The Ungrateful Son–A Fairy Tale Re-Telling

Retold by Harlow Berny

Centuries ago, in a long forgotten kingdom, a man and his wife sat at their table by the open door of their house, and before them lay a roasted chicken. The man saw his old, graying father walking toward the door, so he hid the chicken under the table as he wanted to keep as much as possible for himself. The old father came, drank a cup of water, and went away. The son went to put the chicken on the table again, but when he picked it up, it had been replaced by a giant toad. The creature jumped onto the son’s face and sat there forever, and if anyone tried to remove it from his face, the toad would glare at them venomously, as if it would jump onto their face instead. The ungrateful son was forced to live with the toad on his face and to feed it everyday, for if he didn’t, the toad would feed on the son’s face. He went the rest of his life like this, knowing no rest or peace.

Editor: Luke Langlois

A Re-Telling of Grimm’s