Analysis of “The Goat’s Ears of the Emperor Trojan” a Traditional Serbian Folktale

The Goat’s Ears of the Emperor Trojan

Analysis

Once upon a time there lived an emperor whose name was Trojan, and he had ears like a goat.

Introduction to one of the main characters.

Every morning, when he was shaved, he asked if the man saw anything odd about him, and as each fresh barber always replied that the emperor had goat’s ears, he was at once ordered to be put to death.

The problem is introduced. This is the background of the story.

Now after this state of things had lasted a good while, there was hardly a barber left in the town that could shave the emperor, and it came to be the turn of the Master of the Company of Barbers to go up to the palace. But, unluckily, at the very moment that he should have set out, the master fell suddenly ill, and told one of his apprentices that he must go in his stead.

Plot action: a new victim is involuntarily sent out to face the emperor’s egotistical wrath.

When the youth was taken to the emperor’s bedroom, he was asked why he had come and not his master. The young man replied that the master was ill, and there was no one but himself who could be trusted with the honor. The emperor was satisfied with the answer, and sat down, and let a sheet of fine linen be put round him. Directly the young barber began his work, he, like the rest, remarked the goat’s ears of the emperor, but when he had finished and the emperor asked his usual question as to whether the youth had noticed anything odd about him, the young man replied calmly, ‘No, nothing at all.’ This pleased the emperor so much that he gave him twelve ducats, and said, ‘Henceforth you shall come every day to shave me.’

The initial confrontation between the two men.

So when the apprentice returned home, and the master inquired how he had got on with the emperor, the young man answered, ‘Oh, very well, and he says I am to shave him every day, and he has given me these twelve ducats’; but he said nothing about the goat’s ears of the emperor.

The apprentice continues his winning strategy. He keeps the emperor’s secret, even from his own master.

From this time the apprentice went regularly up to the palace, receiving each morning twelve ducats in payment. But after a while, his secret, which he had carefully kept, burnt within him, and he longed to tell it to somebody. His master saw there was something on his mind, and asked what it was. The youth replied that he had been tormenting himself for some months, and should never feel easy until some one shared his secret.

The apprentice wavers in his decision to stay silent about something so obvious. His enemy is his own need to talk.

‘Well, trust me,’ said the master, ‘I will keep it to myself; or, if you do not like to do that, confess it to your pastor, or go into some field outside the town and dig a hole, and, after you have dug it, kneel down and whisper your secret three times into the hole. Then put back the earth and come away.’

His master suggests some solutions.

The apprentice thought that this seemed the best plan, and that very afternoon went to a meadow outside the town, dug a deep hole, then knelt and whispered to it three times over, ‘The Emperor Trojan has goat’s ears.’ And as he said so a great burden seemed to roll off him, and he shoveled the earth carefully back and ran lightly home.

The solution seems to work.

Weeks passed away, and there sprang up in the hole an elder tree which had three stems, all as straight as poplars. Some shepherds, tending their flocks near by, noticed the tree growing there, and one of them cut down a stem to make flutes of; but, directly he began to play, the flute would do nothing but sing: ‘The Emperor Trojan has goat’s ears.’ Of course, it was not long before the whole town knew of this wonderful flute and what it said; and, at last, the news reached the emperor in his palace. He instantly sent for the apprentice and said to him: ‘What have you been saying about me to all my people?’

Unexpected consequences bring great trouble to the apprentice.

The culprit tried to defend himself by saying that he had never told anyone what he had noticed; but the emperor, instead of listening, only drew his sword from its sheath, which so frightened the poor fellow that he confessed exactly what he had done, and how he had whispered the truth three times to the earth, and how in that very place an elder tree had sprung up, and flutes had been cut from it, which would only repeat the words he had said.

He replies honestly.

Then the emperor commanded his coach to be made ready, and he took the youth with him, and they drove to the spot, for he wished to see for himself whether the young man’s confession was true; but when they reached the place only one stem was left. So the emperor desired his attendants to cut him a flute from the remaining stem, and, when it was ready, he ordered his chamberlain to play on it. But no tune could the chamberlain play, though he was the best flute player about the court—nothing came but the words, ‘The Emperor Trojan has goat’s ears.’

The emperor confirms the story.

Then the emperor knew that even the earth gave up its secrets, and he granted the young man his life, but he never allowed him to be his barber any more.

The emperor shows mercy.

From The Violet Fairy Book, edited by Andrew Lang

More Analysis

It bothers me that there’s no explanation for the emperor’s decision not to kill the apprentice. We have to look at context clues for the change in the emperor’s attitude.

He developed a relationship with this apprentice barber. A friendship, however imbalanced, developed. He apparently thought enough of his employee to check out the weird story rather than just jump to conclusions about how his ear-secret got out. And let’s face it – the damage was already done. Everyone knew about the big ears.

This emperor was in search of an employee he could trust to keep his most intimate, degrading secrets. He found that in the master barber’s apprentice. He had goat ears which indicates he was a devilish character, especially since he killed anyone who told him the truth and rewarded the young apprentice who concealed his observations.

This story does show a character arch for the emperor. He’s not a likable character. He’s the problem… an emperor who imperiously kills barbers at the mention of his big ears, even though he asked them to speak. What was wrong with this man? What did he expect from his hair clippers? Did he think they should lie and pretend he had no flaws? Apparently so, because he rewarded the barber who kept his mouth shut and pretended everything was normal. That barber didn’t outright lie, but he showed some judicious wisdom in staying silent. It is good not to tell everything you know. That is a main theme of this story.

This is also in the Bible: “He who has knowledge spares his words and a man of understanding is of a calm spirit. Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace; when he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive.” (Proverbs 17:27-28) What a great source for theme inspiration!