The Three Billy Goats Gruff1 / 21

Once there were three billy goats called Gruff. They lived on a hill with short, dry grass.

About this story

A free Grade 2 story from the Peabody library, Level 2. It has 21 short pages and about 386 words, so it reads in a few minutes.

The short version

Three billy goats want to cross a bridge to the sweet green grass on the other side, but a mean old troll lives under it. The two smaller goats talk their way past him by sending him on to their bigger brother. The biggest goat is not afraid, and he bumps the troll off the bridge into the river, so the three goats can eat in peace.

Quick facts

What it teaches

Working together with a plan beats a bully.

Where this story comes from

People in Norway told this for a long time. Peter Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe wrote it down around 1841.

Where does Three Billy Goats Gruff come from?

It is a Norwegian folktale. Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe collected it in their Norske Folkeeventyr, whose first volume was published in 1841, and George Webbe Dasent translated it into English in 1859 in Popular Tales from the Norse.

Why are they called Gruff?

In Norwegian the goats are called Bruse, a word that means a tuft of hair. The earliest English translation turned that into “Gruff,” and the name has stayed. George Webbe Dasent's translation of 1859 gave the tale the title “Three Billy Goats Gruff.”

Does the troll die in Three Billy Goats Gruff?

In the Norwegian story the biggest goat overpowers the troll and the troll does not survive. In this telling the troll is bumped into the river, swims away coughing, and never comes back to the bridge.

More like this: fairy tales for kids · moral stories for kids

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