More Folktales: Bears and Goats

As our journey through Bulgarian traditions and folklore continues, we got to learn and act out two more folktales:

The Bear and the Bad Word

In a deep forest cave, there once lived a mother with her baby bears. One day a man passed by, while collecting wood, and saw one of the baby bears stuck in a bush. The man helped the baby bear get free. Meanwhile, the mother saw what had happened and went to thank the man with tears in her eyes. She wanted to become his friend. The man agreed, as he was afraid of the bear. And as time passed by, they really did become good friends.

One day, as they were saying goodbye, the bear kissed the man, after which the man told the bear that her breath stinks very badly. The man was not aware that he had said something insulting that made the bear sad. The bear told the man to take his axe and hit her with it on her head. As the man was hesitating, the bear told him that she will kill him, if he doesn’t fulfil her request. The man was scared and so did as the bear asked. He hit her with his axe on the head and left a big wound. After this, he came many times to look for her in the forest, but he didn’t find her. Years later, he met the bear again. They greeted each other, and then the bear asked the man to look for the wound he left on her head with the axe. The man was very surprised, as he couldn’t even find a scar.

The bear told him: “ I was able to forget about the wound from the axe, but the bad words you said to me about my breath left an even deeper wound in my heart, which I won’t be able to forget!”

The Two Goats

One day, two goats try to cross a weak and narrow bridge across the river. The goats are at either end of the bridge, but neither is ready to make way for the other. They come to the centre of the bridge and begin fighting about who should cross first. As they fight mindlessly, the bridge gives in, taking both the goats down into the river with it.