The Black Bull: An English Fairy Tale

By Betty Bassett

The three daughters of a washerwoman ask her to prepare food for them before they set out on a quest for fame and fortune. They stop to ask a witch for advice on how to find the treasure. The woman suggested they go around back and take a peek. On the third day, the eldest daughter sees a coach and six come for her, and she leaves with it, delighted; the second daughter finds a coach and four, and she leaves; the third and youngest daughter finds only a black bull, and the witch tells her she must accompany it.

Despite her fears, the daughter follows the bull, who turns out to be surprisingly gentle and friendly. He tells her to take food from his right ear and liquids from his left when she's hungry. The bull tells the girl that his older brother owns the castle they stay in on the first night of their journey. When the daughter arrives, she is greeted with open arms and lavished with attention. The last thing they give her is a beautiful apple with the instructions to keep it safe until the first time she really needs it in her life. On the second night of their trip, they rest in another castle, this one belonging to the bull's younger sibling. At the second brother's castle, the daughter is given a beautiful pear that she is not to eat until the second great need of her life, and at the third brother's castle, she is given a beautiful plum that she is not to eat until the third great need of her life. The girl and the bull have reached the glass valley at last.

If the girl moves so much as an inch, the bull says, "I will not be able to find you," and the girl must wait. So that they can leave the valley, he explains, he must engage in battle with the devil who controls it. It will tell her whether the bull has won or lost based on whether the sky turns blue or red. The black bull walks away, and the girl waits for the sky to turn blue. When the girl sees the black bull leave, she is so overjoyed that she moves a little bit.

The girl wanders aimlessly until she comes across a blacksmith, who helps her escape the valley. He promises that if she works for him for seven years, he will make her a pair of shoes as payment. After seven years, the blacksmith delivers on his promise and gives the now-adult girl a pair of iron shoes, which he then nails to her feet. With the aid of the footwear, the young lady is able to make her way up and out of the glass valley.

The young woman eventually finds her way back to the witch's house, where she is offered shelter in exchange for washing some bloody shirts that the witch and her daughter have been unable to get clean. The valiant young knight staying at the witch's house promised to marry the person who cleaned his shirts. Despite the previous attempts' failure, the bloodstains vanish from the shirts as soon as the young woman touches the soap to them, and her feet heal completely, as if they had never been bloodied or injured. When the witch hears the news, she is overjoyed and rushes to return the knight's clean shirts, telling him that her daughter did the laundry. This means that the daughter will soon be wed to the knight.

The young lady is in desperate need, realizing that this is the first time she has ever been in such a predicament. After slicing into the apple, she discovers a cache of expensive gems inside. In exchange for permission to sing outside the knight's room at night, she offers the jewelry to the witch's daughter. While the young woman cries and sings, she is unable to wake the knight because the witch has given him a sleeping-drink.

"Seven long years I served for thee, the glassy hill I clambered for thee, thy bloody clothes I wrangled for thee; and wilt thou not awaken and turn to me?"

She tries the pear again because she's in even greater need, and this time she finds it's stuffed with jewelry even better than the apple's, but the next night is just like the first. Thirdly in dire need, the young woman breaks the plum to reveal her most valuable jewelry to date. The sleeping-drink is brought again, but this time the knight knocks it over, so that when the young woman pays for her third and final chance, the knight is awake to hear her sing. Now he knows the truth about it.

The young lady eventually weds the knight, who had been her black bull the whole time. The witch and her daughter are burned at the stake, and the knight and the youngest daughter of the washerwoman live happily ever after.

Story Questions:

1. Is this book similar to anything else you've read or seen?

2. Which actress should be cast in a TV adaptation of this book?

3. What is the location of the book set? Which country?

4. Do you know where on the map that country is?

5. Would you be friends with this girl? Why?

6. Did you discover any new words or facts that you were previously unaware of?

7. Which part of the story was your favorite? Why?

8. Which character was your favorite? Why?

9. What was the most interesting thing you discovered while reading the book?

10. Would you have changed the ending of the book?

11. Was the ending what you expected?

12. Is the plot of the book's problem resolved?

13. What would you change about the book if you could?

14. Is there anything that you don’t understand that we should go back and reread?

15. What details have been important to the story so far?

16. Is there a different way this story could have ended?  

17. If the author wrote a sequel to this story, what do you think would happen in the sequel?

18. Is there anything from the text that didn’t make sense to you?

19. What would you have done differently from the main character?

20. What time of day do you think it is in this story?

21. Do you think you would like being inside this story?

22. How do you think the main character (s) is feeling throughout the story?

23. Which details were most important to you in this story?

24. What questions do you have?

25. How does the setting impact the plot for these characters? What would happen if you change the setting?

26. If you can summarize the story in just two or three words, what would they be?

27. What was your favorite part of the story?

28. If you were writing the story how would it be different?

29. If a bull tells you that you must accompany it, would you?*

30. Do you think the girl was given a real apple or a trinket apple or an ornament apple of some sort?*

31. If she was given a real apple then wouldn't it spoil?*

32. Why do you think the bull had to take the girl to the glass valley? Couldn't they have gone somewhere else?*

33. Why is the bull bossing the girl around? Why is she listening? Are girls supposed to be bossed around or commanded?*

34. Why should the story be that if the girl moves just an inch then she will be lost to the bull? In a larger statement metaphorically should that be the role of women, the thing that shouldn't change otherwise dire consequences will occur?*

35. Why does the bull get to go fight but the girl has to hold still?*

36. How would the story be different if the girl had to go fight?*

37. What kind of shoes would need to be nailed to your feet? Would you just prefer to live in the Glass Valley forever so that you didn't have to get your feet nailed?*

38. Why did the blacksmith make her work for him for seven years? Why couldn't he just make the shoes for her right away?*

39. After seven years the blacksmith delivers on his promise and crafts her the iron shoes in the story but what would happen if he had lied? What would happen if he didn't make the shoes for her or if he made the shoes for her but they didn't work?*

40. When the girl wandered aimlessly, how long could she survive wandering aimlessly? How much food and water did she have with her? How did protect herself from ants or snakes or wolves or other things that might harm her? How would she stay dry at night while she was sleeping if it was raining?*

The witch offered her shelter for washing some shirts. Would you let someone come live at your house if they did your laundry? Is that a fair trade?*

41. The valiant young knight offered to marry the person who could clean his shirt. Do you think that you would marry someone because they could clean your shirt?*

42. If you had shoes nailed to your feet do you think that your feet would heal completely? Is it safe to get things nailed to your body? What do you think would have happened to her in real life? Wouldn't she just get tetanus from the nail and die of blood poisoning?*

43. Why would the witch want her daughter to marry a knight? Why not a king or a blacksmith or a baker? Why would she lie about who did the laundry? Is lying a good way to start a relationship with another person? What makes the witch so desperate that she would lie? Do you think that she is the kind of person that lied to everyone or just lied this one time? If she lied to everyone all the time then how can she remember what lies she told to whom? What do you think would happen if the knight married her daughter then discovered that it was all a lie from the beginning? Is there ever a reason where you think it's okay to lie? Do you think that it's good for people to lie? Why do people lie? Do you think the witch's daughter would lie?*

44. The story said that the knight was young and valiant? The witch wanted him to marry her daughter and the girl wanted him to marry her. What qualities do you think you want in another person if you choose to marry them? Would you want to marry someone whose requirement was that you could get a stain out of his shirt? What requirements would you want someone to have before they would choose another person to marry?*

45. What do you think the apple, the pear and the plum symbolizes?*

46. Did the girl know that this particular knight had been her black bull transformed or did she just wanted to marry the knight because someone else wanted to marry him?*

Was it a good idea for the witch to allow the girl to continue living in her home after she already accomplished the task of getting the bloodstains out of the shirt?*

47. Why was the witch and her daughter burned at the stake?*

48. Is lying to someone sufficient reason to be burned at the stake? Should people always be punished for doing something wrong? How do we decide the level of punishment that is fair? When we punish someone do we want to make them suffer as payback for what they did or do we want them to make better decisions in the future?*

49. How do people live happily ever after? Does being married to someone give you happily ever after? When you get married, what do you have to be for someone else to give them happily ever after? What do they need to be for you to give you happily ever after?*