The Sparrow and The Dog

An interesting fairytale that not a lot of people have talked about. It's by the Grimm Brothers and I appreciate the imagery.

A starving dog runs away from its cruel master and meets a sparrow—the two become great friends. The sparrow steals meat and bread for the dog and when the dog has eaten his fill he goes to sleep on the road. A wagon drives by, and the sparrow flutters about the drivers head telling him to watch out for the dog, but the driver pays no heed and runs the dog over, killing it. The sparrow swears vengeance, saying ‘’thou hast killed my brother dog, it shall cost thee thy cart and horses!’’ 

The sparrow then pecks out the eyes of one of the horses. The driver swings his axe at the sparrow, but chops open his horse’s head instead. The sparrow pecks out the eyes of the other two horses and the unfortunate beasts also get their heads chopped open as their master swings his axe at the sparrow. The sparrow then sings ‘’It shall cost thee thy home’’ and flies to the driver’s house. 

The sparrow flutters from room to room as the driver, blind with rage, smashes up his entire house in his attempts to kill the bird. Now the driver sits amongst the rubble and says ‘’’what an unfortunate man I am!’’ ‘’Not unfortunate enough’’ says the sparrow, ‘’It shall cost thee thy life!’’. The driver catches the sparrow in his hand, and wanting it to suffer a fate worse than death, he swallows it whole—but the bird begins to flutter about his body and pokes its head out of the drivers mouth. The driver tells his wife to kill the sparrow with the axe as the bird sits in his mouth, but as the wife swings the sparrow flutters away and the wife chops open the drivers head instead, killing him.