R u s s i a n f o l k t a l e “ K o l o b o k ”
T h e R O L Y - P O L Y
Kolobok
The Roly-Poly
Once upon a time there lived an Old Grandpa and an old Granny. One day the Old Grandpa said to the Old Granny:
- Bake a roly-poly for me, my dear.
- What will I bake it of? We have no flour! – answered the Old Granny.
- O-oh, old woman! Sweep the barn, scrape at the bins and you will have some flour!
And the Old Granny swept the barn, scraped at the bins and scratched up two handfuls of flour. She made pastry of flour and sour-cream, rolled a roly-poly, roasted it in butter and put it on the windowsill to cool.
The Roly-Poly lay and lay on the windowsill, and suddenly started rolling – from the windowsill to the bench, from the bench – to the floor, across the floor – towards the door, went hop-hop across the threshold – to the porch, from the porch – to the yard, from the yard – out of the gate and what did it look like?
The Roly-Poly rolled and rolled along the path and soon it met a Hare: - Roly-Poly, Roly-Poly, I want to eat you! - Don’t eat me, Hare. I will sing a song for you:
I’m a toasted Roly-Poly In the barn I was swept, At the bins I was scraped, With sour-cream I was kneaded, And in butter I was roasted, On the sill was cooled down, From the Grandpa ran away, From the Granny ran away, And to run away from you, Hare, is as easy as pie!
And the Roly-Poly vanished from the Hare’s sight. It rolled and rolled along the path and soon it met a Wolf: - Roly-Poly, Roly-Poly, I want to eat you! - Don’t eat me, Wolf. I will sing a song for you:
I’m a toasted Roly-Poly In the barn I was swept, At the bins I was scraped, With sour-cream I was kneaded, And in butter I was roasted, On the sill was cooled down, From the Grandpa ran away, From the Granny ran away, From the Hare ran away, And to run away from you, Wolf, is as easy as pie!
And the Roly-Poly vanished from the Wolf’s sight. It rolled and rolled along the path and soon it met a Bear: - Roly-Poly, Roly-Poly, I want to eat you! - Don’t eat me, Bear. I will sing a song for you:
I’m a toasted Roly-Poly In the barn I was swept, At the bins I was scraped, With sour-cream I was kneaded, And in butter I was roasted, On the sill was cooled down, From the Grandpa ran away, From the Granny ran away, From the Hare ran away, From the Wolf ran away, And to run away from you, Bear, is as easy as pie!
And the Roly-Poly vanished from the Bear’s sight. It rolled and rolled along the path and soon it met a Fox: - Hello, Roly-Poly, Roly-Poly, how nice you are! And the Roly-Poly began to sing it’s song:
I’m a toasted Roly-Poly In the barn I was swept, At the bins I was scraped, With sour-cream I was kneaded, And in butter I was roasted, On the sill was cooled down, From the Grandpa ran away, From the Granny ran away, From the Hare ran away, From the Wolf ran away, From the Bear ran away, And to run away from you, Fox, is as easy as pie!
As the Fox heard the song it said: - Oh! What a lovely song! But I grew old, you know, and I am hard of hearing. Dear Roly-Poly, get on my nose and sing your song once more, a bit louder.
The Roly-Poly got on the Fox’s nose and sang the song louder. But the Fox said: - Such a nice song! I would hear it again and again! Dear Roly-Poly, will you get on my tongue and sing your song once more.
The Roly-Poly hopped on the Fox’s nose and the Fox – yum! – swallowed down the Roly-Poly.
Yum!
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The Gingerbread Man (also known as The Gingerbread Boy or The Gingerbread Runner) in the USA
The Roule Galette in France
"Johnny-Cake" from English Fairy Tales
Kolobok (Russian: Колобок ) is a traditional character of a Slavic national folktale represented as a ball of bread dough who avoids being eaten by various animals.
There are similar characters in traditional folktales of many countries.
The Runaway Pancake ("Der fortgelaufene Eierkuchen") in Netherland
The Big, Fat Pancake ("Vom dicken fetten Pfannekuchen") in Germany
The Pancake ("Pannekaken") in Norway
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