone (Lo Cunto de li Cunti, 1634).
I have greatly enjoyed developing into my own version - a process explored in detail in my From Page to Stage workshops.
Those with an ornithological interest may like to see that a bird does indeed blink sideways.
More comic tales
The video gallery has become very extensive. So if you would enjoy more tales like this, here are a few suggestions.
The video clips here are all amateur quality, shot in various theatres or, as here, in my home studio.
Their intention is just to show the range of my storytelling and give a flavour of a live performance.
Permission is granted for use in non-commercial educational contexts.
The videos are © Richard Martin.
Professionally recorded CDs and DVDs are available here.
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For those who are teachers: Telling stories in the classroom: basing language teaching on storytelling