nusually good. The central idea which
groups all the happenings in the tale is: Three Billy-Goats are
crossing a bridge to go up to the hillside to make themselves fat.
There are four characters, three Goats and the Troll. All that happens
in the tale contributes to the one effect of a bridge going trip,
trap! as a Goat crossed it on his way up the hillside; of a Troll
roaring: "Who's that tripping over my bridge?" of the explanation of
the Billy-Goat; of the answer of the Troll, "Now I'm coming to gobble
you up"; and of the Billy-Goat's final petition. Unity is emphasized
by the repetition in the tale, as the three Billy-Goats successively
cross the bridge and reply to the Troll. The climax is the big
Billy-Goat Gruff's tramp across the bridge.

This tale is characterized by perfect mass, the paragraphs always end
with words that deserve distinction, and the sentences have their
strongest words at the points where the eye would most readily see
them; as, "But just then up came the big Billy-Goat Gruff." The
coherence is fine, and is secured largely by the cumulative plan in a
threefold sense. The relation of the parts is unmistakable. The
similarity and contrast evident in the episodes of the three
Billy-Goats makes this relation very clearly defined. To make doubly
sure the end has been reached the tale concludes:--

Snip, snap, snout,
This tale's told out.

Let us examine the folk-tale generally as to its literary form. The
folk-tale originally did not come from the people in literary form.
The tale was first told by some nameless primitive man, who, returning
from some adventure of everyday life, would narrate it to a group of
his comrades. First told to astonish and interest, or to give a
warning of the penalty of breaking Nature's laws, or to teach a moral
lesson, or to raise a laugh, later it became worked up into the
fabulous stories of gods and heroes. These fabulous stories developed
into myth-systems, and these again into household tales. By constant
repetition from one generation to another, incidents likely to happen
in everyday life, which represented universal experiences and
satisfied common needs of childhood, were selected and combined. These
gradually assumed a form of simplicity and literary charm, partly
because, just as a child insists on accuracy, savage people adhered
strictly to form in repeating the tale, and because it is a law of
permanence that what meets the universal need wil