Don Joseph Pear is an Italian fairy tale collected by Thomas Frederick Crane in his Italian Popular Tales. A fairy tale is a story, either told to children or as if told to children, concerning the adventures of mythical characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, and others. ...

Synopsis

Three brothers owned a pear tree and lived on the pears. One day, all the pears were stolen, and the brothers decided to watch it during the night. The older two fell asleep on their turns, but the youngest, Don Joseph, stayed awake, and when a fox came to steal, threatened to shoot it. It promised that if he let it go, he would marry the king's daughter. He did not believe it, but let it go. The youngest son is a stock character in fairy tales, where he features as the hero. ...

Twice, the fox hunted all manner of game and presented it to the king, as a gift from Don Joseph Pear. He then went to an ogress and convince her it was time to divide the gold and silver. He went to the king to get a measure for Don Joseph Pear to divide the gold and silver, which convinced the king that Don Joseph was rich. The Ogre from Tom Thumb illustrated by Gustave Doré An ogre (feminine: ogress) is a large and hideous humanoid monster. ...

The fox then dressed Don Joseph well and set him off to travel with the king and his daughter. It went ahead and when peasants threw rocks at it, threatened to have them killed if they did not describe the land and flocks as Don Joseph's. Then it got to the ogress's castle, told her the horsemen were coming to kill them, and suggested they hide in the well. It threw her in, killing her.

One day, Don Joseph threw dust into the fox's eyes, and it threatened to tell what it knew. So Don Joseph threw a jar and killed the fox, but he still lived happily ever after.

See also

• The Golden Bird
• Puss in Boots
• Lord Peter

The Golden Bird is a Brothers Grimm fairy tale about the troubled pursuit of a golden bird by a kings three sons. ... Gustave Dor s 19th century engraving of le chat bott Puss in Boots is a European folktale collected by Charles Perrault in his Contes de ma m re lOye (Mother Goose Tales), and earlier in 1634, by Giambattista Basile as Gagliuso. ...

External links

• SurLaLune Fairy Tale site Don Joseph Pear