# The real moral of the story **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 30, 2010, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-moral-of-the-story/545005 "2010-06-30T00:22:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-moral-of-the-story/545005/21 "2010-07-01T22:00:21Z")
> [@Nature\_s\_Call](#): > > The early bird gets the worm. Great advice, I shan’t be the early worm. It’s not the early worm, it’s the horrendously shitfaced worm stumbling in after a night on the tiles. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-moral-of-the-story/545005/22 "2010-07-01T22:50:25Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Ricky Gervais told that exact story in his stand up. He also talked about the two mice: > > One mouse is diligent during the plentiful summer months, building a home and collecting food. Another, lazier mouse just lounges around eating during the times of plenty, not bothering to think about what he’ll do during the winter. When winter comes the hard-working mouse has a nice, warm home and plenty of stockpiled food. The lazy mouse is caught out in the cold, starving and unsheltered from the elements. Lazy mouse, seeing diligent mouse all nice and cozy in his home, knocks at the door. > > Diligent mouse: “Yes?” > Lazy mouse: “I was foolish… I didn’t prepare for the future during the times of plenty and now I’m cold and I’m hungry… can I please come in? And can I have some food?” > Diligent mouse: “Sure. Come on in.” > > Thus, the real message isn’t to be diligent and work hard to prepare to the future- the real message is to mooch off of those who have and you can get away without having done any work. Of course, in the original Aesop fable of the grasshopper and the ant, the ant laughed his ass off while watching the grasshopper die of starvation. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-moral-of-the-story/545005/23 "2010-07-01T23:32:32Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Of course, in the original Aesop fable of the grasshopper and the ant, the ant laughed his ass off while watching the grasshopper die of starvation. Yeah. The grasshopper playing the fiddle through the winter was the Disney version. And he is at least playing for his supper. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-moral-of-the-story/545005/24 "2010-07-01T23:35:59Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > Tortoise and the Hare: > > Supposed moral: hard work and perseverance wins every time. > Actual moral: Don’t do drugs. In _The Addams Family_ Morticia tells the story and Grandmama tells the kids the moral: “Kill the tortoise!” ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-moral-of-the-story/545005/25 "2010-07-02T12:26:45Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > Tortoise and the Hare: > > Supposed moral: hard work and perseverance wins every time. > Actual moral: Don’t do drugs. You want the German version for a good moral, only it’s Hare and Hedgehog. How does the Hedgehog win against the Hare? He cheats: he hides at one end of the field, his wife at the other. His wife pops up as the hare is racing and calls out “I’m already here”, since hedgehogs all look alike, the Hare thinks the male hedgehog beat him. The hare keeps running, trying to win, until in the middle of his 53rd run, he keels over from a heart-attack. Moral: It’s okay to cheat if you are clever but slow against an only-muscles bragging but honest guy. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-moral-of-the-story/545005/26 "2010-07-02T14:04:48Z")
I recall they did the Grasshopper and the Ant story on **The Muppet Show** , with Sam the Eagle lauding the industrious, salt-of-the-earth Ant and tsking at the Grasshopper. “Shocking! Shocking!” But when he turned the page, the end of the story was: “When winter came, the Grasshopper drove his sports car to Florida, and the Ant got stepped on. WHAT?!” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-moral-of-the-story/545005/27 "2010-07-02T14:13:20Z")
> [@](#): > > You want the German version for a good moral, only it’s Hare and Hedgehog. How does the Hedgehog win against the Hare? That’s not the German version – it’s the African version of the story. You can find it in collections of African folktales about Hare. It migrated over to the Americas, where it shows up in American Black folklore and eventually in Joel Chandler Harris’ _Uncle Remus_ stories. And from there it shows up in Tex Avery’s Bugs Bunny “Tortoise Beats Hare” cartoons. I found it interesting that there are two distinctly different stories about how the tortoise beats the hare, one depending upon resolute plodding, the other on outright trickery. I don’t know how the German version you cite got into this, but the roots of it in African folklore are pretty well established. I assume your version got it from one of the versions in the chain cited above. European folklore tends to derive the story ftom Aesop, who had the “slow and steady wins the race” philosophy. But the other story has made inroads through the years. Most recently it showed up in the film _Hot Fuzz_ ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-moral-of-the-story/545005/28 "2010-07-03T15:13:59Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > That’s not the German version – it’s the African version of the story. You can find it in collections of African folktales about Hare. It migrated over to the Americas, where it shows up in American Black folklore and eventually in Joel Chandler Harris’ _Uncle Remus_ stories. And from there it shows up in Tex Avery’s Bugs Bunny “Tortoise Beats Hare” cartoons. > > I found it interesting that there are two distinctly different stories about how the tortoise beats the hare, one depending upon resolute plodding, the other on outright trickery. > > I don’t know how the German version you cite got into this, but the roots of it in African folklore are pretty well established. I assume your version got it from one of the versions in the chain cited above. European folklore tends to derive the story from Aesop, who had the “slow and steady wins the race” philosophy. But the other story has made inroads through the years. That’s news to me. I always knew it as one of the Grimms fairy-tales, which are considered the ultimate source (though they changed a lot of the fairy-tales during their compilation, to make them more “suitable” for children - apparently, that’s why there are so many step-mothers, so children wouldn’t get a bad impression of their real mothers). German [wikipedia](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Hase_und_der_Igel) says > [@](#): > > Der Hase und der Igel ist ein volkstümlich überliefertes Märchen, schriftlich erstmals auf Plattdeutsch unter dem Titel De Has un de Swinegel mitgeteilt von Wilhelm Schröder (1808–1878) 1840 im „Hannoverschen Volksblatt“ und 1843 von den Brüdern Grimm als Nr. 187 in die 5. Auflage der Kinder- und Hausmärchen aufgenommen. .. > > - The Hare and the Hedgehog is a traditional fairy-tale, first written down in Platt (lower) German under the titel “De Has un de Swinegel” by Wilhelm Schröder in 1840 in the Hannover popular paper. In 1843, the brothers Grimm adopted it as Nr. 187 in the 5th ed. of their children and popular fairy-tales.\* Interesting are the comments that in the original version, the Hare is a high lord, who was arrogant, while the hedgehog is a simple farmer content to eat turnips. So the moral is to the high-ranking people “Don’t be arrogant to your inferiors” and for the common people “Take a wife from your own class that looks like you”. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-moral-of-the-story/545005/29 "2010-07-04T03:44:55Z")
> [@](#): > > That’s news to me. I always knew it as one of the Grimms fairy-tales, which are considered the ultimate source Interesting – I was unaware that this shows up in Grimm. But it’s well-attested in both African folklore and in American Negro folklore (even outside of Harris). See Geoffrey Parrinder’s **African Mythology** or here: > [@](#): > > “African and New World Negro folklore”. The author discusses the “Tortoise and the Hare” story which interestingly was held by some African peoples. He compares it with the European version, with the tortoise winning in both versions. However, in the African version, the tortoise wins by employing his wits. This “brains over brawn” version of this story is fascinating given the bias towards logical thinking in European culture. > **[Funk and Wagnall's Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend:...](https://www.amazon.ca/Wagnalls-Standard-Dictionary-Folklore-Mythology/dp/0450024415)** > > Funk and Wagnall's Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend: 9780450024412: Books - Amazon.ca Or John Mason Brewer’s **American Negro Folklore**. I haven’t been able to find any accounts of the African version printed prior to 1840, but it seems extremely unlikely that it can derive from the German version – Hare and Tortoise are both trickster personalities in African folklore, and there are plenty of stories about them. Joel Chandler Harris’ version dates from circa 1880, and was obviously gathered well in advance of that date. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-moral-of-the-story/545005/30 "2010-07-04T19:58:21Z")
If the African version uses tortoises instead of a hedgehog, then I think the German version comes from a different source. Hares and hedgehogs don’t appear much outside this fable in Grimm, so there’s no trickster personality there. In German / European folklore, the fox (Meister Reinecke) is generally the trickster. I can’t remember tortoises playing a role in other fables/ fairy-tales off-hand. The interesting thing is, of course, that the German version developed although Aesops fable of Hare and tortoise would have been known to educated people, due to the reference of the classis and thus classic education studying Greek authors. It might have been, despite being told in popular Platt dialect, an artifical fable or allegory, though - in the romantic period, people like Goethe or Beckstein wrote Kunstmärchen (artifical fairy-tales), very complicated and full of allusions, metaphors, allegory and so on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-moral-of-the-story/545005.md?page=1)