Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Lion and the Mouse

It's Aesop's Fables time again! Today, we will have a look at another well-known Aesop's tail called "The Lion and the Mouse." As usual with how brief these stories are, I will be posting the entire story below for you and then follow it up with my own commentary.

And now, it is my pleasure to present to you Aesop's "The Lion and the Mouse."

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A Lion lay asleep in the forest, his great head resting on his paws. A timid little Mouse came upon him unexpectedly, and in her fright and haste to get away, ran across the Lion's nose. Roused from his nap, the Lion laid his huge paw angrily on the tiny creature to kill her.

"Spare me!" begged the poor Mouse. "Please let me go and some day I will surely repay you."

The Lion was much amused to think that a Mouse could ever help him. But he was generous and finally let the Mouse go.

Some days later, while stalking his prey in the forest, the Lion was caught in the toils of a hunter's net. Unable to free himself, he filled the forest with his angry roaring. The Mouse knew the voice and quickly found the Lion struggling in the net. Running to one of the great ropes that bound him, she gnawed it until it parted, and soon the Lion was free.

"You laughed when I said I would repay you," said the Mouse. "Now you see that even a Mouse can help a Lion."

Moral: A kindness is never wasted.

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Forget the moral of "A kindness is never wasted." for a moment. I understand what the author was trying to say, but I think we may have something more interesting on our hands. Allow me to explain.

There are many types of people in the world. Some are big and strong and some are small and weak. However there is something to be said of the lightweights. They are often more agile and have more of a honed skill set. The large and mighty use brute force and sometimes brutality to accomplish their goals, Both are equally useful as people but in different ways.

We often attribute the big and strong with greater power because brute force is very intimidating. Big and strong is actually a great quality too. We need people like that to help in certain situations. But big can sometimes work against themselves. It makes them much easier to see. The hunter in the story had no problems capturing the lion for this reason. The trap would have not even been an issue for the mouse. The lion was rather cocky to think that anyone "lesser" than he would be useful.

That same cockiness can happen for the mousy types too. This often gets them bested by the big and strong types later on. Luckily, this mouse was humble and confident in his own abilities. He somehow convinced the lion of this and was able to prove it later on. If the mouse had been cocky after being caught, it might have led to his death. Either way, I think we can agree that the mouse did get lucky, but his luck was assisted by a humble spirit.

The moral, as listed, is not a bad one. I would just warn against being kind to every person that comes your way. There is something to be said to casting pearls before swine. In this case, I think the moral should be: "A humble spirit can sometimes prove greater than might." What do you think? Do you have your own moral you'd give to this story? Please let me know if you do!

Did you enjoy this blog? If you did and you want to either comment or tell me your own moral for this story, you can do so below or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. Thanks!